One of my favorites of the year that didn’t make this list was Crypt Custodian. It’s a solid top-down Metroidvania with a fun assortment of abilities, a story that is equal parts melancholy and humorous, and a simply outstanding soundtrack. The others that really clicked with me were Balatro, Animal Well, and Minishoot’ Adventures. I also admired UFO 50 even though only a small handful of the games really stood out to me.
I just completed my second 100% playthrough of Nine Sols to show a friend. I made him read the prequel comic for the entire experience, and I warned him it'd be a brutal, soul crushing story. Thanks to Silksong's development hell setback, Nine Sols is invariably the best game I've played this year, especially given it's a small developer, and a complete departure from their previous games. It's such an artistic masterpiece that is fun to git gud at and play.
@@AntlerTox it doesn't for me, because this channel has always been focused on pixel art, arcadey, and short play cycle games. Back during the walking sim craze, this channel had stray mentions here and there for them, but never rated them highly. Hell, KRZ was basically a footnote. So I can both say 1000xRESIST is my game of the year, indie or not, while recogising that each content creator has preferences and trends. Even good curation is still curation, and a lot will be left out. Kinda wish it got mentioned somewhere, but it is what it is. And I'm having a lot of fun seeing everyone who played 1000xRESIST and Lorelei instalock them at the best of year rankings, but if someone has not played a game I'd rather they don't put it there to follow the trend.
Nine Sols is my goty. I'm a simple person, maybe I'm just stupid and ignorant, but I'm not into games that go to crazy. or I enjoy, but not for much time. Like with Balatro and animal well that just grab my attention and interest for very little time even if I think they are good. But I need my action. Nine Sols is just made for me. Even the convoluted silly story I think is amazing. Really good stuff. I hope for more games like this. And less rogue like deck building for the future in indie games.
Just sounds like you enjoy action more than strategy and exploration. Or at least like a lot more action paired with your exploration than animal well has.
It doesn’t really feel like HK, it has elements from it, but it feels more like Sekiro. I personally prefer Hollow Knight, but objectively Nine Sols might actually be better. Although, it’s very linear up until the last 1/3 of the game.
Love skald back priory. Looked forward to it's release ever since it was announced. Was not disappointed with it at all, I hope the game did well for the dev. He did a good job
My favorites this year: Morbid: The Lords of Ire, The Thaumaturge, Crown Wars: The Black Prince, Conscript, Hollowbody, Dead Season, Symphonia, Scarmonde. All of them I heard about in this channel first. Thank you!
It's a testament to the strength of the current indie gaming scene that you can watch a dozen different YT's GOTY's lists and get such varying yet excellent lists. This one included! My goty is not one that actually made any lists and that's Zero Sievert. My others are Balatro, Shogun Showdown, Terminus: Zombie Survivors, Feed the Deep, Dicefolk, Minishoot Adventures, and Nordic Ashes (THE most slept on bullet-heaven/horde survival games out there!).
I’ve been subbed to you for years and just now I finally ordered all the parts for my first PC. I’m so excited to finally be able to play all the awesome games you highlight!
Man i love your indie game recommendations I've sub to you for years now, I've played so many great game through the years and im excited to see more games next year
The only AAA game I have paid money for in recent years is Elden Ring. Everything else is Indie games. Some really good stuff being made. Keep up the great work Clemmy. You're a source of treasure mate!
I'm happy with how many of these I've enjoyed. It's nice playing games that absolutely blow me away even after all these years. Thanks for the channel, you're a big reason I knew about some of these games.
Lorelei is immediately one of the best puzzle games ever released imo. And it flew completely under the mainstream radar, especially after annapurna got the stray boost last year it's insane that they didn't promote this more.
@@coldDriveright, I forgot about the whole annapurna debacle. That's a shame they couldn't market Lorelei if that's the case. From the first trailer I had to play it and was so pleased with every part, even when I was at my most confused lol
Did you play SKALD: Against the Black Priory? It was one of my standout pixelart games of the year... Also I'm still shocked just how good Animal Well looks!
Pretty solid list. There are a few on the list that didn't click with me however. Also, I did purchase some your top ten and haven't played them very much..... too many games.
