The Best Indie Games You May Have Missed This Year

Indie developers deserve their flowers. Not only are they responsible for amplifying fiction (and nonfiction) with immeasurable swells of immersion and creativity, but they are also proficient at submerging us in tiny pockets of humor, curiosity, and affection when we find ourselves at our worst. This year was no different. In the age of social distancing, Hades found love in a hopeless place, Among Us sussed out social anxieties via long tasks and emergency meetings, and Fall Guys filled the Mario Party–size void in our hearts by introducing humanoid jellybeans to the concept of "drip" and yeeting them through randomized elements of Takeshi's Castle. And that's just a brief synopsis of what went down in 2020. A multitude of directors, producers, animators, level designers, composers, and the like remodeled the limitations of the medium to introduce us to worlds and protagonists we never dreamed possible.