5 Indie Puzzle Games You Should Check Out 

Indie games took the gaming industry by storm. More and more of them can compete with big AAA titles. Sometimes indie games gain much more popular than games made by huge studios. Why is that? Independent games allow their creators to bring to life more creative and original ideas because they don't aim for a wide audience. There's no surprise that in the world of puzzle games, indie titles are the most unique and interesting ones!

Why Should You Play Puzzle Games?

Nowadays, puzzle games offer a lot more than "bare" logical and mathematical tasks to complete. You can find rich and immersive narrative, a story that will make you think, and graphics that are a feast for the eyes. All of this at an affordable price and available for almost every gaming platform (there are even separate categories i.e. on Steam or Nintendo eShop).

Even if you don't feel like cracking logical puzzles as hard as the Enigma code, indie developers have something for you, too. You can find plenty of games that put the emphasis on narration, exploration, and feelings, where puzzles are just a nice addition.

Are you a fan of indie puzzle games? Are you wondering what to play next? Take a look at this list and choose the next game you'll play!

The Talos Principle

Imagine that you wake up and find yourself in a weird world where futuristic technology exists hand in hand with humanity's greatest ruins. In this strange land our creator has a task for you: solve puzzles that increase in complexity. You can be obedient or start asking uneasy questions about who you are and what you really want to do?

If you are interested in Greek mythology, this title should be familiar to you. Talos was a mechanical man who protected Crete from dangers. It isn't the one and only reference to ancient Greece, religion, and philosophy you will encounter in the game. More questions arise as the story progresses. You will find more clues and information about this strange world. What's interesting—this game is not linear, so the player is free to choose the order in which he wants to solve the puzzles, and sometimes there's more than one way to solve a puzzle.

It's one of the most appraised indie puzzle games that was made in the last years. Are you ready to accept the challenge and discover what the Talos Principle is?

Narru: the Forgotten Lands

Imagine that you're a little ball of light. You are placed in an empty world, but quickly you discover that you have a wonderful ability— wherever you go, you bring nature back to life. Everything has a purpose and you didn’t come to this land without a reason. As you go around you make grass become green, flowers bloom and trees are covering themselves with leaves.

On your way you came across various puzzles. Solving them gives you access to knowledge about the world of people. Exploration and paying attention to the environment will give you clues to solve puzzles and learn more about the world around you.

Narru: the Forgotten Lands has much more to offer than just pretty graphics and a satisfying mechanic of “painting with life” that you can recognize from games like Flower. There’s much more to discover. An immersive and original story will pull you in from the first minute. Various locations are fun to explore and watching nature blooming with colors is one of the most relaxing things to do after a long and stressful day. Your task is to carefully examine the world around you to know more about yourself and your past.

Are you ready to enter the forgotten lands?

Dorfromantik

Beautiful art and satisfying gameplay are two main elements of Dorfromantik—a peaceful building strategy/puzzle game that you will love! Although the gameplay is quite simple, players spend hours expanding their land, villages, and cities. It's a wonderful indie game to relax after work or if you don't want to solve complicated puzzles.

All you have to do is to place hexagonal tiles with different components to make your land bigger and more diverse. Further gameplay includes more complexity, i.e., water and railroad tiles have to connect to already placed ones and introduce quests that are award the player with more tiles.

There's also a creative mode, with an infinite number of tiles to create the place of your dreams!

The graphics are inspired by landscape paintings and photography. The title translates as "village romanticization." It's a very interesting, fun, and easy-to-play indie game that you should give a try!

Superliminal

Superliminal is a first-person puzzle game that makes you think outside the box. It's very different than other games. Dr. Pierce's Somnasculpt dream therapy program can't hurt anyone, right? Now you don't have a choice; you have to take part in this experimental program in order to find a way to wake up.

You explore a surreal world of dreams and solve puzzles using optical illusions, perspective, and the ambiguity of depth.

What's worth mentioning is a beautiful world. Exploring is truly enjoyable. The story makes you want to think twice, and soon you will discover that not everything is as it seems to be…

Samorost series

A small human being versus bizarre environments. This sentence can briefly describe the main idea behind Samorost, but there's much more than you can think of. Beautiful and sometimes scary characters you meet as you go on, the surreal mix of real-world items and locations with relaxing soundtrack—all of this makes the exploration and solving puzzles a real one-of-a-kind experience!

The first part of the series, you can play for free, but Samorost 2 and 3 are more complex and introduce puzzle elements. The main character is very lovely, and you will spend a lot of time going through the lands of bizarreness. Many players agree that the only flaw of the game is its length—it should be a bit longer because they can't have enough of it! Samorost series is definitely for you if you particularly like original and fresh concepts in games.

What Indie Games are You Going to Play Next?

The main conclusion which comes from this article is that indie developers do the best puzzles out there! No matter if you like creativity or the unique environment in games: you will certainly find something that you will love. There are so many wonderful indie games to discover; this list may be an inspiration to dive into them on your own or challenge yourself to play something different than usual. From the challenging ones to games that go beyond the genre and show cool vision through art and captivating style—there's something for everyone.