2023 TechRaptor Awards - Indie Game of the Year

Where AAA looks to impress and blow us away with their sheer size, technical prowess, or some beautiful pixels, indie games stand out by relying heavily on creativity. Not to say the big games lack creativity, but that is the key selling point for so many great smaller games, which also makes them often some of the most interesting games of the year. As always, this is our favorite award each year.

For 2023, we went about this a little differently. Largely, our awards are decided through ranked choice voting by the entire TechRaptor staff. For every other award aside from this one and Game of the Year, that was the case.

Here, we have a long conversation about a bunch of games and whittle down our below list of nominees into a top 5 list. We then argued and ranked those 5 games to determine our winner. Rutledge Daugette, Andrew Otton, Robert Scarpinito, Andrew Stretch, Austin Suther, and Don Parsons were all involved in the conversation.

Feel free to let Rutledge know how wrong he routinely is.

Here are the nominees for TechRaptor's 2023 Indie Game of the Year for outstanding creative and technical design from outside a large studio.

• Cavern of Dreams
• Cocoon
• Dredge
• Sea of Stars
• Terra Nil
• Turbo Overkill
• Venba
• World of Horror

Check out here for our other award categories and nominees.

Since this was a slightly different process, we also had some honorable mentions we talked about. Those were:

• Cobalt Core
• Geodepths
• The Last Spell
• Ravenlok
• Slay the Princess
• Spin Rhythm XD

If you're just looking to find the winners of this award, check out below.

5th Place - Sea of Stars

Developer: Sabotage Studio | Release Date: August 29th, 2023

Our reviewer Tanushri Shah had this to say in her review:

"Ultimately, Sea Of Stars is a gorgeous-looking game with an impressive combat system that scratches that retro itch but falls a bit short in the story department. It does enough to make it stand out as its own thing instead of having to live up to the legacy of the classics but isn’t as thematically memorable."

Check out more from our review, and we of course discuss the game more in the video above!

4th Place - Dredge

Developer: Black Salt Games | Release Date: March 30th, 2023

Our reviewer Rutledge Daugette had this to say in his review:

"From start to finish, Dredge is a well-crafted experience that is just right. Even if you go for 100% as I did, the game really only takes around 25 hours to beat, and none of those hours overstay their welcome, making it just the right length. There's a lot to love in the simple QTE mechanics of fishing and Dredging, and you don't have to completely upgrade your ship to complete the game, which means you can focus a bit more on the world around you as you work towards completing the Pursuits in front of you."

Check out more from our review, and we of course discuss the game more in the video above!

3rd Place - Turbo Overkill

Developer: Trigger Happy Interactive | Release Date: August 11th, 2023

Our reviewer Austin Suther had this to say in his review:

"When I previewed Turbo Overkill last year, I knew it'd be something marvelous. And indeed, developer Trigger Happy Interactive delivers a polished, exceedingly fun experience for shooter junkies. If you're an FPS fan, Turbo Overkill is quite simply a mandatory play. So what are you waiting for? Get on it."

Check out more from our review, and we of course discuss the game more in the video above!

2nd Place - Venba

Developer: Visai Games | Release Date: July 31st, 2023

Our reviewer Tanushri Shah had this to say in her review:

"The game is seven chapters long and you’ll be able to finish it in two hours, so my biggest complaint is that it’s too short. By the end of it I just wanted more. In fact, I ended up playing the whole game from start to finish twice! I wanted to see more of Venba’s life, I wanted to learn more about Paavalan and his writings, but most of all, I wanted to cook more delicious recipes."

Check out more from our review, and we of course discuss the game more in the video above!

Winner - Cocoon

Developer: Geometric Interactive | Release Date: September 29th, 2023

Our reviewer Robert Scarpinito had this to say in his review:

"Cocoon has a certain magic to it. The moment you start seeing the layered world's gimmick, you think you’ve got your mind wrapped around it. You’ll think, “Surely I've figured out this whole video game.” And then it swerves, surprises, and delights."

Check out more from our review, and we of course discuss the game more in the video above!