Kotaku’s 2013 game of the year awards have just begun and, right now, we’re in the nomination phase. We’re looking for nominations from you! Today it’s the turn of the Indie/downloadable game — what have been some of your favourites?
Just as a quick reminder: the week is nominations week, the week after we’ll be doing the vote, and we’ll announce both the Editor’s and Reader’s game of the year choices in the third and final week.
This year has definitely been the year where I’ve enjoyed playing smaller indie games on PC as opposed to console.
Some of my personal favourites have been…
Gone Home
Papers Please
Proteus
Hotline Miami on PS Vita
So that’s my early nominations — I’m sure I’ve forgotten something earth-shattering, which is why I need your help! Drop your favourite Indie/Downloadable games of 2013 in the comments below.
Comments
59 responses to “Kotaku Awards 2013: Nominate Your Favourite Indie/Downloadable Game Of The Year”
*KA-THUNK*
Cause no trouble.
Glory to Arstotzka!
Or The Stanley Parable. That was pretty rad.
I watched Ben play some of this. Looked amazing.
It’s definitely worth picking up and mucking about in for a little while.
Monaco. A game with two modes- sneaky sneaky and oh gods chaos that’s equally fun in both.
Have to agree! Monaco was Indie/Downloadable game of the year for me. I’ve been waiting for this game since it was originally revealed back in 2010. When it finally arrived this year, it lived upto all of my expectations.
I gave the game a mini-review on Steam earlier this year, and funnily enough, the review has just gone live today on Steam’s new review service:
Monaco is possibly the closest thing we’ll ever get to an Ocean’s Eleven video game. If you’re a fan of classic heist movies this is the title you’ve been waiting for. Assemble a team and pull off the job of a lifetime.
What’s yours is mine.
5/5
Nice! I did one over on Pixel Otaku: http://www.pixel-otaku.com/monaco-whats-yours-is-mine-review-oceans-8/
Path of Exile
Guacamelee!
Spelunky on Vita, Papers Please,
Path of Exile.
Gone Home, without a doubt. The atmosphere in that game is incredible.
Gunpoint!
Path of exile was pretty epic
Only indie I’ve played is FTL which was great fun
I really hated Gone Home. I felt like it got a free pass for being topical, but was actually a pretty weak effort overall.
I’m voting Stanley Parable, because I thought it did something genuinely interesting with the medium.
I wanted to love Gone Home and was super excited for release.
In the end it was a disappointing mess, and I agree that it felt like it got a free pass.
Everyone who does not share my opinion is wrong. The Stanley Parable (while this did come out as a mod for HL or something.. I missed that) was the most amazing game I had played in a very very long time.
I can’t tell you much about the game because that is the fun part.. but to incorporate that level of humor and to also seriously make you sit back and think.. really think about why the hell we even bother gaming at all.. I mean it was a very important game to me and I can’t speak highly enough about it. You could argue it’s not even a game and you may be right but as an interactive narrative it does everything right.
Absolutely amazing game and everyone on this site should play it. It’s 5 hours at best but some of the most entertaining hours you’ll get gaming.
If I had more time at work I would keep this rant going.. please please please vote for this!
It’s a bit more than 5 hours if you do the baby mini-game. I did not.
hahahahaha I actually considered doing it but lasted maybe 5 minutes.. that is seriously an awesome part of the game.
I found it while
doing my “do the exact opposite of whatever the narrator suggests” run. Which just so happened to be my first run. He said save the baby. I did not save the baby.State of Decay
ANTICHAMBER
also, I suppose the following games deserve a mention :
Shadowrun Returns.
Stanley Parable
Mirror Moon EP
Bit.Trip Runner 2
Plus one for Antichamber!
Even though I haven’t played it yet 😛
highly recommended.
just dont go in expecting anything logical. just run with it.
Well I played a whole bunch of it at the a IDGF thing at ACMI in Melbourne a year or two ago, and fell in love with it. Just haven’t picked it up yet because Steam.
Rogue Legacy for me with Gunpoint a close second…
+1 for Rogue Legacy.
Faster Than Light
Yeah I loved Hotline Miami… I have a bunch of Humble Bundles but haven’t played enough of the games to vote for anything else lol..
Slender: The Arrival
Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon – and anyone who doesn’t agree with me is a FUCKING idiot (Remember FUCK stands for Failing to Understand our Capacity for Kindness)
+1
As much as i love it, I don’t think Ubisoft is an indie developer 🙂
the Indie / Downloadble category is a tad confusing. given that almost every game released now can be purchased digitally…
I’m not saying Blood Dragon isn’t rad (haven’t played it yet), but I just get the feeling that including games from bigger developers might sorta be going against the intended vibe of this category.
Edit: spelling
Yeah – that slash is really confusing me. To be honest, I don’t think downloadable should be a thing. Thats just a means of distribution. The Binding of Isaac is Indie, but it had a downloadable and a physical release. Call of Juarez was not Indie but as far as I know it was only released digitally (I so expect to get corrected on this).
It’s sort of becoming like the distinction of what is ‘indie’ in music. You get indie music on major labels now. I agree this is a weird category but is a game like Journey an indie game? It’s published by Sony. It’s a weird thing.
Blood Dragon doesn’t fit this category as it fits better in Overall GOTY.
Well I read downloadable and it was the most fun downloadable game I’ve played this year – but hey ‘immigration paperwork simulator 2013’. …Can’t beat that!
Hate Plus
Papers Please
Cargo Commander
Props for choosing Hate Plus.
Thanks!
It’s always flown low on the mainstream radar. Been thoroughly hooked on Christine Love’s games since Digital! And the “Hate” games have been truly thrilling and enlightening.
Path of Exile!
Thomas Was Alone
@markserrels just a bit of clarification about this category, but when almost everything is downloadable, are you looking to include downloadble titles from big devs/publishers (like Blood Dragon)?
I mean, I don’t disagree that blood dragon & the like are awesome & worthy of a nom, but are big budget things like that the sorta thing you wanna group together with indie games?
Hotline Miami on Vita
Apparently Fez only came out on PC this year therefore I vote that. Only just played it over the weekend, and still reeling. Amazing game.
Wait, Limbo came out in 2010. Damn.
Guacamelee
Lone Survivor
Why has no-one mentioned the wonderful Candy Box yet?
Sang-Froid – Tales of Werewolves or Contrast
Was FTL this year?
-Wolf Among Us (dodgy controls but the story and atmosphere is great!)
-Harmoknight
Also if you include downloadable games that got updates
Minecraft- 1.6-1.7
Garry’s Mod 13
I can vouch for Gone Home, the story is a bit clichéd but the parents back stories i found more interesting and the house did give a spooky feeling.
The Stanley Parable, it’s a strange game.
Kerbal Space Programme, there is a good reason i am not a rocket scientist. Trying to have a 20 stage rocket and it blowing up before it even leaves the launch pad, it’s a fun, geeky time waster.
Honourable mentions are Shadow Warrior and the Rise of the Triad reboots, brining back some good old school shooter fun.
Path of Exile or Gunpoint for me.
Rogue Legacy
I’m a massive fan of Reus. It deserves more attention IMO.
Cube World (It was an alpha release, so no sure if eligible)
Gunpoint (that was this year right?) had some of the most hilarious writing in years and perfectly executed mechanics.
Also Stanley Parable, awesome stuff 🙂
State of Decay stole a good chunk of my life as well, really great ideas.
Oh and really enjoyed Gone Home.
Game Developer Tycoon
The Swapper. I enjoyed every minute of that game and it’s definitely up there in my top 10 of 2013.