10 Indie Games That Blew Our Collective Lids During the SXSW Gaming Expo

With SXSW 2014's Interactive component drawing to a close, the chance to catch our collective breaths, sober up for a minute, and finally look at the indie titles the gaming expo showed off is finally here.

From charmingly minimalist craft games, to the return of one of the most violently satisfying titles of all time, the SXSW gaming expo was coming correct. Whether you were looking for retro, pixelated platformers or the most recent showing of the Oculus Rift, the SXSW gaming expo had you covered.

Here are: 10 Indie Games That Blew Our Collective Lids During the SXSW Gaming Expo

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Developed by Mark Essen, Niddhogg is a killer party game that puts you and a friend up against one another in a classic battle of fencing and jousting. Its aesthetic is simple, and its premise is even more basic, as you're given just a joystick and a couple buttons to get the upper-hand on your opponent.

Parry, thrust, and disarm your competition to win, or even get your challenger on the ground and rip their heart out. It's blood sport that avoids getting too graphic, instead opting to double up on the fun. Download it now on the Steam store. ll.

Some of the best games are the ones that manage to teach us something without us even knowing it. Developed by Blendo Games, Quadrilateral Cowboy is a title that aspires to deliver that experience. The education here is hacking, as much of the game's framework centers around entering commands and undermining security systems to create cyberpunk mayhem.

Set in the late '70s and early '80s, the game shows just how much damage you can do with a 56.6k modem and a 256k RAM. Techno-espionage and sabotage rule the day in Quadrilateral Cowboy, giving the Wild Wild West a much-needed update in the process.

With Six gut-wrenchingly tense scenarios, Gods Will Be Watching greets players as they struggle with decisions that will test their moral and ethical compasses.

To survive you'll be faced with decisions ranging from cannibalism to amputation, and torture all in the name of the greate good. Gruesome and challenging, the game will force you to think beyond the binaries of good and evil.

You know what there aren't enough of?

Underwater classroom, dolphin cheating simulators. This Oculus Rift VR title tasks players with taking a test and forcing them to cheat without getting caught. Did we mention that you're a foreign exchange student? And a dolphin.

Dubbed the first 'cheat 'em up', Classroom Aquatic will force you to cheat...as a dolphin.

Equal parts Metal Slug and literally every action film from the 80s and 90s, Broforce is every male, power fantasy unleashed.

Rambo, Predator, Die Hard, Commando, Blade, all get nods in the upcoming Devolver title. The title will be a pixelated 2D platformer, with an environment that is literally 100% destructable.

This run-n-gun platformer is going to be huge, offering online and local mulitplayer modes to bro down with your friends. Broforce drops on PC, Mac (and possibly console) this summer.

Tengami picks up where a game like Paper Mario left off, literally unfolding the possibilities of 2D logic in a 3D environment. Pop-up book mechanics are used to wonderful effect here, alongside a cool, mysterious soundtrack that lends to the game's otherworldly feel. Fold and slide through ancient Japan's various levels and puzzles as you try to discover the secret behind a dying cherry tree.

The wait for Tengami has been so great that some people may have even overlooked its actual release just a few weeks ago. However, if you haven't yet played this multidimensional masterpiece, it's time to download the title onto your iOS-compatible system now.

Vlambeer's gorgeous arcade shooter is all about millisecond reaction speed in order to avoid being destroyed mid-air. 125 combinations of weapons, planes, and propulsion systems all lend to some of the sickest aerial dogfighting we've ever seen.

Sparse retro graphics belie the game's challenging and rewarding learning curve.

A narrative puzzle game, Framed is a noir thriller that takes you through the story one comic panel at a time. However, there's a twist: it's up to you to rearrange the panels so that you avoid getting caught by the police or meeting your untimely end. Essentially, Framed is a game focused on re-contextualizing movement in gaming. All of the actions are already predetermined. You're tasked with acting fast to fit them together in a way that works.

With a jazzy soundtrack and a gritty vibe befitting its genre, Framed succeeds at telling a story in more ways than one. Expect to find it sometime in 2014 on the App, Steam, and Play Stores via Loveshack.

Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number concludes the viciously gorgeous Hotline Series.

Players are once again forced to engage in some of the most,satisfying close quarters combat ever programmed. The sequel follows after the events of the first title with more factions and more playable characters.

More blood, more bullets, and more masks. Get some.

Coming from Bread Bros Games, Sully is a throwback RPG with none of the self-seriousness that has come to define or weigh down the genre. The game centers on Crystal and Darin, two friends headed off to different colleges at the end of the summer, and now trying to make the most of their last few months together.

With vivid battle animations, hilarious monsters (you're actually able to fight cheesecake at one point), and other quirky additions, the game thrives on its own consistently ridiculous logic. Be on the lookout for Sully when it drops this summer for PC, Mac, Linux and PS Vita.