Since its launch in 2006 Unity has held a special place in the world of game development. It’s difficult now to consider that it was best known for a long time as a mobile game engine, but that was its reputation for a number of years. In the years since, though, its multi-platform capabilities have solidified it as the indie developer’s best friend. What with its free individual plan price tag, Unity affords bedroom developers the chance to create their dream games without foregoing advanced graphics and physics.

Because of this huge accessibility, it’s always inspiring to learn that a game is made with Unity as it shows what small teams or even individuals can achieve with the entry-level software. Here are some independent games that have used the engine to realize their dreams:

10 Ghost of a Tale

Who would have thought that Dark Medieval Fantasy and anthropomorphic animals would go together so well? Well, Lionel Gallat certainly did. An animator-turned-game developer, Gallat had worked on several Dreamworks and Universal Pictures properties before converting to the world of independent game development. Inspired by films such as The Dark Crystal and The Secret of NIMH, he sought to recapture the sense of wonder that video games from the ’80s and ’90s awarded him back then, but with as near a tiple-A quality as he could singlehandedly produce.

The end product was Ghost of a Tale, which follows a tiny mouse minstrel called Tilo journeying through a towering world that’s fraught with danger. Originally the production of the game started in CryEngine, but Gallat decided on using Unity after finding the former engine too difficult to use. With Unity, he was able to produce the game with a small team, though remained responsible for 90% of its design, art, and programming. It currently holds a 9/10 rating on Steam and is available on PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.

9 Ori and the Blind Forest

Moon Studios had high ambitions for their indie debut title. Uniquely, this enterprise began as a “Virtual Studio,” with members drawn from all over the globe collaborating online. The team then worked on creating two prototypes to pitch to publishers, one being a FPS with RTS elements, while the other was a Metroidvania mixed with platforming. The latter would eventually evolve into Ori and the Blind Forest after Microsoft took an interest in the prototype.

After four years of development, Ori and the Blind Forest was released to universal acclaim and gained Moon Studios the Best Debut award at the 2016 Game Developers Choice Awards. Its heartwarming story and terrific world design paved the way for a sequel in 2020. It even achieved a historic place in gaming for being the first Xbox title to be ported over to a Nintendo System, following a stream of Microsoft characters making their way onto Super Smash Bros Ultimate. Who knows what this amiable working relationship may lead to in the future.

8 TABS

TABS, or Totally Accurate Battle Simulator, is a ragdoll physics game that sought to parody the all-too-serious battle simulation genre. And parody it did. Created by Stockholm-based Landfall games, this project came to fruition after the small team decided to participate in a week-long game jam that was held at a castle in a small Swedish town. Somehow they emerged from this fun event with a viral concept that blew up on YouTube.

Landfall made the decision to slowly build the concept into a fully-fledged game, eventually releasing it in April 2021. Fourteen different factions were all developed themed around cultures from different historic civilizations, as well as twenty maps to unleash them all on in sandbox and campaign modes. Additional spin-offs Zombielator and Battlegrounds respectively also parodied the survival horror and battle royal genres.

7 THE ALTO COLLECTION

While the Alto series could quickly be dismissed as mobile games at first glance, they offer much more than your average AppStore fodder and the two games have since been brought to console and PC stores to the tune of nobody’s objections. The three-person development team behind it sought to blend the minimalist visuals of Journey with the warm nostalgia of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 to create a procedurally-generated snowboarding epic.

Like Monument Valley, Team Alto created a game that players could really get lost in; pretty much emulating the true feeling of snowboarding up in the mountains away from everything else. Team Alto has since set its eyes on new horizons, with a new game being developed by Land & Sea, a successor studio founded following the success of these games.

6 Cuphead

This run-and-gun indie gem has captured many people’s hearts for its faultless “rubber hose” animation style that emulates the carefree style of the golden age of American animation. As you can imagine, Cuphead was far from an easy game to develop, but a make-or-break passion project from the two Moldenhauer brothers behind Studio MDHR. Obsessed with Walt Disney and Fleischer oldies, the two brothers originally tried making such a game in 2000, though lacked the right development tools to bring it to fruition.

