The best indie games you might miss in 2021

Sometimes that’s all About the journey. In the past ten years, independent developers have introduced us to the voices (and hamsters) in their heads. In 2021, they showed how a complete work organization can reach new heights in innovation when everything happens. hit count.

Only this year, Kina: Bridge of Souls Track growth Tarsier Studios is a young Balinese heroine who plays Little Nightmare II, Wallheim Bless Norse mythology with justice It badly needs, And Hazelight Need two Hooked Game of the Year——All thanks to A genre-breaking story Cooperative adventure (and Scene of the elephant).

To be honest, indie games have just begun. Next year it looks like it will be the ultimate display of artistic styles and narratives that cannot completely get rid of the anxiety cycle we sometimes find ourselves stuck in. Their stories will start where others stopped: providing comfort and inspiration. They continue to stimulate our imagination in moments of total uncertainty, and “Art is still hard“These are our favorite indie games of the year.

Decorated with paintbrushes and several chapters of Bob Rose, Chicory: a colorful story Without breaking the limits of creativity, it broke them.

Greg LobanovFollow-up to 2018 outliers Wandering Song Put you in the role of a gatekeeper named after your favorite food-he happened to stumble upon a magical paintbrush and was appointed to bring color to the run-down black and white world. There are stamps, patterns, painting tools and draw/erase functions to help add texture and shadows to each area (ie Gulp Swamp, Teatime Meadows), and each NPC, side mission and boss battle are added to the overall theme of the game The perspective.

endive Its dialogue and related personality will fascinate you, but it will also express some heartfelt notes through comments about self-doubt, depression, and why there is no shame in starting again.

Mechanical head Network shadow This is a damn good time, because it reunites the 8-bit action side-scroller with their long-lost love: an extremely cruel difficulty.

At its core, it is a wonderful modern Ninja Gaiden and Black Manta’s Fury— 2D action that takes you into the NES era, fearless level design, precise platform games, jazz chip music (see “grinder”, “Monkey Temple”), and equipped with shurikens, air strikes, and bullet deflection devices that can block incoming projectiles.

Cheap deaths and dozens of boss duels will make you humble, but the excellent solution of nostalgia in the early 90s will keep you going until the end.

Death’s door Is a more modern example (and vision) of a perfectly executed idea.It has a relaxing imagination, is visually fascinating, and enriches a series of things to do and see, instead of rewriting the same old content Zelda Metaphorically, it reinforces the comment that death is inevitable by nodding Soul of the Titan and Ultralight drifter.

Its premise is obvious-you play as a crow, and its 9 to 5 agency is dedicated to harvesting souls that are in transition to the afterlife-but it has a satisfactory level of construction, puzzles, enemy design, and isometric The action attracts you, and there is always a way to put yourself on the fascinating score of David Fenn.