Welcome to another rendition of The IndieList; a list of indie games that have caught my eye. From abstract minimalist puzzles to action roguelikes and colony simulators to 4X strategy, you’ll find a little bit of everything.
As always, screenshots and game descriptions are publicly sourced from Steam/SteamDB.
Mind Over Magic
Design, build and manage your magic school to explore what lies below. Study lost arcana, grow exotic plants, brew potions, and raise undead servants — only you can prepare your fragile students to harness their Mind Over Magic. Steam.
Notes: If you liked the idea of Spellcaster University but couldn’t stand its RNG card-based mechanics, then Mind Over Magic might be worth a look. Its colony sim micromanagement gives it some extra heft.
Anomaly Agent
ANOMALY AGENT is a cyberpunk action-adventure featuring fluid combat, a time-bending story, quirky characters and a catchy synthwave soundtrack! Punch or shoot through mobs of enemies, impact the story with your choices and stop the anomalies before the world plunges into chaos! Steam.
Notes: A clear stylistic nod to Katana ZERO, but with its own distinct combat.
Islands of Insight
Seek out and solve 10,000+ puzzles at your own pace across this sublime shared-world puzzle game. Steam.
Notes: Any other time I’d stay far, far away from an always-online single-player game, but as a puzzle game aficionado, I cannot simply not wishlist this.
Paper Lily – Chapter 1
Paper Lily is an RPG horror game in which you can solve puzzles in different ways. Explore a hidden world, meet strange characters, and guide Lacie as she attempts to find answers about her unusual condition. Steam.
Notes: Absolutely outstanding. The follow up to Project Kat – Paper Lily Prologue.
Sheepy: A Short Adventure
A Short Handcrafted Pixel Art Platformer that follows Sheepy, an abandoned plushy brought to life. Sheepy: A Short Adventure is the first short game from MrSuicideSheep. Steam.
Notes: A highly atmospheric metroidvania. It should go without saying that the music is incredible.
Balatro
The poker roguelike. Balatro is a hypnotically satisfying deckbuilder where you play illegal poker hands, discover game-changing jokers, and trigger adrenaline-pumping, outrageous combos. Steam.
Notes: It is surely bold for a game to call itself “The poker roguelike”… but that’s exactly what Balatro is. It is arguably the purest roguelike deckbuilder ever made.
Hazeron Starship
Explore and colonize a vast universe. Discover resources. Build cities. Make spacecraft. Walk aboard them. Operate their controls. Command a crew of NPCs. Lift off. Fly up through the atmosphere to outer space. Land on other worlds, anywhere, not at designated places. Build an empire. Steam.
Notes: Think of Spore from tribal stage onwards, but with near-infinite customisability (and early 90s graphics).
Pacific Drive
Face the supernatural dangers of the Olympic Exclusion Zone with a car as your only lifeline in this driving survival adventure! Scavenge resources, load up your trusty station wagon, and drive like hell to make it through alive. Steam.
Notes: A solid attempt at a survival game with supernatural elements, but held back by its grindy gameplay and insane amount of busywork. Your mileage may vary.
WitchHand
You’re a witch, leading your coven into new, unfriendly lands. Use the cards you find to build and expand your civilization. Befriend the local covens or use their bones to fuel your spells. Gather your familiars, the witching hour is nigh. Steam.
Notes: Looks like a deeper, scalable iteration of the Stacklands formula.
Lonestar
LONESTAR is a strategic Roguelike spaceship deckbuilder. As a bounty hunter, you will capture criminals scattered across the universe. Win the shockwave battle to gain rewards and vacations. Find treasures, customize spaceships, unlock talents, defeat the felons and be a legend! Steam.
Notes: There’s a surprising amount of depth here with its dice-style mechanics and lane-based combat. Great for fans of Dicey Dungeons and/or Cobalt Core.
Moonring
A dark-fantasy, turn-based, retro-fusion of classic turn-based RPGs and roguelikes, all presented with a unique neon aesthetic. Steam.
Notes: Do yourself a favour and play this game.
Moonbreaker
Moonbreaker is a turn-based strategy, tactical skirmish game. The game is designed to be a true digital miniatures experience, set in an expansive sci-fi universe crafted by Brandon Sanderson. Direct Captain and Crew in gripping, ever-changing competition and adventure. Steam.
Notes: From the makers of Subnautica. More emphasis on multiplayer with only limited solo content.
Tobor
Dive into Undercroft’s mysteries as a spy robot. Explore 16 surveillance feeds, collect text dialogues and hidden items, and shape multiple endings. Uncover secrets, make choices, and experience immersive storytelling in this captivating adventure packed with mystery and intrigue! Steam.
Notes: Super immersive gameplay. The dystopian atmosphere is incredible.
Ultros
ULTROS is a psychedelic metroidvania where you wake up stranded on The Sarcophagus — a cosmic uterus holding an ancient, demonic being. Trapped in the loop of a black hole, you will have to explore The Sarcophagus and meet its inhabitants to understand the part you play… Steam.
Notes: Incredible artstyle with some fresh gameplay ideas, although the roguelike mechanics are questionable.
NIDUS
A symbiotic Flower and Wasp struggle to complete their lifecycle, in a challengingly twisted arcade experience. Control both characters at once in mind-bending Single Player, or team up with a friend in hectic Local Co-Op. Master the symbiotic duet, devour the swarm, and ascend the leaderboard. Steam.
Notes: Wow.
