New Frontiers: Welcome to the world of indie games

I'd never appreciated an indie game until recently. Sure, I'd played a few – FTL: Faster Than Light, Deadlight (which I've reviewed), and Limbo - but until my recent purchases of Mark of the Ninja and Monaco, I never really had that feeling of “Wow, this could actually be one of my favourite games, up there with the rest of the bigger budget triple-A titles I've come to love over the years.”

This comes at a good time. Lately, spending £30-£40 on bigger titles has left me feeling hard done by; instead, I wait for them to be included in a Steam sale or pick them up second-hand in a store. But indie games are cheaper, ranging from anywhere between £5-£20 at launch, yet containing just as much fun and content as the big titles.

I've found myself scoping out the Steam sales and indie bundles, looking for bargains, and - as I've never played 99% of the titles I find - this is an all-new, exciting, and unexplored frontier for me. I picked up Hotline Miami a couple of days back, which a friend had told me was a great game, and I spent a couple of hours playing it today. It is a great... no, a fantastic game, which has given me an experience I haven't had in any other game before: pure.

Hotline Miami screams 80s; its look, feel, and mind-blowing soundtrack transport you there. This is also one of the tamer sections of the game.

And I guess that's what I've been looking for by exploring indie games: new experiences, not just new IPs or new iterations of games with the same old mechanics and gameplay we’ve all become accustomed to. I don't know why I have never ventured any further into the indie genre; perhaps it's because the games haven't been as widely advertised as the big budget titles you see in TV adverts, and plastered all over YouTube Ads and website banners. But I know that from now on I'll be making sure I keep on top of this newfound love of mine, most likely spending less money on game purchases, and perhaps even having more fun than I have had in a long time with the mainstream.

I’ve put together a little list of the indie games I’ve played and enjoyed so far, which I definitely recommend you try:

• Mark of the Ninja
• Monaco: What’s Yours is Mine
• Hotline Miami (currently on Humblebundle.com for cheap)
• FTL: Faster than Light (currently on sale on Steam)
• Super Puzzle Platformer Deluxe
• The Binding of Isaac
• Limbo

Indie games are the future. Actually, they’re the now if you ask me; thanks to Kickstarter and Steam's Greenlight, more and more games are getting released that, were it up to a big publisher, would never see the light of day. And this is great. It’s great for the industry and it’s great for us, the players.

What’s your favourite indie game? Have you tried any of the games I’ve listed above: what did you think of them? What indie game(s) would you recommend I try?