BryThis is a copy of the comment I posted under the video TOP13 2025 - INDYK ROKU WEDŁUG STASZKA oraz LAMA AWARDS (TOP13 2025 - For the sake of this post, I added some more games that I didn't included in the original YouTube's comment. For context, at the end of each year, this YouTuber creates a list of what he considers to be the best games he has played in the past twelve months and organizes several polls for viewers, including the so-called Lama Awards, which is voting for the most beautiful ones, the best soundtracks, or those with the best story and wordbuilding. *Turkey - The English adjective indie was borrowed into Polish as the noun indyk, which is already a word that means turkey (the bird). I wanted to mention it in the first post from this "series", but I forgot :v **Llama - In Polish lama (which means that animal too), is a play on the colloquial verb lamić, which means "to do something badly, carelessly, or clumsily" and is using in the context of the video games, when someone play it badly. The best example of lamić is the infamous Cuphead tutorial video, where a game journalist struggled with the basic controls. MY TOP 13 GAMES I PLAYED IN 2025My last year was really successful when it comes to games I played. But I have to point out here that I'm one of those who practice "patient gaming," so most of what I played came from previous years. 13th: Luke's Art Museum by lukesnyder (2025)Is this even a game? Well, it's made in Unity, which is a game engine. It's released on itch.io, which is a site for publishing games. As far as I'm concerned, everything checks out for me. Seriously though, titles that boil down to wandering around a three-dimensional environments, more or less interactive (and sometimes not at all), are definitely my weak spot. I'll take new works from developers such as sad3d or Moshe Linke without hesitation. And this one hits my sweet spot. The only thing we do in it is exploring an empty museum. A few paintings on the walls, some decorations in the form of plants several times larger than the player character, and that's about it. And it's perfectly sufficient for me; I don't need anything more to be happy with a game.
12th: Townscaper by Oskar Stålberg (2021)11th: Dystopika by Voids Within (2024)I'll allow myself to discuss both these titles together because I have almost exactly the same thing to say about them. Both of them belonging to the genre of, let's call them, directionless city builders. You just place buildings and that's it. The type of game you play to forget about the world around you and turn off your brain. Or, as in my case, crank it up to maximum, because I think I was focusing way too hard on making my cities aesthetic, whatever it's supposed to mean xD The only criticism I have is about Townscaper, because it's mechanics are way too simplified. It definitely lacks any meaningful options for controlling what and where I'm build.
10th: Metal Undergrowth by kenforest (2025)It's developer is one of those smaller indie creators who always delivers for me. And that was the case this time as well. Mechanically it's very simple - you just collect creatures to use them to repair your broken vehicle. I catched a worm, then bought an upgrade by using it. Next I've repeated this a dozen times, and wait, it's over already? But I had such a good time playing it xD However sometimes being something you can beat in under an hour is also an advantage, because thanks to that, its simple gameplay loop didn't have time to start being bored me.
9th: ISLANDS: Non-Places by Carl Burton (2016)On itch.io, these types of titles are tagged as art games and experimental. And I like video games. And I also like contemporary art. So something that could be installed on a computer placed in an art gallery had to end up on my list. Some people will find these kinds of experiences pretentious, and I won't argue with that, because I agree to some extent. But I just like to immerse myself sometimes in works that offer minimal gameplay, where the main fun comes from your own interpretations, or even over-interpretations, of what you see on the screen.
8th: Nodebuster by Goblobin (2024)A super simple game. You destroy squares, buy upgrades, destroy more squares, buy more upgrades. And so on and so forth. And yet somehow it triggered the "just one more turn" syndrome in me. A simple concept that completely sucked me in... to the point where I couldn't tear myself away from it, even when I really needed to go to the bathroom :v
7th: Shelldiver by Gagonfe (2025)Titles like this are one of the reasons why I treat his channel as a good source for discovering new indies. A few minutes of the episode was enough to convince me [to buy Shelldiver]. The gameplay loop is super engaging, especially thanks to the small exploration element. The upgrade tree is very well-designed, each purchase does something significant, and some upgrades are quite creative. And what happens at the end when you've bought everything is pure poetry.
6th: Supermarket Simulator by Nokta Games (2025)I already wrote about this game in the top list of let's plays' I watched [previous post], so here I'll just say it's a damn addictive simulator.
5th: Strange Horticulture by Bad Viking (2022)Even though Strange Antiquities [the sequel to Horticulture, that so far I saw only as his gameplay] is better in practically everything, it's still definitely worth playing. Even if, as it turned out, I remembered it a bit too well from his livestream series and basically went through on autopilot (apart from the final puzzle, which took me a while to solve), I still had a great time with it.
