The Best Indie Games Of GDC 2018

Game Developers Conference features an annual convergence of some of the best minds in the video game industry, and many of them have games to show. GDC typically features a huge slate of independent games, and this year is no different. From the large GDC Play area and The Mix reception to special curated showcases hosted by Nintendo and Microsoft, there is no shortage of independent developers with exciting titles to show off.

Check out the coolest and most interesting indie games the Game Informer crew in attendance at GDC 2018 played during the conference.

Games are listed alphabetically.

Batbarian
Platform: Switch, PC, Mac
Developer: Unspeakable Pixels
Release: 2019

Batbarian is the latest in the long line of indie titles that draw heavy inspiration from Metroid and Castlevania. You're in control of a barbarian and his friendly luminescent bat companion as they attempt to escape from a dungeon. As you explore the dungeon, you find new abilities, helpful companions, and, of course, enemies. I was delighted to find a treat that I could use to lure my bat companion to a switch that activates when its illuminated by his natural glow, and after I saved a wizard, I was able to use him to blast fireballs at nearby enemies. Some light RPG elements help you feel true progression. I leveled up twice during my time with Batbarian, and with a slot machine minigame popping up each time. Based on what icons I stopped the slots on, I received new stat boosts. You can also discover secrets that add permanent buffs to traits like strength and defense, which grant immediately noticeable improvements to your character. I enjoyed lurking in the dark, pixelated depths of Batbarian and am excited to see what other secrets are hidden in the game's shadows. –Brian Shea

Children of Morta
Platform: PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PC
Developer: Dead Mage Inc.
Release: Summer/Fall (Switch TBA)

One of two pixel-art fantasy games being published by 11-Bit Studios, this hack-n-slash roguelike from Dead Mage makes warding off evil a family affair. Players take control of the Bergson family, which has kept watch over Mount Morta for generations. When the mountain erupts with a black tar that corrupts the surrounding animals, as well as the ancient gods who call the range home, the clan must take action. To gain access to the mountain god, they need to activate a portal that can only be Kickstarted by exploring the surrounding regions, rescuing the gods of these areas, and having them lend their power.

Children of Morta employs a mix of procedurally generated dungeons, handcrafted levels, and instanced narrative experiences that create an underlying thread throughout the adventure. When you’re not cutting through hostile territory, the Bergson household serves as a hub where players can get to know the family, some of which can be taken out on adventures and some of which hold down the fort. All told, players can control six of the family members, each of which has different abilities. You can only take one person out on an adventure at a time (or two if you are playing online/local co-op), but similar to Mass Effect all the characters gain experience even if they stay back at the family stead. Each has a couple unique fighting styles that can be swapped out on the fly.

Look for Children of Morta later this year. –Matt Bertz

Moonlighter
Platform: PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PC, Mac
Developer: Digital Sun
Release: 2018

Playing as a shopkeeper by day and a hero by night, Moonlighter uniquely mixes two very different elements into one. Protagonist Will runs a modest store in a small village, but dreams of being something more. You spend time managing your shop and collecting raw goods from deep inside dangerous areas ravaged by monsters. Making your way through these locations with hack n slash combat, you eventually bring back materials to sell in your shop. From there, you can set up what you think are reasonable prices for your items and then open the doors to the public. Customers will peruse your displays and shelves, and will have varying reactions depending on the price levels you chose. Gauging the correct price can make your shop more successful, and eventually lead you towards upgrading your storefront to make it more appealing to clientele and more efficient for you, such as more space to store things. Even the town as a whole can be upgraded through the town board, where you can recruit new merchants. For example, if you can get the retailer to move into town, he can restore your items if you lost them while dungeon crawling. As for quests, they aren't only found in dungeons. Villagers also have their own stories and requests for you to complete. Moonlighter is a charming title, with a pleasant pixel aesthetic and an interesting mix of gameplay elements that helps it stand out.  –Elise Favis

Phantom Doctrine
Platform: PS4, Xbox One, PC
Developer: CreativeForge Games
Release: 2018

Fans of XCOM will definitely want to check out Phantom Doctrine from CreativeForge games. A tactical, turn-based strategy game has terrific production values and an ambitious design. The game centers on running a spy agency during the Cold War. You can send your agents on missions across the globe, with certain skillsets giving them a better chance at success. As your agents get more experience under their belts, you can train them to be better at various tasks. If you capture a rival spy, you can perform MK Ultra tasks on them like interrogation, brainwashing, or installing trigger words to use on them down the road to make them flip their loyalty to you when the time is right. The downside to these abilities is that anything you can do, your enemies can do as well. Hire someone without properly vetting them? You could invite a mole into your agency. Send an agent on a mission and they're acting suspicious upon return? They may have been secretly brainwashed during their trip. In addition, if your enemies spot one of your agents, they are no longer able to go on covert operations until you assign them a new identity.

Once you're in the tactical battles, things play out much like they do in the recent XCOM games; you move your agents around the enemies and if things escalate, you can take out your enemies with your arsenal of firearms. However, some key differences exist in Phantom Doctrine. First, you can often complete these turn-based missions 100 percent in stealth. In the mission I experienced, my agents entered into the field in civilian clothes and didn't draw the attention of the guards until I opened fire on one of them. After that, firefights play out similar to XCOM, but without the RNG factor. Rather than seeing a percentage, you see a minimum and maximum amount of damage. Several factors (like your agent's awareness, your target's awareness, how obstructed the shot is, distance, weapon you're using, etc) go into how effective each attack is, but you should have an idea of how effective your attack is going to be prior to setting things into action. You can also call agents from outside of the field to help you out with things like snipers or grenades. Again, however, anything you can do, your opponent can also do. In my case, my enemies had a more powerful attack: an airstrike.

