Top Free Indie Games

Indie computer games are super popular but it can often be hard to find the good ones from the poor quality ones. After playing loads of indie games and demos, here are my top three picks for in terms of graphics, game play, and sound. Keep in mind that there are plenty of other high-quality indie games, these are just some of the better ones that are available for free. Download them today and try get your fill of indie gaming goodness

Top Graphics:
Aquaria
Aquaria, from Bit-Blot games, is an adventure side-scroller set in a fantastic water world. Gameplay is great but the jaw-dropping graphics really set it apart from other similar games. It is a really a testament to the abilities of the developers that they were able to make graphics of such high quality, for a 2D indie game. Players take the role of a mermaid-like protagonist on a epic quest. Most of the game play is swimming around in the water environment (check out the awesome fish and creature art and animations) and beating different levels, all in a lovingly crafted game world with delightful graphics. It's really worth checking out and is now free, thanks to the Humble Indie Bundle project. Get it today at wolfire.com.

Top Game play:
Gish
Produced by CrypticSea (crypticsea.com), Gish is an indie game requiring players to solve physics-based puzzles, controlling a 2d tar ball as it adventures through various well-designed challenges. Some might compare it to the popular World of Goo game, but this is a different beast. Instead of controlling tons of different little goo balls, you control a main character in each level. Graphics are not stellar in my opinion, but the game play is where Gish really excels. Why? This is because Gish offers something outside of the box for most indie puzzle games. The puzzles and levels really are quite creatively designed and have a lot of replayability (hence my Top Game play award for Gish). CrypticSea has many different games available, but Gish is one of the more popular free ones. You can purchase it on Steam, or you can just get the whole game for free, thanks to the Humble Indie Bundle. Download and play Gish from www.wolfire.com/humble.

Top Sound:
The Spirit Engine 2 (TSE2)
The second game in the Spirit Engine RPG series, has a fantastic soundtrack. Few other indie games I have encountered have as solid a soundtrack as TSE2, and I have played many indie and non -indie games. It is really worth checking out, either by playing the game or just listening to the beats at the artist's website, www.jwmusic.org. The Spirit Engine 2 was developed by indie producer, Mark Pay. It is unique as an RPG thanks to its side-scrolling game style and timing-based battle system. Winner of the Top Independent RPG of 2008 from GameTunnel, it has also received heaps of praise from game reviewers at Rock, Paper, Shotgun, TIGSource, and RPGFan. I really enjoyed my time with TSE2 and I think many RPG gamers will enjoy it as well. Check out the game today for free at thespiritengine.com.