Based on my indie games tier list for switch, what games would you recommend: S+ tier: Rising Dusk, Elec-Head, The kids we were S tier: The Excavation of Hob's Barrow, Dusk, Crow Country, S- tier: Celeste, Cathedral, A+ tier: Crystal Project, Cloudpunk, A tier: Beyond Galaxyland, Alba a wildlife adventure A- tier: Animal Well, Baba is you B+ tier: The Touryst, Outer Wilds B tier: Gravity Circuit, Master Key, Paradise Killer B- tier: Road 96, Darkside Detective C+ tier: Lonely Mountains Downhill C tier: Blue Fire D tier: Hollow Cocoon F tier: Minit
I remember seeing Songs of Conquest when it revealed at the 2019 PC Gaming Show. I was just getting back into the HOMM style of game, after 15+ years of not playing them, when Age of Wonders 3 went free-to-keep for a few days in July, and have had it on my wishlist ever since. I want to get around to playing it eventually, but I’ve got 8 games in my Steam shopping cart at the moment and several others in my existing backlog, so it’ll have to wait; maybe next year. And hey, here’s another example of an indie game being announced five years ago, and only just now releasing as a finished product. See? Long-awaited titles do come out.
Would be great to have time stamps :) I have been looking for skyrim-like and Valheim-like, but it seems that these are really uncommon, despite how successful they are. Tainted grail: the fall of avalon, outward 2, alkahest and the wayward realms seem to be the only ones of of thousands of indie studios..
Thanks for making this list clemmy! I felt like going into this year I wasn't excited for anything. But after watching this, I can see there's so many cool looking games that I want to play!
Kinda feel bad for Dungeons & Degenerate Gamblers, since I played both demos for Balatro and this late 2023, and feel like both are very good Poker-themed roguelikes that could start a trend. Eventually Balatro released earlier and got the hype, and that game got much less recognition.
I heavily dislike virtual card games, but damn, Balatro opened that door for me. I still haven't enjoyed any others, but sure as hell I've been having lots of fun with Balatro.
Secrets of Grindea looks amazing but all that junk 5:49 I hope is only background and not actual objects. I hate it when pixel RPGs add junk that only gets in the way and forces you to move to one side, you know what I mean? We should be able to walk in a straight line.
Thronefall is by far my favorite. I have 140 hours and it's still by far the most fun. It's the perfect balance of simple yet deep, and can be played for 10 minutes or 3 hours.
Outside the rouge-lite realm, the games I most liked was Crypt Custodian followed by Mini Shot Adventures. This was a year that I felt kind disapointed by my favorite genre (metroidvania), I really think Nine Souls and Anima Well super overrated, it's like after Aeterna Noctis none metroidvania is good enough. But it turns out that I fell for the rouge-lites, they're indeed very fun to play and there's a lot of good names, it's even hard to chose one, so if people say's Balatro is the goty I can't deny. And who knows, maybe in two or three years I stop think that this huge amount of sandbox titles is nonsense and I start to enjoy the genre! =D
I always wonder who played those ridiculously silly and kitschy anime games that consistently show up at the top when sorting Steam games by rating. Now I know..
lol i kept thinking in the past few years that theres way too many games, i cant keep up and its easy to miss great games, you said 15,000 releases in 1 year 😅 thats way too many no wonder i cant keep up...
My indi GOTY is Frogmonster, Lorn's Lure, Rise of the Golden Idol, Animal Well and maybe UFO 50, tho UFO is obviously give and take. Mini & Max was incredible. Minishoot kinda dissapointed me being too basic and too easy mostly, Tactical Wizards was pretty fun. Songs of conquest i found to be boring and unimaginitive tbh. Shogun Showdown was really fun. Drova is a cool Gothic thowback, still need to play Nine Sols. Oh and Crab was pretty good, kinda fell off in terms of difficulty in the second half mostly, but still i enjoyed it alot.
I tihink Zelda 2 Enhanced PC Edition is the best but this is a hack game so it can't be in the list...... Minishoot' Adventures, Master Key or Animal Weel can be in that list easily
appreciate your content... i usually rely on your recommendations to weed out the trash -- god knows only the 1% of indi games are worth our time. this list, however, was very disappointing. other than the sure fire picks, UFO 50 and balatro, there isn't anything here that interests me. was 2024 really that terrible of a year or is this list missing the gems? everyone knows the AAA space was uneventuful but usually the indi space picks up the slack...
@@ClemmyGames side scrolling beat em ups, contra-style action games, metroidvanias, castlevania-likes, 2d platformers, jrpgs, jsrpgs :D in either case, it's cool. i have a big backlog, afterall! happy holidays!
