With summer sales right around the corner, it’s time to compile another list of indie games that have caught my eye over these last few months (of which there have been many!). Notes are based on initial experiences and/or first impressions.
Game descriptions and images sourced from Steam and SteamDB. Early access status current as of June 2022.
Dorfromantik
Dorfromantik is a peaceful building strategy and puzzle game where you create a beautiful and ever-growing village landscape by placing tiles. Explore a variety of colorful biomes, discover and unlock new tiles and complete quests to fill your world with life! Steam.
Notes: Outstanding, innovative tile-based puzzler, now in its full release.
Airborne Kingdom
The sky city builder awaits. Create your own flying kingdom and lead it on a quest across an expansive world. Explore the varied landscape, build up a floating metropolis, aid struggling people below, uncover lost secrets and, ultimately, bring back the Airborne Kingdom legend. Steam.
Notes: Similar UI and resource gathering as Frostpunk, but with the joy of arranging a mini Laputa, and a story-driven questline focused on peaceful exploration.
Noble Fates – ⓘ Early Access
A 3D Fantasy Kingdom Sim driven by intelligent characters with a rich simulation of opinions and memories. Build, Craft, Farm, Mine, Hunt, Defend, and more! Command from the sky or take control in third person as your story goes where the people, your actions, and their reactions take it. Steam.
Notes: Fantasy Rimworld, but in need of much polish. Immense potential.
Tile Cities
Tile Cities turns city-building experience into a simple relaxing puzzle game and does so with style. Steam.
Notes: Wonderfully relaxing, like arranging tangrams. Perfect for fans of minimalist puzzlers.
Captain of Industry – ⓘ Early Access
Colony and factory simulation game. Alone with your loyal crew, expand a small colony of survivors into an industrial empire! From an abandoned island to vast factories, research labs, and space program. Build, mine, farm, shape terrain, explore, trade, and take care of your settlement! Steam.
Notes: An automation game with a space program?! Sign me up!
Sonority
Sonority is an innovative music puzzle adventure set in a lovingly designed, fascinating world. Play as Esther and discover the rockery, a place full of music and unique puzzle mechanics. Steam.
Notes: Fun, well executed musical puzzler.
My Time at Sandrock – ⓘ Early Access
Travel to the desert community of Sandrock and take on the role of a fledgling Builder. Use your trusty toolset to gather resources, construct machines, and turn your run-down workshop into a well-oiled production facility to save the town from the jaws of economic ruin! Steam.
Notes: Successor to the life / crafting sim My Time At Portia.
Pinku Kult Hex Mortis
Welcome to RAZORE CITY – a desolate, grim metropolis with one big problem: DEMONS. Control your own Razore City denizen as you investigate bizarre happenings around the city and track down the mastermind behind it all in this narrative-based RPG! Steam.
Notes: Turn-based mature horror with a fantastic art style.
Haiku, The Robot
Delve into the depths of a mechanical world in this cute, adventure-exploration game. Explore and fight in a land full of corrupt robots and machinery. All while seeking answers to the mysteries around you. Steam.
Notes: A somewhat laidback metroidvania, similar to Hollow Knight. Great environments and level design.
Downfall – A Slay The Spire Fan Expansion
A FREE complete expansion for Slay the Spire, made by the modding community. Features one brand new normal character, plus a new game mode with SEVEN fully complete new characters starring in a twisted campaign, and so much more. Steam.
Notes: Outstanding addition to the definitive roguelike deckbuilder. Requires ownership of Slay the Spire to install.
Stacklands
Stacklands is a village builder where you stack cards to collect food, build structures, and fight creatures. 🃏 For example, dragging a Villager card on top of a Berry Bush card will spawn Berry cards which the villagers can eat to survive. 🃏 Play your cards right and expand your village! Steam.
Notes: Relaxing, card-based incremental management game, far less impenetrable than Cultist Simulator.
Citizen Sleeper
Roleplaying in the ruins of interplanetary capitalism. Live the life of an escaped worker, washed-up on a lawless station at the edge of an interstellar society. Inspired by the flexibility and freedom of TTRPGs, explore the station, choose your friends, escape your past and change your future. Steam.
Notes: Outstanding narrative and atmosphere, one of the best story-rich RPGs of the year.
Little Witch In The Woods – ⓘ Early Access
Little Witch in the Woods tells the story of Ellie, an apprentice witch. Explore the mystical forest, help the charming residents, and experience the daily life of the witch. Steam.
Notes: Charming pixel art, great exploration and potion mechanics.
Winkeltje: The Little Shop
Winkeltje: The Little Shop is all about building, decorating, and running your own old-world fantasy shop. Buy low, sell high – from nails and apples to swords and alchemic love potions. Impress your customers, craft items, and be the master of your very own shop. Steam.
