5 indie games in this list, released 2014–2024, from developers such as Coffee Stain Studios, Pounce Light, Oskar Stålberg. 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.
Goat Simulator is a comedic sandbox game in which the player controls a goat and tries to cause as much chaos as possible across an open map, without any larger objective. Its developer likens the flow to skateboarding games, and the team deliberately kept many harmless bugs for their comic value. Swedish studio Coffee Stain Studios grew it from a joke prototype made at an internal game jam, released it in 2014 and built it in Unreal Engine 3.
Satisfactory is a first-person factory-building simulation in which a pioneer lands on an alien world and turns its resources into ever larger production lines. Early work centres on building a space elevator, and shipping parts through it to the FICSIT corporation unlocks new tiers of machines and technology. Swedish studio Coffee Stain Studios built it in Unreal Engine 4, ran it in early access from 2019 and launched the full release in 2024, where it holds a Metacritic score of 91.
Tiny Glade is a sandbox city-builder where players shape medieval houses, castles and other structures, decorate them, and reshape the surrounding land with features such as rivers and ponds. Critics described it as calm and cosy, though some wished it had more content. Swedish studio Pounce Light self-published it in September 2024 after a demo during Steam Next Fest, and it went on to earn nominations at the Steam Awards and the BAFTA Games Awards.
Townscaper is a city builder in which players assemble towns out of simple building pieces, shaping groups of structures with a minimalist interface. Its low-poly graphics and pared-back controls keep attention on construction rather than menus or management systems. Swedish developer Oskar Stålberg created it, and Raw Fury released it on Windows and Mac in August 2021, the month it left early access, with Switch, mobile and Xbox versions following later that year.
Teardown is a sandbox game with puzzle and action elements from the Swedish studio Tuxedo Labs, set in a world built from fully destructible voxels. Missions often ask you to plan a heist, then carve your own shortcuts through walls with vehicles and explosives before an alarm timer runs out. Its physics make every level a creative problem.