Record crowds, long lines, and hype-filled booths meant that much of Ars’ E3 experience was spent not playing video games. We do our best to inform you about upcoming titles when we have little more to work with than promises and hands-off demos. But there’s nothing like a “no time limit” chance to sit and play, play, play.

That’s a big reason why we love the conference’s indie-focused events. Hype has no place among gaming’s small fries; you gotta have game. With that in mind, we dragged a video crew with us to some of E3’s funnest events to play indies and talk to their creators. The below video wraps up many of our favorites. For more on each of the featured games (and a few gems that didn’t quite fit), read our detailed explanations below.

(FYI: Game order is determined by order in the video, not ranking. Game platforms are not listed, as many developers could not yet confirm which platforms their unfinished games will launch on. Pretty much all are targeting Windows PCs, along with as many consoles as they can muster.)