Despite the proliferation of games designed for mobile platforms, the indie computer games market continues to flourish. The personal computer—because of its openness and ubiquitous presence—remains a primary development platform. So, while many other game sites still focus their attention exclusively on conventional big-budget AAA retail offerings, or alternatively concentrate their coverage on games from a variety of hardware platforms other than the PC, for your playing pleasure I unearth the very best hidden computer treasures that indie gaming has to offer. This represents the latest in a series of annual awards articles that now has continued for almost a decade and a half, by far the longest consecutive indie games award series anywhere.

To select the dozen 2012 award winners from a competitive field, I spent many hours playing through hundreds of full registered versions to discern their overall value. Interestingly, most of the winners emerge from developers outside of the United States. Moreover, because of the presence in many casual gaming homes of multiple computers (some of which lack online access), the unreliability of Internet access globally in many situations, and the increasingly intrusive and annoying copy-protection (DRM) schemes imposed by publishers, I tested only single-player offerings that can be registered and played on a non-Internet-connected machine. Also I considered only downloadable computer games, not browser games or Facebook/Twitter games.

This year for the second time I have slightly altered the name of this long-running feature. When it first began, the title highlighted the “top shareware games.” Then, when the term “shareware” became outmoded, I changed the title to the “top casual games.” Finally, since developers have quibbled about the meaning of the word “casual,” I have changed the title again to “top indie games.” However, throughout the long history of this awards article series, I have always covered the same kind of offerings—wonderfully fun computer games by independent developers that might otherwise be overlooked.

Unmechanical

Developers and Publishers: Talawa Games and Teotl Studios (Stockholm, Sweden)

Unmechanical is a highly imaginative adventure-puzzle game in which you guide a little robotic device with a propeller on its head out of a complex underground labyrinth. The level design of the physical, organic and mechanized environments you encounter is simultaneously amazing and mysterious. As you proceed, you encounter more than 30 strange and diverse puzzles, several of which require understanding and use of the physics of movement. You acquire upgraded powers to overcome certain obstacles. When you enter a new setting, part of the puzzle challenge is that you need to find out both what you can do and what needs to be done. This reflects an excellent decision by the developers to let you figure everything out rather than guiding you through the gameplay. Your controls are simply the direction keys (you can hit things to interact with them) and the spacebar to control a tractor beam. What with the graphics powered by the Unreal Engine, everything you see is absolutely beautiful, and you become entranced with and absorbed by the unworldly atmosphere. The sound effects are brilliant, and the background music appropriately unworldly.

Vessel

Developer and Publisher: Strange Loop Games (Seattle, Wash.)

In this action-puzzle game, your role is to restore calm and functional order after the world has been taken over by living liquid machines. Although Vessel has platformer elements, this is a cerebral game, not a fast-paced twitch arcade experience. The physics of liquid motion depicted, including water, lava, and other substances, are truly amazing. You encounter bizarre creatures with distinctive abilities associated with each kind of liquid, and you solve puzzles through manipulating their distinctive talents. As you proceed, you get to upgrade your own equipment’s capabilities. You wander through and explore attractive environments in enchanting worlds, and as you go, the haunting music makes the ingenious gameplay even more immersive. Like Unmechanical, Vessel combines organic with mechanical settings, so you’re as likely to encounter man-made gears and pipes as you are natural fluids. You get to explore at your leisure and learn as you go, without time pressure playing a major role. Fitting Vessel’s cerebral quality, you are never led around by the nose, and so sometimes you have to be patient or experiment to figure things out, with challenges escalating the farther you get.