Stardew Valley - This game is simply amazing. I was hesitant to purchase at first because only one person developed this game, but how wrong I was. Stardew Valley is such a relaxing experience to play when feeling down. The amount of content to explore , the free updates with hundreds of new additions, the amazing soundtrack are only a few things that probably make this game in my top 10 best played. No wonder why it is one of the all-time bestsellers on GOG, currently in position #46

Return of the Obra Dinn

Detective work is not that easy.
Even harder when it gets you two centuries back, where you can't rely on miraclous modern technology and knowledge (made with aforementioned tech) force you to work with scraps and cryptic leads, put your glasses in old handheld visor display and force you find the answer for one question - "how did all that happened?".

Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun.

Simply the best game of its kind I've ever played. Well balanced gameplay and difficulty. Smooth controls. Great graphics with a distinctive style. Likeable characters. Pleasant voice actors.

My favourite Indie game (I beleive it was indie at the time) is the very first XCom game (Ufo as I knew it). I loved that almost everything I found could be reseached and on top of that there was an RPG element with your troopers. It was a good idea to check their stats an equip them to suit those. If anyone did a game like that today with all the details and good graphics that would be awesome. If only the research was even more elaborate and had more reaching consequenses like researching a UFO craft not only gave the stats but also helped with defeating it in combat

Darkwood.

It is absolutely unsettling, the embodiment of atmospheric horror.

Soooo many (as indie games tend to come with Linux support much more often than AAA games) - but the one whose echoes linger longest in my mind would probably be Aquaria. It's definitely the game I've gifted to others most frequently; 7 times here on gog, if I've counted right. I love everything about it - it's been many years since I last played it, but I can still instantly bring the soundscape to mind, and with it come memories of the deep blue colors of the ocean, the insane jumps I learned to make at the edge of the world, the worldweary sighs of "not another sealoaf" when I was trying to experiment with crafting recipes (it's a good thing I absolutely love the voice actress and Naija's inner monologue). It's a metroidvania game, and for me the first game where I really learned what that meant - the doubling back to earlier regions and un(b)locking new areas, the hundreds of "come back [here], investigate [this]" notes I would pin on the map.

So... why is this my favorite indie game? Because of everything about it, and the way that everything took up a permanent space in my mind.

And, beyond that, because it's (mostly) a relaxing game. It's more about exploration than about violence, it's more about wonder and beauty than about horror and death and fear. Sure, these latter things also have their place in the game - but they're not the point, they don't drive the atmosphere or the narrative, and they're not what you retain when you finally complete the game. The game is a ray of sunshine, stabbing deep into the colorful waters which I've come to inhabit alongside Naija, and I love the positive feelings it brings with it.

My favorite indie game and one of my favorite games in general is Rain World, which i beat for the first time this year.

For me it's incredible all the things it accomplishes not only as a game but also deeper, more artistic things. It can be very hard and borderline unfair but not because of poor design or technical issues, is just the way nature and survival is. Whenever i finished playing the main campaign, i'd go playing in the arenas for a few minutes that turned into hours, i think the movement and combat/surviving were that good!

I highly recommend it, it's much more than it appears at first, well worth the time and effort in my opinion and its a shame it doesn't have more recognition.

Terraria

I love being able to build a home base and then set out to explore the world plus kill monsters. Equipping the best stuff and then kick ass.

Eador: Masters of the Broken World

Heroes of Might and Magic 4 is considered the black sheep of the series in part because 3DO ran out of money while making it, leaving it very rough around the edges. And so after that as the series changed hands it's pretty much always been about trying to recreate HOMM3 with shinier graphics. But what if 3DO didn't run out of money, and what would HOMM5 have been like if HOMM4 was allowed to reach its true potential?

The closest answer we'll probably get to that question is Eador (both Genesis and its HD remaster Masters of the Broken World). It takes HOMM4's core concept of hero-lead armies sallying forth from a central citadel that you're constantly upgrading every turn, and improves on just about every idea. From tiered army lists that prevent monotonous doom stacks, to hero classes that allow everything from supercombatant warriors, to passive army-boosting commanders, to nuke flinging wizards, to deep multi-path citadel management that escapes the one perfect build that HOMM3 could slip into.

A great game in its own right, and a peek into a "what if?" alternate universe where one of the classic developers did not go belly up.

My favorite indie game is Trine. I don't even generally like platformer-type games, but Trine really hit the spot for me in role-playing (with the skill-ups), beautiful graphics, puzzles, and a simple but fun story.

The Talos Principle is an indie game, right? I really liked everything about that game, and really wanted more when there was nothing left.

Should that one not be considered indie enough, I'd have to go with Bastion. Fun game that really surprised me when it originally came out, with a soundtrack that still randomly pops into my head from time to time.

For me it's FTL for sure. I remember being sceptical when buying it because of the simplistic artstyle but in the end the positive reviews won me over.

While the events start repeating after some time, the combat and the different ships you can unlock are incredibly addictive to master. Even after 66 hours of game time, I have not unlocked everything the game has to offer.

Don't Starve,

I hated survival games before discovering this little wonder then in early access.

It's first of all its universe that made me want to play, reminding me of Tim Burton's work and its very punishing gameplay the first hours, but with the procedural generation of the terrain and the accumulation of experience to unlock new characters that allowed me to get hooked with the game.

Now I'm starting to enjoy other survival games and Klei has earned a place in my heart and I hope to see more of their titles on GOG.

Stardew Valley
I can spend days playing and having fun, It's a game made by one person and it has update often, there's a really good community of fans there. I keep coming back to play every so often because of the new content, or simply because it's a really good, upbeat, relaxing game.

Stardew Valley

I was a fan of Harvest Moon/ Story of Seasons and being able to play a game in this genre, which turned out to be even better than the games that inspired it, on the PC was amazing. It is a great game to play and relax.