Top 20 Most Anticipated Indie Games Releasing In 2017

Indie games have become the go to space for unique and varied gaming experiences, and today we are taking a look at the top 20 most anticipated Indie games releasing in 2017.

Tacoma

Tacoma is Fullbright’s second game, following their successful narrative game Gone Home. The company announced Tacoma at The Game Awards in December 2014. The brief trailer featured a radio dialogue between a man and a woman, set in the Lunar Transfer Station Tacoma 200,000 miles from Earth. Polygon noted that its aesthetic was similar to Rapture, the underwater city of BioShock. The game was scheduled for release in 2016, but was delayed to Q1 2017, following feedback from playtesters in mid-2015, which led the developers to rethink parts of the game. The overhaul was shown at the 2016 Electronic Entertainment Expo. Tacoma is planned for release on Linux, macOS, Windows, and Xbox One.

Rise & Shine

Rise & Shine is a true “think and gun” that combines elements of arcade shooters, bullet hells, and puzzle platformers to create a new blend of strategy and viscera. Switch between Shine’s add-ons to solve puzzles that redefine what bullets can do. Guide projectiles through intricate mazes, electrify damaged equipment to discover new pathways, and juggle 8-bit fruit because why not?

Megaton Rainfall

Magaton Rainfall is an open world, action game played from a first person perspective. The player character can not die, but cities can; players must protect cities from the alien hordes while avoiding collateral damage. Players has the ability to fly at supersonic speed even outside the atmosphere. It can be played using PlayStation VR.

The player can use several attacks to destroy environments such as surrounding buildings. The enemies will have their weak spots marked by red lights. The player will be able to fly around other planets as well to find cities and missions. The player will have the ability to go to mach 10 in 5 seconds. The game features fully destructible environments, buildings are procedurally generated and destructible .

Perception

Crafted by a team of veteran PC and console developers (BioShock, BioShock Infinite, Dead Space), Perception offers a bold and fresh take on first person narrative games.

Perception is a first-person narrative horror adventure that tells the story of Cassie, a blind heroine who uses her extraordinary hearing and razor-sharp wits to unravel the mysteries of an abandoned estate that haunts her dreams.

Paradise Never

When the revolution you started falls apart, an inscrutiable goddess traps you in a timeloop, where you’re forced to relive your last three days over and over. Paradise Never is an action RPG set on a remote island in a fictional kingdom. It’s by Calvin French, who made The Real Texas.

Old Time Hockey

Experience hockey the way it was meant to be played in this old school arcade style hockey game where blood on the ice is just another day at the rink. 70s afros, big moustaches, no helmets, dirty hits, bench-clearing brawls, goalie fights, stick fights, ref abuse and locker room language – that’s Old Time Hockey. Players in this league live by one simple rule – Never look at the puck, just take the body. Timely hits are crucial in this dangerous sport where getting on fire is the difference between winning and losing.

Kona

Northern Canada, 1970. A strange blizzard ravages Atamipek Lake. Step into the shoes of a detective to explore the eerie village, investigate surreal events, and battle the elements to survive. The first installment in a series of four games, Kona is a chilly, narrative-driven interactive tale you won’t soon forget.

Kieru

Kieru is a unique first person multiplayer stealth game, set in a stark, high contrast world where life and death is literally black and white.

Kieru’s world is monochrome, as are the two teams of stealthy Ninjas who occupy it. A black Ninja in shadow or a white Ninja in the light are completely invisible to their oblivious opponents. Stealth, deception and sudden, surprise aggression will win the day.

The single splash of colour in this severe and uncompromising world are the blood trails left by wounded opponents. But do they lead to an easy kill or an ambush?

The Time Project

The Time Project, a working title, is an adventure puzzle game where the player helps two companions on a quest toward a mysterious light.

With a simple slide of the finger, the player will move time back and forth to find solutions at their own pace and trace the mystery threaded across these betwixt landscapes.

The player will be drawn into an evocative story about growing up and the relationship between Arina, a headstrong girl, and Frendt, a boy wise beyond his years. They will confront the consequences of living in the past, what must be let go what should never be left behind.

The game can be played by anyone regardless of age, language or prior experience with games. The Time Project aims to deliver meaningful and engaging gameplay that is accessible to a global audience.

Below

Below is an adventure game viewed from a top-down perspective. The player-character is a “tiny warrior exploring the depths of a remote island”. The game is about exploration, though that goal is contingent upon the character’s survival. Microsoft’s Phil Spencer described the game at E3 2013 as a “creative take on roguelike gameplay” in a “mysterious world”. The environments are randomly generated.

The game is designed to be difficult, with “brutal but fair combat” and permanent death.

Below is expected to include a multiplayer mode.

Desync

DESYNC is an intense single-player first person action game that begs you to play dangerously and creatively. Enemies are unpredictable and varied, constantly barraging you with ranged and melee attacks. Eliminate your opponents as you perform violent attack sequences using the explosive digital weaponry and lethal side-arms at your disposal.