@@mogwai_for_sale Really not much in terms of metroidvanias and JRPGs this year. We didn't get a Chained Echoes or Sea of Stars level kind of game. We are two ok-ish beat-em-ups in GI Joe and Power Rangers but again, not a Shredder's Revenge / SoR 4 kind of level
I am getting a bit sick of pixelated art. Some of it is well done, but a lot of it is not and you just have a mess of pixels that really hurt readability of the game. HOMM3 is from 1999, and it has way better readability than the pixelated mess of Songs of Conquest.
Wait number 8 you talk like it is another person. Isn’t number 8 thronfall made by you so you are referring to yourself as successful? Or do you just sound similar?!?!
Is this list tailored for a specific demographic? Most of them look like free mobile games. And there's a ton of games that got left out. Anomaly Agent, Arco, Iron Meat, and Turbo Kid just to name a few. Something else is going on here, yes? Welp, can't make demands. Just expressing disappointment that a channel I look up to came up with this list. It's very weak.
The Plucky Squire, Conscript, Skald, Caves of Qud, Zero Sievert, Bloodless, Antonblast, Death of A Wish, Until Then, Fallen Leaf, Dungeons of Hinterberg, Felvidek. Where are they? I'm massively confused now.
It's almost like he has a taste? They're not journalists, they're allowed to have opinionated lists, and sometimes the most played thing isn't exacly the most well made product. Also, how are you so confused about this? Do you know him by chance? Or did you think he rates these games based on criterias that now seem contradictory to you?
I was also disappointed with the video selection-everything feels overly sweet and lacks character. I can’t imagine how they could leave out the masterpiece "Arco," which deserved to be on the list, if not in the top spots!
You've not played it have you? It's nothing to do with gambling. You do not gamble even in game currency and you do not even play against the computer. It's no more of a gambling game than Slay The Spire of Magic The Gathering. It's a deckbuilding game themed around poker... but it isn't actually poker. Last time I checked, you can't manipulate the deck in poker to change your odds and improve synergies.
That’s like people in the early 2000s saying call of duty will create killers. Balatro isn’t the issue, loot boxes and shady monetization are the next gen casino zombie practices.
Not sure if you are a troll or just misguided but the game has nothing to do with gambling and there are many shittier elements of the gaming world to be concerned about if you care about the effects it has on human lives. If you were just trolling, just simply saying something you didn't mean for a reaction, I'll be honest I'm not sure when that lost its negative connotation. It sucks ass. It's lying but not for personal just gain, just to harm others. So whichever you were doing maybe you could learn something and delete it.
i think nine sols is one of the best too. balatro was relatively fun but imo very overrated. It's just another roguelike deckbuilder genre game really.
@@mick2287 and even the legendary slay the spire did not even come close to winning a single game of the year award and remained a niche indie game. imagine that. I also don't really think it's "extremely well done". The strategies to break the game are very straightforward and works on almost any deck. I got bored of it after a few sessions, while the diverse builds in slay the spire kept me entertained for a while longer. Speaking as someone who has pretty much played almost all the good deckbuilder games over the last decade, it didn't really stand out to me over every other deckbuilder. There have been tons of deckbuilders that are similarly enjoyable that you can find recommended on this channel, but have received nowhere near the commercial fame as balatro.
Animal Well, Minishoot Adventures, UFO 50, Nine Sols & Dungeons of Hinterberg are at the top for me. I hope the western indie scene isn't crushed by the weight of economic factors in the coming years. Western AAA industry is on the verge of collapse -- with just a small handful of good games making it to release every year -- and ripples are being felt all over the videogame sector. It feels like the number of great indie games and good indie games has shrunk somewhat in the past 5-6 years, as creative developers struggle to get their games finished and released. I know several such devs: for some, the economics of today are OK; for others, really grim. For my part, I find myself playing far fewer indies today than in 2018-2021... Thanks go to Clemmy and other channels/outlets like his, who keep us laypeople apprised about all (or most) of the indie games worth paying attention to.
Why would you even compare them? They are completely different games, genres and styles. One is a bite sized rouge-lite poker game, the other is a 3D platformer tribute to PlayStation. Both are incredibly good games.
@@Jackfromshack it's not about if you can't compare them. It's about if the comparison is intellectual. Of course you can do that, but comparing between 2 remotely different titles about such a loose term dosent really strike a conclusive comparison, and is more a "I think X is better over Y", which isn't a bad thing, but not the same. "Comparing between apples and oranges" is a known phrase for a reason.
