2012 had no shortage of small indie games like Frog Fractions, and 2013 is not looking any different so far. With Journey winning big at this year’s GDC and consumers looking for more creative content, free and independent games are making head way in the D.I.Y. side of gaming.

FIND ME A GOOD ONE

Surreal and mind-bending, Find Me A Good One is a free game made Andy Wallace and Haitham Ennasr, who run Heka Games in New York. Find Me A Good One is a 2D Platformer that takes place within a dream world. It’s odd and lovable. You can download it here.

Find Me A Good One is strange fun.

MEMORY OF A BROKEN DIMENSION

Coming from a developer known as XRA, Memory of A Broken Dimension is an alienating, mind-numbing, esthetic piece. During the opening credits, you must first hack into a system, then you are plunged into a twisted and broken world, almost resembling a cracked computer screen. The basic mechanic of Broken Dimension is standing in the right place, alining up the broken pieces of the world allowing you to recreate a platform to exit the level.

This may sound simple but the pure craziness of the visuals cause you to easily become lost within the world, often leading you to just wander around. Granted, Memory of A Broken Dimension is a game in progress and XRA has come out and said that this playable beta will necessarily reflect the final game. I strongly suggest trying out the newest version here. I think it will be very interesting following what this thing becomes.

The visuals of Broken Dimension are beautifully confusing.

PAPERS, PLEASE

Coming from developer Lucas Pope, Papers Please  is what he describes as a “dystopian document thriller”. And those three words sums it up perfectly. In Papers Please you play as an immigration inspector who must control who goes into your country. Your job is to check immigration papers, IDs, work permits and other documents and then deciding to ‘Approve’ or ‘Deny’ entrance. The more people you correctly process in a day, the more money you take home to take care of your family, who is often sick and starving.

What is interesting about Papers, Please are the small moral choices you must take part in every day. Do you let the mother in who hasn’t seen her son in years even though her passport is expired? Or do you deny her so that you can bring home more money for your son and wife? Papers, Please constantly throws these moral choices at you and it has it’s own dark humor behind it too. The beta that is currently out runs through nine days on the job, you can download it here.

Papers, Please has great mood and atmosphere and a very interesting concept. It’s some of the most fun I’ve had this year playing a game.

Papers, Please conveys the mood of a struggling European country perfectly.

-Matthew Bruce