Indie games are prone to crossing over with each other, as fewer creators making smaller games are usually less restrictive with their IP, letting other developers do what they want with their creations.
You’ll often see indie games casually getting treated better than any triple-A crossover can manage in certain titles or games that are more focused on having a ton of variety with really cool games represented.
While many indies crossover with one or two things, usually with other games from the same publisher or developer, I want to highlight the exceptional ones that go above and beyond.
These games include many different, very cool indie games, but Shovel Knight is only present around 50% of the time, which is lower than the average indie game crossover.
10Deltarune
Temmie’s Misadventures
RPGReleasedOctober 31, 2018ESRBtPlatform(s)PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, macOSDeveloper(s)Toby Fox
I wanted to highlight at least one indie that goes for a smaller-scale crossover with another, and I figure that Deltarune is a pretty stark example of that, crossing over with a game by Temmie, the main artist.
Toby Fox and Temmie occasionally reference each other’s games, since they work together frequently, and the Fun Gang from Deltarune appears in Dweller’s Empty Path, an awesome free game by Temmie.
Deltarune pays back this crossover by having the main character of Dweller’s Empty Path featured as a plushie on the shelf in Seam’s shop, which is a neat little nod to anyone who’s played both games.
Deltarune also technically crosses over with Undertale, as a game that isn’t a sequel and isn’t necessarily related but uses story context and characters from Undertale to convey info to the player, which is very cool.
9Kilaflow
Silly Indie Suits
Kilaflow isn’t finished yet, but it’s already shown quite a bit of promise in terms of indie representation, having a neat selection of costumes from established and up-and-coming indie games.
Notably, Absa from Rivals of Aether is a costume, and she’s featured alongside smaller indie titles like Dotty Game, Settlemoon, Vocaless, Fech the Ferret, and likely even more down the line.
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It’s also got plenty of skins that reference games like Nights into Dreams, and skins referencing the creator’s other characters, which are all great in their own right, and make customization very fun.
It’s incredibly cool to see a ton of lesser-known indie titles get their time to shine in this game, especially since Kilaflow is a banger title if you’re a fan of high-speed platformers.
8Rivals of Aether
Yes, It Has Shovel Knight
Rivals of Aether is a strange case, as you can technically say it’s only crossed over with Shovel Knight in terms of fighters, but that would be a little disrespectful to the massive amount of workshop content.
This game has very well-integrated and accessible modding support, with every character under the sun playable, like Kris from Deltarune, Peppino from Pizza Tower, and, of course, Among Us are especially popular.
Some of these workshop characters are so well-made that they’ve been made official, which is a crossover between Rivals of Aether and these original fanmade creations, and that’s very cool to see.
It’s got a few non-character crossovers too, like a skin referencing Brawlhalla, a buddy from Settlemoon, and a stage from Tower of Heaven, despite the game being more focused on its original cast than Smash.
7Balatro
Jimbo’s Buddies
Digital Card Game
RoguelikeReleasedFebruary 20, 2024ESRBE For EveryonePlatform(s)PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series SDeveloper(s)LocalThunk
Despite its incredible success, Balatro only gets updated for one of two reasons, balance changes or adding more card variants with references to different games in place of the standard face cards.
In terms of indies, we’ve gotten cards with characters from Shovel Knight, Don’t Starve, Among Us, The Binding of Isaac, Cult of the Lamb, Vampire Survivors, Slay the Spire, Potion Craft, Stardew Valley, Enter the Gungeon, and 1000xRESIST.
These cards serve no special purpose and are just texture swaps you can switch between whenever you want, but it’s still very nice seeing Mayor Lewis get the King status he deserves.
It’s especially cool seeing these indie titles be given their spot among massive games like The Witcher 3 or Cyberpunk 2077, with Stardew Valley‘s cards being designed by the main developer of the game himself.
6Friday Night Funkin’
A Flashy Loveletter
RhythmReleasedOctober 5, 2020
If you’re like me, you probably grew up rather familiar with the Flash Games hosted on sites like Newgrounds, and Friday Night Funkin’ is a massive tribute to that era of indie games, with almost every character being a crossover.
The list of references in this game is too massive to state here, but it includes Pico, Henry Stickmin, Super Meat Boy, The Binding of Isaac, and of course, Tankman, the icon of Newgrounds itself.
While a majority of these references are background characters in the mall, quite a few of them feature as a rap battle, and Pico features as a unique playable character with a ton of new content.
