The best indie games to look forward to in 2023: Our top 10 picks

There are a ton of indie games we're looking forward to playing this year, but here are our favourites.

The line between AAA games and small indie games has gotten increasingly blurred lately. Publishers are getting a bit more generous with their spending to give new developers the resources they need to make bigger games, and it shows. Take Atomic Heart, a debut indie game from developer Mundfish published by Focus Entertainment and 4Divinity. You’d have a hard time convincing me that this qualifies as a debut indie game five years ago, and yet, it is.

Indie games continue to hold their appeal among their blockbuster peers for their sheer variety. AAA games like Battlefield 2042 and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla take years to make and can start to feel formulaic by the time they're released, but in the indie scene you’ll find developers putting out new projects that feel interesting and unique thanks to their tighter scope. Games like Undertale and Stardew Valley were made by relatively tiny development teams, whereas games like Stray take advantage of experienced developers to deliver gorgeous visuals in a short runtime.

Indie games fascinate us. These are the best-looking indie games we’re looking forward to playing in 2023:

Sea of Stars

One of our most anticipated games of 2023 is an old-school turn-based RPG called Sea of Stars, which serves as a prequel to Sabotage Studio’s previous game The Messenger. This game’s breathtaking artstyle and combat design harkens back to beloved games like Breath of Fire and Chrono Trigger, but provides its own twists on familiar gameplay design. The story follows two Children of the Solstice who have to wield the powers of the sun and moon to perform Eclipse Magic, which is the only force capable of destroying the evil creations of an alchemist called the Fleshmancer.

With a name like the Fleshmancer, you can probably guess that he’s the villain of this story. A demo for this game is currently available on the Nintendo eShop, and it’s already blowing us away with its visuals, sweeping music and fantastic character designs.

Planet of Lana (Spring 2023)

Planet of Lana is a side-scrolling puzzle game made by a new indie studio called Wishfully as their debut game. And boy, what a debut it is. You play as a young girl called Lana who embarks on a rescue mission with her loyal companion Mui to save her sister from an army of machines. Their journey together will span centuries and galaxies, taking players across gorgeous hand-painted environments and puzzling encounters where the duo will have to work together to find a way to move forward.

This game looks like pure eye candy, but its creators also promise an epic sci-fi saga that isn’t about war despite taking place inside of one, and we’re curious to see how they pull that off.

Lies of P

I didn’t have ‘steampunk Souls-like Pinocchio game’ on my 2023 bingo card, but here we are. In Lies of P, you play as a mechanoid named Pinocchio who wakes up in an abandoned train station in Krat, a Yharnam-like setting that has been invaded by crazed beings and unspeakable horrors. All that guides Pinocchio forward is a single note inviting him to find Mr. Geppetto somewhere in the city, hoping that it will lead to a way for him to become human.

Lies of P is unarguably Bloodborne-inspired, but that only means Souls fans have a new game to latch onto until the Elden Ring expansion drops. The game’s steampunk setting is rife with potential for interesting weapon and enemy design, and its story could give us an interesting twist on a very familiar tale.

Hollow Knight: Silksong

Xbox promised that Hollow Knight: Silksong would be released a year from its 2022 Game Pass reveal, which means that this game has about three more months left to launch - which seems like wishful thinking, but we can dream. This sequel to 2017’s beloved Metroidvania Hollow Knight follows Hornet, a character from the first game who now gets to lead her own tale.

Hornet is captured and whisked away to a foreign kingdom called Pharloom, where she will have to climb to the very top of the kingdom to reach a shining citadel. This sequel originally started as a simple DLC project for Hollow Knight before it ballooned into a full-blown game of its own, using Hornet’s unique traits and the new setting of Pharloom to dig deeper into Hollow Knight’s fast-paced combat and creative platforming.

SEASON: A Letter to the Future

SEASON: A Letter to the Future sets players on a bike road trip in the pre-apocalypse. That’s right, this is one of the few games in this list to actually take place directly before a cataclysm washes the world away. You play as a young woman biking around the world, taking pictures, documenting, recording life and collecting memories in a strange world. As you play, you’ll uncover the stories of different characters and their underlying cultures and histories, while figuring out why the world is ending.

This is one of the most beautiful games we’ve seen in a while, and the premise is rather intriguing. We just hope playing it is as fun as looking at it!

The Last Case of Benedict Fox

If you’re a fan of Lovecraftian creatures of the night and demented protagonists, you’ll like this one. Benedict Fox is a self-proclaimed detective bound to a demonic companion. Players will manipulate that bond to descend into decaying memories and look for clues to solve his latest case, which involves a massive shambling mansion and the disappearance of a murdered couple’s child. Along the way, you’ll encounter forbidden rituals, grisly crimes and secret organisations all wrapped up in a Tim Burton-like visual bow.

This game’s combat and platforming look like a good time, and its setting is so wonderfully twisted that we can’t help but want to get our hands on it.

Open Roads

This narrative adventure game comes from the makers of the critically acclaimed game Gone Home, and it’s packing some A-list talent: Keri Russell (The Americans) and Kaitlyn Dever (Dopesick). The story follows Tess Devine and her mother Opal, who uncover a cache of old notes and letters in their attic. These letters lead them to a larger mystery connected to murky family secrets, old burglaries and a lost treasure near the Canadian border.

If you loved What Remains of Edith Finch or Life is Strange: True Colors, you have good taste, and you might also like Open Roads.

The Plucky Squire (2023)

I almost can’t comprehend what I’m seeing here. The Plucky Squire blends 2D and 3D storytelling with Pixar-like cartoonish visuals as Jot and his friends leap from the pages of the children’s storybook they live in to explore the real world outside. Details on the story are scarce beyond that, but the trailer boasts some incredibly diverse level design, from 2D side-scrolling shooters on the sides of a round container to 3D jetpacking around a child’s bedroom. And it all looks so good!

REPLACED

REPLACED employs a cinematic aspect ratio to enhance the grittiness of its sci-fi dystopia, even during gameplay. There is some seriously detailed 2.5D pixel art going on here, with free-flow action combat that has players fight off the outlaws of Phoenix-City, a broken city damaged by a catastrophic nuclear event. Humans and organs are only seen as currency in a society ruled by corruption and greed.

You play as an A.I. called R.E.A.C.H. trapped in a human body against its own will, struggling to adjust to human life while navigating the murky depths of Phoenix-City. This noir-tinged story uses platforming, free-flow combat and pixel art to immerse players in its cyberpunk rendition of 1980s America.

Hades 2

Another one of our most anticipated games of 2023 is a sequel to Supergiant Games’ hit Greek Mythology-infused dungeon crawler Hades, this time featuring a different protagonist on a new mission. The story follows Melinoe, Zagreus’ sister and a daughter of Hades who seeks to defeat the Titan Cronus and free her father from imprisonment. Just like Zagreus dove into the Underworld time upon time again to free himself from the shackles of his family, Melinoe will likely enter new slices of the Underworld to find Cronus and defeat him, with the help of allies like the witch goddess Hecate.

Hades 2 will launch in early access this year with a full-fledged launch planned for 2024, much like its predecessor. If it’s anything like the first game, players can expect satisfying progression, hard-hitting combat, eye-catching art and endless replayability.

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Timothy "Timaugustin" AugustinTim loves movies, TV shows and videogames almost too much. Almost.