Notes: Great medieval-themed management simulator, with Sims-style construction/decorating and even farming mechanics. You can also specialise to be a blacksmith, alchemist, general trader, etc.
DRAINUS
This is a side-scrolling shooting game in which you take control of the “Drainus”, the Kharlal Empire’s most cutting-edge fighter with the ability to absorb energy bullets, and take down the enemy ships zipping through space. Steam.
Notes: Side-scroll shoot ’em ups are by no means a dead genre. As far as the genre is concerned, this game is flawless.
APICO
APICO is a laid-back beekeeping sim game about breeding, collecting, & conserving bees! Set in a series of lush environments, APICO uniquely combines resource gathering, biology, and beekeeping minigames, taking ideas from a mix of real-life and fantasy apiculture & floriculture. Steam.
Notes: Fun concept, though a tad grindy and expensive.
Terraformers – ⓘ Early Access
Terraformers is an expansive colony builder and resource management game with roguelike elements. Explore the Red Planet, develop spectacular cities, spread life and terraform the planet with ambitious projects. Steam.
Notes: Card-based city builder that plays like a boardgame (with all the pitfalls of boardgames, namely heavy reliance on random numbers).
Refactor
Refactor is a hard-core tower defense game that combines modular building, route planning, and element composition. Steam.
Notes: An engaging take on the tower defence genre combining elements of auto-chess as well as the ability to change the enemy’s path through the grid (like in Sanctum). Note the game starts in Chinese by default.
Orb of Creation – ⓘ Early Access
Orb of Creation is an active incremental-puzzle game in which you recreate the world with nothing but magic and ingenuity. Conjure resources, buy upgrades, and become an all-powerful wizard! Steam.
Notes: Wonderful abstract management / production game. Looks like your typical idle clicker but there’s surprisingly a lot of stuff to keep you actively engaged.
Songs of Conquest – ⓘ Early Access
A turn-based strategy adventure game that fuses RPG, tactical combat and kingdom management. Raise mighty armies, wield ancient magic and conquer distant lands to build an empire that bards will sing about for centuries! Steam.
Notes: Good spiritual successor to the HoMM series.
Riftbound
Riftbound is the explosive easy to learn yet uniquely deep lane-defense strategy game. Defend against waves of undead by choosing the right mix of defenders, spells and upgrades from five schools of magic. Plan your best defense, unleash combos and vanquish enemy bosses! Steam.
Notes: You’d have to be pretty brave to take on the classic (i.e pre-EA acquisition) Plants vs. Zombies formula, but this game does so beautifully.
Spellcaster University
Develop a prestigious university of mages. Build rooms, train your students, fight orcs, slay the bureaucrats, manage your budget… a director’s life is not a quiet one. Steam.
Notes: Great potential to be the definitive Hogwarts simulator. While the actual simulation aspects are fun and immersive, the game is hamstrung by its card-based construction, poor optimisation and heavy reliance on random numbers.
Ghostlore – ⓘ Early Access
Ghostlore is an ‘Eastpunk’ Action-RPG where you fight monsters from Southeast-Asian folklore. Inspired by timeless classic ARPG’s such as Diablo 2 and Titan Quest, Ghostlore features a detailed item and character customization system, procedurally generated maps, and beautiful 2D isometric art. Steam.
Notes: Great ARPG with a unique aesthetic.
Astral Ascent – ⓘ Early Access
Choose one of four heroes and explore the Garden, an astral prison guarded by 12 powerful mystical bosses: the Zodiacs. Challenge them with dozens of unique spells and faithful friends by your side to unfold the story of this platform roguelite with lightning fast combat. Steam.
Notes: Promising 2D roguelite with an outstanding art style.
CANTATA – ⓘ Early Access
Choose a Commanding Officer from one of three factions. Explore, expand, and endure across campaigns set on a mysterious planet steeped in mystical sci-fi lore! Fight tactical, turn-based battles across large maps. Mod the game and make it your own! Steam.
Notes: Hardcore strategy game utilising many systems including resource management.
Samsara Room – ⓘ Free To Play
You woke up in a mysterious room you have never seen before. Can you find another way out? Samsara Room is a remake of the praised predecessor of the Rusty Lake & Cube Escape series. Steam.
Notes: Fantastic point-and-click / mystery puzzler.
Shotgun King: The Final Checkmate
Chess, but you replace your entire army with a royal shotgun. A unique strategy roguelike based on the timeless checkboard classic. Steam.
Notes: Just when you thought you’d seen it all with chess, in comes this gem.
The Looker – ⓘ Free To Play
You wake up, alone, on a strangely familiar island full of puzzles that will frustrate and annoy you. Steam.
Notes: Amazing parody of The Witness that plays very well in its own right.
A=B
A=B is a programming puzzle game with only one instruction: A=B, which means replacing A with B. Steam.
Notes: Excellent game for fans of esolangs, Zachtronics games or programming in general.