Favorite indie games from the past couple of years?

I do pretty well tracking down obscure releases from independent designers, but it's always difficult keeping a steady stream of such on my radar. My motivations here are partially selfish-I have an ongoing editorial in Tabletop Gaming Magazine called The Independent Shelf where I feature such games, and it can be a challenge keeping up.

Some of my picks that fall into this category:

Jim Felli's stuff (Duhr is the last thing he's released)
Nate Hayden's magazine games
Judgement - 54mm MOBA inspired skirmish game from a small group in Australia
Pirate Tricks
Patriots & Redcoats - Secret Hitler meets Good Cop/Bad Cop in the Revolutionary War
Techno Bowl
Fallen Land
Dino Dunk

I know "indie" is sort of a nebulous term, and going for a strict definition is folly. So whatever you think qualifies is fine. Checking out these types of games provide some of the greatest joy I've had in this hobby as it's very rewarding.

What are your picks? Do you enjoy these types of releases more than the big box stuff?

I would suggest Rangers of Shadow Deep , an independent release from the creator of Frostgrave. I purchased it but have yet to check it out myself.

I've been trying to focus more on indies as I'm increasingly tired of the Asmoborg and its offshoots. Tricky to define when a KS can bring in a ton of money and lead to big success. I'm not going to include stuff like Root that blew up despite being indie because that'd be too easy. Here's a few:

AEGIS
Garden Dice
Hocus
Push It
Strife
Xia
Felli's games
Fowers' games

There was a time where I would have counted Dice Hate Me as indie but I'm not sure that's the case anymore? Need to do some research. If they count throw The Fittest in there.

Dice Hate Me are now part of Greater Than Games. But I don't know if that means they are no longer 'Indie'. GTG have one standout title in Spirit Island and another popular yet acquired taste in Sentinels so they are hardly mainstream in terms of volume sales alone, and certainly not in the slightly haphazard way that they conduct their operations.

On the same track I guess that Spirit Island was an obscure Indie title when I jumped on at the start but which has blown up as it has gained notice and become popular. Does it no longer qualify because it is no longer obscure and has gone through several reprints as a result?

I think anything that isn't produced by a major conglomerate and/or sizable company with a track record counts as "indie". GTG would qualify, but by stretching it a bit, GMT might qualify, too, since it's a few guys in a studio that releases very few games in relatively small quantities on an annual basis. When Zev was running Z-Man, I would've said that they qualified, since it was really his show.

I don't know how you could discount Root, just because it's successful. Pulp Fiction is still considered an "indie" production, since it had no major studio or regular financing capital behind it, and was hugely successful. I don't think success should remove the nebulous title of "independent operator" from anything.

Guards of Atlantis from Wolff Designa would qualify. The sequel will launch on KS late this year, after their upcoming hockey board game.

I may be helping out a bit on the sequel to Guards. That's my hope, anyway, because I love the game.

Jackwraith wrote: I don't know how you could discount Root, just because it's successful. Pulp Fiction is still considered an "indie" production, since it had no major studio or regular financing capital behind it, and was hugely successful. I don't think success should remove the nebulous title of "independent operator" from anything.

I skipped the huge KS funding things because they were too easy, like I said. Root, Millennium Blades, that kind of thing. Didn't think to exclude Xia because I never looked at the KS figures. My mistake.

hotseatgames wrote: Guards of Atlantis from Wolff Designa would qualify. The sequel will launch on KS late this year, after their upcoming hockey board game.

I may be helping out a bit on the sequel to Guards. That's my hope, anyway, because I love the game.

I am REALLY looking forward to that. The game looks fantastic but I figured it would make more sense to wait for the upcoming KS than order it piecemeal and get in on the KS anyway.

hotseatgames wrote: Guards of Atlantis from Wolff Designa would qualify. The sequel will launch on KS late this year, after their upcoming hockey board game.

I may be helping out a bit on the sequel to Guards. That's my hope, anyway, because I love the game.

Trick shot looks awesome. Hook a brother up if we haven't covered their other stuff.

It’s more than a couple years old, but I’m never going to resist a chance to mention Camp Grizzly.

I’ve been really enjoying High Heavens by Wild Power Games. It’s a really slick battle game between the Greek and Norse pantheons of gods. Ryan Lesser, designer/owner is the sweetest dude and inspiration to me to get on the game design train. His next game, Streets of Steel, looks terrific. It’s meant to evoke the 2d sidescrolling beat ‘em up genre. The board dump bit from Thunder Road makes an appearance.

Wait, did most of the thread disappear for anyone else? I can only see the last 2 posts.

Also holy shit High Heavens looks rad. I make an effort to check out stuff with a Greek theme for, uh, obvious reasons. I gotta read into this one more.

I don't know what happened but there was an identical topic that got started in a different subforum, Vysetron. There wasn't any moderation that I'm aware of. I've merged the topics back together in the ameritrash forum. I'll keep an eye out to see if there are any problems... weird.

Camp Grizzly (actually from nearly five years ago)
Saltlands
Psycho Raiders (also nearly five years ago)

Vysetron wrote: I make an effort to check out stuff with a Greek theme for, uh, obvious reasons. I gotta read into this one more.

Then check out Shattered Olympus . I just ordered some cards from Artscow which the designer posted the artwork for.

In the comments section, someone called this game Summoner Wars with a common pool. I actually wished Summoner Wars would do Greek, Roman, Norse, etc. mythology factions.

Artscow has a sale of 3 decks for $18 shipped. until March 3rd.

Another surprise from Josheph McCullough... Operation Last Train. therenaissancetroll.blogspot.com/2019/03...l?platform=hootsuite

Basically a rescue mission Starship Troopers-style game, with all proceeds donated to charity.

Another vote for Camp Grizzly here -- I love the art in it and the use of well-known horror movie tropes. One of our favorite board game stories is still the one time when a player was killed by Otis (the bear-mask-wearing killer) and eliminated from the game -- only to be revived when another player revealed the "We Thought You Were Dead" card, bringing the dead player back into the game for the climatic finale to help kill Otis! Just like in the movies

I'll also throw in Terrible Monster -- a neat little game that requires mindgames to outwit your opponent.