Thatgamecompany (TGC), run by Jenova Chen, Kellee Santiago and other big names in the indie scene, had a productive run in tandem with Sony’s game studios, making games for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 and Vita since 2007.
Flower followed the 2006 experimental Flash game flOw, and was later succeeded by the magnum opus of the series, Journey. While all three games had something beautiful and moving to say, Flower is arguably the purest of the three.
Flower was originally released on PS3, but this past holiday season it hit the Vita and PS4, too. The PS4 version’s enhanced visuals make it an even greater treat.
The game that put controversial game developer Jonathan Blow on the map plays with themes of loss and making up for past mistakes with a time-traveling game mechanic combined with Mario-like platforming.
Already a classic since its 2008 release, Braid stands out in part because of its artful visuals, whose swirling blue skies and pastel colors evoke impressionist painters. If you like Braid, keep an eye out for Blow’s next game, The Witness. It’s due to hit the PlayStation 4 within a few months.
You can pick up Braid on Xbox 360, Windows, Mac, PlayStation 3 and Linux.
Flower petals and impressionism-style paintings are beautiful, sure, but there’s such a thing as a dark, foreboding beauty. Limbo nails just that.
The grim fairy tale of a young boy wandering through a ruthlessly hostile, silhouetted environment enthralls you with what you can’t see as much as it engages you with what you can. Just be ready to die — a lot.
Limbo is available on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Mac, Windows, Vita, Linux and iOS.
A recent release, Brothers tasks you with controlling two boys as they wander from their village in search of a way to cure a loved one's illness. The highly stylized rolling hills, lived-in villages, and the quirky and mysterious characters populating the countryside all contribute to a lush, aesthetic experience.
So you can take it all in, the world's designers even dropped in stone benches on which you can sit your characters at the most scenic viewpoints.
Brothers is available for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Windows.
Las year's Proteus is the most experimental and out-there game that appears on this list. The retro aesthetic won’t work for everyone, but the dynamically generated environments full of bizarre, surreal and impressionistic signs of life have impressed and soothed many an adventurous gamer.
It only takes a few minutes to complete the game, but as with the famed Minecraft, each time you play it you experience a different world with variance in the arrangement of the numerous creatures and locales.
Proteus is available on Windows, Mac, Linux, PlayStation 3 and Vita.
Lili borrows as much from free-roaming RPGs like The Legend of Zelda as it does from other casual iPad and iPhone games, so it hardly fits into either the "casual" or "hardcore" categories. Let’s call it "middlecore."
In Lili, you play as a young woman walking around a seaside community filled with odd characters, who will probably remind you most of the work of famed animated Hayao Miyazaki. It’s a relaxing game, and the verdant 3D visuals go a long way in creating that effect. To power its cartoony look, the game runs on the Unreal Engine, long a standard-setter for advanced 3D graphics on many platforms.
Lili is currently only available on iOS devices, but a PC version recently graduated through the Steam Greenlight program -- so sit tight if you aren't an Apple user.
Sony really made waves in the indie community by turning its Santa Monica studio into an incubator for ambitious indies. One of the best games to come out of the studio is Giant Sparrow’s The Unfinished Swan, a truly original experience.
When you start, you find yourself standing in an all-white world. You quickly learn that you can splatter black paint on the walls and objects around you to discover your way through the environments. The complexity grows from there, but the game’s minimalism really makes an lasting impression.
You’ll need a PlayStation 3 to play The Unfinished Swan.
We haven't seen such a boom of innovation and great ideas in video games since the independent PC games of the 1990s. Dozens, if not hundreds, of beautiful indie games have impressed millions of eager players, and these seven are some of the most gorgeous artistic works small teams have produced in recent years.
These games span many platforms — whether you have a PC, Mac, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, iPad or even Linux, you’ll find something to check out here.
See also: The 7 Best Headphones for Gamers
As always, beauty is in the eye of the beholder — and seven is far too small a number to represent the diversity and creativity in the indie game scene today.
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