2024 was another fabulous year for video game releases, and indie games truly shined all year long. This is normally the time when we’d list our top 10 indies, and we do just that below. However, we also don’t believe this year could be confined to a measly 10 games, even in indies. That’s why we included 14 more.
Shacknews Top 24 Indies, 24 - 11
24. Little Kitty, Big City
23. Felvidek
22. Card-en-Ciel
19. Kamikaze Lassplanes
19. Fields of Mistria
19. Luma Island
18. Isles of Sea and Sky
17. Slitterhead
16. Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore
15. Thank Goodness You're Here!
14. Lorelei and the Laser Eyes
13. 1000xRESIST
12. Tales of Kenzara: ZAU
11. Penny's Big Breakaway
Congrats to those that made our list, even if they couldn’t be in the Top 10. Voting was tight this year and many of these games are that splendid and were hotly contested! Each of them is well worth a check if you’ve haven’t played them yet, so we wish them all congrats for launching this year. Without further ado. It’s time to move on to Shacknews Top 10 Indie Games of 2024. Here they are:
10. Crow Country
There's a lot of nostalgia wrapped up in 90s horror games, and it's quite special how the team behind Crow Country managed to perfectly capture not only the look, but the vibe and feel of those games with this year's indie horror hit.
Crow Country dials up scares without an excessive use of jump scares or other cheap tactics. Instead, SFB Games uses atmosphere to unsettle its players. From the music and sound design to bizarre creature models, Crow Country nestles itself deep under your skin.
The mystery of Crow Country was fodder for countless YouTubers this year as the community collaborated to piece together the clues laid out by SFB Games. It takes a special kind of game to foster that sort of community, and Crow Country is an excellent ambassador for the indie horror space.
Crow Country is available on Steam, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, and Xbox platforms.
9. The Axis Unseen
There was little doubt that Nate Purkeypile was going to give us a game to remember from the moment he revealed The Axis Unseen because regardless of where you stand on indies, first-person games, or survival games, this one is an incredible concept: A heavy metal-inspired survival game where you wander the wilderness with a bow, arrows, and supernatural powers as you hunt cryptids and they often hunt you in turn.
Purkeypile came out of the gate looking all sorts of ambitious with this one. He was an early adopter of Unreal Engine 5 in the indie game dev community, and it was clear from early on how much UE5's streamlined asset creation and specialized tools were a boon to the experienced environmental designer. The Axis Unseen's wilderness is rich and wicked, featuring a vast forest full of hills, mountains, and creatures to discover.
The Axis Unseen's creature design is also on point. It starts with small, mostly benign critters that will really only attack you if you attack them. However, it's not long before you running into tree giants that can impale you with thorny branches and intense Bigfoot creatures that can beat your brains in a jiffy if they catch you. The smart use of your arrows and the powers you can imbue into them is the only way you stand a chance.
When it came to 2024's gaming year, The Axis Unseen was maybe one of the most interesting indie stoies. Nate Purkeypile clearly had a distinct vision and the experience to know how he wanted to apply it, but his early work in UE5 feels like a story other indie devs should appreciate and study. Even then, how many other games let you try to outmaneuver and hunt Bigfoot amid outcroppings of giant radical horned skulls and creature skeletons?
The Axis Unseen is available on Steam and Epic Games Store platforms.
8. Mouthwashing
There aren’t a lot of games that unnerve us here at Shacknews. Mouthwashing more than unnerved us, it wormed its way into our brain, made is feel uncomfortable, unpleasant, and disgusted at what people are capable of doing. It’s also hands-down one of the indie games this year.
Mouthwashing is a psychological horror game set aboard a cargo vessel that’s transporting goods between planets. The crew is small, consisting of just five people, and as you might assume, tensions fray. The game kicks off with the ship colliding with a celestial body after someone sabotaged the flight controls.
From this point onward, the narrative plays out along two timelines: the lead up to the crash and following the crash. You’ll be walking around the ship, helping solve the issues that crop up, from general maintenance to smoothing over everyone’s emotional state. But things go sideways quickly.
Mouthwashing instils a sense of impending dread as the crew fights to survive not just dwindling supplies, but their withering emotional and mental stability. It’s a harrowing game that left us staring at our screens, mouth agape, as the credits rolled. Want to feel gut-punched? Play Mouthwashing.
Mouthwashing is available on the Steam platform.
7. Another Crab's Treasure
Since Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and Elden Ring have solidified what the souls-like genre is, there have been no lack of studios derivating on it. But few have made their version of this genre stand out from the regular Soulsborne vibe like Another Crab’s Treasure. Instead of being a forsaken ethereal being wandering through a fallen kingdom or the remains of a ferocious war, you’re a hermit crab named Kril who just wants his shell back after a literal loan shark takes it from him. With that, you wander the floor of an ocean where all the local life has taken a shine to human garbage that has littered the seabed. And so, it’s an undersea souls-like in which your “soul” resources are trash and your various weapons are “shells” Kril can equip that give him unique powers.
