The “IndieList” is an ever-growing compilation of recently-released indie games that have piqued my interest: part wishlist, part curation. Today’s additions span many genres, from life sims to esoteric programming and roguelikes to abstract puzzles.
All pictures and game descriptions are publicly sourced from Steam and/or SteamDB.
Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus & Butterfly
STORY-RICH / NARRATIVE
Dust off your coffee machine and prepare your warmest smile to meet your customers again in the second episode of the much loved coffee brewing and heart-to-heart talking simulator; Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus & Butterfly. Steam.
Notes: Standalone sequel to the heartwarming indie masterpiece Coffee Talk, featuring new and returning characters.
Big Ambitions – ⓘ Early Access
TYCOON / MANAGEMENT
Big Ambitions is a revolutionary role-playing business sim. Go from nothing to the biggest entrepreneur in New York by opening small businesses or slowly building huge corporations any way you like. Steam.
Notes: A Sims-style tycoon/management sim with big potential.
Oxygen
CITY BUILDER / SURVIVAL
Oxygen is a survival city builder. Build your city around the Oxygen Center and ensure your people’s survival in a post-apocalyptic future, threatened by crack explosions, deadly winds, droughts and frosts. Lead your people and more importantly keep the Oxygen Center running! Steam.
Notes: Looks and sounds a lot like Frostpunk.
Terrascape – ⓘ Early Access
CITY BUILDER / PUZZLE
In TerraScape you build your own dream city. Each pack of cards in TerraScape offers different buildings and ways to expand your kingdom. Place your cards wisely in the game world to earn points and receive new cards as rewards! Steam.
Notes: Points-based building placement reminiscent of ISLANDERS and Dorfromantik.
Fabledom – ⓘ Early Access
CITY BUILDER
Once upon a Village… Set in a wholesome fairytale world, Fabledom is the ideal laid back City builder. Enjoy the growth of your settlement, trade and use diplomacy to ally or challenge your neighbors, and most importantly, find yourself a prince or princess and live happily ever after! Steam.
Notes: A medieval fantasy-themed low-poly city builder inspired by games such as Foundation.
Havendock – ⓘ Early Access
COLONY SIMULATOR
Breathe easy and thrive in this cozy colony sim. Build a haven for castaways, manage resources, live your best life on the ocean. Lead your humble settlement into a high-tech society. Steam.
Notes: Interesting blend of micromanage-y colony sim gameplay with the exploration and crafting typical of life sims.
Thriving City: Song – ⓘ Early Access
CITY BUILDER / STRATEGY
In 960 A.D., the Zhao Song Dynasty was established. As the mayor, you’ll need to help the townspeople settle down, cultivate the land and expand. However, when the emperor issues a national mandate, conflicts between factions threaten city development—what strategy will you adopt? Steam.
Notes: Definitely a game to keep a close eye on. Isometric strategy city builder with story / society events, with a beautiful traditional art style.
DIG – Deep in Galaxies
ROGUELIKE PLATFORMER
Free the galaxies in this action platformer! Jump, swing, dig and shoot your way through uncharted planets. Give hell to the Overlord’s forces and face alien foes. Earn rewards after every battle and add them to your ever-growing arsenal. Steam.
Notes: Very hectic procedural platformer with destructible environments. More explosions and mayhem than Noita.
Ash of Gods: The Way
DECKBUILDER
Fight turn-based battles over varied battlefields with characters and equipment drawn from your custom built deck of cards! Every mission features different objectives, terrain and traps. Expand your tactical options as you gain cards and progress through the story! Steam.
Notes: Successor to Ash of Gods: Redemption with card-based combat while retaining the story-rich Banner Saga-style campaign and artstyle.
Figment 2: Creed Valley
ADVENTURE / PUZZLE
Figment 2: Creed Valley is an action-adventure game set in the human mind. Face bosses in musical showdowns, make your way through puzzles, and explore unique environments. Steam.
Notes: Absolutely stunning art style. If it’s anything like the first game it’s sure to be a hit.
Teslagrad 2
PUZZLE PLATFORMER
Lumina, a young Teslamancer, finds herself stranded after her airship crash lands in Wyrmheim, a remote and treacherous land to the North. Embark on a dangerous adventure, exploring a gigantic, abandoned tower looming over a fjordside valley, on a quest to get Lumina home and back to her family. Steam.
