The Game Developers Conference is an event where creators and fans have access to insightful panels and a show floor full of games to try. The event offers press even larger demos and the opportunity to meet developers from around the world to debut their games in hotel suites around San Francisco. The show offers a haven for creative independent games. The author of this article has compiled a list of 10 games that caught their attention from the event. 
 
Among them is Viewfinder, an indie puzzle game where players place 2D photographs on top of the world, turning them into fully explorable 3D spaces. This game is said to be a clever puzzle game that supports multiple solutions. Crash Team Rumble is another game where the author had no idea what to expect. This inventive Crash Bandicoot game feels so fresh that they can’t quite attach a genre to it. It’s a 4v4 fruit-gathering game that plays out like a cross between a sports game, a MOBA, and Destiny’s Gambit, but with Overwatch character roles. 
 
Pixel Ripped 1978 allows players to take a deep dive into video game history. The adventure game goes back to the golden age of Atari with the company itself publishing the project, giving developer Arvore access to its library of classic intellectual property. Planet of Lana is a 2D platformer where a girl and her catlike creature explore a lush landscape filled with machines, offering an environmental puzzle and cat-directing dynamic. 
 
Dr. Fetus’ Mean Meat Machine is a Super Meat Boy spinoff that takes the platformer’s punishing philosophy and applies it to a traditional match-four puzzle game. Its levels are filled with obstacles that make that task a living hell. Slime Heroes is a Zelda-like adventure game where players control a Dragon Quest-like slime that can combine skills to customize their slime with hats. Worldless is an indie Metroidvania with a minimalistic art style focusing on core movement skills and a turn-based combat system that has players switching between attacks and timing-based blocks. 
 
Escape Academy: Tournament of Puzzles is a puzzle game with procedurally generated new puzzles each time, adding a much-needed random element to the game. The two-player mode has friends competing in a race to solve an escape room first. Venba is a narrative indie game exploring a culture rarely represented in games, and the summer release is highly anticipated. El Paso, Elsewhere is a neo-noir shooter that plays like a PS1 remake of Max Payne, borrowing its “bullet time” shooting mechanic and placing it in a vampire-hunting story. 
 
Overall, the Game Developers Conference showed a wide range of games that were currently in development, each with their unique take on gameplay and storytelling.