The environment itself in Another Crab’s Treasure is equal parts funny, pretty, and upsetting. Every area you go to has some level of natural undersea beauty to it, but it’s tainted with the cheap veneer of repurposed garbage from the human world that sea creatures have become enamored with. What most of them don’t know is that prolonged contact with that trash makes them crazy and violent.
That means Kril has to fight through insane creatures, many of which are much larger than him. What’s a hermit crab to do? Well, that’s where the shells come in. At any time, Kril can jump into a nearby soda can, banana peel, yogurt cup, or any other prop to defend himself as he fights back with his trusty crab fork and fishing hook. The shell also matters because each of them has a different power you can use to even the odds and stay alive. For instance, the soda can lets you dodge backwards and release a spray of bubbles that home in on a target. Using the right shell in the right situation is key if you’re going to survive. It’s challenging to play, but Aggro Crab was also brave enough to allow you to soften the difficulty, up to and including the ridiculous option to give Kril a gun.
Ultimately, Aggro Crab blends a solid display of comedy and charm with a stark undertone. Its funny crab and crazy fish are cute as heck, but they can also be scary and upsetting in near equal capacity. The environments have a similar energy. Put that together with responsive action and platforming under the sea and you just might see the value of Another Crab’s Treasure.
Another Crab's Treasure is available on Steam, Nintendo Switch, Xbox, and PlayStation platforms.
6. The Plucky Squire
The Plucky Squire immediately climbed our most anticipated games of the year list when got our first glimpse at its reality-bending art style. With the combination of 2D and 3D art styles, developer All Possible Futures is able to have their cake and eat it, too.
Not only is The Plucky Squire satisfying to look at, it's fun to play, too. It's levels and puzzles are packed with homages to the classics of the genre, with enough originality to keep gameplay feeling fresh.
Playing through The Plucky Squire is like reading a storybook rich with humor and fun characters. We hope this isn't the last we see of this neat little universe.
The Plucky Squire is available on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, Xbox, and Steam platforms.
5. UFO 50
When we learned the developers of Spelunky and its sequel were going to be developing a new game, we expected it would be something cool. What we could have never guessed was that it would be 50 somethings that were each, in fact, cool. UFO 50 is a collection like nothing else. It’s an homage to a vast array of classic video game titles and might be the most ridiculously efficient bang for your gaming buck, especially since many of its included games turned out to be full-length titles.
Right from the get-go Mossmouth allows players access to every single one of the 50 games in UFO 50. The idea is that a mysterious company released all these games in obscurity. They all hearken back to the days of 80s arcades and home platforms, with some being very short and easy to beat while others are like full-length RPGs of the time that could take hours to complete.
They’re a pretty awesome spread of titles too. Action, horror, sports, adventure, puzzle, and even narrative journeys are among those included here. Heck, there are even homages to metroidvanias, first-person dungeon crawlers, and narrative horror like NES’s Uninvited, Deja Vu, and Shadowgate. Yet somehow, Mossmouth was able to also pack in its signature charm and humor in most cases, making this an altogether incredible collection.
UFO 50 is a very easy game to recommend to anyone at any age because of the way it’s set up. There’s something for just about everyone here, and pretty much all of these games are worth trying at least once. We don’t know what compelled Mossmouth to pack 50 different games into a single title, but we can’t help but applaud the absolute madness and the quality that each title contains.
UFO 50 is available on the Steam platform.
4. Neva
Neva delivered one of the year's most beautiful narratives with the tale of woman's bond with a wolf. It explores the relationship between a person and their animal companion, poignantly examining the highs and lows that entail.
Visually, Neva is one of the year's most stunning games. Every location is picturesque, beautiful vistas juxtaposed against a decaying world.
Neva is also a competent platformer, providing a decent challenge throughout its 5-6 hours of gameplay. That said, those in it for the narrative can opt to play in Story Mode.
Neva is a reminder of the impact that video games can have, and that some of the best stories in games reside in the indie space.
Neva is available on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, Xbox, and Steam platforms.
3. Pacific Drive
Pacific Drive saw an early release in 2024, but Ironwood Studios’ sci-fi driving survival game got its hooks in and stayed with us well throughout the year. In all of 2024 gaming (and really beyond it for that matter), there was nothing quite like what Pacific Drive brought to the table. Moreover, its environments, music, and narrative were great enough to make sure that when this year’s Shacknews Awards deliberations came around, it was still solidified in our minds as one of this year’s most unique titles.
