7. Dungeon Defenders
(Trendy Entertainment)
DD was one of the titles we most anticipated in 2011, and it delivered in so many ways. Slick graphics and gameplay, a mashup of action, tower defense and RPG, great multi-player, the ability to open your own virtual storefront, PVP, AND it showed up on most of our reviewers’ GotY lists. It sure as hell taught Orcs Must Die the correct way to expand on the tower defense genre, though it felt a little too close to something that might have fallen out of Blizzard’s back pocket to be considered truly earth-shatteringly breakout. While the solo grind-mode revealed its limitations, we acknowledge that this is not meant ideally to be a solo or even PUG, and when in full swing, it’s a heck of a lot of fun.
For general graphical and gameplay excellence, for releasing its dev kit and source code for free and inviting gamers to create their own titles using their game engine, for promptly pushing out DLC after DLC, Dungeon Defenders pushed its way to our best of the year list.
Top 10. 9. 8. 7. 6. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. HM1 HM2 HM3 MA
Battleheart is also on Android, not just ios
Which is awesome 🙂
Thanks for the comment!
This has been a fantastic year for Indie games. My congrats to unepic, is really an AAA game.
Thank you for posting 🙂 Not sure that Unepic is anything like a AAA title in the contemporary sense, but it sure it as worthy of attention and your money 😉
Wow! This is an incredibly comprehensive list. Though I may not agree fully with the top 10, you’ve done a wonderful job mentioning all these fantastic indie games (some of which I haven’t heard of). I’ll definitely go through this list later to check out any awesome indie game I may have missed. Thanks for putting this list together.
Thank you for your kind acknowledgement. It was a spectacular year and it sure kept us very busy. 🙂 2012 will not slow this trend down one bit.
Man, the Binding of Issac, to me, was the game of the year. I pumped more hours into that game than any other indie game I’ve ever played (we’re talking 40+ here). Plus, I don’t know if you guys heard this, but they’re working on DLC for it that is said to “nearly double the size of the game”, to which my free time responds “Ah crap….”
A few years ago I’d have to pay someone for this infoirmaton.
Thanks for compiling such an extensive list! I missed out on quite a few of these games, unfortunately, but at least now I have a great reference point. One game I am very happy to see included is Rock of Ages. I don’t think that title got nearly enough press, considering how much fun it was.
Great article, and nice to see some titles get acknowledged that didn’t get the press deserved in 2011 by the mainstream media 🙂 Couple of other titles to watch for in 2012 are StarDrive, Kenshi and Airmech, all look really nice, and we have to plug our own title Star Prospector that will be released very soon!
“When we saw the first trailer for Hawken, we thought it was an April Fool’s joke. There was no way the gameplay could look as good as what we were seeing. And yet as further gameplay clips emerge, it seems to hold to its promise. With a fast growing user base who play the beta, it seems it is more than just smoke and mirrors”
What beta ? Does hawken have a beta running ?
what no machinarium? it’s a great game and deserves to be here! i couldn’t help but not to fall in love in that game and i usually don’t like puzzle games and it was a lot better than tiny bang story
Thanks for commenting. We loved it too. Machinarium, however, was release Friday 16 October 2009…
At first I was disappointed with your list. Especially when I saw Bastion as number one. An average game with a good voiceover seems to have stunned everyone…
But the rest of your list and the sheer number of Honourable Mentions has really made this a great reference for anyone casually looking around the indie scene. Great range from things like Spacechem and Solar 2 through to odd little gems like To the Moon. Great list, thanks for the (no doubt) many hours that must have gone into putting this together.
Battleheart ? instead of Arenas trial of valor ? no way
It’s always interesting when, in disagreeing with a carefully thought-out and presented opinion, one’s only argument is “no way.”
For me, To The Moon is the indie GOTYE of 2011. That game made me cry