For the past 15 years, PlayStation Plus has served as a welcoming home for indie games, connecting players with some of the most innovative, heartfelt, and personal experiences the world of video games has to offer. The PlayStation Plus Game Catalog (included with PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium memberships) puts a huge library of indie games right at your fingertips—but with so many games available, it’s possible for even some of the best to escape your notice.
As we’ve entered the 15th anniversary of PlayStation Plus, we’ve rounded up 15 of the best indies from the PlayStation Plus Game Catalog. These are games that you might have missed, but you absolutely shouldn’t.
A Space for the Unbound
A Space for the Unbound delves into the lives of teenagers living in Indonesia in the 1990s, at first telling an endearing slice-of-life story about friendship and first loves. Then things start to get weird. As supernatural elements weave their way into the point-and-click adventure of high schoolers Atma and Raya, A Space for the Unbound quickly becomes a powerful, impactful, and highly relatable experience.
Publisher: Chorus Worldwide Games | Developer: Mojiken Studio | PS5, PS4
Abiotic Factor
The incident that turned Gordon Freeman into an HEV suit-wearing hero was just another day at the office for everyone else at Black Mesa. Abiotic Factor takes inspiration from the random lab employees stuck at work on the day an errant experiment rips a hole in another dimension, but imagines the experience as a survival game instead of a first-person shooter. Trapped in the facility with up to five friends, you’ll need to seek out resources like food and water, and craft weapons out of office supplies—all while avoiding the otherworldly creatures that are your new neighbors.
Publisher: Playstack | Developer: Deep Field Games | PS5
Another Crab’s Treasure
If Dark Souls took place in Sponge Bob’s underwater town of Bikini Bottom, it might look something like Another Crab’s Treasure. As a hermit crab named Kril, you set out to reclaim your shell after it’s repossessed, and soon find yourself scavenging trash to use as armor and weapons to fight off tough creatures. Another Crab’s Treasure tells a lighthearted tale set in an unsanitary sea, but don’t let the colorful palette and funny characters fool you: It also packs some serious boss battles to put Souls-like fans through their paces.
Publisher: Aggro Crab | Developer: Aggro Crab | PS5, PS4
Blue Prince
Blue Prince starts with a death. The baron of Mount Holly Manor has passed away, leaving the 45-room estate to you—but only if you can manage to find and enter its 46th room. That’s a challenge, as each door you open leads to your choice of room, forcing you to plot a new course through its halls, bedrooms, and kitchens with each new day. Blue Prince, a Day One addition to the PlayStation Plus Catalog, is delightfully dense with puzzles, secrets, and mysteries that combine to become much more than they first appear.
Publisher: Raw Fury | Developer: Dogubomb | PS5
Celeste
Madeline has something to prove to herself, and that’s why she’s going to climb a mountain. It’s not an easy feat, however—though the controls of side-scrolling platformer Celeste are relatively simple to pick up, it takes mastery of precise jumps and dashes to ascend through level after level. Celeste uses its excellent platforming to tell a surprisingly deep and emotional story, as Madeline struggles to fight back her inner demons all the way to the summit.
Publisher: Maddy Makes Games | Developer: Maddy Makes Games | PS4
Citizen Sleeper
Sci-fi RPG Citizen Sleeper charges you with finding a way to escape your corporate indentured servitude as a sleeper—a digitized human mind inhabiting a robot body. What follows is a haunting and human story played out through a series of small events, where table top RPG-style dice rolls, coupled with your choices, determine what happens. It’s easy to get lost trying to eke out a living in Citizen Sleeper’s imaginative sci-fi future, one that’s bleak at times, and hopeful at others.
Publisher: Fellow Traveler Games | Developer: Jump Over the Age | PS5, PS4
Cult of the Lamb
Touched by a dark god, an incredibly cute lamb is sent into the world to bring its Word to other cuddly critters. Grow your flock and gather resources to build and manage an ever-growing compound where your followers live, work, and occasionally volunteer to be sacrificed to their fell deity. When you’re not building up a home for your followers, you’ll venture out into the world to vanquish other powerful cult leaders, giving Cult of the Lamb a devilishly delightful mix of colony building and rogue-like gameplay.
