Sometimes, the AAA gaming market can feel a little stagnant in terms of experimentation. That makes sense, because there are shareholders to please, and a wide audience often means bigger profits. However, indie games are where the true experimentation lies, particularly when it comes to hybridizing entire genres.
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Whether it’s mixing a deck-builder with a roguelike dungeon crawler or space exploration with puzzle horror, indie games are a font of experimental inspiration. This list is ranked both by the quality of the game and how well its hybrid genres work.
8
Slay The Spire
Dungeon-Crawling Roguelike With A Helping Of Deckbuilding
These days, deck-building games are all over the indie scene and are maybe the most popular subgenre of all, but Slay the Spire can take a lot of credit in showing how great and adaptable the deck-builder format is when blended with another genre.
In the case of Slay the Spire, the dungeon-crawler roguelike elements are crucial for the replayability and endless possibilities of the game. Slay the Spire nails the “just one more run” mentality and rewards broken builds and inventive, brave card choices, and it’s even perfect for beginners to the genre.
7
Into The Breach
4D Chess That Blends Grand Strategy With Puzzle And RPG
In the indie world, Subset Games are absolute legends, not only pioneering the beginning of the indie boom in the early 2010s, but continuing to deliver mechanically complex yet beautifully simple games that have extraordinary lasting value. Into the Breach is one of their best.
In Into the Breach, players take control of a squad of mechs on a chess-like board who are tasked with protecting buildings from bugs. What starts as a simple strategy game turns incredibly complex, blending RPG, grand strategy, and puzzle gaming into a brutally difficult but intensely rewarding gaming experience that’s one of the best tactics games around.
6
The Forgotten City
Roguelike Meets Puzzles And RPG Elements
It’s well known in the gaming world that, for creativity, the indie world is unparalleled, even if budgets are lower. In fact, The Forgotten City actually started off as a Skyrim mod, but its full version set in Ancient Rome is a stellar example of indie creativity that needs to be played by more people.
Mixing the first-person RPG, puzzle game, and roguelike genres, The Forgotten City tells the story of a modern adventurer stuck in a time loop in a submerged Roman city. Solving the mystery requires clever use of time mechanics, exploration, and innovative mechanical exploitation. It’s a truly brilliant game and easily one of the best of the 2020s.
5
FTL: Faster Than Light
Perfectly Mixes Roguelike With Strategy
While Subset Games may have cemented their reputation as one of the very best in the business with Into The Breach, FTL: Faster Than Light was their big entrance onto a global stage, single-handedly fuelling the indie boom of the early 2010s to stratospheric levels.
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In the game, players are tasked with managing a spaceship, its crew, and its perilous journey across the galaxy, attempting to avoid a hostile fleet. It’s a brutally difficult game where every resource is precious, decisions are tough, and the difficulty is legendary. Yet, it’s super satisfying and remains a mainstay of many Steam libraries.
4
Inscryption
Roguelike And Deckbuilding With Horror Flavor
Daniel Mullins is a legend in the indie game community as a maverick. His games are completely unafraid of bucking trends and breaking the fourth wall so thoroughly that it can never be built back up again, often with the use of horror elements, and that’s never more true than it is in Inscryption.
In Inscryption, players are trapped in a wooden cabin opposite a strange guy called Leshy, who wants to play a card game with deadly consequences. Though it starts as a card game, Inscryption turns out to be so much more, but to say any more would be too big of a spoiler. It needs to be seen to be believed.
3
Stardew Valley
A Perfect Marriage Of Life-Sim, Farming Sim, And Visual Novel
For many gamers, the days of Harvest Moon on the GameCube are fondly remembered alongside the likes of Animal Crossing, but the farm-sim game fell into limbo with no AAA developers succeeding in making a true successor.
Enter Stardew Valley, quite possibly the best farm-sim game ever made that mixes RPG, life-sim, visual novel, and farm-sim elements into a truly excellent evocation of pastoral life that gave birth to a ravenous community that continues to play and enjoy the game almost a decade later (who have mercifully created great guides to get the essential first years on the farm right). It’s a testament to indie gaming’s inventiveness and one of the best games of the 2010s.
2
Hades
A Masterful Blend Of RPG, Visual Novel, And Roguelike Genres
Hades was, in simple terms, an absolute sensation upon its full release in 2020. Supergiant Games were already beloved darlings of the indie world, but Hades was their big moment on the world stage, and they didn’t disappoint, creating one of the best games of the 2020s and putting many AAA developers to shame.
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By blending action, RPG, visual novel, and the roguelike genres, Hades is an endlessly addictive and mechanically satisfying romp through the halls of Tartarus as protagonist Zagreus seeks to escape hell once and for all, much to the chagrin of the gods. It’s easily one of the best roguelikes ever made, and remains unsurpassed to this day.
1
Outer Wilds
Sci-Fi Exploration Meets Roguelike
- Released
-
May 28, 2019
- ESRB
-
E10+ For Everyone 10+ due to Fantasy Violence, Alcohol Reference
- Developer(s)
-
Mobius Digital
Outer Wilds has reached a legendary status that’s hard to describe, and its fans are absolutely dedicated to the game. From the outside, it’s hard to see why, but that’s because Outer Wilds is a game about discovery, and to talk openly about it is to spoil some of the game’s greatest moments.
Needless to say, Outer Wilds seamlessly blends the sci-fi exploration genre with the roguelike in a novel, mechanically interesting, and narratively devastating way that remains one of gaming’s great joys. It’s undoubtedly one of the greatest games ever made, and it deserves the top spot on this list.
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