Notes: Physics-based puzzle platformer, strong focus on exploration.
Neon Echo – ⓘ Early Access
ACTION ROGUELIKE
Neon Echo is a 3D side-scrolling action Roguelite game with an anime and tech-wear style. In a world that has been corrupted by “noise”, “electronic music” has become the only means to resist the power of “Strepification”. Now, let’s follow the beat of electronic music to fight! Steam.
Notes: An anime-themed take on Dead Cells with some rhythm elements.
Relic Space – ⓘ Early Access
ROGUELIKE / 4X
Experience deeply simulated, hex-based space combat as an elite starship pilot. Explore a ruined solar system, upgrade your ship, and lead your faction to greatness in this tactical, space RPG with 4X elements. Steam.
Notes: A space-based roguelike with 4X elements is something you don’t come across every day. Looks very deep and ambitious.
Souls of White Star – ⓘ Early Access
ROGUELIKE DECKBUILDER
Souls of White Star is a sci-fi turn-based card wargame Roguelike strategy game. The different design of [double-sided technology moving cards] and [bandwidth draw cost] will test your judgment and decision more! Steam.
Notes: Very appealing concept with what looks to be an incredible amount of complexity.
HOPE LEFT ME
VISUAL NOVEL
You wake up in a mysterious place, alone and freezing to death, the only person around seems to be a weird girl with a long sleeve soviet jersey. Steam.
Notes: Short-but-sweet VN featuring the inimitable art and music of Astrophysics.
Shadows of Doubt – ⓘ Early Access
IMMERSIVE SIM
An immersive sandbox detective stealth game set in a fully simulated sci-fi noir city of crime and corruption. Think like a private investigator and take on jobs to earn cash on your path to catching a serial killer. If you don’t catch them – they will kill again… Steam.
Notes: Getting some real classic Deus Ex vibes here.
Time Wasters – ⓘ Early Access
SURVIVAL ROGUELIKE
Time Wasters is a space shooter bullet heaven roguelite. Equip and upgrade weapons, destroy swarms of enemies, and collect Time & Space Cubes to bend the timeline to your advantage. Steam.
Notes: Even though the VS-clone microgenre is beyond saturated, Time Wasters actually feels fresh (if just for a while).
Zoeti
ROGUELIKE DECKBUILDER
Zoeti is a turn-based roguelite that features a deck of playing cards used to create card combos and activate skills in the heat of battle. Bolster your arsenal of skills through battles, discoverable upgrades, or aid from the locals which enhance your plays to overcome the evil plaguing your land. Steam.
Notes: Poker-based Slay the Spire.
Lone Fungus
METROIDVANIA
A handcrafted open-world platformer set in a world built by Mushrooms! Explore different locations filled with secrets, acquire new abilities and use those abilities to reach new places! Steam.
Notes: Solid entry to the genre, also available in a bundle with fellow metroidvania Haiku, the Robot.
Wall World
ROGUELIKE
Explore the mysterious Wall World on your giant robospider: mine for valuable resources, upgrade your equipment to fight off hordes of monsters, and discover exotic biomes in-between attacks. Will you be able to survive and learn the secrets of the Wall World? Steam.
Notes: A horizontal version of Dome Keeper.
Sun Haven
FARMING SIMULATOR
Build your farm and relationships with townsfolk, or forge ahead on a quest of magic, monsters, and dragons. Level up through a skill tree in 8 person multiplayer, or adventure solo! Steam.
Notes: Ambitious farming sim with a distinct magical vibe. That said, the game has arguably been rushed out of early access, with several aspects remaining incomplete.
Roots of Pacha
FARMING SIMULATOR
Be a part of a thriving stone age community. Discover “ideas,” domesticate crops, befriend animals, and contribute to the growth of your village. Play with friends in co-op or explore the early days of civilization in single-player. Steam.
Notes: It’s amazing how a completely different setting can breathe new life into the farming simulator genre.
Umprompted
PUZZLE
A.I. IS HERE. Type to guess the words used to create A.I. artworks, while slowly uncovering A.I.’s reflections on its own work. Come investigate more than 1,500 artworks made by A.I. across 7 carefully curated galleries. Steam.
