Move aside AAA games, it’s time to recognize the lesser-known, not-as-well-funded titles this year. The best 2024 indie titles have delivered immeasurably, with one, in particular, achieving GOTY talk—so let’s go through the contenders and our winner.
Indie games can’t die. While the big-time developers and publishers push big-budget, large-scale-production blockbusters, the lifeblood of indies mustn’t dry up. For every copy-and-paste open-world game, someone has the vision to turn a crab into a soulslike superstar, or have you complete odd jobs in a bizarre English town.
The best indie games of 2024 have all shown ingenuity, and proven they can hang with the big boys, and every nomination on this list deserves to be played.
Best Indie Title of 2024 Winner — Balatro
Poker has been around since the 1800s, but I’m sure its creator didn’t think to combine the card game with intricate roguelike mechanics to create an infinitely replayable breakout hit that would go toe-to-toe with multi-million projects for the GOTY crown. This is what LocalThunk have been able to achieve with Balatro.
Balatro starts you off with a traditional deck of 52 cards comprised of four suits going from Ace to King. The format of the game revolves around you beating increasingly tougher decks requiring higher point totals achieved with high-scoring poker hands. Balatro is a basic poker game at its atomic level, but if we break down its complexities, it’s so much more than this.
You can buy Jokers to add devious and cunning modifiers to your deck—increasing the points earned—allowing us to overcome harder “Blinds.” The roguelike loop means failing is encouraged because you learn the intricacies of the mechanics and understand hands and scoring better. Plus, who can resist one “final” run?
Balatro’s impact in 2024 is tangible. It’s a Game of the Year nominee, already won the Indie Game of the Year award at the Golden Joystick Awards, and sold well over two million copies. Balatro is a simple idea executed flawlessly, and it’s a worthy recipient of our Best Indie Title of 2024 award.
Best Indie Games of 2024 Nominations
Balatro has us all in, yes, but we haven’t revealed our full hand yet. If you’re tired of the monotony of mainstream gaming, 2024 has produced some whoppers in the indie game category.
Animal Well
Animal Well makes me uncomfortable from start to finish: The sound design, the enemies, the edgy and retro-inspired visuals—and I love it. It’s a basic, 2D Metroidvania adventure relying on backtracking and memorization to progress, but its array of items and delicate world-building make the journey seamless.
The mini-boss encounters are low-key terrifying, the puzzles are logical and lucid, and the sense of progression is satisfying. I took umbrage with the map which becomes intensely layered and obfuscated the greater it unravels, and the platforming can be a bit floaty. Animal Well was developed by a single person, and this fact alone turns my mind to mush. If you have a weekend to spare, I implore you to check this out as it pushed Balatro close.
Hades 2
Hades is on my Mt. Rushmore of roguelike entries—and it could be all four heads, honestly. Saying goodbye to Zagreus and making merry with Melinoë is tough, but within the first hour, I was saying Zagreus who? The Princess of the Underworld is just as engaging as her brother, and Supergiant Games has pretty much reinvented the Hades universe. New weapons, abilities, and a curious underground and surface mechanic are some of the new additions to the roguelike formula as you battle through brand-new, enemy-filled biomes.
Predictably, Hades 2 misses out because it’s not finished yet. 2024 is only the beginning of the Hades 2 adventure, testing the soul-filled waters of the Underworld with Early Access. Its full release is looking likely for 2025, and there’s every chance this sequel can go one better than a nomination next year.
Little Kitty, Big City
Let me preface, I’m a cat person. I’ve owned cats before, and I own cats now. They are the greatest creatures walking the Earth, and I care for them more than most humans. Little Kitty, Big City appeals to the cat connoisseur in me, and everything our purring protagonist does causes me to unconsciously let slip a squeak. Little Kitty, Big City’s charming appeal is letting you be a cat: You nom bread, carelessly walk into people to knock them over, use random objects as scratching posts, and there’s a dedicated meow button—à la Stray.
Its cutesy nature aside, Little Kitty, Big City is a self-contained open-world platformer. The world itself isn’t gigantic, but has lots of depth and verticality. You’re encouraged to explore, find fun side missions, and claim collectibles. It’s not genre-defining, it’s fairly predictable and can be completed in one sitting. Nevertheless, it’s a lot of fun and whiskers away from being a-meowzing.
Palworld
“Pokémon with guns” there, I said it, I said the line. Palworld has been associated with Pokémon since day one, although it’s not hard to understand the comparison. Pocket Pair’s creature-collecting, monster-battling open-world title has a deep Paldeck full of weird and wonderful specimens to fight and befriend. Once you do this, you assign them to various work jobs: Kindling, Lumbering, Transporting, and other labor-intensive tasks—there might be an RSPCA issue here.
The big headline grabbers are the ability to shoot Pals, have them shoot other people, butcher Pals, and even capture humans. Blatant murder and human trafficking aside, Palworld is an extremely diverse RPG. Hopefully, it comes through the Nintendo-Palworld lawsuits unscathed and adds to its Early Access build—as this is still a game very much in progress and lacking a bit of depth.
So, Balatro scoops the crown for our Best Indie Game of 2024 award. What do you think? Do you agree with our decisions? Or have we missed any out? Let us know, and check out our Best Shooter of 2024, and the biggest games coming in 2025.
Replace Balatro with Antonsmash