What Are Indie Games and How Do You Find and Play Them?

Indie games are games made outside the major publisher system — typically by solo developers or small teams who fund and publish their own work. That independence usually shows up as unusual premises, short experimental formats, and direct distribution through developer sites or open platforms rather than retail shelves. If you want to play them, the fastest route is a browser: many indie titles run instantly with no install, including the ones on games-by-will.com. The main thing to watch for is that "indie" and "free" are not the same thing — check the price and platform before you commit time.

What makes a game "indie"

There is no official certification. "Indie" describes the production and funding model, not a genre or a quality tier.

• Team size: often one person or a handful, rather than hundreds of specialists.
• Funding: self-funded, crowdfunded, or supported by small grants — not a large studio budget.
• Publishing: frequently self-published, or handled by a small label.
• Creative control: the creator decides what the game is, which is why indie catalogs skew toward niche genres and odd ideas.

How indie differs from AAA and mainstream titles

Neither column is "better." Indie means a different set of constraints, which is exactly why you find things like a satirical billionaire text adventure or a game about surviving office layoffs.

The overlap with free browser games

A large slice of indie work is browser-based, because the browser removes the install step and the platform approval process. Games by Will is a concrete example: a single developer's catalog of browser games spanning several genres.

From the site's current lineup:

• Renter's Revenge — strategy, legal-tinged premise about a landlord who won't fix the heat.
• Terminal — horror text adventure; something is living in your computer.
• Capital Punishment — geography quiz; name the capital or stay for detention.
• Math Blitz — timed arithmetic that gets harder as you improve.
• Never Enough — satirical strategy text adventure about a billionaire.
• 25th Amendment — political strategy; manage a cabinet crisis as a senior advisor.
• Redundancy — narrative strategy about surviving office layoffs.
• The Lich's Dungeon — fantasy roguelike with class selection and difficulty settings.

Notice the pattern: short, single-idea games across wildly different genres. That is a typical indie catalog shape.

Where to find indie games

• Developer sites — like games-by-will.com, where the creator controls the whole catalog. Best for following one maker's output.
• itch.io — the largest open platform for indie and experimental games, with a heavy browser-playable selection.
• Steam's indie sections — useful for larger indie releases, filtering, and user reviews.
• Browser game portals — aggregators that host playable web games directly.
• Newsletters and dev blogs — many solo developers announce new work this way; the Games by Will site notes new games drop every few weeks and offers a subscribe option.

How to judge whether an indie game fits your taste

Genre tags do most of the work. If you like turn-based fantasy, "roguelike" is your signal; if you want reading-driven narrative, "text adventure" is. Beyond tags:

1. Read the one-line premise. Indie games are usually built on a single hook, so the description tells you a lot.
2. Check the genre pairing. "Satirical · Strategy" and "Horror · Text Adventure" describe very different sessions.
3. Look for difficulty or length notes. The Lich's Dungeon, for example, lets you set difficulty — useful if you want a short run rather than a long grind.
4. Check reviews or community discussion on platforms that have them.

Common pitfalls

• Assuming indie means free. Many indie games are paid. Browser availability does not imply no cost, and a site with no visible pricing information should be treated as unknown rather than free.
• Assuming free means low quality. Plenty of browser indies are polished and complete.
• Skipping the platform check. Some titles are browser-only, some are downloadable, some are both. Confirm before you plan around it.
• Judging by production values. A text adventure and a 3D roguelike can both be indie; the format reflects the creator's choice, not the budget alone.

Getting started

If you want to try indie games today with zero setup, open a browser-based catalog and pick by genre — a strategy game if you like decisions, a text adventure if you like reading, a roguelike if you like repeated runs. If you want a wider net, browse itch.io or Steam's indie sections and filter by tag. Either way, verify the price and platform first, then play.