21 indie games in this list, released 2012–2024, from developers such as Umami Tiger (Matthias Linda), ION LANDS, Radical Fish Games. Pick one to read our editorial note and jump to its store page.
These are editorial pages. The developers and publishers are not affiliated with The Gaming Nest unless explicitly stated.
Chained Echoes is a role-playing game modeled on 1990s Japanese RPGs, pairing turn-based battles with 16-bit style pixel art and a story told through several characters. Its unlikely heroes try to halt a war between three kingdoms. The game was created by Matthias Linda, credited on Steam as Umami Tiger, a developer from Germany, and published by Deck13 in 2022. Reviewers felt it matched the classics that inspired it while adding modern improvements.
Cloudpunk is a cyberpunk adventure with role-playing leanings and a science fiction backdrop. It was made by Ion Lands, a studio based in Germany, and published together with Maple Whispering Limited, arriving on Windows in April 2020. Stage Clear Studios in Madrid later brought it to Switch, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, followed by PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S versions. It suits players drawn to atmospheric sci-fi adventures.
CrossCode is an action RPG from Radical Fish Games in Germany, published by Deck13. You play Lea, a mute amnesiac inside the fictional MMORPG CrossWorlds. Ranged and melee attacks are used both in combat and to crack puzzles, with elemental modes adding new powers for fights and exploration. Crowdfunded on Indiegogo and shaped by a three-year early access beta, it launched in September 2018 to generally favourable reviews.
Cube World is an action role-playing game with dungeon-crawling elements, developed and published by Picroma in Germany for Windows. Designer Wolfram von Funck started work in 2011, and his wife Sarah later joined him. An alpha arrived in 2013, but updates were so rare that many wrote the project off as vaporware, until the full game finally launched on September 30, 2019. Steam lists it under adventure and RPG, and it remains a Windows release.
Deponia is a comedic point-and-click graphic adventure following Rufus, who lives on a planet made of junk and dreams of escaping to Elysium, a city floating above it. His plans shift when he ends up helping an Elysian get home and stumbles onto a scheme endangering Deponia itself. Daedalic Entertainment of Germany developed and published it in 2012, and it opened a series continued by Chaos on Deponia, Goodbye Deponia and Deponia Doomsday.
Dome Keeper is a tower defense game from Bippinbits, a studio in Germany, published by Raw Fury and made with the Godot engine. You protect a glass dome from waves of alien attackers, then use the short gap between waves to dig for resources below. Those materials buy upgrades that strengthen your defences for the next assault. It launched on Windows, macOS and Linux in September 2022 to generally positive reviews.
Dorfromantik is a strategy puzzle game in which you lay hexagonal tiles to build a peaceful rural landscape. Matching edges and completing fields, forests, villages and quests earns points and fresh tiles, and a creative mode allows free building. It was made by Toukana Interactive, founded in Germany by four students from HTW Berlin, and fully released in 2022. A board game version won the Spiel des Jahres in 2023.
Enshrouded is a survival game with action role-playing systems, developed and self-published by Keen Games in Germany. It runs on the studio's Holistic engine and mixes combat and character progression with the needs of staying alive. The game entered early access on PC in January 2024. A full release on PC and PlayStation 5 is planned for October 2026, with Xbox Series versions to follow in 2027.
Halls of Torment is a role-playing game with action roguelike elements, developed and self-published by Chasing Carrots in Germany. Its genre tags combine action combat with RPG progression inside a run-based structure. It launched in early access in May 2023 and reached its full release in September 2024 on Windows and Linux. Mobile ports and later PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series versions followed.
By Coatsink, GrizzlyGames, Stage Clear Studios · Germany
Islanders is a minimalist city-builder from German indie studio Grizzly Games, whose members made it over seven months while studying game design at HTW Berlin. You score points by positioning buildings on a procedurally generated island, and points refill your stock, unlock new structures and let you move to fresh islands. A session ends when nothing more can be placed. It launched on Steam in April 2019.
