For the second year in a row I left IndieCade feeling completely blown away by yet another set of unique and forward-thinking games. What is essentially the Sundance Film Festival of the indie gaming industry, IndieCade is literally brimming with people creating tantalizing games and through their work you feel like running home and making fantastic games too.

These are my Top Ten Games of IndieCade 2014. I should note that I didn’t play every game at IndieCade because I spent most of the festival in my booth showing off POOP: The Game but all of these games looked awesome and something you should check out.

10. Duck Game

Duck Game for Ouya looked like the NES Duck Tales game mashed together with a modern fighting game like Tower Fall. The variety of weapons you can use to battle the other ducks really made the strategy of this game excellent.

Check out the Duck Game Trailer

9. sounddodger

I got to see a live demonstration of sounddodger during the IndieCade Night Games and it looked like a blast. The developers set up a projector pointing at the ground and players controlled their shared avatar by moving around in the space.

The control set is unique because you’ll need a partner to play. The space ship you’re moving around the screen is always equidistant between you and the other player so you’ll need to coordinate when and where to move.

The music also rocked. High-speed techno coupled with moments of super slow motion in the gameplay really made sounddodger stand out from many of the Night Games.

Check out sounddodger in action!

8. Groin Gravitators

Groin Gravitators is this year’s Don’t Shit Your Pants, and I mean that with deep respect for both games. The premise is to get two players to come as close as possible to touching groins without actually touching. The result is a pixelated dance where both sides have to coordinate to score the most points possible. The music and art design really bring this game together.

Play Groin Gravitators

7. Starwhal: Just the Tip

Starwhal is another game that combines interesting controls with an old-school level design. Players battle to poke eachother with their narwhal horn while avoiding getting spiked themselves. The level layout reminded me of Sonic the Hedgehog where players looped around with speed to gain momentum and advantage.

Play Starwhal (for purchase on Steam)

6. Runbow

Runbow completely rocked the Nintendo booth and with 15 simultaneous players, competitive gameplay, and beautiful color design you can quickly see why. Think of every time you played a platformer like Mario with multiple players and one of the players lagged behind. In Runbow, you are rewarded for a speedy runthrough of every level and want the other players to fall behind. On top of that, every few seconds the level layout completely changes as a new color washes over the screen resulting in platforms of the same color disappearing.

Learn more about Runbow

5. CAVE! CAVE! DEUS VIDET

Some call it a game, others refer to it as a ‘visual novel’ and I believe this classification conundrum points to the uniqueness of CAVE! CAVE! DEUS VIDET as it is whatever the user takes from the experience. Ironically, the game starts with a bizarre Rorschach Test that sets the tone for the ensuing game? novel? experience?

The game’s story unfolds like a mystery novel where you have gone missing. Using the mystique and artwork of Bosch you then work toward finding yourself? bringing yourself back to the present time? saving mankind?

All of this might sound confusing, and it is, but all of the elements come together beautifully to make CAVE! CAVE! DEUS VIDET one of the biggest standouts from IndieCade ‘14.

Download the Free Demo of CAVE! CAVE! DEUS VIDET

4. Crawl

Crawl is an awesome concept for a multiplayer dungeon game with near-perfect execution. The pixel animations are elaborate, the level details are intricate, and the monsters are glorious. Each enemy or trap you confront can be inhabited by another player which turns every battle into an epic encounter.

Play Crawl (for purchase on Steam)

3. Slap .45

Slap .45 is a timeless tabletop game that anyone can learn almost immediately. After tinkering with developing a slap card game a few years ago I really appreciate seeing a group of game developers create an amazing modern slap game.

At IndieCade I had the opportunity to play with some of the developers and loved the level of detail they added to this unique little game.

Check out Slap .45 and sign up to purchase

2. Nidhogg

When I first discovered Nidhogg at IndieCade the game had a huge crowd cheering on the two players and a line running through the Playstation tent. I could not figure out why everyone was so excited about what essentially looks like an Atari game. But despite the pared down graphics Nidhogg offers excellent gameplay, fine-tuned controls, exquisite level design, and exciting music that make Nidhogg one of the best sword fighting games to date.

Play Nidhogg (for purchase on Steam)

1. Sixense Jedi Academy (demo)

While it’s only a demo to show the capabilities of Sixense’s STEM System for the Oculus Rift, the short Jedi Academy demo is by far the best virtual reality experience I’ve ever had. Last year in my 2013 Best of IndieCade, I wrote about Project Holodeck and couldn’t wait for what 2014 would bring to the VR experience and Sixense’s Jedi Academy completely blew away my expectations. Using simple controllers and an Oculus Rift, you’re instantly immersed in the Star Wars world.

After playing this game your mind immediately races to all the applications that you’ll eventually see down the road. At one point the little floating robot got too close to me and I swung my lightsaber to smack it away. My thoughts went to playing a super-realistic baseball game in the future where you’re catching up to fastball with perfect hand-to-eye coordination. I really can’t wait to see some of these things.

Learn more about STEM System (my new favorite Oculus peripheral)

So that’s my list of favorite games for IndieCade 2014. Shout me out and let me know if there are any that I might have missed. Also check out my Top 20 Free Web Games list.

Honorable Mentions

These games were also amazing and I’d highly recommend them as well.

Grow: The Organic Building Game

Grow is a super-cool tabletop game that immediately grabs your attention when you see it being played. They took home the Design award this year at IndieCade and I can’t wait to play it myself. It’s also so refreshing to see a wooden tabletop game.

Check out Grow

Boss Monster: the Dungeon-Building Card Game

I still haven’t played this game! I’ve wanted to play it since I first saw the Kickstarter but my friends spent half the day playing it on the first day of IndieCade. The concept sounded very cool and the artwork and cards look hilarious.

Check out Boss Monster