Based on my indie games tier list for switch, what games would you recommend: S+ tier: Rising Dusk, Elec-Head, The kids we were S tier: The Excavation of Hob's Barrow, Dusk, Crow Country, S- tier: Celeste, Cathedral, A+ tier: Crystal Project, Cloudpunk, A tier: Beyond Galaxyland, Alba a wildlife adventure A- tier: Animal Well, Baba is you B+ tier: The Touryst, Outer Wilds B tier: Gravity Circuit, Master Key, Paradise Killer B- tier: Road 96, Darkside Detective C+ tier: Lonely Mountains Downhill C tier: Blue Fire D tier: Hollow Cocoon F tier: Minit
@ItsameAlex Cool list. I have a couple of personalised recommendations for you (that you might have tried already). If you like puzzles and exploration, try Fez If you haven't. Elechead reminds me of VVVVVV, a nice short puzzle exploration game as well. Inside is one of the best eerie games ever, period. Be prepared for a bit of a weird ending though. Hollow knight is a great metroidvania that doesn't neglect its platforming and is possibly the best medroidvania ever made. The lore is insane too. The Ori games are great platformers as well (pretty light on story). If you want a narrative game with some dark turns and some heavy themes, you could try Night in the woods. It's a bit of a 'either it really clicks or it really doesn't' kind of game though. If you like horror games, you could give Signalis a try. Hopefully at least some of these are new for you. Happy gaming!
![BLACK BAG - Official Trailer [HD] - Only in Theaters March 14](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Du0Xp8WX_7I/mqdefault.jpg)
One of my favorites of the year that didn’t make this list was Crypt Custodian. It’s a solid top-down Metroidvania with a fun assortment of abilities, a story that is equal parts melancholy and humorous, and a simply outstanding soundtrack.
The others that really clicked with me were Balatro, Animal Well, and Minishoot’ Adventures. I also admired UFO 50 even though only a small handful of the games really stood out to me.
I just completed my second 100% playthrough of Nine Sols to show a friend. I made him read the prequel comic for the entire experience, and I warned him it'd be a brutal, soul crushing story.
Thanks to Silksong's development hell setback, Nine Sols is invariably the best game I've played this year, especially given it's a small developer, and a complete departure from their previous games. It's such an artistic masterpiece that is fun to git gud at and play.
great game
Solid list. But shoutout to 1000xRESIST, my undisputed game of 2024, also an indie, yet very much not this channel's vibe.
Indeed missing from the list IMHO.
Absolutely +1
@@AntlerTox it doesn't for me, because this channel has always been focused on pixel art, arcadey, and short play cycle games.
Back during the walking sim craze, this channel had stray mentions here and there for them, but never rated them highly. Hell, KRZ was basically a footnote.
So I can both say 1000xRESIST is my game of the year, indie or not, while recogising that each content creator has preferences and trends. Even good curation is still curation, and a lot will be left out.
Kinda wish it got mentioned somewhere, but it is what it is.
And I'm having a lot of fun seeing everyone who played 1000xRESIST and Lorelei instalock them at the best of year rankings, but if someone has not played a game I'd rather they don't put it there to follow the trend.
Nine Sols is my goty. I'm a simple person, maybe I'm just stupid and ignorant, but I'm not into games that go to crazy. or I enjoy, but not for much time. Like with Balatro and animal well that just grab my attention and interest for very little time even if I think they are good. But I need my action. Nine Sols is just made for me. Even the convoluted silly story I think is amazing. Really good stuff. I hope for more games like this. And less rogue like deck building for the future in indie games.
Balatro fell flat for me so while I did think it was neat the attraction disappeared within an hour or 2.
So I agree with your statement.
AMEN
Looks similar to hollow knight but more fluid, which one do you prefer?
Just sounds like you enjoy action more than strategy and exploration. Or at least like a lot more action paired with your exploration than animal well has.
It doesn’t really feel like HK, it has elements from it, but it feels more like Sekiro. I personally prefer Hollow Knight, but objectively Nine Sols might actually be better. Although, it’s very linear up until the last 1/3 of the game.
Other greats released this year: Skaald ; Void Sols ; Caves of Qud ; Zero Seivert ; Flowstone Saga
Love skald back priory. Looked forward to it's release ever since it was announced. Was not disappointed with it at all, I hope the game did well for the dev. He did a good job
My favorites this year: Morbid: The Lords of Ire, The Thaumaturge, Crown Wars: The Black Prince, Conscript, Hollowbody, Dead Season, Symphonia, Scarmonde. All of them I heard about in this channel first. Thank you!
nice, thanks for sharing!
Happy Holidays Clemmy!