Notes: Excellent img2prompt indie gem!
Netherguild – ⓘ Early Access
DUNGEON CRAWLER
Netherguild is a turn-based tactical roguelite dungeon-crawler, where you command expeditions below the earth in a desperate attempt to cure a strange plague. Explore, camp, and fight as far as you can before heading back to resupply. What will you discover underground? Steam.
Notes: Squad-based tactics game. Solo developer!
Cassette Beasts
MONSTER COLLECTOR
Collect awesome monsters to use during turn-based battles in this open-world RPG. Combine any two monster forms using Cassette Beasts’ Fusion System to create unique and powerful new ones! Steam.
Notes: Innovative monster collector.
The Secret of Darkwoods – ⓘ Free to Play
STORY-RICH RPG
Open-world illustrated text-based RPG. Inspired by classic role-playing video games and fantasy gamebooks, the secret of darkwoods is a free game, a non-linear standalone adventure with side quests in a vast world. Steam.
Notes: Having recently played The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante I’d been digging another text-based RPG, and this game definitely delivers. Best of all, it’s free!
Stuffo the Puzzle Bot
PUZZLE PLATFORMER
A laid-back but smart puzzle game. Stuffo is the last remaining puzzle bot stuck in a world filled with bite-sized brain-teasers. Help Stuffo to solve the mind-bending puzzles by using various blocks to climb, push and teleport your way to the exit. Steam.
Notes: Great puzzle game with some excellent Eureka moments.
Can of Wormholes
PUZZLE
Push, slice, ingest, flip, and squish worms in this puzzle game in which you play as a little sentient tin can. Steam.
Notes: An incredibly innovative and “organic” puzzle game that rewards creativity, with special attention paid to accessibility (e.g. excellent hints system, no time-based puzzles). Highly recommended!
Drop – System Breach
HACKING
Welcome to DROP, a fast-paced action-strategy hacking simulator. Ready to hack your way to fame and fortune while avoiding getting caught? Use stealth and cunning to maneuver between the ongoing power struggle of corporations and factions to control the fragmented networks in the city. Steam.
Notes: Hits you like a train.
Alephant
ABSTRACT PUZZLE
A word-less abstract puzzle game about language. Steam.
Notes: If Heaven’s Vault ever had a sokoban spin-off, this is probably what I’d look like.
SokoChess White
SOKOBAN
SokoChess White is a puzzle game about pushing Chess pieces into their destination and overcoming various obstacles. Enjoy 70 different handcrafted levels with a unique twist on the Chess formula. Steam.
Notes: Follow-up to SokoChess with even more mechanics.
Sisypush
SOKOBAN
Play as Sisyphus in the ancient Greek underworld, clearing obstacles and pushing your special rock towards the target in over 60 levels of this short Sokoban-like puzzle game with a 1-bit art style. Steam.
Notes: One must imagine playing this game makes you happy.
Programmer Dungeon Knightress
PUZZLE
Programmer Dungeon is a tactical game that challenges players to use logic programming to solve puzzles and progress through each level. Collect unique skills, use visual programming to automate your character, and defeat your enemies. Plan carefully and enjoy this exciting adventure! Steam.
Notes: A deceptively difficult drag-and-drop programming game.
Editor’s Hell
INDIE
You just became the editor for a newspaper in a troublesome country. After months of unemployment; you just had to took it. First, you have to make a choice. Will you support the government or will you go against it? Dreams, nightmares, don’t matter anymore; you have a new opportunity in your life. Steam.
Notes: Remember Lucas Pope’s The Republia Times, one of the forerunners to his magnum opus Papers Please? Editor’s Hell is arguably the perfect spiritual successor (also by a solo developer!)
WatanOS – ⓘ Early Access, ⓘ Free to Play
PUZZLE / PSYCHOLOGICAL HORROR
WatanOS is a c̶̭̄ọ̶͝m̷̝̂ṕ̵͉l̶͚̂e̵̥̽t̵͕̂e̴̝͑l̵͎͛y̸̮̌ ̷̡͝ñ̵ͅo̷̦͒r̶̤̽m̷̧̌a̵̼̽l̶̹̇ operating system for all your mistery-solving needs! Steam.
Notes: Yes.