10 Best Meta-Narratives in Indie Games

There's one big rule in writing fiction, which is to make sure you keep the audience immersed in your work at all times. As independent creators get lifted due to the internet, though, we see the line between fiction and reality being pushed hard.

Indie games, in particular, have embraced the fourth-wall-breaking writing style that can so easily destroy the player's immersion, instead using it as a tool to make people feel more immersed than ever, and make them a character in the story.

Some triple-A devs have tried this approach from time to time, but I think the indie games that pioneered this idea deserve quite a bit of adoration. Parting the curtain separating the player and the game is a difficult task, and it's commendable to see small teams do it so well.

These are ten games that handle a metanarrative with absolute mastery. Whether it's through merely acknowledging game mechanics and using them as a vehicle for storytelling, or completely shattering the fourth wall excellently.

10 Imscared

Take Notes

While certainly not the biggest or best meta game out there, I feel like Imscared deserves quite a bit of recognition for being one of the first meta horror games. It's done to death now, but a game handling your PC files to scare you with tact was pretty novel.

It's like every cool and grotesquely interesting part of computer viruses, baked into a game with no real ill intent. You'll find your files being tampered with, new text documents appearing, and what feels like a mini ARG unveiling as you explore.

I've never really seen the concept of Imscared be replicated to this day, despite the aesthetic it uses coming back into style. I'm also not at all a fan of horror games, but there's something so incredibly engaging about this game that makes me unable to look away.

It goes far beyond just using the name on your computer to give you a cheap scare. It feels like this entity is genuinely trying to reach out to you personally, with your computer just being the vessel it uses to accomplish this goal, and I adore that.

9 OFF

Up to Bat

In terms of meshing a metanarrative with genuinely fun gameplay, OFF was likely the first to ever effectively do it, and it deserves credit for that. It's a very fun RPG with an incredible story on its own merits, and it inspired several other games on this list.

It puts you, the player, into the story as yourself. You're a godlike figure presiding over this world and guiding the Batter along his sacred mission, and interestingly, he seems very okay with this idea and never resists having someone control his actions.

I can't particularly go into what makes this cool without spoiling the very end of the game, so if you would like to keep that surprise, here's your warning. Anyway, getting to fight the protagonist you were controlling at the very end is insane, and I adore it.

The ending scene, in general, makes you feel bad just for playing the game. Going along for the ride makes it incredibly clear you're in the wrong and doing something horrid, and the game poses the chilling question, "What atrocities would you commit, just to see the narrative play out?"

8 Doki Doki Literature Club

A Void in My Heart

While coincidentally being named Monica has given me an instinctual reaction that makes my face scrunch whenever Doki Doki Literature Club is mentioned, for the hundreds of people that have made the same reference to me the second they hear my name, I do need to acknowledge that the game is, in fact, good.

In a perfect world, you boot up this game, ignore all the warnings, and assume it's a perfectly fine dating simulator until it starts going off the rails. While that's really hard to achieve, given the number of people talking about it, it works incredibly well for that scenario.

You are acknowledged, not as your in-game milquetoast character, but as the person behind the screen reading all the dialogue. Monika trapping you in a void, having you to herself until you delete her files, made her both endearing and incredibly intimidating.

It's one of the few games to take the reins of what Imscared went for, twisting it into something incredibly subversive, and I respect it for that. It's very reliant on shock horror, but it manages to do it with just enough tact to feel more engaging than something like a .EXE game.

7 Pony Island

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The first on this list to really embrace game mechanics as a plot device, Pony Island has you playing a game made by the devil. Now, the devil may kinda suck at coding, so you have to learn a little bit of visual scripting to finish things up.

It's presented as a pretty bad autorunning shoot-em-up, then quickly allows you access to the entire world hiding underneath that disguise. It's not as direct with the meta elements as games that wish to call you by your full legal name, but it is very aware that it's a video game.

Getting to interface with an entire fake desktop, converse with a tormented soul that was previously in the same position you were in, and uncover more stuff through what's essentially a simulation of trying to use someone else's computer is an ingenious vehicle for storytelling.

I find the visual coding bits to be some really enjoyable puzzle design, and though the narrative is pretty on the nose, it's still enjoyable to uncover everything. I'd recommend it any day, especially to weird nerds who find coding enjoyable, like me.

6 The Stanley Parable

Stanley Then Read The Subtitle

I absolutely adore The Stanley Parable. What is initially presented as a very linear narrative adventure gets quickly turned on its head as soon as you decide to defy whatever the omniscient narrator tries to tell you to do.