In Pacific Drive, you are a mysterious investigator that ventures into the mountainous forest region of the Pacific Northwest to a place known as the Olympic Exclusion Zone. Serious environmental experiments and oddities occurred in this place which led to the government building a barrier around it to keep what was inside, inside, and what was outside, outside. Obviously your intrusion means it didn’t quite work, but it also isn’t long before you discover a seemingly innocuous station wagon that acts as your getaway from a rough situation. And shortly after that, you discover folks that were both studying the Zone and got trapped by it. You also find a garage, which plays a big role in the rest of your journey.
To escape the Zone (theoretically) you’ll need to venture deeper into it and collect energy from anomalous sites to power various experimental machinery. The Zone is a pretty fragile place, so every journey into a new area finds you traversing randomized stretches of dense forests and hills in the Station Wagon as you loot the supplies you need, build the tools that make things easier, and generally try to keep your station wagon maintained. After all, there’s also freakish anomalies that can be a danger to you and the car such as autonomous piles of electrified scrap. Also, when you take the energy you need from a place in the Zone, that area’s stability will collapse and it’s a race to get out alive.
Getting back to the garage and being able to recuperate with your pillaged resources was brief recompense, and it also feels therapeutic to repair and upgrade your car for the next adventure. You can even paint and put decals on it to make it truly your own. All of these things together made Pacific Drive a game unlike really anything else this year, and Ironwood Studios deserves to be celebrated for such an interesting journey, not to mention assembling such a perfect sci-fi roadtrip soundtrack with all of the good vibes of a personal mixtape.
Pacific Drive is available on PlayStation, and Steam platforms.
2. Animal Well
Everyone knew Animal Well was special the moment they laid eyes on it. The cute and unassuming pixel art style of a dark and lonely world was just dripping with mysteries to solve. Then it released and everyone realized the genius at work in Billy Basso’s head.
Animal Well is a Metroidvania unlike anything that has come before it. There’s no combat to be found, and as a tiny little critter, your only course of action against any threat is to run – or use the cleverly designed tools to your advantage.
You see, you’re not going to get something as straightforward as unlocking double-jump or a grapple hook. You’re going to get a Frisbee, a yo-yo, and other childhood toys. It’s not even going to be clear how these things work and how you might use them to solve the game’s myriad puzzles and navigate its dense, secret-packed world.
But when you do figure out how to use these items, you’ll see the world differently. These little light bulb moments happen constantly throughout Animal Well as you engage in one of the best puzzle-platforming games this year.
Though it hasn’t secured our Indie Game of the Year 2024 award, it has come remarkably close and remains a favorite among the staff here at Shacknews. If you’re a fan of unassuming indie games that have a tendency to blow your mind, you need to do yourself a favor and check out Animal Well.
Animal Well is available on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, Xbox, and Steam platforms.
1. Balatro
Thinking back over the past few decades at Shacknews, the staff is hard-pressed to think of any indie game that has garnered such universal acclaim or been as accomplished as Balatro. There have been memorable indie titles over the years. Games like Journey, Gone Home, and Hades come to mind as true standout efforts. Yet Balatro feels like it stands above them all. It certainly stands out over an incredibly stacked field of outstanding indie titles in 2024.
For solo developer LocalThunk to build on a relatively simple idea and captivate the entire gaming world has been nothing short of impressive. A poker roguelike sounds like a simple idea in theory, but the execution and the way it all came together has been special. Thousands of players across multiple platforms continue to try and chase high scores, just like in gaming days of old, all while utilizing well thought-out strategies and rolling with whatever luck befalls them. There are few sensations better in gaming right now than when a Balatro run comes together with the right combinations of rare Jokers, enhanced cards, and Boss Blinds that somehow manage not to upend the entire outing.
The Balatro formula is so easy to get into and drives its hooks in deep. It's part of why the Shacknews staff feared the day that it came to mobile devices, because it's the kind of game that's perfect to play on-the-go. It ranks up with historic handheld greats like Tetris and Dr. Mario in terms of easy accessibility and "one more game" loops that never seem to end.
LocalThunk's efforts have been remarkable. It's amazing to see a single artist put the bulk of the work into such an expertly crafted game. It's the kind of phenomenon that gaming may never see for a long time. Shacknews was privileged to see the tale of Balatro play out over the course of 2024 and we're happy to name it the Shacknews Best Indie Game of 2024.
Balatro is available on Apple App Store, Google Play Store, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, Xbox, and Steam platforms.
Check out our Shacknews Indie Game of the Year 2024 - Balatro article to read more.
We salute everyone who released a game in this very difficult year for so many game developers. We couldn’t do our jobs without these amazing creators. Thank you for another year of amazing indie games and congratulations to everyone who made our Shacknews Top 24 Indie Games of the Year 2024 list.
Be sure to read over the rest of the Shacknews Awards in our Year of the Games: 2024 feature.
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