For decades, video games have been a significant part of our lives. They entertainment, educate and shape us as individuals. The cycle of challenge and rewards in video games is made in life’s image, the very reason why it gets so addictive. So, when one is not doing so good in life the games might provide a sense of hope; that one is capable of overcoming tough challenges, but most of us play just for fun.

Gaming industry is a multi-billion dollar industry. The constant demand of new and challenging games have been pushing big gaming studios to outdo themselves in the form of scale and graphics, which works perfectly well for them. EA, Bethesda, Ubisoft, Sony, Nintendo, Activision, Square Enix and Blizzard are some of the giants in gaming.

However, there are some underdogs popularly known as Independent developers who work just as hard but are not able to stand against the big-budgets and contagious marketing of games which are made by popular studios.

These games are known to win gamers and critics with their surreal design and engaging stories, except for the massive profits which keeps the big studios running. The fresh ideas and out of this world premises will blow your mind. Keep reading for 30 most surprisingly unique indie games to play in 2018-19.

1) The Gardens Between

Source = "IGN"

The Gardens Between is a breathtaking puzzle game where best friends, Arina and Frendt, find themselves in a surreal world of garden islands.

Traverse back and forwards in time to discover each garden’s secrets and reveal a story about friendship, childhood and growing up.

2) Harold Halibut

SOURCE = "Engadget"

Dive into this nautic adventure as curiosity will guide you through a spaceship wreck on an unknown planet made up of water. When one of the lead scientists still on board tries to unriddle the possibility of a relaunch young Janitor Harold is around to assist her. Join Harold in his clumsy undertakings to stir up the ark-like ship’s stale day-to-day life and find the secrets that lie behind its doors.



3) Donut County

Source = "PlayStation"

Donut County is an indie video game developed by Ben Esposito. In the game, the player moves a hole to swallow objects, which makes the hole increase in size. The concept originated in a game jam that used video game pitches from parody Twitter account Peter Molydeux.

It later expanded to be the inverse of Katamari Damacy. Other inspirations for the game included Hopi figurines—a theme Esposito later relinquished—and locations from Bruce Springsteen songs. Donut County is expected for release on Microsoft Windows, OS X, iOS and PlayStation 4 in 2018.

4) Wattam

Source = "SteamTrailers"

Wattam, the next game from Katamari Damacy and Noby Noby Boy creator Keita Takahashi and studio Funomena, is coming to consoles and PC next year. The game about a green, cube-shaped mayor unlocking new friends has been picked up by publisher Annapurna Interactive, after Sony dropped the title.



5) Celeste

Source = "Nintendo"

Help Madeline survive her inner demons on her journey to the top of Celeste Mountain, in this super-tight platformer from the creators of TowerFall. Brave hundreds of hand-crafted challenges, uncover devious secrets, and piece together the mystery of the mountain.



6) Ape Out

Source = "DevolverDigital"

Ape Out is a wildly intense and colorfully stylized smash ‘em up about primal escape, rhythmic violence, and frenetic jazz. Build up nearly unstoppable momentum and use your captors as both weapons and shields to crush everyone on your procedurally generated path to freedom.

7) Children Of Morta

Source = "SplatterCatGaming"

Children of Morta has the kind of art that's striking from across a room. Pixel art blended with a painter's expressive brush stroke, lush lighting and gradients, and so much detail captured in a single frame you can stare for minutes and still spot something new.

The pretty hack-and-slash that hit Kickstarter in 2015, is coming out for real in the first half of next year. It’s about the Bergson family, adventurers that guard Mount Morta and take it in turns to leave the house to hunt for loot and slay monsters.

8) Dead Static Drive

Source = "Polygonal Escape"

Drive to iconic locations, find weapons and/or doppelgangers, try to keep a grip on your sanity so as to identify monstrous creatures accurately, and then whap those monstrous creatures until they disintegrate.



9) Death Trash

Source = "Death Trash"

A modern post-apocalyptic role-playing game with action elements and a focus on the narrative and dialogue. A world of cyberpunk, science fiction, horror, the grotesque and trash-talk humor.



10) Desert Child

Source = "Oscar Brittain"

Desert Child is a Racing RPG set in a dusty world where your only friends are a vintage hoverbike and a bowl of ramen noodles.

It's the rags-to-riches story of a broke young racer who fights through gangsters, bounty hunters and pancake cravings to enter the Championship and get off Earth before it explodes.

11) Jenny Leclue

Source = "PlayStation"

A handcrafted, exploration based, adventure game focused on story, character & mystery!

The choices that the player makes throughout the game will have a profound impact. The game will contain point and click elements. The game features a hand drawn art style.

The player will be able to interact with most items in the game. During dialogue sections, the player can observe the person talking to spot clues as to whether they are lying. Locations that the player will explore will include mines, graveyards, mountains, police stations and libraries.

12) Manifold Garden

Source = "Polygon"

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 and PC in 2018.

13) Memory Of A Broken Dimension

Source = "SteamTrailers"

Memory of a Broken Dimension begins with a command prompt interface called RELICS through which the player must navigate to reach the game world. Once inside the first-person perspective 3D game, the player will find themselves in black and white, distorted and static-filled areas.

The player must move around shattered objects until their perspective shows them as a single object, at which point they can lock them in place as that object.

14) Miegakure

Source = "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.



15) Minekos Night Market

Source = "Meowza Katz"

Mineko’s Night Market is an adventure/merchant simulation game inspired by games like Animal Crossing with a stronger emphasis on story, crafting, and exploration.

You play as Mineko, a curious girl who has just arrived at her new home on a struggling superstitious Japanese-inspired island at the base of Mount Fugu. The locals on the island worship the Sun Cat, Abe. What was always thought to be a long-told myth has the town puzzled, as sightings of Abe have begun to surface among the residents of the island in recent days.