Same to you my friend. Hope you have been well
It's a testament to the strength of the current indie gaming scene that you can watch a dozen different YT's GOTY's lists and get such varying yet excellent lists. This one included! My goty is not one that actually made any lists and that's Zero Sievert. My others are Balatro, Shogun Showdown, Terminus: Zombie Survivors, Feed the Deep, Dicefolk, Minishoot Adventures, and Nordic Ashes (THE most slept on bullet-heaven/horde survival games out there!).
I never even heard of most of these. I'm buying a few of these games, to play while im off sick. nice list
I’ve been subbed to you for years and just now I finally ordered all the parts for my first PC. I’m so excited to finally be able to play all the awesome games you highlight!
Great list! Drova Forsaken Kin was my game of the year. Loved it.
Drova is easily one of the best (indie) games of last year. Absolut gem!
Man i love your indie game recommendations I've sub to you for years now, I've played so many great game through the years and im excited to see more games next year
excellent
The only AAA game I have paid money for in recent years is Elden Ring. Everything else is Indie games. Some really good stuff being made. Keep up the great work Clemmy. You're a source of treasure mate!
Elden ring is great!
My favorites this year are Nine Sols, Drova, Hollowbody, Dread Delusion and Conscript.
I'm happy with how many of these I've enjoyed. It's nice playing games that absolutely blow me away even after all these years. Thanks for the channel, you're a big reason I knew about some of these games.
Incredible list, incredible year of Indie games carrying this entire medium for me. Thanks Clemmy!!! Indie games have never been better!!!
hell yeah
My Top Games, another great year for Indies
4 Thank Goodness You're Here
3 Animal Well
2 Satisfactory
1 Lorelei and the Laser Eyes
Lorelei is immediately one of the best puzzle games ever released imo. And it flew completely under the mainstream radar, especially after annapurna got the stray boost last year it's insane that they didn't promote this more.
@@coldDriveright, I forgot about the whole annapurna debacle. That's a shame they couldn't market Lorelei if that's the case. From the first trailer I had to play it and was so pleased with every part, even when I was at my most confused lol
thank you for sharing!
You do such a fabulous job on every video and when I hear you’re voice I now I’m in for a great video…
yay, thank you
Did you play SKALD: Against the Black Priory? It was one of my standout pixelart games of the year... Also I'm still shocked just how good Animal Well looks!
Drova and Nine Sols look amazing. I already wishlisted them. Also, I just got halls of torment. Great recommendations, thanks.
Pretty solid list. There are a few on the list that didn't click with me however. Also, I did purchase some your top ten and haven't played them very much..... too many games.
Based on my indie games tier list for switch, what games would you recommend: S+ tier: Rising Dusk, Elec-Head, The kids we were S tier: The Excavation of Hob's Barrow, Dusk, Crow Country, S- tier: Celeste, Cathedral,
A+ tier: Crystal Project, Cloudpunk,
A tier: Beyond Galaxyland, Alba a wildlife adventure
A- tier: Animal Well, Baba is you
B+ tier: The Touryst, Outer Wilds
B tier: Gravity Circuit, Master Key, Paradise Killer
B- tier: Road 96, Darkside Detective
C+ tier: Lonely Mountains Downhill
C tier: Blue Fire
D tier: Hollow Cocoon
F tier: Minit
I remember seeing Songs of Conquest when it revealed at the 2019 PC Gaming Show. I was just getting back into the HOMM style of game, after 15+ years of not playing them, when Age of Wonders 3 went free-to-keep for a few days in July, and have had it on my wishlist ever since. I want to get around to playing it eventually, but I’ve got 8 games in my Steam shopping cart at the moment and several others in my existing backlog, so it’ll have to wait; maybe next year.
And hey, here’s another example of an indie game being announced five years ago, and only just now releasing as a finished product. See? Long-awaited titles do come out.
YES
Unicorn Overlord is my GOTY by far. I rediscovered gaming addiction with it !
Echo point nova is pretty much everything I've ever wanted in a video game, I'm sold
nice
@ClemmyGames completed it yesterday haha, thanks for introducing me to it. Keep up the videos man
@@salvador6182 that was fast!
Shout out to Songs of Conquest, my GotY 2024 easily, DLC just landed this week, must play to any HoMM 3 fan.
Would be great to have time stamps :) I have been looking for skyrim-like and Valheim-like, but it seems that these are really uncommon, despite how successful they are.
Tainted grail: the fall of avalon, outward 2, alkahest and the wayward realms seem to be the only ones of of thousands of indie studios..
