External Discovery
22 indie games in this list, released 2010–2026, from developers such as The Fun Pimps, Frictional Games, thecatamites / Tommy Tone / A. Degen. 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.
By The Fun Pimps · United States
7 Days to Die is a survival horror game set in a post-apocalyptic open world, and its Steam listing spans action, RPG, simulation and strategy categories. It was developed by The Fun Pimps, a studio from the United States, and spent a long stretch in early access starting in December 2013. After years of updates, its finished 1.0 release arrived in July 2024 on PC as well as current PlayStation and Xbox hardware.
By Frictional Games · Sweden
Amnesia: The Dark Descent is a survival horror adventure in which Daniel explores the grim Castle Brennenburg while trying to hold on to his sanity. Rather than fighting, players avoid monsters and disturbing events, a design widely credited with influencing horror games that followed. Swedish studio Frictional Games developed and published it in 2010 using its HPL Engine; it won several awards, holds a Metacritic score of 85 and helped popularise Let's Play videos.
By thecatamites / Tommy Tone / A. Degen · Ireland
Anthology of the Killer gathers nine short horror comedy games starring BB, a student in a city full of serial killers who hunts for spooky material for her zine. Each episode drops her into strange, dangerous encounters, mixing surreal humor with dread. The series is by Irish solo developer Stephen Gillmurphy, known as thecatamites, and won the Nuovo Award at the 2024 Independent Games Festival, where it was also up for the Seumas McNally Grand Prize.
By Senscape · Argentina
Asylum is an atmospheric horror adventure set inside the Hanwell Mental Institute, a fictional asylum laid out according to the historical Kirkbride plan. Players are free to explore the whole institute as its unsettling story unfolds, with the focus on mood and slow-building dread rather than action. It comes from Senscape, an independent developer in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and authored by Agustin Cordes, and was funded partly through a 2013 Kickstarter before finally releasing in March 2025.
By FakeFish, Undertow Games · Finland
Barotrauma is a 2D side-scrolling co-op submarine simulator with survival horror and role-playing elements, set in the far future beneath the oceans of Jupiter's moon Europa. Each player takes a crew job such as steering, repairs or weapons, and some modes add a hidden traitor. Finnish studio Undertow Games developed it with FakeFish on MonoGame, and Daedalic Entertainment published the full release in March 2023.
By Mike Klubnika · Estonia
Buckshot Roulette is a tabletop horror game created by Mike Klubnika, a developer from Estonia, who built it in the Godot engine and wrote its soundtrack himself. It first appeared on itch.io in December 2023 and came to Steam through Critical Reflex in April 2024 alongside a new update. Critics and players praised its strategic play and replay value, and it has been compared to the roguelike Inscryption despite a very different look.
By Phobia Game Studio · Poland
Carrion flips the usual horror setup: instead of fleeing a creature, you are the tentacled monster, slithering through a research facility and hunting down the humans who stand in your path. Play centres on navigating the complex and ambushing the people inside, an approach its creators label reverse horror. It comes from Polish studio Phobia Game Studio, was published by Devolver Digital in 2020, and runs on the MonoGame framework.
By Killmonday Games AB · Sweden
Fran Bow is a graphic adventure with a strong thread of psychological horror running through it. It was developed and produced by Killmonday Games, an independent studio from Sweden, and built with GameMaker. The game first arrived on PC in 2015, followed by mobile versions a year later and console ports in 2023. The facts at hand focus on its genre and release history rather than specific puzzles, so it suits players drawn to unsettling point-and-click stories.
By Zeenoh, 7 Seals · Philippines
Nightfall: Escape is a survival horror game from Zeenoh Inc., a Filipino company, released as a full game for Windows, macOS and Linux in 2016. You play Ara Cruz, a field journalist sent to look into an old mansion tied to a string of disappearances. Critics were mixed overall but singled out its storytelling and unusual monsters, and it received a Most Outstanding Narrative Story award at a 2015 event backed by the Philippines' Department of Information and Communications Technology.
By Marevo Collective · Ukraine
Released in 2020, No One Lives Under the Lighthouse offers a horror adventure made by Marevo Collective, a studio from Ukraine. It combines exploration-led adventure play with an unsettling, horror-driven tone. The Director's Cut edition is available on Steam for Windows, Mac and Linux. Public sources say little about its specific mechanics, so it is best approached as a compact atmospheric adventure from the Ukrainian indie scene.