Publisher: Devolver Digital | Developer: Massive Monster | PS5, PS4
Dead Cells
Hacking and slashing has perhaps never been so refined—or so expansive—as it is in Dead Cells. The side-scrolling “roguevania” sends you out into various shifting locales to fight through hordes of creatures, and provides you with a host of inventive weapons to do so. Knives and swords are cool, but how about an automated crossbow turret? How about a crossbow turret that sets people on fire? How about a fiery crossbow turret that sprays poison? With a huge number of weapons to unlock and upgrades to earn, Dead Cells will constantly keep you returning to its speedy, intense combat for just one more run.
Publisher: Motion Twin | Developer: Motion Twin | PS5, PS4
Dredge
The gentle rolling seas are calling, and with your fishing boat, you can venture out to haul in a catch and make a decent living. Just don’t worry too much about those twisted abominations that sometimes fill your nets, or the strange shapes that creep in the dark fog. Dredge is sometimes a relaxing fishing game, sometimes a strange tale of supernatural mystery, and sometimes a single boat’s journey into the eldritch unknown; it turns out that fishing and horror work extremely well together.
Publisher: Team17 | Developer: Black Salt Games | PS5, PS4
Hollow Knight: Voidheart Edition
Inspired by side-scrolling classics like Metroid and Mega Man X, Hollow Knight sends you deep into a fallen insect kingdom known as the Hallownest to put a stop to an infection that has cursed its people. Exploring the tunnels and cities of Hallownest takes you on a sprawling adventure to fight colossal creatures, meet and battle other bugs, and uncover the mystery of what destroyed a once-great civilization.
Publisher: Team Cherry | Developer: Team Cherry | PS4
Paradise Killer
This dazzlingly bizarre and stylish murder mystery throws you into a surreal world of gods, syndicates, and cosmic corruption. As Lady Love Dies, you’re tasked with solving a murder on a tropical island outside of space and time. The game’s open-ended investigation, vaporwave aesthetic, and synth-laced soundtrack create an intoxicating atmosphere where every clue matters and every accusation is yours to make. Paradise Killer is a bold, genre-defying detective experience and a must-play for ’80s-inspired synthwave fans.
Publisher: Fellow Traveller | Developer: Kaizen Game Works | PS5, PS4
Tetris Effect: Connected
Few games create a more all-encompassing zenlike experience than Tetris Effect: Connected. The classic puzzle game is elevated by captivating visuals and a phenomenal soundtrack that sync perfectly with your play, pulling you into a block-dropping flow state that’s only elevated by the ability to play with up to four other people. Tetris Effect: Connected is the next stage in evolution of one of the best games of all time.
Publisher: Enhance Games | Developer: Monstars, Resonair | PS5, PS4
Moonlighter
Ever wonder what the shopkeepers of an RPG town get up to when you’re not around? In Moonlighter, you play a merchant who goes dungeon-crawling by night to find new wares to sell by day. Your skills in capitalism help to fuel your nightly adventures as you delve deeper into the dungeons, taking on hulking bosses in hopes of finally leaving the shopkeep life behind and making it as a full-time hero.
Publisher: 11 bit Studios | Developer: Digital Sun | PS4
Undertale
Funny, heartfelt, and unexpected, Undertale might be one of the most beloved indie games ever made. It tells the story of a human who falls into the subterranean world of monsters, but flips RPG genre conventions on their heads with a battle system that gives you the option to talk your way out of fights and spare the many creatures who attack you. Emotional, often-hilarious writing and strange, well-realized characters have made Undertale memorable, but it’s the choices you make that will define your journey.
Publisher: 8-4 Ltd. | Developer: Toby Fox | PS4
Untitled Goose Game
A town full of people is just trying to live in peace—unfortunately for them but luckily for you, a goose is loose. Untitled Goose Game finds hilarity in the simple chaos of a goose stealing stuff, honking at people, and generally ruining everyone’s day. Racing around a series of sandbox areas, it’s your goal to get into as much trouble as you can, with a variety of goals to fulfill, puzzles to solve, and angry townspeople to evade and bewilder.
Publisher: Panic Inc. | Developer: House House | PS4
These are just some of the great games that are worth your attention—there are a whole lot more in the PlayStation Plus Game Catalog. Head to playstation.com to see the full library to find a heap of excellent indies worth exploring.
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