I see a trend in the titles you mentioned
Have you heard of Enshrouded? That's the closest you'll get to that Valheim like some kind of Skyrim like open world RPG indie darling.
Thanks for making this list clemmy! I felt like going into this year I wasn't excited for anything. But after watching this, I can see there's so many cool looking games that I want to play!
nice
Kinda feel bad for Dungeons & Degenerate Gamblers, since I played both demos for Balatro and this late 2023, and feel like both are very good Poker-themed roguelikes that could start a trend. Eventually Balatro released earlier and got the hype, and that game got much less recognition.
13:55 Игра, в которой задача - колоть дрова, называется Дрова 👍
I'm surprised Until Then, Enigma of Fear or Crow Country were not on the list
SOON
From my point of view - Another crab's treasure should be way higher 🙂 What a nice game
sure!
Mechabellum is top 1 for me I played it too much and still at it.
Buckshot Roulette is a psychological horror game
hm
I heavily dislike virtual card games, but damn, Balatro opened that door for me. I still haven't enjoyed any others, but sure as hell I've been having lots of fun with Balatro.
I feel the same and Slay the Spire is the only other one I’ve gotten into
loved my MechaBellum already in the beta
SteamWorld Heist 2 was my favorite indie game this year.
Thunderful group has a $46M market cap
@ClemmyGames Meh, I still think of them as Image & Form.
Anton Blast is freaking masterpiece.
Ngl, Antonblast not being on this list is criminal in my opinion
Surprised you didn't mention Bō: Path of the Teal Lotus
It's just a HK clone
@@blackman4001 hk?
@@jwbartle Hollow Knight
@@jwbartle Hollow Knight
It's good! Not top 25 though
if you like anime like, Psychological, First person, horror games, then try this indie game called MiSide released in December 2024
Secrets of grindea deserves more love i cant believe its not more popular !
mmhmm
A HUuuge thanks for digging up number 4, I've been starved for sooooo long for HoMM games since ubishit effed everything up
I liked echo point nova but they need to smooth out the framerate.
Mullet Madjack looks like the FPS version of Hotline Miami
Secrets of Grindea looks amazing but all that junk 5:49 I hope is only background and not actual objects. I hate it when pixel RPGs add junk that only gets in the way and forces you to move to one side, you know what I mean? We should be able to walk in a straight line.
It's not Dróva, it's Drová. I don't speak any northern languages but in russian it's translated as "firewood"
Ok
Feed the deep for me as well! I had a great time playing it
My best indie game of 2025 will be Tinkerlands, if it ever releases...
looks good!
mullet madjack is the game version of a sugar rush.
Angel at Dusk Should on this list
number 4 looks decent
I was JUST wondering when this video would come out from you yesterday! The universe listened and delivered 😁
Thronefall is by far my favorite. I have 140 hours and it's still by far the most fun. It's the perfect balance of simple yet deep, and can be played for 10 minutes or 3 hours.
so good
Outside the rouge-lite realm, the games I most liked was Crypt Custodian followed by Mini Shot Adventures.
This was a year that I felt kind disapointed by my favorite genre (metroidvania), I really think Nine Souls and Anima Well super overrated, it's like after Aeterna Noctis none metroidvania is good enough.
But it turns out that I fell for the rouge-lites, they're indeed very fun to play and there's a lot of good names, it's even hard to chose one, so if people say's Balatro is the goty I can't deny.
And who knows, maybe in two or three years I stop think that this huge amount of sandbox titles is nonsense and I start to enjoy the genre! =D
I supposed you tried Prince of Persia the lost crown ?
my game of the year was either Mobius machine or biogun or biomorph
bookmarks?
ok
There is neva and the plucky squire
I always wonder who played those ridiculously silly and kitschy anime games that consistently show up at the top when sorting Steam games by rating. Now I know..
lol i kept thinking in the past few years that theres way too many games, i cant keep up and its easy to miss great games, you said 15,000 releases in 1 year 😅
thats way too many no wonder i cant keep up...
My indi GOTY is Frogmonster, Lorn's Lure, Rise of the Golden Idol, Animal Well and maybe UFO 50, tho UFO is obviously give and take. Mini & Max was incredible.
Minishoot kinda dissapointed me being too basic and too easy mostly, Tactical Wizards was pretty fun. Songs of conquest i found to be boring and unimaginitive tbh. Shogun Showdown was really fun. Drova is a cool Gothic thowback, still need to play Nine Sols. Oh and Crab was pretty good, kinda fell off in terms of difficulty in the second half mostly, but still i enjoyed it alot.