Monster Sanctuary blends a side-scrolling metroidvania with monster collecting, letting you tame creatures and send them into turn-based battles. Exploration and team building feed into each other as you push through the world. It began as Denis Sinner's personal hobby project, grew through a Kickstarter that raised over five times its goal, and was released in 2020 by Moi Rai Games of Germany with Team17 publishing. It is built in Unity.
Orwell: Keeping an Eye On You is an episodic simulation game that puts you in the seat of a government operative. Your job is to sift through surveillance material and personal data to identify people who might threaten national security, deciding what information to pass on. It was created by the indie developer Osmotic Studios in Germany and published by Daedalic Entertainment, with its release on Windows, macOS and Linux in 2016.
Signalis is a survival horror game from rose-engine, a studio in Germany. You control the android Elster as she hunts for her ship's missing pilot inside a hostile mining facility gripped by a supernatural event. Its visuals and play deliberately echo fifth-generation consoles, inspired by Silent Hill and Resident Evil. Released in October 2022, it won Best Narrative and Best Indie Game at the Fear Fest Horror Games Awards 2023.
StarMade is an open-world sandbox set in space, built in the mould of Minecraft and blending science fiction with building and exploration. It was developed by Schine GmbH, a company based in Germany, which first released it in 2012 as a public alpha on Windows, macOS and Linux. On Steam it is listed under action, adventure, simulation and strategy, and it remains an early access title there, having appeared on the store in 2014.
Summerhouse is a relaxed sandbox town-building game where you assemble villages and dress up the scenery from a kit of building pieces and decorations. There are four environments to work in, a day-night cycle and extras that unlock as you play, such as animated objects. It is the first solo release of German developer Friedemann Allmenröder, published by Future Friends Games in 2024, and critics liked its open-ended design and visuals.
Super Catboy is a platformer starring the title character, a cat in human form who fights through a cast of other animal characters. His goal is to stop the villainous Dr. Ungefug. The game was developed by Pixelpogo, a studio in Germany, published by Assemble Entertainment, and released for Windows and macOS in 2023. On Steam it is filed under action and adventure, and it will appeal to fans of classic character platformers.
Supraland is a first-person metroidvania in which you control a small toy figure roaming a set of themed zones built inside a child's sandbox. Progress follows the genre's guided non-linearity, with new abilities opening previously blocked routes and puzzles gating exploration. It comes from Supra Games in Germany, led by founder David Münnich, runs on Unreal Engine 4, and left early access in April 2019 before later getting a standalone expansion, Six Inches Under.
Suzerain is a text-driven visual novel about governing, casting you as president of Sordland, an invented nation in the 1950s. Rather than combat, play revolves around political decisions and dialogue choices that shape how your administration unfolds. It was developed by Torpor Games, a Berlin studio in Germany, and launched on Windows and macOS in 2020. A further expansion, Kingdom of Rizia, moved the action to a different corner of the same fictional world in 2024.
Synthetik: Legion Rising is a top-down shooter with roguelike structure, set in an alternate version of the 1980s where hostile artificial intelligence endangers humanity. Runs push you through fights against machine enemies with the risk and repetition typical of roguelikes. The game was made in GameMaker by Flow Fire Games, an independent studio in Berlin, Germany, and launched on Steam in March 2018 as Synthetik before a free expansion renamed it.
Toree 3D is a short 3D platformer that borrows its look and presentation from the early days of 3D platforming, with a few odd touches mixed in. It was made by Siactro, the working name of solo developer Marcus Horn from Germany, and first appeared on the Haunted PS1 Demo Disc compilation in 2021. Critics liked its visuals and sound while being split on the controls and brevity, and it was followed by Toree 2 later that year.
Valhalla Hills is a city-building strategy game in which you guide a tribe of Vikings as they build up and sustain a settlement. Each map ends with the goal of reaching a portal at the top of a mountain that leads to Valhalla. Funatics Software, a studio in Germany, developed it in Unreal Engine 4, and Daedalic Entertainment published it in 2015. Two expansions, Sand of the Damned and Fire Mountains, later added new locations and enemies.