By Red Barrels · Canada
Outlast is a first-person psychological survival horror game from Canadian independent studio Red Barrels, released in 2013 and built on Unreal Engine 3. Players follow freelance journalist Miles Upshur as he investigates Mount Massive Asylum, an isolated psychiatric hospital in the mountains of Colorado. Critics responded well to its atmosphere and horror, and the series later grew with a sequel, a prequel and comics.
By Mike Klubnika · Estonia
Released in 2025, s.p.l.i.t is a psychological horror game made and self-published by Mike Klubnika, a developer from Estonia, with Oro Interactive also credited as a publisher on Steam. It launched on Windows and Linux in July 2025. Beyond its psychological horror framing, its store and database listings place it in the action and simulation genres. The title is stylised in lowercase with full stops, while it is written as Split in plain text.
By Frictional Games · Sweden
SOMA is a science fiction survival horror game in which Simon Jarrett wakes inside an underwater research station full of machines that seem to have personalities of their own. Play centres on sneaking past threats, solving puzzles and uncovering the station's past, with less weight on inventory and more on story and character. Swedish studio Frictional Games developed and published it in 2015 using its HPL Engine, and it holds a Metacritic score of 84.
By Danar Dev · Iraq
Anonymous Messages is a short atmospheric adventure set in an eerie forest. You wake with no memory, carrying only a flashlight and a cassette player, and search for six tapes whose anonymous messages calm your rising heart rate while slowly restoring your past. The forest becomes more hostile with each tape. It is a game by Danar Dev, the label of Kurdish Iraqi solo developer Danar Kayfi, and it also appears on his itch.io page.
By ASD Games Studio · Iraq
Entity: The Black Day is a third-person survival horror game. Former special forces operative Adam is sent into an abandoned underground bio-research lab to find proof of a government-funded viral programme that went wrong, and ends up hunting for its last survivors. It mixes psychological horror, resource management and combat. It was built by Iraqi solo developer Ali Al-Abboodi and released by his studio ASD Games in January 2026.
By Kevir Entertainment · Iraq
Operation Stutter is a first-person psychological horror game set in a top-secret Cold War research bunker. You wake with no name or memory and explore a nuclear facility, using a film camera that shifts reality to solve puzzles while facing creatures tied to paranoia and a fractured identity. It was shown at Gamescom. It is the flagship project of Kevir Entertainment, a studio founded in 2023 in Duhok, in Iraq's Kurdistan Region.
By ASD Games Studio · Iraq
Silent Realm is an upcoming free single-player action-horror game set in a non-human realm where life has ended and skeletal forms assemble and decay. Searching for a missing brother, the player explores a hostile world with scarce resources, where the environment itself is the main threat. It is the second project of ASD Games Studio, the Iraqi studio founded by developer Ali Al-Abboodi, and is scheduled for 2027.
By Krillbite Studio · Norway
Among the Sleep is a first-person horror adventure from the Norwegian studio Krillbite Studio in which you play a small child. Trapped in a strange nightmare, you crawl and toddle through your home and beyond while searching for your mother. Seeing everything from a toddler's height makes familiar spaces feel threatening.
By Zoetrope Interactive · Turkey
Conarium is a first-person Lovecraftian horror adventure from the Turkish studio Zoetrope Interactive, inspired by H. P. Lovecraft's novella At the Mountains of Madness. It follows a group of scientists who try to push past what they believe are the limits of nature, and it favors atmosphere, exploration and puzzles over combat. A good pick for fans of slow-burn cosmic horror.
By Acid Wizard Studio · Poland
Darkwood is a survival horror game from the Polish studio Acid Wizard Studio. By day you scavenge and explore a strange, ever-changing forest, and by night you barricade your hideout and try to survive until morning. It builds dread through sound, limited vision and uncertainty rather than cheap scares.
By Red Candle Games · Taiwan
Detention is a 2D atmospheric horror adventure from the Taiwanese studio Red Candle Games, set in 1960s Taiwan under martial law. It weaves religious elements from Taiwanese culture and mythology into a story about fear, guilt and memory. The game is widely admired for using horror to explore a real and painful period of history.
By Digital Happiness · Indonesia
DreadOut is a third-person supernatural horror game from the Indonesian independent developer Digital Happiness. A group of high school students find an abandoned town, and Linda has to face its ghosts armed mostly with her smartphone camera. Its Indonesian setting and supernatural themes make it a distinctive entry in the survival horror genre.