Top 100 Indie Games

[cyrus_zuo]

So with the completion of 3 years of the panel I thought it would be fun to do a compliation article...of course that quickly got out of hand...at least by the end it was fun again .

The panel has reviewed 458 games over the last 3 years. This article ordered the review scores to create a Top 100. Though the order is debatable, I think this is a FANTASTIC list of GREAT indie games from the last 3 years.

It includes reviews for all the games...which was an undertaking . Another big thanks to everyone who has supported the panel throughout the years. It's been a great ride!

http://www.gametunnel.com/articles.php?id=620

[Escapee]

Great list ! i noticed that some of download links pointed wrongly all VV2

- Bone: The Great Cow Race
- Titan attack
- Glow worm

Just FYI

[cyrus_zuo]

Great list ! i noticed that some of download links pointed wrongly all VV2

- Bone: The Great Cow Race
- Titan attack
- Glow worm

Just FYI

Great catches thanks!
The list took me 3 weeks of pretty steady work (and all day 3 saturdays in a row) to put together.

Glad you enjoyed the list!

[Ryan Clark]

Awesome list, Russell! A great idea indeed. A one-stop shop for amazing indie games.

We're honoured to have 2 spots on the list!

[electronicStar]

It would be MUCH better for a top100 list if it started by the 100th and not the first. (same problem with the monthly roundup)

[Dan MacDonald]

Wow. LS made #17? maybe it's time to brush that bad boy off!

[DayDream]

YEAH! 2 games in the top 60!

Yes Dan we should dust off up Little Soldiers.

[Pyabo]

#85 is called "Game Name"... surely that should be... The Shivah?

[ZuluBoy]

How come Democracy is not in the list?

[Sune]

Strange that Tribal Trouble could be #4 game of the year 2005 and only #55 on that list. 2005 must have been a really shitty year

Then again, Mexican Motor Mafia was #5 i 2005 and it is also #5 in the top100.

I guess it must have something to do with the fact that the version of Tribal Trouble that is on the monthly roundup didn't contain the single player campaign and only got an 8 average. In the full game review it got an overall 10.

[PoV]

Awesome! Nice work Russ.

I guess it must have something to do with the fact that the version...

No doubt the positions are all arguable, but the bottom line is all the games are notable. It's great to see a "best of" the round up.

Looking back, I can't help but cringe at some of the reviews/scores I gave, positive and negative. Rocket Bowl and Facade, I may have got too excited dishing out the 10's. I still think they're both notable, just I'm perhaps 1-2 points too excited. BreakQuest, I didn't appreciate it's awesomeness enough. Here's to 3 more years (imagine me gesturing some sort of cheers motion).


Elsewhere it was suggested that "Cave Story" should have been on the list. After finally playing it, I would have agreed. Though, the market kept growing and growing, and while it was tight some early months finding enough games, that was taken care of quickly.

Another oddball favorite not on the list, that I think I was the only one that really liked, was Virus. I can't seem to explain why, but it struck a chord with me.

And man! Magic Blackboard! Had a freaking space gator!

Ahh, memories.

[cliffski]

How come Democracy is not in the list?

me confused too. Democracy scored 8 in it's review, yet its not listed, despite games scoring less being there. I didn't check the scores of Kudos or Rock legend...

[Jack Norton]

They punished you because you talk badly of reflexive's DRM!

[princec]

Hm yeah, there's a few games missing from that list I'd expect to see there... Crimsonland, Alien Flux (cough), Gridrunner++, and Mutant Storm from the shooters; Chocolate Castle, Gish etc... trouble is most of the others are worthy of mention too.

Cas

[Mark Sheeky]

Wow amazed but gratified to see Taskforce at 80! The Website link is wrong and pointing to Virtual Villagers(?), should be:
http://www.treality.freeserve.co.uk/taskforce.html

Mark

[ZuluBoy]

They punished you because you talk badly of reflexive's DRM!

LOOOOOOL

[electronicStar]

Yeah that list is not very meaningful.The earlier games were more generously noted than the latest ones, so many of the 2004 games wouldn't be on that list if really compared to the most recent ones, and many games are missing too.

[RinkuHero]

It's a good list overall, but I still think that there are alarming lapses (Cave Story, Cliffski's games, and like, *virtually all* of the best freeware games) and alarming games listed which shouldn't be on the top 1000, let alone the top 100. But I understand that no list is for everyone. This list should really be titled the top 100 shareware indie games, because there's only one or two freeware games on that list.