16) Mosaic

Source = "Krillbite Studio"

Mosaic is bleak and highly stylized, featuring a man with thin, spindly limbs trapped in a monotonous nine-to-five cycle: He brushes his teeth, travels to work alongside crowds of people in suits staring at their phones, and goes home. He does it again. And again.

The repetition is cut with scenes of strange technological intervention: A server clicks on, seemingly controlling the movement of the working-class horde. In a flash, the protagonist's head turns into a fish. We see him sinking into a deep body of water.

17) Ooblets

Source = "PC Gamer"

Ooblets is an upcoming farming, creature collection, and town life indie game inspired by Pokémon, Harvest Moon, and Animal Crossing. Manage your farm, grow and train your ooblets, explore strange lands, and battle wild ooblets and other ooblet trainers.

It’s gonna launch on Windows and Xbox One at some point in the future.

18) Prey for the Gods

Source = "Polygon"

In Prey for the Gods, you play a lone hero sent to the edge of a dying world to discover the mystery behind a never-ending winter. Arriving with only the clothes on your back, you must survive the colossal dangers that you encounter. To restore balance and reclaim the land from the brink, you will be faced with questions that not even a God knows the answer to.

19) Return Of The ObraDin

Source = "M. Tyler Ryan"

Return of the Obra Dinn – from the creator of the highly acclaimed Papers, Please – is an innovative first person mystery adventure where you must explore an eerily empty ghost-ship, and uncover what happened to the crew.



20) Somewhere

Source = "Studio Oleomingus"

A first person exploration game, set in a surreal Colonial India. In the beginning, players assume the role of an unnamed stranger. The story of the world is revealed through poetic dialogue– literally unmetered, rhyming poems. The strange, polygonal person hunched over in the next room reveals that both he and the player are merely written characters in an unfinished story.

Then, in a search for the author, players find themselves in a mixed up world and must take possession of another character in order to progress. That’s where stealth comes in.

21) Tunic

Source = "For The Replay"

Tunic is an action adventure about a tiny fox in a big world. Explore the wilderness, discover spooky ruins, and fight terrible creatures from long ago. Tunic is scheduled to launch in 2018 on Mac, Windows and consoles.



22) Untitled Goose Game

Source = "House House"

Untitled Goose Game doesn’t have a name yet. That’s why it’s called Untitled Goose Game.

It is a stealth action game about being a nuisance. The game’s website describes its setting as “a lovely weekday morning in the village, and you are a terrible goose.”

The objectives of the game are sparse. Pausing the game brings up a small list of mundane, but achievable tasks. The paths to completing them are varied.

23) Visage

Source = "IGN"

The game will be set inside a huge house in which terrible things have happened. You’ll wander through the gloomy corridors, explore every dead room, and get lost in endless mazes, your head filling with memories of the dead families that once lived in this very home. This twisted environment, void of any life other than yours, will take you to places you couldn't even bear imagining.

24) Hob

SOURCE = "PlayStation"

From the team that brought you Torchlight and Torchlight II comes Hob: a vibrant, suspenseful action-adventure game set on a stunning and brutal world in disarray. As players delve into the mysteries around them, they discover a planet in peril. Can it be mended, or will the world fall further into chaos?







25) Nour

Source = "Terrifying Jellyfish"

Nour (PC/Mac) is an interactive exploration of the aesthetics of food. The game doesn't limit your play with goals or objectives; you're free to have open-ended fun while you play with your food, without the mess to clean up afterwards. You are presented with scenes full of ramen noodles, boba tea, popcorn, and you mash buttons at will to interact with the food in curious and unconventional ways.

26) Fugl

Source = "PC Indie Master Race"

Experience the thrill of flying as you explore the natural beauty of a vast voxel world. Relax and feel as free as a bird as you create your own adventure, with no time constraints or set goals. Discover and observe hundreds of unique animals whose features your shape-shifting bird can absorb.



27) Q.U.B.E. 2

Source= "GameTrailers"

In Q.U.B.E. 2, players step into the shoes of Amelia Cross, a British archaeologist, who has awoken on a strange alien planet. With the help of fellow survivor, Emma, players must face the challenging puzzles of the Q.U.B.E. in order to try and find a way back home.



28) Consortium The Tower

Source = "Interdimensional Games Inc"

The Tower is a fully standalone, single player, first person Sci-fi immersive simulation. As Consortium officer Bishop six, you can choose to fight, sneak, explore or talk your way through an interactive story driven by your actions and decisions. Put another way, imagine the original Deus Es videogame, combined with the film Die Hard.



29) Bernband

Source = "Rekedens"

Bernband is a game about exploring an alien city. Usually such a concept involves shooting monsters and criminal gangs and all that Mos Eisley jazz, but in Bernband’s case it’s all about just soaking up an otherworldly atmosphere, taking in the sights and sounds of a place that might just exist in the far reaches of the galaxy.

A combination of the comfortingly familiar mainstays of Earth cities and the unsettling (yet unthreatening) possibilities of the alien. Lovely, lovely noodling.

30) Pathologic 2

Source = "tinyBuildGAMES"

Pathologic 2 is an open world survival horror game set in a town that’s being consumed by a deadly plague. Face the realities of a collapsing society as you make difficult choices in seemingly lose-lose situations. The plague isn’t just a disease. You can’t save everyone.

Get to know it, winning the affection of the locals and gaining allies, or try to carve your own path alone. Explore the Town, its inhabitants, and their traditions; fight both the plague itself and its victims; try to make a difference before the time runs out.

If you want to keep playing stunning games like these, then please support the developers through generous donations, it is only way they can continue to make your life entertaining and worthwhile.