When you don't know what you're in for, it feels like climbing down an endless rabbit hole of brand-new content, where every action you can take leads to a unique ending that goes completely off the rails.

It's so incredibly aware of player choice in a way I have never seen replicated before or since, with such a witty style of writing that you can't help but respect it. There is no fourth wall; the narrator feels pissed at you, even if he's convinced your name is Stanley.

It isn't going to make you a real character in the story or make you sort through your documents folder, but it is going to commentate on the very nature of video games as a whole, and also make you leave the game off for years to get a single achievement.

5 Superhot

Free Yourself

On the surface, Superhot is an incredibly stylish shooter with a unique gimmick that makes it feel awesome. While it definitely is that, it's also an incredibly meta game, where the larger narrative isn't appreciated as much as it should be.

It's about accessing a computer that gives you the most engaging VR title you've ever played, only for the game to slowly take over your entire life, to the point where you actively prioritize experiencing more of this obsession over your own life.

As someone who gets a new hyperfixation every two months, not only is this incredibly relatable, but it's rather personal. Superhot is an excellent game, so the fact this plotline centers on being obsessed with it hits far harder than if the gameplay weren't up to par.

It mashes the gameplay and narrative smoother than any blender I've ever used, and it uses its narrative to push you along until you see the natural conclusion of becoming fixated on something to a fault, even despite having super simplistic visuals.

4 Undertale

Light Inside Your Soul

Likely the entire reason this article exists, and why you're reading it currently, Undertale introduced a ton of people to the very concept of a metanarrative. It's rather notorious now for how seamlessly it integrates gameplay elements into the narrative.

Your ability to save the game, reload it, and reset as you please is perceived by several characters. Little minute details change, and some dialogue directly calls you out for playing god, abusing your powers just to see what happens.

This all comes to a head in the No Mercy route, with the Sans fight, something that has gotten so iconic that more people probably know Sans and Megalovania than people know Undertale itself, despite being on an incredibly obscure path.

You need to actively fight against the game, go down the route of mercilessly grinding for hours, detaching yourself from the narrative entirely. And with that, Flowey calls you out, becomes your direct parallel, and makes you feel terrible for thinking of this game as just a video game.

3 Inscryption

Cards Down

Easily my favorite application of a game being aware of its nature as a video game, Daniel Mullins returns from Pony Island with Inscryption, a game that is somehow completely different, yet learned all the right lessons from the former title.

First off, the game is actually really fun this time. I find myself replaying Kaycee's Mod a ton, simply because it's a really damn good roguelike deckbuilder, and the narrative added on top of it is even better.

The DM to your little card game is rather aware of the nature of how you're communicating, and his story gets unraveled as you find the original game, navigate through it, only to be sent to a third entirely new video game.

Using your computer files as attacks, killing your friends after they get turned into cards, and making your own boss fight are all great gimmicks, but the end of the game really breaks things down and makes this one genuinely unforgettable.

2 Deltarune

Stay Determined

While Toby Fox may have changed the world with Undertale, Deltarune was always his fever dream game that he'd wanted to come to life for 14 years. Instead of just the game mechanics as plot elements, you are a character in the most literal sense.

Kris may be the protagonist that you control, but you are not Kris. The little red heart is just you, incarnated into this fictional world and piloting a very unwilling puppet, who will make sure to make their disagreements clear.

Deltarune is an absolute improvement on everything Undertale did, alongside a narrative that feels far more engaging. You're picking your vessel's dialogue, but they have their own wants and desires, even if you won't let them express it.

Every twist and turn of this story makes me feel bad for controlling the main character, something no other game has done for me. This is the only game where I've actively rooted against myself and felt good about it, and I adore that.

1 OneShot

All But Barren

I think, of any metanarrative in any game, OneShot far and away had the most emotional impact for me. Just like OFF, you're a godlike presence guiding a character in this world, but the story is so much more involved and way more personal.

OneShot is incredible at getting you to truly believe Niko, the character you control, is a real person worth trying to save. They're so expressive, they constantly have endearing conversations with you, and you get incredibly attached by the end.

It has one of the most emotionally wracking choices by the end, and it's potentially the best moral choice I've ever seen pulled off in a video game. I've never seen someone not struggle to make their decision, and I've seen tons of people brought to tears by the prompt.

It's evident enough that this game breaks the fourth wall, brings you into it, and makes you forget there was ever a wall there in the first place, but it does it so expertly and with so much tact that it'd be a crime for it to go anywhere lower than the top of the list.