2011 may well be remembered as the year that indie games stood shoulder-to-shoulder with AAA megahits. Over the past few months, we’ve seen Terraria standing proud alongside Skyrim in the Steam sales rankings, and the largest digital games storefront out there giving equal screen-time to tiny and huge releases alike. It’ll also be remembered as the year that tiny indie studios poured forth from the woodwork, bleeding us completely dry in 2 or 3 dollar measures, and we smiled all the way. If you’re going to freeze this winter, you may as well have something to play while you do it. Here’s the Steam indie discounts of the day:

On the third day of Christmas Gabe Newell sent to me… 5-7 Indie Discounts, 3 Indie Challenges and 6 LUMPS OF COAL! Sing along with me, or not. Yeah, I know it doesn’t quite adhere to the original carol, but it’s not like this sale is giving me many nice, orderly numbers to use. But I digress – it’s the third day of the bignormous Steam sale, and we’ve got a bunch more indie discounts and challenges lined up. Here’s what’s on offer today, and some thoughts/recommendations:

Another day, another dollar (or ten) winging it’s way from our wallets. This has been a truly, absurdly good year for indie games, and the sales can only reflect this, with multiple great releases in each update, along with the three massive combo packs, as mentioned in our previous article. As an aside, anyone find it interesting that almost all the gift-giving achievements are from indie games? Valve really do seem to be supporting that side of the business however possible. Anyway, the Steam sales just updated, and here’s the indie picks of the day, along with some thoughts on each:

It feels like it was only just a month ago that Steam was ravaging our cash reserves with day after day of ridiculous indie deals. Probably because it was. Not satisfied, the monster that is Steam has risen again from the depths to take every last penny we have, and this time the indies are in on it. In addition to a great big mess of Steam deals, indie games all over the store have (as previously reported) updated with Christmas-themed challenges and achievements. Complete these, and you get free goodies, including DLC and even some full games! After the break, the notable indie daily deals and challenges of the day:

We’ve already featured this mod before, but it’s worth bringing it up again for two reasons: First, the base game – The Temple of Elemental Evil – is currently $3 over at GOG.com, and will be until the start of January. Secondly, because this enormous hybrid of (much-needed) fan-patch and unofficial expansion has updated again after another full year of development. More locations, more quests, more characters and more loot. If you’re looking for tactical RPG combat, this is ridiculously good value, and a truly essential mod.

As previously reported, there’s one last big bundle due this year. While it was clear that it would end up in direct competition with the Indie Royale, nobody could have guessed that it would be happening just a day after the fourth ‘core’ Humble Indie Bundle. Today, Eurogamer/Get Games’ entry into this indie bargain festival begins – the Little Big Bunch, in conjunction with the GamesAid charity initiative. Five good-to-great Windows PC games for whatever you want to pay (minimum $1.50, though) – gameplay trailers and thoughts on the full lineup after the break.

The crazy deal season that started in November shows no sign of slowing – it’s Indie Royale time again, and this pack is one of the best yet, weighing in at six games of generally excellent quality. Pay what you want (starting at a slowly rising minimum) for the fantastic Blackwell trilogy (remastered, apparently), The Oil Blue, Eets and Dino D-Day for Windows (and Mac/Linux where appropriate). Gameplay trailers and some thoughts after the break.

If you repeat a word enough times, it just loses all meaning. ‘Bundle’ is pretty close to hitting that point, but given the mountainous piles of games this year has given us in the form of charity-boosted pay-what-you-want sales, it’s hard to do more than comically gripe. As revealed in this press release, this December 14th Eurogamer (via their new storefront, Get Games) are rolling out their own charitable indie discount bundle – the littleBIGbunch – and it’s a very impressive lineup.

While not as huge as Minecraft yet, Terraria is catching up fast. Over 1 million sales in a few short months, compared to Minecraft’s 4 million over several years – it’s a definite contender for indie megahit of the year. It’s hard to believe that it was rushed out early to help fund repairs on the developers car, and that the previous release by the developer was Super Mario Bros X, a Mario fan-game. Rags to riches indeed. ReLogic haven’t been squandering their newfound fortune, either. Released today is an update for Terraria so huge that it effectively doubles the size of the game. Trailer and (update) release change-log after the break.

The history books of the future will surely paint November 2011 as a grim time, when indie gamers died by the thousands, freezing in the streets after being drained of every last penny by their maniacal developer overlords. Perhaps the chapter illustration will feature a jolly, hatted Swedish man riding atop a golden cuboid pig. This terrible siege continues today – yet another Indie Royale bundle is upon us. Brace yourselves.