This year was a weird one in gaming.

There were huge expectations for 2014 coming out of the gate with big announcements like Sony’s “Playstation Now” online gaming service and a list of seemingly hit games to watch throughout the year. Almost 12 months later, gamers have watched as a treasured pastime gets even more mainstream, with big deals like Amazon’s $970 acquisition of the live video streaming service Twitch.

We’ve also watched as a crucial philosophical argument over gender equality played out in the public sphere over the past few months. Video games this year may well be defined by the Gamergate movement, whose members are mainly known for terrorizing female professionals in the video game industry.

Yet 2014 has also provided us with many surprises and wonders — or at least it did for me. My experiences with games this year came as a constant surprise. Many games I looked forward to didn’t live up to their hype, while games I took a passing interest in ended up becoming a joy for me to experience.

I was so excited for “Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2” when it came out in February. Its premise sounded awesome (spoiler alert): You play as Dracula, the terror the protagonist of “Castlevania: Lords of Shadow” eventually becomes.

That. Sounded. Awesome.

The game, unfortunately, was not so awesome. It suffered from a weaker plot than the first game, frustratingly useless stealth sections and an uneven environment design. I liked it at the time, but I have no desire to play it again.

Yet I found solace in the surprisingly addictive “Bravely Default,” released for the Nintendo 3DS the same month as “Castlevania: LoS 2.” It was a fresh take on Square Enix’s classic RPG format, and it continues to be a satisfying go-to game even if its second half is a bit repetitious. I enjoyed it far more than I thought I would, and I recommend it to anyone who owns a 3DS.

Of course, AAA games with huge budgets like “Dragon Age: Inquisition” and “Mario Kart 8” were celebrated this year, but indie games got a surprising amount of notice this year, which is a good sign for an industry leaning on more big-time games with huge budgets and an insane amount of marketing.

I loved “Transistor” and enjoyed “Shovel Knight,” two fantastic games developed by indie companies. They weren’t the only great indie titles to come out this year, however. “Five Nights at Freddy’s” has taken the survival horror genre by storm for its unique and sometimes hilariously frightening aspects. Games like “OlliOlli” and “Hohokum” are addictive in their simplicity.

In other words, it was a good year for independent developers.

These surprises are a good thing for an industry that struggles to maintain creativity in the face of huge mainstream attention and billions of dollars at play. This was a good year for gaming to stretch its boundaries, to question what makes a gamer and to evolve as a learning tool, mindless entertainment, and high-level artistic medium. I hope gaming can give us even more surprises in 2015.