Use your weapons and movement masterfully to unleash an Attack Sequence – special moves that deal great damage and bonus effects. Launch an enemy off the ground with a well-placed explosive, and then hit another one while they’re in the air. Be creative and discover new Sequences, then store them in your AS-Codex.

Some of the foes you will face hold special items that grant new defensive and offensive abilities. Certain Attack Sequences carry with them special properties that counter the effects of these items. To defeat enemies efficiently you’ll need to learn and unleash Attack Sequences with these counter properties.

Rime

A land of discovery stretches out before you. Explore the beautiful yet rugged world of RiME, a single-player puzzle adventure. In RiME, you play as a young boy who has awakened on a mysterious island after a torrential storm.

You see wild animals, long-forgotten ruins and a massive tower that beckons you to come closer. Armed with your wits and a will to overcome—and the guidance of a helpful fox—you must explore the enigmatic island, reach the tower’s peak, and unlock its closely guarded secrets.

Seasons Of Heaven

In Seasons of Heaven, players will be able to switch between controlling Yann (the boy) and Ani (the French bulldog) at any time. Each character will possess specific skills. Nature is also an important element of the game, and players will be able to explore Heaven (the name of the game area) using a scalable means of transportation.

Thousand Miles Out

In Thousand Miles Out you take on the task to guide the last four survivors from the ship lost in a storm through their daily struggles to survive. You have to select the 4 characters that you will guide. Possible choices are for example a biologist, a mechanic and a deck-hand. Each character has different skills that you should make good use of.

Hellblade: Sanua’s Sacrifice

Ninja Theory is defined by three things: ninja-class melee gameplay, strong character stories and a unique art vision.

On Hellblade, they plan to will double down on what they do best to give us a deeper character in a twisted world with brutal, uncompromising, combat.

Conan Exiles

You are an exile, outcast and downtrodden, sentenced to walk in a barbaric wasteland where the weak are crushed and only the strong can live. Here you must fight to survive, build, and dominate the world alone on your own server or with enemies and allies in online multiplayer.

Journey through a vast, seamless world filled with the ruins of ancient civilizations and uncover its dark history and buried secrets as you seek to conquer and dominate the exiled lands yourself. Start with nothing but your bare hands and forge the legacy of your clan, from simple tools and weapons to gigantic fortresses and entire cities. Enslave the bandits of the exiled lands to do your bidding by breaking them on the grueling Wheel of Pain. Sacrifice the beating hearts of your enemies on the blood-soiled altars of your god to seize true power and glory. Summon the colossal avatar of your god and see them lay waste to your enemies and their homes.

Cuphead

Cuphead is a classic run and gun action game heavily focused on boss battles. Inspired by cartoons of the 1930’s, the visuals and audio are painstakingly created with the same techniques of the era, i.e. traditional cel animation (hand drawn & hand inked!), watercolor backgrounds, and original jazz recordings. Play as Cuphead or Mugman (in single player or co-op) as you traverse strange worlds, acquire new weapons, learn powerful super moves, and discover hidden secrets. Cuphead is all action, all the time. Do you have what it takes?

Liege

Liege is an upcoming cross-platform, party-based, tactical role-playing game. The game aims to take the classic JRPG formula, and layer in a mature story, elegant, tactical gameplay and unique, hand-drawn visuals.

Miegakure

Miegakure [Hide & Reveal] is the first game that lets you explore and interact with a 4D world. In this game, the fourth dimension is not time! It is an actual fourth dimension of space, that works just like the first three dimensions we are familiar with. If you count time, this game is 5D.

Outlast 2

Outlast 2 is the sequel to the acclaimed survival horror game Outlast. Set in the same universe as the first game, but with different characters and a different setting, Outlast 2 is a twisted new journey into the depths of the human mind and its dark secrets.

No conflict is ever black and white. But once the dust has settled, the victors get to decide who was right and who was wrong. Who is good and who is evil. Human nature pushes us to extremes of violence and depravity, which we then justify by divine inspiration and a promise of paradise to come. Horror rises from desperation and blind faith. OUTLAST 2 will test your faith, pushing players to a place where going mad is the only sane thing to do.

Beat Cop

New York, more like a beast than a city. Explore it’s darkest corners and uncover its secrets as Jack Kelly, a former detective who has been framed for a murder. Degraded and forgotten by old pals, it’s your last chance to find the truth behind this whole terrible mess.

The thing is, your new boss treats you like shit, your wife is a money sucking spawn from hell and the local mafia wants your head on a plate. I guess you could say, that things are complicated down here, in the middle of Brooklyn. Oh, and don’t forget about writing tickets, reprimanding pedestrians & such. You’re a beat cop after all.

Nidhogg 2

Return of the wurm! The next installment of the epic award-winning dueling tug-of-war is coming! Destroy your opponents with all new moves and weapons across ten different arenas. Enjoy new monstrous visuals by artist Toby Dixon and bangin Beats from Daedelus, Mux Mool, Doseone, and more! Coming in 2017.

Arktika 1

From the creators of Metro 2033, Metro: Last Light, and Metro Redux comes a new vision of the apocalypse. ARKTIKA.1 is a highly immersive, action-packed, first-person shooter designed exclusively for Oculus Touch. Nearly a century in the future, the world has fallen into a new ice age in the aftermath of a silent apocalypse.