[bignobody]

I just wanted to say thank you for putting it all on a single page!

Now, how about pointing your flashlight in the other direction - the bottom 100!

(Just wants Shlongg to be on a list...)

[cyrus_zuo]

The list is a best of the round-up. It's the best over the 3 years of the panel, based on the panel scores. It isn't the top 100 of all time...(I want to make some sort of quip about reading being a lost art form, but I just don't know what to say )

If the game wasn't submitted to be in the round-up it wouldn't be on the list. Also, since the list is based on the round-up scores, if the game scored poorly with the round-up, it wouldn't show-up as high on the list as it might have in the end of the year awards.

When I do the top 10 at the end of the year I take the round-up scores, the full review score, a quick panel survey, and my own wacky opinions into the mix. So the end of the year awards are based on a different criteria than the round-ups and the games fall out in a different order.

This article is based on how the panel rated the games at the time they were sent to the panel.


Thanks for all the error catches...again...ugh! This article was the single-largest article I've undertaken for the site and I'm happy to have so many great games together in a list (list orders are always debatable, so I don't bother worrying about that part of it...honestly, I just let the scores and dates dictate the order ) Unfortunately, the amount of time it took to put together, and the repetitive nature in the construction left more errors than I'd hoped.

Chocolate Castle is #35.

[princec]

Whoops, so it is

Cas

[Midnight Synergy]

(I want to make some sort of quip about reading being a lost art form, but I just don't know what to say )

Don't worry, we wouldn't read it anyhow.

Interesting list. Of course positions in such amalgamated lists are always troublesome, esp. if it is really read as "the best 100 indie games, in order" (which I realize you say it shouldn't). Too bad about some notable ommissions, as others have mentioned.

I think what would be neat would be to take this 100, plus another group suggested by forumites, and turn it into a giant reader poll... run it for a month or two, sort of like your readers' choice award.

How did you handle tie-breakers? (of which there must have been many)

Oh, and the link for Secret Worlds points to Wonderland Adventures.

Cheers, and thanks for putting this together!

[cyrus_zuo]

The 'quick' answer reply for the non-readers (am I the only one who quickly loses interest when I read a blog or website post that obviously didn't take much time to read the subject matter they are responding to? More time reading...less responding, that's a free tip for a better life )

How did you handle tie-breakers? (of which there must have been many)

Date.

Oh, and the link for Secret Worlds points to Wonderland Adventures.

Will fix that when I get home

[Hiro_Antagonist]

Hey guys,

I love the list -- especially LoL's place on it! That... well... that was a pretty big surprise!

Also, I noticed that your link for Astral Masters is currently buggy. I suggest you change to http://www.astralmasters.com/, which seems to work fine.

Cheers guys!

[Rainer Deyke]

There is a character encoding problem with entry 99, which is misspelled "Façade" on my computer. Switching from UTF-8 to ISO 8859-1 gives me the even more incorrect "Façade".

[DFG]

BreakQuest - I think that game is really overrated

Bookworm Adventures - With that kind of budget and 95 employees I think you are out of the Indie category

Global Defense & Oasis - Interesting concepts, don't sell well at all

Jets N Guns - incredible game

Kudos - got major shaft. This is one of the most commercially successful indie titles I have ever encountered.

Just like with movies, I think it is interesting to see how differently the public votes vs the pundits.

Overall, very nice resource Russell. Bookmarked this one.

[Andy]

Also, since the list is based on the round-up scores, if the game scored poorly with the round-up, it wouldn't show-up as high on the list as it might have in the end of the year awards.

Say this to Cas Russell. May be next time he will find another way to promote himself instead of marking good games by 2.

And please return back Democracy. This was just not fair what ever was your mistake or reasoning.

[PoV]

I love the list -- especially LoL's place on it! That... well... that was a pretty big surprise!

Dude, that's 'cause LOL was awesome!

Clean up the graphics and port this thing to XNA! I want to be LOL'ing on my Xbox.

[Hiro_Antagonist]

Dude, that's 'cause LOL was awesome!

Clean up the graphics and port this thing to XNA! I want to be LOL'ing on my Xbox.

I'll make you a deal. Gimme $100k or so, and some references of a top-tier artist and a kick-ass C++ dev, and you're on!

(And thanks for the compliment!)

[RinkuHero]

I think what would be neat would be to take this 100, plus another group suggested by forumites, and turn it into a giant reader poll... run it for a month or two, sort of like your readers' choice award.

There's this, a list of games drawn up by people on the TIGSource forum: http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=318.0