PC Gamer presents: The Ultimate Guide to Indie Games

Cute, distinctive characters? A penchant for invention? The drive to push gaming in to new, weird and wonderful directions? It must be indie games bumper special, then. We've created a 146-page celebration of everything indie, covering it all from the best, most obscure hidden gems, to the multi-million selling success stories. We'll show you the best things to come out of 2013, and the most exciting games still to come. We'll even save you some money, by rounding up our favourite free indie games of all time.

Here's what you'll find inside:

• Alex Wiltshire explores how the mainstream has failed us.

• Indie developers share their predictions for the next 20 years of gaming.

• Graham Smith looks into Prison Architect's breakout success.

• Marsh Davies digs into the making of Minecraft.

• Steve Hogarty and Tim Denee bring you the story of PCG's Dwarf Fortress adventure.

• Quintin Smith attempts to survive in Wurm Online.

• Tom Senior explores Roll20, the best D&D game on PC.

• Robert Yang rounds-up fifteen games that will shape the future of the FPS.

• Tom "Gunpoint" Francis brings us the indies' guide to making a game.

• Phil Savage collects the top 100 free games and mods of the last year.

• We preview the best looking indies of 2014, including Maia, Starbound, Transistor and Volume.

• We review the greatest indie games of last year, including The Stanley Parable, Card Hunter, Fez, Gone Home, Papers Please, and Spelunky.

• The PCG team reveal their 50 favourite free games of all time.

The Ultimate Guide to Indie Games is out now. For £9.99 you can order a physical copy through My Favourite Magazines , download it to your iPad/iPhone through the PC Gamer App , or grab a physical copy in your local magazine stockist.