Best Indie game with weird central mechanics

Indie games may not have the production values ​​of their big-budget brethren, but they make up for it with unbridled creativity in mechanics that make them stand out from the crowd of other games.

Whether using a sledgehammer as the only form of action or examining and editing paper, there are plenty of indie games with weird central mechanics.

6 It's more than that

Sisyphus did not have this difficulty

As the creator of the popular annoying and funny game QWOP where the player had to control the limbs of a runner in a gruesome manner, it is not surprising that Foddy's other great attempt at absurdist comedy has a similarly strange premise.

In It's more than thatplayers play like… naked dudes in a bowl. Using a sledgehammer to propel himself through wild puzzles that will test the patience of the Dalai Lama because of how angry they are, the player must make his way to the end of the complete disaster. brutality while listening to the philosophy of sustainability. It's weird, it doesn't always work, but it's very satisfying when the finish line is reached.

5 You are Baba

Change the rules

Puzzle games are hard to update because they are one of the oldest types of games, video games from a long time ago. This means that if indie developers want to stand out in the puzzle world, they need to do something really weird.

Enter You are Baba. In You are Babaplayers are faced with the idea that the rules of the puzzle are fixed, but must build their own rules through modular construction to solve the puzzle. It sounds weird and strange – because it is – but it's a way to recreate the type of puzzle that requires a high level of resolution to complete.

4 Untitled Goose Game

Honking Hell

Returning for release in 2019, Untitled Goose Game has become an internet darling for his quirky and fun way of being a simple goose who tries to cause as much trouble as possible. But there is more to the Internet than fodder.

It's a strange concept, but having a game mechanic solely focused on causing chaos is very strange and unheard of in the world of video games, which often lean toward violence (in the general) the mechanism. Pure Evil alone is a fun and weird way to redefine the boundaries of gaming and a great gateway drug to the world of crazy and weird indie games.

3 Doki Doki Literature Club

A Good Christmas You Can't Read

Comic games are not for everyone, as there is a lot to read and some may even argue if they qualify as “games” as the options can be limited at times. However, Doki Doki Literature Club showed the power of comic games and brought them to a new audience.

While the actual comic book mechanics are not new to the game, the way Team Salvato has used them certainly is, carefully setting the expectations for how comic book games work. and player roles, then twist these mechanics into some of the most effective and Dark twists modern games have to offer.

2 Pony Island

Things Rotting Under the Earth

These days, Daniel Mullins has become a legend in the indie game community for his mind-bending games that constantly defy expectations and explore the nature of video games, and Pony Island It is certainly the game that puts him on the map, puts him to a huge success Inscription.

Pony Island begins innocently as a strange arcade cabinet simulator, however, it becomes clear that the player must change the code of the game in order to avoid obstacles and progress further, solve the bad and successfully unnerving twisted narrative which comes down to really messing with the player's equipment.

1 Paper please

Seal of Approval

While there is nothing wrong with games offering an escape from reality, there are reasons why games do Paper, please is said to show the power of honest gaming as a form of empathy and understanding, using very strange and unprecedented mechanics to make players reflect on their own actions.

In Paper, pleasethe player controls a border control agency tasked with evaluating the documents of potential immigrants in a thick document. It's easy to imagine that checking documents for a working mechanic is too weird, but it's not only engaging with the mechanics, it's forcing the player into moral dilemmas and a progression of events that show why mechanical innovation creates video game history.