Players Choice - Indie of the Year 2023 feature

Welcome to the 2023 Indie of the Year results! After 10 days of top 100 voting, the results have been tallied and it's now time to announce this year's winners. Below, you will find the Top 10 Indie Games of 2023. Additionally, you can check out the Top 10 Mods of 2023, or register with IndieDB to add your indie game to the site and be eligible for participation and voting in the Indie of the Year awards for 2023.

Journey once again into a malevolent world inspired by H.P Lovecraft’s myths where madness never sleeps. Embark on a path to salvation as you continue the story of the Priest character from the first installment. How long can you balance on the edge of sanity? Will your sins be forgiven, or your soul consumed by madness?

Shred your sled in open-world backcountries. Sledders is a realistic, physics-based snowmobile simulator. Manoeuvre the big open terrain, plow through tons of fresh snow, conquer the mountains, and reach the peak faster than your friends!

dotAGE is a merciless survival village builder with hundreds of events and a visionary elder.

Fight your friends as puppies, kittens and other fuzzy creatures in PARTY ANIMALS! Paw it out with your friends remotely, or huddle together for chaotic fun on the same screen. Interact with the world under our realistic physics engine. Did I mention PUPPIES?

Bzzzt is a beautiful pixel-art platformer highly inspired by games from the '80s. Jump into the retro-future world with the nostalgic arcade journey of a tiny robot ZX8000! Experience an engaging story, upgrade your robotic abilities, challenge yourself in stages full of ever-changing gameplay mechanics and compete with other players in global and friends leaderboards.

Shadows of Doubt is a stealth detective game set in a fully-simulated neo noir city. There's been a murder and it's up to you to solve it by any means necessary, with the condition that you keep a low profile. A unique mix of procedural generation and hand-crafted design enables every room of every building to be explored. Citizens go about their lives independent of the player as you watch from the Shadows, in search of crucial information.

Bob remembers dying, not once or last. Reborn repeatedly, living different lives, facing dangers. He wonders why this endless cycle, guided by a mysterious voice. Seeking truth urgently, but as he nears answers, old wounds reopen…

Occupy Mars is a highly technical, open world, sandbox game about Mars colonisation, inspired by the most promising technologies and companies who work towards the goal of becoming a multi planet species. Build and upgrade your base, discover new amazing regions, conduct mining operations, retrieve water and generate oxygen, grow crops, fix broken parts, learn how to survive on Mars!

You're on a path in the woods, and at the end of that path is a cabin. And in the basement of that cabin is a Princess. You're here to slay her. If you don't, it will be the end of the world. She will do everything in her power to stop you. She'll charm, and she'll lie, and she'll promise you the world, and if you let her, she'll kill you a dozen times over. You can't let that happen. Don't forget, the fate of the world rests on your shoulders.

This year, 1st place goes to a solo indie project which has taken the gaming scene by storm since its release in October. Made by a former Roblox creator, Lethal Company is an amazing game to play with friends this holiday season, you'll be laughing, crying, hiding and having a great time as you gather scrap for the Company on abandoned, industrialized moons.

It's been an incredible year for indie gaming, and while the Top 10 winners are locked in, we want to take a moment to bring your attention and recognition to some games which warranted a honorable mention. A honorable mention is given for polling strongly in the awards, but being ineligible due to placing higher in a previous year, or if a significant update was not released in 2023:

The 2023 awards are proudly supported by mod.io. Launch an official mod community for your game with powerful moderation, discovery, events, marketplace and metrics systems, using our cross-platform mod SDKs and plugins for Unity and Unreal Engine. Interested in adding mods to your game and finding out more? Reach out for a demonstration.

A huge congratulations are in order to all the indie developers, and community voters, for participating in the 2023 Indie of the Year awards! IndieDB would like to wish you all the best for your continued indie development efforts through to 2023, and we hope to see you again for next year's awards!