Indie Games are one of the things the Xbox One is genuinely for. The ones worth playing start with Ori and the Blind Forest, Ori and the Will of the Wisps, Cuphead.
A generation where the first-party output thinned and the value moved to the subscription. The library's highlights are mostly the games that arrived through it.
This is one of its strengths. Indies, heavily — Ori, Cuphead, Celeste, Hollow Knight, Inside — plus Forza Horizon, which is the best arcade racing series being made.
Filtering to indie means you want the answer a small team would give. It is usually the most interesting filter on this site, because small studios take the risks large ones cannot.
Follow the link for hand-written recommendations if you want more like it.
Follow the link for hand-written recommendations if you want more like it.
Follow the link for hand-written recommendations if you want more like it.
Follow the link for hand-written recommendations if you want more like it.
Follow the link for hand-written recommendations if you want more like it.
Follow the link for hand-written recommendations if you want more like it.
Follow the link for hand-written recommendations if you want more like it.
One strong idea, explored completely, at a price that makes trying it easy. Indies have no production to hide behind, so the design is exposed.
Polish and scale, sometimes. A few of these are rough at the edges, and a big-budget pick will always look better doing the same thing.
Ori and the Blind Forest is the usual first answer, and there are 7 in the library we cover.
Yes — it is one of the things the machine is known for, and there are 7 in the library we cover.
Self-published, or published without a large publisher's money. It says nothing about the size of the game, which is why a forty-hour metroidvania and a two-hour art piece sit under the same label.
Constraint. Without a budget to hide behind, one idea has to carry the whole thing — and a small team can commit to something risky that a large one would sand down.
From the games this site covers on the Xbox One, matched against hand-mapped gameplay categories rather than a storefront's genre tag. A page only exists where there are at least four, which is why some console and genre combinations have no page at all.
Or browse the whole Xbox One library.