It feels like a proper celebration of everything that made Newgrounds games what they were, whether that be the overly edgy writing, slightly crude visuals, and irresistible humble charm.
5Among Us
Cavalcade of Costumes
Among Us was a pretty humble game made by three people before ballooning in popularity into one of the biggest indie games ever, but the developers never forgot their indie roots, and pay tribute to that quite a bit.
It has costumes based on Henry Stickmin, which the team worked on previously, as well as A Hat in Time, Alien Hominid, BattleBlock Theater, Castle Crashers, Celeste, Crypt of the NecroDancer, and Untitled Goose Game.
The game has numerous other indirect references to other games outside just the costumes, and it’s been thrown in every other game that asks, including this very niche, a little-known title called Fortnite.
The crewmate’s design is so malleable that you can throw any design on top of them, and it’ll work well, so it’s no surprise how many crossovers it nabbed. In the words of Toby Fox, “You can now dress as Sans in Among Us.”
4Super Meat Boy
Nostalgic Oldies
Super Meat Boy decided it would have a massive number of playable characters and around half of them you’ll recognize if you’re familiar with indie titles that were popular in the early 2010s and late 2000s.
It has characters based on VVVVVV, Bit Trip Runner, Castle Crashers, World of Goo, Spelunky, Minecraft, I Wanna Be The Guy, Aquaria, and Alien Hominid, with a few being exclusive to the console versions.
The most interesting part about these appearances is that unlike most entries on the list till now, they’re all functionally different from each other, usually taking mechanics from the source game and adapting them.
I love how Steve plays, sort of like a precursor to his unfortunately top-tier Smash Ultimate appearance, where he can navigate each level by mining the ground and building around everything. A+, no notes.
3Fraymakers
Supersized Smashing
Speaking of Smash Bros., Fraymakers comes from the passionate fangame developers behind Super Smash Flash 2, and it’s a love letter to indie games and platform fighters and a massive crossover in itself.
There are way too many games represented to list them all, but chief among them are Bit Trip Runner, Downwell, Octodad, Rivals of Aether, Slap City, Slay the Spire, Among Us, OneShot, Pizza Tower, and many more.
It unfortunately only has a handful of playable fighters, with most other series only getting represented through assists you can summon whenever you want, though, like Rivals of Aether, it has a massive modding scene.
It’s also still in active development, with the developers frequently dropping new assists, and drip-feeding us a new character once in a blue moon. If they give us Spark the Electric Jester, I will be happy forever.
2Terraria
Mishmash of IP
SandboxReleasedMay 16, 2011ESRBT for Teen: Blood and Gore, Cartoon Violence, Mild Suggestive Themes, Use of AlcoholPlatform(s)PC, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X, Vita, iOS, Android, macOS, Linux, 3DS, Stadia, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo SwitchDeveloper(s)Re-LogicMultiplayerOnline Multiplayer
If you don’t count the one Microsoft owns, then Terraria is the best-selling indie game ever, and with that level of fame in a game that’s already a mishmash of content, you’re bound to have some awesome crossovers.
There have been smaller crossovers with Edge of Space, Minecraft, Core Keeper, Stardew Valley, Worms 3, and Pixel Piracy, but nothing beats the crossovers with Don’t Starve and Dungeon Defenders.
Don’t Starve has a whole optional boss with a bunch of unique weapons and accessories in Terraria, and Dungeon Defenders has a ton of summon weapons, an NPC, and the most boring event in the entire game.
We’re on track to receive some awesome vanity and weapons from Dead Cells, and some sort of reciprocal crossover content with Palworld, though we don’t know what that is just yet.
1Dead Cells
Everyone is Here
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Speaking of Dead Cells, it was on a mission to cross over with every indie game under the sun, in two separate updates that were almost entirely focused on adding some cool content from other small developers.
It ended up getting content from Skul: The Hero Slayer, Hollow Knight, Hyper Light Drifter, Guacamelee, Curse of the Dead Gods, Blasphemous, Soul Knight, Slay the Spire, Shovel Knight, Terraria, Hotline Miami, Katana Zero, and finally, Risk of Rain.
Every single one of these games gets the full treatment of a vanity armor set, a unique item that takes mechanics from the source game, and a unique room in the starting area filled with references to the source game.
These vanity armor sets also have unique unlock conditions, such as Commando’s set from Risk of Rain making you defeat an Imp Statue from the first game to unlock it, which pleases my soul as one of the few people that still enjoy Risk of Rain Returns.
