5 Indie Games to be Excited about in 2018

There’s a huge lineup of indie games coming to various platforms and consoles throughout 2018, making it hard to keep track of release dates, or hard to know which ones might be worth your time. Here are a handful to put on your radar if you haven’t done so already.

1. The Occupation

Developer: White Paper Games
Platform/Consoles: Unconfirmed
Release Date: 2018

I’ve been intrigued by everything about The Occupation since I stumbled upon this title near the end of 2017. It’s a “politically driven, first person narrative game set in 1980’s North-West England.” The game has a great noir style, which adds to the mysterious and thriller aspects of it. What’s most intriguing about The Occupation, though, is its fixed-time style of gameplay, in which the player only has four hours to put evidence together and solve the crime. Will you figure it out in time?

2. Donut County

Developer: Annapurna Interactive
Platform/Consoles: PC, Mac, iOS
Release Date: 2018

Donut County looks like a *hole* lot of fun (sorry, I had to). The game is so simplistic, it’s almost genius, and yet it can take a moment to find the words to describe it. You control a hole in the ground, and when you swallow objects around the environment, the hole gets bigger. You can also swallow certain objects for exciting results.

As seen in the trailer at PlayStation Experience 2017, swallowing fire creates smoke in the hole, which can then power hot air balloons or even make popcorn. Donut County isn’t even out yet, but it’s already been racking up a few awards, including Independent Games Finalist and IndieCade 2015 Winner. This is definitely one to watch. As of now, it’s unconfirmed whether it’s coming to consoles.

3. Eastshade

Developer: Eastshade Studios
Platform/Consoles: PC
Release Date: 2018

I’m personally excited about Eastshade, because I recently played Eastshade Studios’ first game, Leaving Lyndow, which is a short adventure game set in the same universe. It quickly became one of my favorite indie games I played in 2017. In Eastshade, you play as a painter who is exploring the island and capturing its beauty on a canvas. Similar to Leaving Lyndow, Eastshade looks to be a peaceful experience, in which you can traverse the island and learn about the inhabitants’ lives via choice-based dialogue.

Through interaction and exploration, you will start to uncover mysteries about Eastshade. One of my favorite things about Leaving Lyndow was the gorgeous music, and based on the Eastshade trailer, we can expect much of the same from this game.

4. Mosaic

Developer: Krillbite Studio
Platforms/Consoles:
Release Date: 2018

Mosaic is a dark look at office boredom and the mindless repetition of our day-to-day lives during the work week. We play as a man who is a victim of this daily routine, until one day a normal morning in the office turns into chaos. The game is primarily driven by puzzles and narrative elements, and the eerie, grayscale scenes in the trailer have me intrigued to actually play it.

5. The Gardens Between

Developer: The Voxel Agents
Platforms/Consoles: PlayStation 4, PC, Mac
Release Date: 2018

First announced at Paris Games Week 2017, The Gardens Between offers a great balance between narrative, puzzle, the physics of time. It sounds perfect if you’re looking to fill that void in your heart after Life is Strange.

In The Gardens Between, best friends Arina and Frendt find themselves traversing gardens in different periods of time, while simultaneously uncovering its secrets and revealing stories about friendship in the process.