In the late 2000s, increasingly accessible development tools and emerging digital distribution platforms enabled individuals and small teams to create and release videogames with far greater independence from traditional publishers. The resulting rise of the ‘indie game’ produced a wave of inventive titles, often defined by distinctive art styles and influences drawn from both videogame history and the wider visual arts. Now a major force in the industry, works such as Valheim, Cairn and Gone Home demonstrate the creative potential of independent development.

Indie Game Works is a visually driven survey of fifty games that have defined the movement over the past fifteen years. Focusing on titles with distinctive and innovative art direction, and featuring insightful contributions from the developers and art directors behind each game, the book serves as a showcase of boundary-pushing videogame design. Written by Nathan P. Gibson and with a scene-setting foreword from Elite co-creator David Braben, Indie Game Works presents a vibrant overview of contemporary independent game development.

Each title is explored through a curated selection of in-game imagery, development artwork and early sketch material, alongside a dedicated case study examining its design and development. Titles explored include Hyper Light Drifter, Tunic, GRIS, DREDGE, 1000xRESIST, Genesis Noir, Abzû and A Short Hike alongside many others.

This 1000 copy limited edition is exclusive to Read-Only Memory and is published ahead of a general release edition from Thames & Hudson.

256 pages
285 × 210 mm
Cut flush hardback
Handmade slipcase
Foil typography details
Custom heavy duty mailer carton

It was almost purely out of a want, nay, need to do something creative with a small group, unencumbered by the larger political workings of a big studio.

Arnie Jorgensen, chief creative director of The Banner Saga

A Short Hike
ABZU
Curiosmos
DREDGE
Morsels
Old Man’s Journey
Sable
SCHiM
Tails of Iron

Before Your Eyes
Cataclismo
Cryptmaster
Enter the Chronosphere
Heaven’s Vault
Hyper Light Drifter
Manifold Garden
Rain World
Shadows of Doubt
Silt

Chicken Police: Paint it RED!
Dread Delusion
Genesis Noir
GRIS
Harold Halibut
Lucah: Born of a Dream
Mundaun
Phonopolis
Solar Ash
The Collage Atlas

Ashen
Cairn
Dungeons of Hinterberg
Eastward
ECHO
Endling – Extinction is Forever
Journey to the Savage Planet
Planet of Lana
Tunic
Valheim

1000xRESIST
30 Birds
Ghostboy
Gone Home
Hyper Light Breaker
Mutazione
Nine Sols
The Banner Saga
We Happy Few
Wildermyth

The concept art I supplied was more or less the equivalent of comic strips; the challenge was then to transpose it into 3D.

Mathieu Bablet, art director of Cairn

All early art and design experiments were done as fast as possible directly in the game engine. If it didn’t work, I started over.

David Wehle, developer of The First Tree