Indie games are the true rock stars of the gaming world. Year after year, independent game developers innovate and experiment with video games as a medium and produce amazing titles, from certifiable works of art to bundles of off-the-wall humor to unique narratives. 2024 holds a variety of indie games we here at TheGamer can’t wait to try.
Whether we’re captivated by the graphical style or intrigued by the premise, we are here for these indie games when next year rolls around. Read on to discover what titles we’re most excited for and which you too should put on your gaming wish list!
Updated July 30, 2025:Indie games are the most engaging and innovative titles around, so of course we had to update this list with another entry from one of our staff members! We’re all eagerly anticipating different games, and crossing our fingers that at least one of them will make itonto our Game of the Year listsfor 2024.
Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes
James Kennedy, Specialist
Over the last decade or so, we’ve seen a ton of legendary developers strike out on their own, assemble teams of industry veterans, and try their hand at producing the next indie darling. The results have been mixed. However, with Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes, we have a game that certainly looks to be capturing the magic of the PS1-era Suikoden titles. More excitingly, it has done so while also managing to innovate in some pretty enticing ways.
Visually, it is gobsmackingly stunning, everything we’ve heard from the soundtrack has been immaculate, and the script has been penned by the deft hand of Murayama, who was responsible for the first three Suikoden games. This is lining up to be the first example of the big indie spiritual successor to completely nail it. If we’re being honest, we can’t contain our excitement. The sky is the ceiling for Eiyuden Chronicle, and we can’t wait to see how high it will soar in 2024.
Replaced
Amanda Hurych, Evergreen Content Lead
I don’t know for certain what Replaced is all about. Its Steam description says you play as an AI that’s been unwillingly placed in a human body, which is an intriguing concept on its own. But that doesn’t really tell me much about the plot. What caught my eye the most when Replaced first got revealed was its incontrovertible sense of style. The trailer drips this cyberpunk-noir aesthetic in every pixel on the screen.
From snowy nights in a smoky cityscape to the interior of some sort of subway tunnel illuminated by headlights, Replaced looks gorgeous in a way that stands out from the crowd of photorealistic games we’re inundated with. If the combat, platforming, and narrative possess even a fraction of the environment’s unique style, then Replaced is definitely one to watch out for.
Manor Lords
Harry Alston, Senior Specialist Writer
Manor Lords is once again my most anticipated indie release for the upcoming year. The level of detail that is going into this medieval town builder is unparalleled — you can follow the journey on the developer’s Twitter account.We got a glimpse of the game in a demo around this time in 2022, so I’m hoping that we might get another sneak peek in the upcoming Next Fest or in the run-up to the holidays. Here’s hoping. I need it.
Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector
Ben Sledge, Features Editor
This is a stretch, but if there’s any chance that Citizen Sleeper’s sequel comes out next year, I’ll be first in the queue to spend more time in Gareth Damian-Martin’s beautifully crafted universe. I championed the first game to the stars and back, and I can’t wait to embark on a new journey in a rickety spacecraft headed through spaceports and asteroid fields.
The solo developer told TheGamer that we’d hear more about the sequelon the first game’s second anniversary, May 2024, which leaves a little time for a Christmas release or, in my dreams, a shadow drop. It’s an incredibly long shot, but if I shoot for the moon with my prediction, there’s every chance I land among the stars.
Pacific Drive
Joshua Robertson, News Editor
Spooky? Check. Mysterious? Check. A cool customizable car that I’m going to inevitably form an unhealthy attachment to, despite it being a big pile of scrap metal on four wheels, as we navigate all kinds of unknown horrors together. Double check.
Pacific Drive tasks you with kitting out your station wagon with all kinds of gadgets and gizmos in an attempt to survive as long as you’re able to in the Olympic Exclusion Zone, an area full of strange occurrences and mysterious entities that are itching to put a halt to your progress.
Every excursion brings new dangers, and driving through a dark forest with nothing but a pair of dim headlights to light up the gloom promises to be brilliantly tense and eerie. I love when developers do something different with worn-out genres, and Pacific Drive looks like a unique and creepy roguelike experience that I can’t wait to jump into.
Été
Stacey Henley, Editor-in-Chief
I’m trying to add a bit of variety here, so I’m avoiding Bye Sweet Carole and Helskate, as both are indie games I’ve written about elsewhere in our anticipated round ups. I haven’t yet had the chance to shout out Été though, but it’s a game I’m hugely looking forward to next year.
It’s like an anti-PowerWash Simulator; you make your way through a cosy little village and rather than spray muck off everything, you start in a black and white world and spray it with colour. Warm and rewarding for completionists, it also has an artistic mode that lets you create paintings with the items you’ve already coloured on the map. Sweet without being schmaltzy, it has a heart that bigger games often forget.
Nightingale
Ryan Bamsey, Deputy Lead Guides Editor
Everything about Nightingale screams “Game Ryan will be playing for days on end, long into the night.” From the fantastical steampunky aesthetic to the promise of the same compelling brand of PvE gameplay as 7 Days to Die and Valheim, I was sold from the word go.
It looks vibrant and elevated, and I can see my partner and I painstakingly building the home base of our dreams. There’s something so satisfying about these games. Starting from nothing and working your way to competence and then mastery, already good, alongside a friend? Perfect. The more I learn about Nightingale, the more I’m convinced it’s going to eat up my free time like nothing else.
Still Wakes The Deep
Branden Lizardi, Evergreen Editor
If it sounds like I’m copying my coworker, it’s because I am.Amanda had listed Still Wakes The Deep as her contribution to the most anticipated horror games of 2024, which was the first I had ever heard of the title. Now that I know, though, I am absolutely enticed. The discomfort of an open sea, the open-air claustrophobia of being on an oil rig in that vast ocean, it’s perfect.
Every corridor is cold, wet, and mechanical. To know that you’re stuck there with something dangerous. The vibes are fabulously unnerving! And while I don’t have a clue what’s going on, I know that The Chinese Room’s past published titles have all been excellent. So I have good faith in this one.
The Plucky Squire
Josh Coulson, Affiliates Editor
The Plucky Squire has been near the top of my most anticipated video games list from the very first time I saw its reveal trailer. Regardless that the year it’s been slated to arrive as its release date has been pushed back, All Possible Futures can take all the time it needs on what looks like a visually stunning and incredibly fun and captivating game. Combining the worlds of 2D and 3D platformers in a way I have never seen before, I really hope The Plucky Squire lives up to the hype when it finally arrives, and I’m almost certain it will.
