New decade, new indies. We select the 10 best independent games that will arrive throughout 2020 for PC, PS4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch.
The potential of the independent video game no longer surprises anyone. The indie scene has earned a creditable place in each GOTY gala thanks to a harvest of releases that, like good wine, improves every year. We talk about creative and groundbreaking works that in many cases already look from you to you to triple A.
The recently concluded decade has consolidated the indie dev and there is no year without a high-level title such as Undertale, Inside, Hollow Knight, Celeste and Disco Elysium, for limiting the examples to the last five years. From 2020 we expect a list of independent works equal to or better than the one we already discovered in 2019. Do you think it's a risky statement? Take a look at the selection of 10 indie releases for this year and check it out for yourself.
Minute of Islands (Studio Fizbin)
Visual delight. We can't think of another way to describe how ravishingly beautiful Minute of Islands is. Drawn by hand, in this animated story we accompany Mo, a mechanic who lives in an archipelago devoured by pollution. Your mission is to try to save the little that is left alive in your world after solving puzzles and riddles of all kinds. A narrative adventure with a message that, unfortunately, is more necessary than ever. We are charging the planet and we don't have a magic tool like Mo's to save it. If all goes well, Minute of Islands will arrive on PC and all consoles in early 2020.
Bloodroots (Paper Cult)
The trailer with which Bloodroots was announced on a Nintendo Direct was already saying it: kill them all. There is no better phrase to summarize what this indie is. Pure ultraviolence, very much like Hotline Miami and Ape Out. In Bloodroots we can use practically everything around us so that Mr. Wolf crushes, hits and scares whoever comes before us. And when we say everything, we mean EVERYTHING. Although Bloodroots still has no more concrete date than 2020, we are already preparing to unleash all our creativity in the art of killing.
Dreamscaper (Afterburner Studios)
Another of the surprises that the 2020 holds is Dreamscaper. It is a beautiful Action RPG that puts us in the skin of the young Cassidy to fight not only against the monsters that torment our dreams, but also against depression. Precisely, monsters are representations of those negative feelings and our day to day will only improve by defeating them.
In the morning we will interact with the rest of the NPCs and see firsthand why Cassidy's life is a disaster. The experiences we live exploring the city will influence what happens to us at night, full of nightmares in which we must break the nose with all kinds of abominations. If we beat them and the final boss who closes each phase, we will wake up with more areas to explore the next time we go to the envelope. If we lose, we will have to relive all our dreams again. Here is the refreshing roguelike touch that it already took to appear on this list. Dreamscaper is waiting for you by spring 2020.
Carrion (Phobia Game Studio)
Carrion was the great bet of Devolver Digital in the last E3. Described as a horror game in reverse, here we embody the monster instead of the victim. A turn that will put us in the tentacles of a fearsome abomination whose only desire is to escape the laboratory in which they experiment with it. At whatever price. Carrion has nuances of the cinema of John Carpenter and his The Thing, with brutal terror and games full of dismemberment and blood. Pure gore, pure fun. Without a specific date yet, what we do know is that the launch of Carrion is planned for PC and Xbox One.
Backbone (EggNut)
Backbone's turn, pure detective film-noir with one of the most beautiful pixel-arts of the year. We embody a raccoon with delusions of Sherlock Holmes in an animal dystopia that aspires to reinvent the point and click genre. One of its great virtues will be a dialogue system full of ramifications that will have an impact on an adventure that will also offer stealth and exploration sections. Add very cool 3D effects and an original soundtrack with great jazz touches and you have one of the most interesting indie proposals for 2020. The specific release date on PC, yes, is as mysterious as its argument. If you can not stand the desire, here we leave a link to your free demo.
Ori and the Will of the Wisps (Moon Studios)
It is convenient to get up to talk about the sequel to one of the best 2D platforms of the decade that we have just concluded. Ori and the Will of the Wisps comes to the Microsoft ecosystem this February with a graphic section as much or more exquisite than the first installment. The same goes for its playability, more polished if possible and with small additions such as the new autosave, improvements in movement and a rethinking of the skills system. Fans of the platform with a PC and / or an Xbox One, mark in red on February 11, 2020, departure date of Ori and the Will of the Wisps.
Sable (Shedworks)
Another of the visual jewels that the 2020 holds and one of the indies with more media attention since it was announced in 2018. Sable promises a vast open world to explore as we please and solve their puzzles. Without combat and with aesthetic influences of anime, Sable is also a guarantee of freedom when it comes to addressing its history. Or rather, their stories, since this indie is made up of many micro stories that help us to get to know their world and their characters better, in short, to tell a greater story. The order in which we face them depends entirely on us. His proposal is so ambitious that we doubt to be able to know all his stories in a single game when Sable launches throughout the year on PC and consoles.
Twelve Minutes (Luis Antonio)
The past E3, and especially during the Microsoft conference, was a delight for indie dev lovers. A paradigmatic case of this is Twelve Minutes, whose creators describe as an interactive thriller in which a man is trapped in a 12-minute time loop. Everything seems to be going well when he gets home and finds his wife and a surprise dinner to celebrate good news. But joy does not last long. A policeman knocks on the door and ends your life without a word. The game starts again and there is the grace of the temporary loop. In each reboot you can discover clues about what is happening, much like The Sexy Brutale. We can solve the mystery at some point in 2020, when Twelve Minutes debuts on PC and Xbox One.
Buildings Have Feelings Too (Blackstaff Games)
The Buildings Have Feelings Too proposal deconstructs the genre of construction games and gives feelings to the buildings in them. Because in this indie, they are the real protagonists. They have hopes, emotions and fears that you will have to manage if you want to create a leading city.
The floors do not grow by laying bricks, but by encouraging them with all the advantages of doing so. The demolitions are a funeral and not everyone will accept being moved from a beautiful part of the city to a less affluent one. Here the management is twofold: of constructions and emotions. A very imaginative turn for one of the genres in which it is more complicated to innovate. Take care of your buildings when Buildings Have Feelings Too launches on PC and all the consoles of the generation throughout 2020.
Death Trash (Crafting Legends)
If everything goes well and after four years in development, Death Trash will launch its Early Access in the early stages of 2020. This Action RPG is the work of a single developer, whose titanic work has resulted in a semi-open world to explore alone or on screen departure with another teammate.
Intense fighting awaits at each level, moments for stealth and abundant dialogue options that will mark the future of our adventure. As you can see in the images of the game, this cyberpunk world has little to envy to that of CD Projekt Red, at least in terms of rawness. In principle, Death Trash will remain as Early Access throughout the year to polish all its details and add more content to its grotesque and infamous digesis.
Farewell with bonus
It is always complex to summarize a whole year of indies releases in ten premieres, but we are confident that we have made a list as diverse as independent development. However, do not forget to write other names such as Spiritfarer, Temtem and ScourgeBringer. Nor do you miss eternal earrings such as Tunic, Mineko's Night Market, Ooblets and The Artful Escape, which accumulate several years in lists of this nature. And who knows if Team Cherry will arrive in time to delight us with Silksong, the sequel to the acclaimed Hollow Knight, before they give the grapes again. As you can see, there are plenty of reasons to follow the indie dev closely. We will do so in FreeGameTips, where we will discover all these and many more joyindies throughout 2020.