Shattered Heaven
Shattered Heaven is a single-player deck builder card game with RPG elements and an ambitious branching narrative, set in a dark fantasy world. The game focuses on a card game and roguelike gameplay fueled by a great replay value, thanks to procedural dungeons, a deep crafting system. Steam.
Notes: An extremely well-polished roguelike deckbuilder.
Against the Storm
A dark fantasy city builder where you must rebuild civilization in the face of apocalyptic rains. As the Queen’s Viceroy, lead humans, beavers, lizards, foxes, and harpies to reclaim the wilderness and secure a future for civilization’s last survivors. Steam.
Notes: Very fast paced, addictive gameplay.
Risk of Rain Returns
Carefully designed, beautifully remastered, and loaded with new ways to play—Risk of Rain is back and better than ever! Dive into the iconic roguelike full of unique loot combinations, enhanced with new Survivors, overhauled multiplayer, fan favorite content from Risk of Rain 2, and more! Steam.
Notes: Excellent remake of 2013’s iconic roguelike with time-scaled difficulty.
Nexus 5X (formerly Stellaris Nexus)
eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate, EXPRESS. All of the depth, diplomacy, conflict and conquest of a turn-based 4X epic but played in fast-paced 60-minute competitive sessions. Play Solo or Multiplayer for 2-8 players. Steam.
Notes: A minimalist 4X game with a strong focus on skirmishes. Seems more like Endless Space than Stellaris.
Edit: As of March 2024 the game has been renamed to Nexus 5X.
Turnip Boy Robs a Bank
Turnip Boy is back! This time he’s teaming up with the fearsome Pickled Gang to plan and execute the weirdest heist of all time. Shake down hostages, steal precious valuables, battle the fuzz, and use wacky tools bought off the dark web to move further into the vaults of the Botanical Bank. Steam.
Notes: Gone is the more adventure-style gameplay of its predecessor in favour of a more roguelite / bullet hell experience.
Wantless: Solace at World’s End
SAVE YOUR PATIENTS FROM THEMSELVES. Craft your skills among millions of combinations, heal the mind and face ever growing nightmares in 10mn runs. Will you overcome the insidious curse rampaging in this dystopic sci-fi Tactical RPG? Steam.
Notes: An intriguing tactical roguelike with a gorgeous aesthetic.
Sovereign Syndicate
A Victorian steampunk RPG with tarot cards instead of dice. Investigate the disappearance of society’s most vulnerable to uncover a mysterious cult. Play as three characters, each with their own skills and motivations. Customize your characters with narrative choices to unlock new tarot cards. Steam.
Notes: Sunless Skies meets Disco Elysium.
Alien Horizon (Preview Alpha)
A sci-fi survival city builder set on an inhospitable alien planet. Faced with imminent destruction of Earth, humanity pooled together their resources and sent sleeper ships to nearby potentially habitable planets. But this one turned out to be much less habitable than expected…. Steam.
Notes: Looks very promising. The Alpha is free to play.
Worldless
Worldless is a stylised 2D platformer with a unique, active, turn-based combat system, and a mind-bending interpretative narrative. Players embark on a journey of self-growth and understanding, pushing the limits of their nature in a newly born and abstract universe. Steam.
Notes: A metroidvania with a fantastic visual style.
Picayune Dreams
Picayune Dreams is a roguelike blend of bullet heaven horde survival, and bullet hell gameplay. Adrift across the endless void, you must fend off thousands of nightmarish and otherwordly creatures. Uncover a mysterious and surreal story. And don’t forget. You mu [TRANSMISSION INTERRUPTED…] Steam.
Notes: A visually stunning survival roguelike with thrilling boss fights.
BlazBlue Entropy Effect
Artistic and Magnificent Combat Action, incredibly satisfying combos! Numerous characters, hundreds of moves! This unique action roguelite game will bring you an experience that exceeds expectations. Steam.
Notes: An intense action roguelike spinoff of the iconic BlazBlue series.
Project Ictos
Avoid everything, touch nothing, and reach a screen edge! Steam.
Notes: Rage quit simulator!
Sokobond Express
Sokobond Express is a beautifully minimalist puzzle game that combines chemical bonds and puzzling pathfinding in novel ways. Steam.
Notes: The long-awaited polymerization of Sokobond and Cosmic Express.
Tunnet
Build, debug and optimize a computer network in an underground facility. Steam.
Notes: Yes.
Anx Defense
Defend your Nexus by placing mirrors and buildings on the path of your projectiles. Deflect, empower, manage and solve each map using your creative and strategic mind. Steam.
Notes: An intriguing concept that takes a tower defense game and turns it into an optimisation puzzler.
Epigraph
Epigraph is a short, challenging, language decipherment puzzle game. Steam.
Notes: Exactly what it says on the tin.
20 Small Mazes
This is a puzzle game with twenty small mazes. They’re good mazes, though. Steam.
Notes: Free to play; short and sweet.
Windowkill
Windowkill is a twin-stick shooter, but the game window itself is constantly closing in on you. Shoot the window edges to push it around your screen as you fight and dodge enemies and bosses in their own windows. Steam.
Notes: Excellent concept that’s well executed, albeit a tad more on the punishing side.
KinitoPET
KinitoPET is a psychological horror experience that takes place through Kinito, an early 2000s virtual assistant. Kinito is able to walk, talk, browse, adapt, and play games as Kinito is like no other with its adaptive technology! Steam.
Notes: A perfectly innocent experience.