For me Antonblast.
anyone else feel like this year is not that strong of a list?
👍インディーゲームは、いいぞ。(いいぞ。)
Yay 22:06 Nine sols
All the originality in gaming is with indie games; AAA games today are no different than what they were in the PS3 generation.
I tihink Zelda 2 Enhanced PC Edition is the best but this is a hack game so it can't be in the list...... Minishoot' Adventures, Master Key or Animal Weel can be in that list easily
ok
How is Nine Sols NOT a Metroidvania??? If Hollow Knight is a Metroidvania, then so is Nine Sols.
I said so 😎
appreciate your content... i usually rely on your recommendations to weed out the trash -- god knows only the 1% of indi games are worth our time. this list, however, was very disappointing. other than the sure fire picks, UFO 50 and balatro, there isn't anything here that interests me. was 2024 really that terrible of a year or is this list missing the gems? everyone knows the AAA space was uneventuful but usually the indi space picks up the slack...
What gernes do you like?
@@ClemmyGames side scrolling beat em ups, contra-style action games, metroidvanias, castlevania-likes, 2d platformers, jrpgs, jsrpgs :D in either case, it's cool. i have a big backlog, afterall! happy holidays!
@@mogwai_for_sale Really not much in terms of metroidvanias and JRPGs this year. We didn't get a Chained Echoes or Sea of Stars level kind of game. We are two ok-ish beat-em-ups in GI Joe and Power Rangers but again, not a Shredder's Revenge / SoR 4 kind of level
where the heck is AntonBlast!!!
soon
I am getting a bit sick of pixelated art. Some of it is well done, but a lot of it is not and you just have a mess of pixels that really hurt readability of the game. HOMM3 is from 1999, and it has way better readability than the pixelated mess of Songs of Conquest.
hmm
hurray!
hurrah!
plucky squire ?
Mm
you should put wukong in the list i know its not a Indie game but its greatest of all time!
???
HOMM 3 is not pixelart...
Wait number 8 you talk like it is another person. Isn’t number 8 thronfall made by you so you are referring to yourself as successful? Or do you just sound similar?!?!
Remember kids, learning poker does not mean learning gambling
so it was a mid year, I don't find any of them interesting.
Is this list tailored for a specific demographic? Most of them look like free mobile games. And there's a ton of games that got left out. Anomaly Agent, Arco, Iron Meat, and Turbo Kid just to name a few. Something else is going on here, yes? Welp, can't make demands. Just expressing disappointment that a channel I look up to came up with this list. It's very weak.
The Plucky Squire, Conscript, Skald, Caves of Qud, Zero Sievert, Bloodless, Antonblast, Death of A Wish, Until Then, Fallen Leaf, Dungeons of Hinterberg, Felvidek. Where are they? I'm massively confused now.
So you have a different taste in games than he does....and? I think it is cool that he highlights some different games.
It's almost like he has a taste? They're not journalists, they're allowed to have opinionated lists, and sometimes the most played thing isn't exacly the most well made product.
Also, how are you so confused about this? Do you know him by chance? Or did you think he rates these games based on criterias that now seem contradictory to you?
@@dinoooooomjournalists are also allowed to have opinionated lists just fyi.
I was also disappointed with the video selection-everything feels overly sweet and lacks character. I can’t imagine how they could leave out the masterpiece "Arco," which deserved to be on the list, if not in the top spots!
GoTY cannot be a gambling simulator. I will not be trained to be next gen casino zombie
You've not played it have you? It's nothing to do with gambling. You do not gamble even in game currency and you do not even play against the computer. It's no more of a gambling game than Slay The Spire of Magic The Gathering. It's a deckbuilding game themed around poker... but it isn't actually poker. Last time I checked, you can't manipulate the deck in poker to change your odds and improve synergies.
@LeviClay bruh...c'mon..😆
That’s like people in the early 2000s saying call of duty will create killers. Balatro isn’t the issue, loot boxes and shady monetization are the next gen casino zombie practices.
@richardgranger9587 political speech. A vehicle for the time. I'm talking about predatory culture
Not sure if you are a troll or just misguided but the game has nothing to do with gambling and there are many shittier elements of the gaming world to be concerned about if you care about the effects it has on human lives.
If you were just trolling, just simply saying something you didn't mean for a reaction, I'll be honest I'm not sure when that lost its negative connotation. It sucks ass. It's lying but not for personal just gain, just to harm others.
