The Indie250 celebrations continue this Indie-Penance Day, as Kotaku celebrates the birth of our great indie nation some 250,000 years ago. (Look, I’m British, I barely understand this American nonsense and frankly it should all probably still be mine.) Below are ten more fascinating, fantastic new or upcoming independent games you’ve most likely not heard of before, but will almost definitely pique your interest and be destined for your Wishlist.
Genuinely, wishlisting these games is the very best thing you can do to help out these developers, as it triggers the algorithms and will put interesting projects in front of more people. Sharing this article helps too, not only to get more people interested in the games, but also because then my boss sees the good numbers and lets me keep doing this. And maybe he’ll pay me more? And then I’ll get rich enough to buy the site, and then it’ll be all indie games, all the time! Take that, The Elder Scrolls VI: Hammerfell. You are nothing compared to this deckbuilding bullet heaven visual novel roguelite about space pirates who farm!
Spellsided
Developer: Mass Transfer Interactive
Release date: TBA
Steam page
I love the idea of the die you roll to play a game also being the character you’re playing. Spell Sided is about a magical die where you can customize each face to cast a different spell, and then that’s combined with the classic cube-rolling mechanic that’s been the basis of so many fantastic puzzle games. The voxel-looking art is a perfect choice, and I’m so intrigued to learn how this works out.
Janet DeMornay Is A Slumlord (and a witch)
Developer: Fuzzy Ghost
Release date: TBA
Steam page
I have no idea what I’m looking at and I love everything about it. I was sold from the title, but the trailer triple-underlines it. I want to play any game that’s set in “a maze of debauched appliances”! Janet DeMornay, it seems, is a former television celebrity who has faded from fame, and is about to launch a surprise inspection on the apartment she’s renting to you. But, well, watch the trailer: I really can’t add to that.
Ourlands
Developer: GrahamOfLegend
Release date: Out now
Steam page
We’re not exactly lacking for cosy city builders as a species, but there is something about Ourlands that seems a whole extra degree of chilled to me. There are no goals, there’s no management element, it’s “just vibes,” as you build up and decorate islands with stickerbook-like additions. It’s just about hand-crafting and poking about, and given how tired I’ve felt this week, that just sounds luxurious.
Defy the Gods
Developer: Hectic Electron Games
Release date: Out now
Store page
What is this witchcraft? It’s like a video game, but instead of being displayed on a screen it’s been trapped in some manner of papery vessel. In fact, Defy the Gods is a TTRPG printed in a gorgeous-looking 312-page hardback book, which tells the tale and provides the ruleset for this queer sword-n-sorcery romantic adventure. From the footage, this looks like such a premium and beautiful presentation.
Roombattle
Developer: Dust Games
Release date: Out now
Steam page
This game’s name is a way better pun than it looks at first glance. It’s a game about battling robotic vacuum cleaners! You can play it solo, or with up to six players (online or local, and with an option to use smartphones as controllers), in a frantic fight to try to pop each other’s bubbles. Literally. Please don’t use the game to ruin someone’s dreams.
Dance of Theseus
Developer: Citreat Studio
Release date: TBA
Steam page
So many mainstream games of late have been poorly disguised dress-up sims, not least among them the forthcoming GTA 6. So it’s refreshing to see a high-quality indie just being first-and-foremost a dress-up sim, and even better, set in the world of monster ballrooms! You not only need to kit yourself out, but you need to craft the limbs and body parts on which you’ll wear the fits, as well as making friends and falling in love.
He Who Watches
Developer: Danga Games
Release date: TBA
Steam page
It’s a good sign when I find myself saying out loud, “Ooh, yes!” within the first few seconds of a trailer. For He Who Watches it was the first time the camera turned 90 degrees and I realized what sort of puzzle game we have here. This is about manipulating gravity, walking on walls, and firing magic arrows to solve puzzles in large chambers. Oh, and seeking the god that’s in control of it all.
Folk Emerging
Developer: Curious Dynamics
Release date: July 2026
Steam page
A 4X game set in the stone age, Folk Emerging looks like an incredibly ambitious game from anyone, let alone a solo first-time developer, Curious Dynamics. But this tile-based civilization-builder looks remarkable, not least because of it’s brilliant use of cave painting artwork. And yeah, it’s alll set in the bit that happens before Civilization even starts!
Blocks For Babies
Developer: BunkSoft Interactive
Release date: TBA
Steam page
I’ve seen a lot of things in games, but I’ve never seen a classic 2D block-stacking puzzle game that can turn into a 3D first-person shooter. It’s two very different ways to eliminate blocks! Like if Tetris and Doom got into Jeff Goldblum’s personal teleporter. And it’s about babies! I…dread to work out how, but the whole thing looks splendidly batshit crazy.
Imprinted
Developer: Cobalt Lane
Release date: TBA
Steam page
We had an audio restoration game in the last collection, I’m Your Host, but one of those is never enough. So hello Imprinted, a game about restoring cassette tapes that belonged to a missing musician, Viola Fossati, who had becoming involved in the occult when she went missing in the late 1970s. Haunting tunes, fragments of voice recordings, and clips of her experimental music need to be recovered and researched, visiting websites and exploring photographs, and oh good grief just hurry up and release it already! There’s a demo due later this month.
