Discover Indie Games

This very clever game is probably one of the best simulations ever made. You may think that you can't run a prison with the same pressures as a business or city building game, since the prisoners don't pay to be held in jail. However, this game's pressures are in keeping your inmates from rioting by keeping them happy... and well guarded. Money is made depending on the number of prisoners in the form of government grants, and you also get a bonus whenever you accept new inmates. In my prison, I'm just struggling to keep 124 men fed enough, and housed, but housing is solved when my inmates start to murder each other. In this game you can design your own cells, choose the luxuries your prisoners enjoy, the guards that are posted, the time allotted for work and play and you generally have a huge amount of control in this great game, which is complete with a nice interface and simple art. This has to be my favourite simulation game, probably just after the tropic series....

In this great indie game, many different genres are mixed together to make a stunning, intuitive game. The aim of the game is to get to the surface of a planet through a sci-fi dungeon. You make a team of a wide selection of characters at the start (You can find new ones as you progress) which you can level up to gain new skills and abilities. As you explore the dungeon you must build your economy in the dungeon rooms to get science for permanent upgrades, food for character progression, industry for making new buildings (such as economy buildings and defensive structures) and dust for powering rooms to stop monster spawns. This sounds a little complicated, but, with a great tutorial and intuitive controls, it's actually very simple. Once you have found the exit from a floor you must go back to the start of that floor and carry your energy crystal to the exit to power the lift to the next floor, while wave after wave of enemies come out of non-powered rooms to attack. Every time ...

Although not exactly an indie game, I think this game needs tons more publicity. Everyone's tried a CCG before (Collectible Card Game), but have you played one where every card affects a chessboard like arena, where strategy is much more important than lucky card draws. This game is very similar to hearthstone, but with strategy and good thinking needed to win games and minimal luck. Every turn you can swap out cards from your hand so that it is easier to get your deck's (amazing no doubt) combos onto the board, so that you can destroy your enemies easily, and many mechanics such as taunt cards from hearthstone being implemented onto a turn based board intuitively. Overall, the only thing limiting this game is the number of cards available, but this will increase as time goes on.