So whichever you were doing maybe you could learn something and delete it.
i think nine sols is one of the best too. balatro was relatively fun but imo very overrated. It's just another roguelike deckbuilder genre game really.
It’s an extremely well done roguelike deck builder though. Very few are of around that quality besides Slay the Spire.
@@mick2287 and even the legendary slay the spire did not even come close to winning a single game of the year award and remained a niche indie game. imagine that. I also don't really think it's "extremely well done". The strategies to break the game are very straightforward and works on almost any deck. I got bored of it after a few sessions, while the diverse builds in slay the spire kept me entertained for a while longer.
Speaking as someone who has pretty much played almost all the good deckbuilder games over the last decade, it didn't really stand out to me over every other deckbuilder. There have been tons of deckbuilders that are similarly enjoyable that you can find recommended on this channel, but have received nowhere near the commercial fame as balatro.
STS 2 baby!
Animal Well, Minishoot Adventures, UFO 50, Nine Sols & Dungeons of Hinterberg are at the top for me.
I hope the western indie scene isn't crushed by the weight of economic factors in the coming years. Western AAA industry is on the verge of collapse -- with just a small handful of good games making it to release every year -- and ripples are being felt all over the videogame sector. It feels like the number of great indie games and good indie games has shrunk somewhat in the past 5-6 years, as creative developers struggle to get their games finished and released. I know several such devs: for some, the economics of today are OK; for others, really grim. For my part, I find myself playing far fewer indies today than in 2018-2021...
Thanks go to Clemmy and other channels/outlets like his, who keep us laypeople apprised about all (or most) of the indie games worth paying attention to.
Let me guess, all 25 will be on Steam
Yeah, because how many of them are console exclusive?
Oh great that stupid card game again...
Balatro > Astro Bot
Why would you even compare them? They are completely different games, genres and styles. One is a bite sized rouge-lite poker game, the other is a 3D platformer tribute to PlayStation. Both are incredibly good games.
@@LordLOC because they are both games
@@Jackfromshackmost likely because they were at the game awards.
But the guy is right, they're too different to be compared directly
@@dinoooooom Jeff Kelley awards not have any sense. But you can compare any game with any game no matter what. No one should stop you
@@Jackfromshack it's not about if you can't compare them. It's about if the comparison is intellectual.
Of course you can do that, but comparing between 2 remotely different titles about such a loose term dosent really strike a conclusive comparison, and is more a "I think X is better over Y", which isn't a bad thing, but not the same.
"Comparing between apples and oranges" is a known phrase for a reason.
i'm not gonna lie, these look boring as hell.
Such year, such games
What exacly?
The top 25 hidden gems is usually where the good stuff is at. Looking forward to that list.
Based on my indie games tier list for switch, what games would you recommend: S+ tier: Rising Dusk, Elec-Head, The kids we were S tier: The Excavation of Hob's Barrow, Dusk, Crow Country, S- tier: Celeste, Cathedral,
A+ tier: Crystal Project, Cloudpunk,
A tier: Beyond Galaxyland, Alba a wildlife adventure
A- tier: Animal Well, Baba is you
B+ tier: The Touryst, Outer Wilds
B tier: Gravity Circuit, Master Key, Paradise Killer
B- tier: Road 96, Darkside Detective
C+ tier: Lonely Mountains Downhill
C tier: Blue Fire
D tier: Hollow Cocoon
F tier: Minit
@ItsameAlex Cool list. I have a couple of personalised recommendations for you (that you might have tried already).
If you like puzzles and exploration, try Fez If you haven't.
Elechead reminds me of VVVVVV, a nice short puzzle exploration game as well.
Inside is one of the best eerie games ever, period. Be prepared for a bit of a weird ending though.
Hollow knight is a great metroidvania that doesn't neglect its platforming and is possibly the best medroidvania ever made. The lore is insane too.
The Ori games are great platformers as well (pretty light on story).
If you want a narrative game with some dark turns and some heavy themes, you could try Night in the woods. It's a bit of a 'either it really clicks or it really doesn't' kind of game though.
If you like horror games, you could give Signalis a try.
Hopefully at least some of these are new for you. Happy gaming!
mal video
mal?
balatro is trash
:o
I wouldn't say that, it's the best poker can be, I just don't like poker.
Rage bait
@@dominicjohnson8955 it's FACT no bait
@@crescentmoon256 clearly you never played the game so don’t judge a book by its cover
Nova drift fucking rules. Highly recommend
SONGS OF CONQUEST!!!!!!!
thank you
You're welcome
No good games last year
:/