Lately, I'm enjoying Anomaly Warzone Earth (love the super-slick UI), Jamestown, Goblin Camp and a bit of Really Big Sky. Past favorites include Atom Zombie Smasher and Mount & Blade.

I don't know if the games by Digipen students count as indie games, but I've been really impressed by Deity by the Double++ team. Short (3 hours max to complete the entire game) but really good.

Machinarium, I've done 5 playthroughs
Amnesia, I come back to it every few months. I can only play a little at a time.
Jamestown, Oddly engaging.

Each indy game I buy (without bundle entries) I play at least once to the end. The bundles often lay dormant for weeks. I still haven't redeemed most of the HiB.

Currently I'm playing the newly released Containment (Fun!), SPAZ, Demolition Inc and pop in the occasional others. (Though Hydrophobia and Hinterland or Terraria are probably not indies anymore).

Unless I'm crunching an AAA tille (like batman) Indies usually take up about 50% of my playtime.

Terraria (51h) and Dredmor (60h). Every few months i kill a week or two playing it.

Then there is Din's Course. Not sure how many hours i killed with it, but when i wan't something to feed my H&S urgers, DC is it. Before that was Torchlight(70h).
And can I say that Killing Floor is an indie? At times, i am possessed with it (127h).

Too a lesser degree - Atom Zombie Smasher, Jamestown and Mount&Blade.

I am quite sad, that i played SPAZ only for 7 hours. I thought it will be great space rangers fix, but... no. I kinda like it but don't want to play it.

And I am ashamed that I spent only 27 hours in AI war. That game is great but i am... scared? Looser/n00b? Stupid? Don't know...

edit: And of course i play a lot of freeware indies - Spelunky, Stone Soup, Iji

Dungeons of Dredmor of course! One of the greatest indie games ever made, with huge replayability rate.

I hope for new DLC to come soon.

As of now: Shank 1 and 2, specially 2.

SO MUCH FUN! :D


Kill'em all!

Angry Birds! Albeit, not that much anymore really, it is a toilet game for me after all. GF still plays it, I think she has beaten all the levels on the base release, and now is working on Seasons and Rio.

Maybe I should install those Humble Bundle Android games (World of Goo, Anomaly, EDGE, Osmos, Toki Tori) I bought earlier on her Android pad so she has something else to play, I haven't played those games yet myself either, I have both activated them on Steam and downloaded the DRM-free binaries.

What I REALLY should do though is to finally install those Frictional Games horror games, like Amnesia: The Dark Descent and Penumbra collection, I'm pretty sure I'll like them.

But I promised myself to complete Diablo 2: LOD first, otherwise I will probably not complete it ever.

My favorites are probably Aquaria, Sequence and Amnesia: The Dark Descent. I was quite fond of Darwinia and VVVVVV as well. But I don't play any of them anymore, I completed them all and moved on to other games.

In terms of time spent playing, Space Chem without a doubt. I don't play it right now as every time I do, I mysterious lose several hours. I have no idea where that time goes. I could swear only play for around half hour at a time, not 5 hours.

Aquaria, VVVVVV, Critical Mass, EDGE, The Binding of Isaac, Cogs, Anomaly, Atom Zombie Smasher, and World of Goo, as well as all of the Carpe Fulgur localisations, are the ones I've really played and enjoyed.

Funnily enough I only play Anomaly and World of Goo on my phone though as they were from the HIB Android bundle. I already had Anomaly for Steam at the time.

I buy lots of Indies. Basically, if a game is available for 1.50 € or less at GamersGate, and sounds at least somewhat interesting, I buy it. I also buy some games at Indievania, but only if they aren't available on GG and look really good (like Climb To The Top Of The Castle), or if they are much cheaper (I got the Milkstone bundle at Indievania for 10% of what I would have had to pay at GG). I don't buy Indie games elsewhere, especially not at Steam or Desura since I don't like their being client-based.

Regarding the original question: I tend to give most Indies a whirl. I'd say I install 80% of the Indies I buy, but only 30% of the non-Indie games - Indies have the advantage here because they are usually small, quick and easy to install, no need to worry about limited activations or similar crap - I just start the installer, and usually I can try the game about two minutes later. I then fiddle around with it for something between 30 minutes and 3 hours. Basically, the game needs to impress me during that timespan or I may never start it again (because there are so many other games to try).

This means the game should be easy to get into (not necessarily simple), and offer some gratifying moments or "Wow!" experiences right away. It's a bonus if the game hints at more greatness down the road.

Indies that I recently spent more than a day with include:

Fortix 2: Very easy to get into, difficulty level just right, great way of introducing more gameplay elements every other level. I played this game a lot during two very stressful weeks.

Osmos: Interesting idea, unique atmosphere and gameplay. I was intrigued right from the start. Good presentation (graphics as well as music) - not terribly elaborate, but well done. There's not much _beyond_ the novelty though, so my fascination only lasted a couple of days.

Fate of the World: Interesting concept, challenging tasks. The game undoubtedly has its flaws (the UI is horribly inefficient, and the gameplay is rather limited), but the setting is interesting enough for me to keep returning to the game from time to time. The distinctively different missions also keep the game fresh.

Braid: I ignored that game for a long time because (a) I dodn't like the art style, and (b) I just couldn't understand what the reviewers were raving about. I thought: It's a jump'n'run that allows you to spin time backwards to escape death, so what? Then I actually _played_ it and got blown away. I would have never imagined how original, thoughtful and challenging the "time manipulation" concept was worked into puzzles. It was an amazing experience to feel how I somehow intuitively solved many puzzles even before I analyzed them and "deduced" a solution. The game gets pretty hard after a while though, and I'm not sure if I'll pick it up again. But it was truly great.

Trine: Strikingly beautiful graphics, original (or at least rarely used) idea, also pretty easy. Actually a bit _too_ easy and repetitive to pick it up again after finishing it once, but it was fun to get there.

MotorHEAT: Simple, yet challenging racing game with good graphics and music. The achievements and the global hiscore table provide additional motivation.

Dwarf Fortress: Extremely deep complex game - so much so that it makes me put up with one of the worst UIs ever designed for a game. About once per year, I sink two to three weeks into this game.

Tomes of Maj'Eyal: I play lots of roguelikes, but this one stood out lately, since it's in active development, provides a lot of variation, and tells an epic story.

I also sunk a considerable amount of time into Mount & Blade, spend three days with Penumbra (but I'm not sure if I'll pick it up again, the dogs become frustrating quickly), and tried lots of other game which didn't impress me enough to mention them here ...

If you want some more details, ask away. :)

I still return to VVVVVV at times. It's unforgiving but not unfair, and I love the simple gameplay mechanics and the the music and the old-school graphics and all that. It's also great fun to play when you're drunk.

That game just keeps kicking my behind. I want to like it, I really do, but I strongly suspect that it does not want to be liked :(

I'm still humming songs from that game from time to time, and I've not played it for a while now. Just thinking of that game puts me in a good mood, for some strange reason.