4th: Just Cause 3 by Avalanche Studios (2015)Well, it boils down to running around with a bunch of explosives and various firearms and watching the world burn. But there's one outpost to blow up, then another, a third, a fourth... and a bigger enemy base, better destroy that one too xD You get a ton of weapons to play with, and I kept finding completely new ways to blow up the same exact radar tower. Well, I like to turn my brain off sometimes with these triple-A games, what can I say :p
3rd: The Planet Crafter by Miju Games (2024)I'm thinking to myself, base-building survival games aren't my thing. But hey, there's a demo, so why not give it a try? Wait, why are you already thanking me for completing it? Hold on, has it really been four hours already?? [that's how long it took me to finish it] That's how I can sum up my experience with this title. I started playing it, then I picked up my phone and saw I had spent a solid five hours collecting ore and building new machines xD I decide I really need to keep track of how much time I'm spending on this. Then, the next day, I played for six hours without breaks xDD All the mechanics are perfectly intertwined. You do one thing, and immediately you have another thing to do. And another. In fact, I had a whole list of stuff to do and and I kept adding new items to it, like: gotta build this, gotta upgrade that to a better version, gotta go there. And so the hours flew by without me even noticing.
2nd: DREDGE by Black Salt Games (2023)For some reason, the YouTube algorithm decided at some point to recommend me his let's play absolutely everywhere. So I thought, alright fine, I'll check it out. I watched about 3? episodes, then I bought it, and 100%'ed everything - base game and DLC. When that gameplay loop clicks, there's no going back.
1st: The Crew (Unlimited) - by Ivory Tower (2014) / TCU Project (2025)And here, first place goes not only to The Crew itself, but also to the community-made server emulation program, after Ubisoft shut them down in 2024, completely killing it in the process. As someone with a hobbyist interest in preservation, grassroots projects by groups of dedicated fans, thanks to which these experiences don't end up as "lost media," are sometimes something that makes me even happier than new games. And that was exactly the case here. But the TCU project alone wouldn't be enough reason for first place. I consider The Crew a really successful representative of the open-world racing genre, which I really like. Yes, the story is just a pretext. Yes, many of the activities are typical Ubisoft filler. Doesn't matter. The fact that I could drive back and forth across a map of the United States is what captivated me for many hours, and I'm glad that now I can always return whenever I want. Additionally, thanks to one of the in-game radio stations, I discovered the electropop album B/E/A/T/B/O/X by Glass Candy, for which The Crew also gets bonus points from me :p
LLAMA AWARDS!Here I'm only referring to games that he played on his channel last year. Best Indie Game: Uh, I didn't vote in this category because I had no idea what to vote for xD I was supposed to think about it and forgot. I probably would have voted for Blue Prince or the Planet Crafter DLC. Sore Throat [from yelling at screen, because you get annoyed while watching his gameplay, because he didn't understand/missed something]: Amanda the Adventurer 3 – this is my very loose interpretation of this category, but I was irritated by how the developers botched it. But actually, what won [Blue Prince, because he sometimes missed the obvious clues to puzzles] deserved the prize more xD Feast for the Eyes [best graphics]: No, I'm not a Human – This type of retro aesthetic, especially when combined with Eastern European vibes, is my weak spot. Date Everything! was my second choice here, thanks to its fantastic character designs, which you mentioned yourself in the video. Wonderful Little Banger [Best Music]: Lorelei and the Laser Eyes - The number of songs here could probably be counted on one hand, but it's a great example of how it's not quantity but quality that matters. I still remember the piano song and the one fromand the one from the outro. Magnum Opus [best world-building]: Lorelei and the Laser Eyes - The way everything was interconnected was masterful. Like translating a novel into game form. A Gem [most innovative title]: Blue Prince - The room drafting mechanic, even if sometimes undermined by the game's overall randomness, still provided plenty of emotions while watching [his let's play] and was something I hadn't seen in videogames before. Pure Poetry [best game]: Lorelei and the Laser Eyes - I never thought I would come across something with its story scattered across various notes that would captivate me narratively. Especially since, despite the years passing, I'm still recovering from my wounds after how convoluted and pointlessly complicated the Five Nights at Freddy's universe was in this regard xD And yet, Lorelei managed to do it. Advertising space:Polskie Programy (Polish Programs) - the largest database of Polish software and more!
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