The success of Super Meat Boy inspired them to rethink this a decade later and they found that Unity held the answers to a lot of their prior problems. It has since topped the polls of best indie games, in part due to its unique hand-drawn visuals that challenge the comparative perfectionism of pixel art. New DLC is promised to release at the end of 2021 following delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

5 Praey for the Gods

Praey for the Gods is an upcoming action-adventure survival epic that has been in early access on Steam since 2019. Inspired by taking down towering giants in Shadow of the Colossus, No Matter Studios launched a successful Kickstarter campaign, and fans of the cult classic have since been waiting eagerly for its full release.

Although it might seem conceptively too close to its inspiration, Praey for the Gods’ survival elements are what set it apart, with the protagonist needing to craft, shelter, and scavenge to survive the harsh frozen island that she’s stranded on. Its release was planned for 2021, but delays may mean a longer wait.

4 Night in the Woods

Another game made possible by Kickstarter, this story-focused exploration title was fully funded within 26 hours and went on to quadruple its initial budget. Night in the Woods follows the return of Mae to her hometown of Possum Springs, which is inhabited by colorful zoomorphic denizens. After returning to domesticity, Mae discovers that the town has changed considerably since its mines were closed down, and she unveils a dark mystery that has long lied dormant.

Following its February 2017 release, the game was ported all over and received a Wierd Autumn update. Unfortunately, the tragic death of the game’s designer Alec Holowka and other complex circumstances has meant that this will be Infinite Fall’s only release. However, The Glory Society was founded by the rest of the small team behind Night in the Woods with plans to release future titles.

3 Return of the Obra Dinn

After solo-developing 2013’s Paper’s Please, much of the industry knew that Lucas Pope would have a special career in gaming. While the pursuit of photo-realism was pursued by his peers, Pope developed a keen fascination with 1-bit graphics and looked to incorporate it into his next game. The result was The Return of the Obra Dinn, a game set around the mysterious disappearance of a ship’s crew after it reemerged on English waters five years since it was last seen.

Essentially the game emulates 1-bit monochromatic visuals while allowing the player to move about in a 3D space. It’s an unusual creative decision, but one that really sets it apart from most games created using Unity. Pope himself was not worried about it being a financial hit though as the success of Papers Please was still keeping him afloat. He intends for his next game to be smaller in scope after Obra Dinn ballooned into something exceptionally greater than first conceptualized.

2 Hollow Knight

Hollow Knight is one of the most successful indie games of the 2010s and has been praised for reinvigorating the Metroidvania genre. Its developers Team Cherry had a unique vision though weren’t particularly skilled in programming. Instead of using traditional C# scripting, the team utilized Playmaker, a visual scripting tool for Unity. They further decided to keep the development of the game simple and scanned sketches, with very little going to waste.

A Kickstarter goal to introduce a second playable character eventually spawned a new sequel, Silksong, which is yet to receive an official release date window. However, given the amount of care and content that Team Cherry put into Hollow Knight’s DLCs, fans can be assured that the long wait is more than well justified.

1 A Short Hike

This bitesize game is the perfect lazy Sunday game for anyone who’s feeling a little burnt out. A Short Hike has no urgency to its quests, but simply puts you on an island and instructs you to reach the mountain’s summit at your own pace. This means that you can explore the island to your heart’s content and get distracted by side missions such as boast racing, fishing, and helping out the locals.

A Short Hike was developed largely by Adam Robinson-Yu and was released within a year, with crunchy pixelization helping breath life into the game’s world despite his limited art skills. They imbue into the game a certain nostalgia however that goes hand-in-hand with the title’s mission to take you away from modern-day stresses and demands.

NEXT: The Best Games In Early Access Right Now