Welcome to the Players Choice: Best Upcoming Indies of 2020. The following games have been voted on my IndieDB's community from the Top 100 upcoming nominees, and represent the games those voters are most excited for in the next year and beyond.
Honorable Mentions
Before we present the winners, the following games polled strongly and deserve our attention for either narrowly missing out, or they have previously placed highly in a best upcoming countdown and will next be eligible to win when they have released. We'd like to take a moment to give them an honorable mention as we look forward to their continuing development and full release.
2020 COUNTDOWN
Resistance and Liberation is an engaging and authentic World War 2 multiplayer FPS experience that puts you in the boots of the soldiers fighting in Normandy in 1944. Requiring team work and tactical approaches to win the game, on maps across the Netherlands and Southern Germany regions with coming releases.
Welcome to New Temperance the last frontier of the Italian-American mafia where corruption and violence still control the streets. You find yourself sucked into the middle of old traditions and an uncertain future for both the city and the mafia. This game is not just about shoot and drive, it's about strategy and precision to both control your crew and funds for your iron fist to control the city.
An edutainment game about the catastrophic summer fires in Portugal. Based in true events and persons that lived and survived the catastrophe.
Cold Shell is a top-down, sci-fi, arcade brawler with persistent RPG elements. Bash thugs and change wallpapers.
Humans are long gone. Will your society of lumberpunk beavers do any better? A city-building game featuring ingenious animals, vertical architecture, and river control. This game contains high amounts of wood.
Destroyer: The U-Boat Hunter is an interactive war thriller which seamlessly blends tactical WW2 anti-submarine warfare simulation with a gripping storyline, presented through Hollywoodesque, interactive cutscenes. Take command of a meticulously reconstructed Fletcher-class destroyer and lead your crew against nazi U-Boats in the Battle of the Atlantic!
Setting sun is an Asian themed rogue like dungeon-crawler. It's set in a universe during the Edo period where Oni roam the world freely. The land is in turmoil and demons start growing violent. A couple of mysterious wanderers answer the call to help mankind and try to find the source of the corruption together.
3RD PLACE
Gamedec is an adaptive cyberpunk RPG. As a private detective, it’s your job to solve crimes inside virtual worlds. What decisions will you make in a world where child slavery is a F2P game, where murder over a game-clan dispute is an every-day reality? Who will you become in the XXII century?
You are a private detective. After receiving a letter from your father, asking for help, you go to the small town of Redcliff.
Sons of Valhalla is a sidescrolling base building strategy game. You take on the role of Sweyn Forkbeard, the son of a Viking Jarl, and fight anyone who gets in the way of you and your clan.
Create an army of Vikings and take them to war against England. Improve your skills and strengthen your warriors for the next battle. Build villages to ensure a steady flow of resources and warriors. Plunder and conquer enemy villages and castles. But be careful: Not every Ealdorman can be defeated easily.
The 2020 awards are proudly supported by Manticore Games, creators of Core. Core is an endless universe of games to play and worlds to explore designed by a global community of creators. It's a radically accessible game construction kit and game-playing platform, all in one. Whether you're interested in playing unexpected takes on shooters, RPGs, and party games, exploring massive and spectacular words with friends, or unleashing your own insane game designs on the world, Core is your portal to the multiverse. Learn more about Core, and download it here.
Congratulations to every winner in the Player's Choice: Best Upcoming Indies of 2020! Further congratulations are in order for every indie game that was nominated and participated in voting. With the Best Upcoming Indies announced, the final Indie of the Year results will go live on December 28.
Oh my gosh! Cold Shell made it to the top 10 !
I am extremely happy :)
Oops! I almost had it. I had such a high chance that Randy & Manilla would make it into this top, and even that wasn't even enough to earn at least one honorable mention. Ok, I guess it still had a lot of flaws to fix, even with all the great progress it received in 2020.
Top 100 is still something massive to celebrate and be proud of!
Yes, that's still a splendid achievement. But for a Top 10 I still have a long way to go.
Congrats to all games listed! Im really happy to be part of it!
Likewise, feel free to use the awards logo to promote your game
Can i find the IOTY 2020 image as a .png ?
I would like to use it on my game's Steam store page in the awards section.
Congrats to all nominated and winners. Beimg is this restricted list is quite an achievement.
Congrats to all of the awesome games that made the top list!