With so many unpredictable factors at play, as well as a deep agency management mechanic, I can't wait to play the full version and see just how deep the well goes with Phantom Doctrine. –Brian Shea

Professor Lupo and His Horrible Pets
Platform: Switch, PC, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android
Developer: BeautiFun Games
Release: Summer (PC, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android), Fall (Switch)

The eccentric Professor Lupo has summoned the dictators and conquerors of the world to his remote space station in order to auction off dangerous monsters they can use in future wars. However, the station proves to be too enticing a target for some unknown attacker, as missiles strike the space station during a demonstration and the killer monsters are set loose. You assume the role of an intern on the space station as you try to escape the loose monsters. From the top-down perspective, you guide the poor intern through the areas of the space station in this puzzle/action title. Each stage features a clear destination, but with various terminals that open different doors with the potential to set monsters loose, things can go very wrong very quick. On multiple occasions, I threw the wrong switch, and the intern became lunch for a beast. The stages are packed with seven distinct types of monsters, with abilities like being able to bash down doors or latch onto nearby surfaces to close the distance quickly. Stages also sometimes feature NPCs that you can either put yourself in danger to save or choose to ignore and seal their fates. Professor Lupo and His Horrible Pets features 100 levels. Each stage features collectibles and a hard mode that can be toggled at the start, but with so many factors in play with a standard stage, I was happy to keep it on normal. –Brian Shea

Rend
Platform: PC
Developer: Frostkeep Studios
Release: TBA

The survival sim genre is well-trodden ground in the land of early access, but Frostkeep Studios is trying to elevate it to a higher plane. Rend, a survival game built on Epic's Unreal Engine 4 engine, shakes things up by trying to redefine isolation to be less about the player and more about your tribe. Players start the game by choosing one of three factions to align with, establishing a home base within a team of twenty people. This prevents players from the normal survival problem of waking up naked and alone on an island with no defenses only to be taken down by another player far more experienced than yourself. Factions establish their fortresses and go out together to collect souls from powerful monsters and quests, then store them in the fortresses which are usually shielded by a barrier. Those barriers go down at set intervals that are publicized ahead of time and allow for factions to go to war with each other, to either steal or defend their souls, and change the balance of the game. When a faction has enough souls, they make their way to the center of the continent and engage in trials to ultimately win, which resets the server, provides bonuses to take into the next game, and gives them some items to play around with before the server reset. Alongside its tight shooter gameplay and a sense of scale that intentionally seems to invoke Xenoblade, the game seems to be making interesting changes and has shared stakes that I have wanted from online survival games since their inception. Rend is in early access on Steam right now and Frostkeep says they are exploring consoles as an option. –Imran Khan

Rise of Industry
Platform: PC, Linux
Developer: Dapper Penguin Studios
Release: Late 2018

Rise of Industry takes inspiration from major simulation franchises like SimCity and Tropico to deliver an industry-focused experience that will have you questioning your every business decision. Unlike other sim-based games, Rise of Industry gives you one goal: develop your region to be a highly profitable, industrial area. Of course, it's not as simple as it sounds. In order to achieve those goals, you must keep the citizens happy so they don't boycott your products or even block you from building in their area. Instead of being a tyrant, you must establish a symbiotic relationship with the citizens of the region you're developing. As you progress through the game, you unlock new specialties through an RPG-style tree. Like the Civilization series, you can invest more money into these research projects to speed up their progress. Currently, you can play with limited funds in campaign mode, unlimited funds in free play, and customize every aspect of the land mass in custom games. Before launch, developer Dapper Penguin Studios plans on adding scenarios to complete in order to give you additional challenges. Following launch, Rise of Industry will introduce both cooperative and competitive multiplayer modes as a free update. In fact, the developer tells me that all functional updates will be free of charge (cosmetic updates, like one that themes the world through a cyberpunk lens, may cost extra). With a highly customizable experience focused on becoming a titan of industry, as well as a development team devoted to fulfilling the promises made in its robust roadmap and reacting to player feedback, Rise of Industry is one for simulation fans to watch for. –Brian Shea

Super Daryl Deluxe
Platform: PS4, Switch, PC
Developer: Dan & Gary Games
Release: April 10

Described as an "RPGvania," Super Daryl Deluxe combines the Metroid-inspired level design with a deep role-playing upgrade and quest system and tosses it into a blender with brawler-style combat. You assume the role of Daryl, a new kid at a high school. He's struggling to fit in, but a mystery soon presents itself and for reasons unknown to him, he's the one who has to save the world. Each classroom in the high school plays the role of a dungeon in a typical RPG, with that area themed after the subject taught in that room. For example, in the history room, I ran into Napoleon Bonaparte. The hand-drawn art style is appealing at first glance and complements the eclectic soundtrack well. During my time with Super Daryl Deluxe, I battled my way through legions of enemies using my custom loadout. Each ability is able to be upgraded as you progress; my chargeable hammer smash was upgraded to a rhino on a stick when maxed out. You can swap your loadout to suit your playstyle. For one quest, I wanted to use magic-based attacks, so I built Daryl's loadout to feature laser cannons and meteors. As I played on, I felt drawn to the hack-and-slash style, so I equipped melee abilities with short cooldowns. I had a fun time with Super Daryl Deluxe, and thankfully we don't have to wait long to play the full experience (which I'm told is upwards of 20 hours), as the game hits PS4, Switch, and PC next month. –Brian Shea

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