Only the equatorial regions are still habitable, yet pockets of humanity survive in small numbers all over the planet, hanging onto existence in the resource-rich territories to the north and south–resources that everyone wants to control… Protect the colony in the wastelands of old Russia from raiders, marauders, and strange creatures. Be the savior. Give humanity a second chance. 

Absolver

In the ruins of the fallen Adal Empire, you awaken with a mysterious mask on your face, and faint recollections of an esoteric ceremony. Freeing you from hunger, thirst, and even death, the mask is the creation of the Guides, the rulers of these lands, who have placed you here to determine whether you are worthy of becoming part of the elite corps of Absolvers.

As you wander these forsaken lands, encountering other Prospects like you, you will learn new combat styles, acquire weapons, gear and armor, and build a team of warriors with whom to fight side by side in Arenas of combat.

Outward

Outward is an open world RPG with a focus on simulating the life of an adventurer — not a legendary hero.

Outward started with a simple question: “What would it really be like to live the life of an adventurer?”

Outward want to simulate the day-to-day lifestyle of living alone in a vast world filled with creatures of fantasy to retiring and passing on your knowledge and skills to your next of kin, Outward is about creating a complete adventuring experience. It’s not just combat, it’s not just survival, it’s both and more.

Manifold Garden

Manifold Garden is a first-person exploration game. Rediscover gravity and explore an Escher-esque world of impossible architecture. Witness infinity in first-person, and master its rules to solve physics-defying puzzles. Cultivate a garden to open new paths forward, where an eternal expanse awaits.
Manifold Garden is being designed and developed by William Chyr, and is intended to be released on PlayStation 4, PC, Mac, and Linux in 2017.

Tower 57

Tower 57 is an old-school twin stick shooter that takes you to the beautiful ruins of a decadent art deco-meets-cyberpunk world, where humanity is split between warring societies living in mega-towers surrounded by radioactive wasteland.

Your mission, as a member of a special investigative force, is to infiltrate the reclusive Tower 57 and thwart their plans for an invasion that could spell doom for your home tower.

Frostpunk

In a completely frozen world, people develop steam-powered technology to oppose the overwhelming cold. Society in its current form becomes ineffective and it has to change in order to survive.

What does this change mean? What is culture when morality stands in the way of existence? Think about how survival may, in the end, leave us different beings. Whether worse, better, stronger, weaker or, last but not least, more or less humane – that is debatable.

Aven Colony

The epic story of humanity’s first colonization and settlement of a new world outside the solar system

Yooka Laylee

Yooka-Laylee is an all-new open-world platformer from key creative talent behind the Banjo-Kazooie and Donkey Kong Country games!

Explore huge, beautiful worlds, meet (and beat) an unforgettable cast of characters and horde a vault-load of shiny collectibles as buddy-duo Yooka (the green one) and Laylee (the wisecracking bat with the big nose) embark on an epic adventure to thwart corporate creep Capital B and his devious scheme to absorb all the world’s books… and convert them into pure profit!

Black The Fall

BLACK THE FALL is an atmospheric puzzle game set-up in a communist dystopian era. Playing as Black, an obedient factory worker, you get one chance to outsmart the oppressive system, but the road to freedom is paved with puzzles, pitfalls and manipulation. A door malfunctions, an opportunity arises. Once out, what will you do to survive?

Finding Paradise

Dr. Rosalene and Dr. Watts have peculiar jobs: They give people another chance to live, all the way from the very beginning… but only in their patients’ heads.

Due to the severity of the operation, the new life becomes the last thing the patients remember before drawing their last breath. Thus, the operation is only done to people on their deathbeds, to fulfill what they wish they had done with their lives, but didn’t.

Finding Paradise is the 2nd full episode of To the Moon‘s series. It follows the life of the doctors’ new patient, Colin, as they attempt to unravel a life that is split down the middle, and fulfill a wish that appears to be self-contradictory by nature.

Overland

A squad-based survival strategy game with procedurally generated levels set in post-apocalyptic North America. Every random level is full of close calls and hard choices, even though the interface is approachable and easy to learn. Manage allies, fuel supplies, medkits and weapons by making the right choices on the procedural roadmaps. A road trip straight into the heart of the cataclysmic event that changed the Earth forever.

Chasm

Chasm is a procedurally-generated Platform Adventure currently in development for PC (Win, Mac, & Linux) and Playstation 4. Taking equal inspiration from hack ‘n slash dungeon crawlers and Metroidvania-style platformers, it will immerse you in a procedurally-generated fantasy world full of exciting treasure, deadly enemies, and abundant secrets.

AER

The gods of old are forgotten, lost in the events that shattered the world, leaving only fragments of islands in the sky. This mystic world of endless skies, colorful islands and ancient ruins is in danger of falling into darkness. As one of the last few shapeshifters, you are sent on a pilgrimage to the Land of Gods. Uncover the secrets that will help save reality itself.

Feature Image Source

Register with us for the best in gaming, and join us for video game discussions on our forums.