External Discovery
23 indie games in this list, released 2011–2024, from developers such as Team HalfBeard, Pine Studio, Hidden Folks. 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 Team HalfBeard · Latvia
Dude, Stop is a comedic puzzle game that knows exactly what the right answer is and dares you to ignore it. Every stage can be cleared the normal way, but the fun comes from finding wrong solutions that trigger unique results, secret achievements and an increasingly exasperated narrator. It was made and self-published by Latvian developer Team HalfBeard and launched in June 2018. Critics liked it and often compared it to WarioWare.
By Pine Studio · Croatia
Escape Simulator is a puzzle game played in first person, developed and published by Croatian studio Pine Studio, released in October 2021. Built around the escape room format, it has players solve puzzles to find their way out of locked rooms. Steam lists it under Adventure, Casual and Simulation, and it holds a Metacritic score of 82. A sequel, Escape Simulator 2, followed in October 2025.
By Hidden Folks · Netherlands
Hidden Folks is a hidden object game set in a series of animated scenes that react when you poke at them. Players scan each busy picture and interact with it to track down specific characters, creatures and items. Its creators, Adriaan de Jongh and Sylvain Tegroeg, are based in the Netherlands, and it launched in February 2017 on Windows, Mac and Linux as well as mobile. The appeal is patient searching rather than any time pressure or combat.
By Ogre Pixel · Mexico
Lonesome Village is a gentle adventure starring a coyote, mixing puzzle-solving with life-sim activities and leaving combat out entirely. Players explore the town, work through its puzzles and gradually learn about its magical history while trying to rescue it from a malevolent force. It was developed and self-published by Ogre Pixel, a studio based in Mexico, and launched in 2022 for Windows, Mac and Linux.
By Lohika Games · Denmark
Machineers is an episodic puzzle adventure from Lohika Games, a developer based in Denmark, in which players rebuild twelve whimsical machines from gears, belts, wires and other mechanical components. The player is Zola, a newly hired intern at Hayden's Repair Shop in Tivoli Town. Episode 1 first came out in October 2014 and Episode 2 followed in April 2015, and the first episode is available on Windows, Mac and Linux.
By Future Cat LLC · United States
OneShot is a puzzle adventure that deliberately breaks the fourth wall: the player is treated as someone separate from Niko, who is trying to bring light back to a sunless world by carrying a giant lightbulb, the world's sun, up to a tower's summit. Many puzzles reach outside the game into the computer's own operating system. American indie studio Future Cat built it in RPG Maker XP, KOMODO published it in December 2016, and it earned a Golden Joystick nomination for PC Game of the Year.
By Four Quarters · Russia
Please, Don't Touch Anything is a puzzle game with many different solutions to uncover through experimentation. It comes from the Russian indie studio Four Quarters and first launched on Steam in March 2015 for Windows, Mac and Linux. The game was later rebuilt as a 3D remake with virtual reality support, and an enhanced Nintendo Switch port added updated graphics along with even more solutions.
By Dry Cactus · New Zealand
Poly Bridge tasks players with designing bridges sturdy enough for vehicles to drive across. Structures are assembled from steel, wood, rope and cable, hydraulic parts can make sections move, and each material has its own cost, which turns every level into a budget puzzle. It was made by Dry Cactus, an indie studio from New Zealand, with a score by composer Adrian Talens, and came out on Windows in 2016, later reaching iOS.
By Dry Cactus · New Zealand
Poly Bridge 2 is the follow-up to Poly Bridge and keeps its focus on engineering bridges that must hold up under physics-driven traffic. Players plan structures across a new run of levels, balancing materials and design choices so vehicles reach the other side. New Zealand studio Dry Cactus developed and published it, with Adrian Talens again writing the music, and it launched in 2020 on Windows, Mac and Linux as well as mobile.
By Toxic Games · United Kingdom
Q.U.B.E. is a first-person puzzle game in which the player wears gloves that manipulate specially coloured blocks, using them to open a route to the exit of each level. Its stark, white environments make the interactive blocks stand out, and it has drawn comparisons with Portal. Toxic Games in the United Kingdom grew it from a student project with backing from Indie Fund, and this Director's Cut runs on Unreal Engine 3.
By Fractal Projects · Brazil
Save Room - Organization Puzzle turns survival horror inventory management, in the style of Resident Evil 4, into a series of puzzles about fitting items into a briefcase. Space can be freed by combining items, healing with them or reloading weapons. Brazilian developer Fractal Projects released it on Windows in April 2022, and critics liked how cheap and carefully detailed it was while noting it was simple and brief.
By Color Gray Games · Latvia
The Case of the Golden Idol is a deduction puzzle game in which players gather clues and assemble ideas, people and evidence to make sense of what happened. Its cases trace a story that stretches across four decades of the 18th century. It was made in Latvia by brothers Ernests and Andrejs Klavins of Color Gray Games, built in Godot and released in 2022 through Playstack, and it was recognized with awards among the year's best games.
By Croteam · Croatia
The Talos Principle is a puzzle game released in 2014 by Croatian studio Croteam, published by Devolver Digital and built on Serious Engine 4. Its puzzles sit inside a philosophical story whose title refers to an argument by a fictional Greek philosopher that a conscious machine implies humans are machines too. It later gained the Road to Gehenna expansion, a 2023 sequel and a 2025 remaster called Reawakened.
By Colibri Games · Russia
The Tiny Bang Story is a point-and-click adventure built around puzzle solving, with hidden object play among its listed genres. It was developed and self-published by the Russian studio Colibri Games and first appeared on Steam for Windows and macOS in 2011. In the following years it was ported to a wide range of platforms, including iOS, Android, Linux, Apple TV and Nintendo Switch.
By Zachtronics · United States
TIS-100 is a programming puzzle game in which players write mock assembly language so that a corrupted, fictional 1970s computer can carry out set tasks. Every challenge is solved by writing and refining code, turning low-level programming into the core of play. American developer Zachtronics released it for Windows, OS X and Linux in July 2015, and a version for iPadOS followed in January 2016.
By Alexey Davydov, Sergey Dvoynikov, Timofey Shargorodskiy, Flazm · Lithuania
Train Valley is a puzzle-strategy train simulator where you lay railway lines and direct traffic, trying to keep every train moving without collisions. Its story mode spans eras from the 1849 Gold Rush to the first crewed spaceflight across Europe, America, Japan, and the USSR, and a random mode follows. Lithuanian studio Flazm released it in September 2015, and it went on to spawn several sequels.
By Alexey Davydov, Sergey Dvoynikov, Timofey Shargorodskiy, Flazm · Lithuania
Train Valley 2 continues Flazm's puzzle-strategy train series with larger and more intricate railway networks to build. Players respond to requests from local industries, which grow steadily harder and more complex, while keeping their lines running smoothly. The Lithuanian studio first put the sequel into Early Access in March 2018 before its full release in April 2019, with Windows, Mac, and Linux versions on Steam.
By Witch Beam · Australia
Unpacking is a relaxed puzzle game with simulation elements, built around a calm, casual pace rather than pressure or combat. It was developed by the independent Australian studio Witch Beam and released in 2021 across PC and consoles. The game was widely celebrated, winning two BAFTA Games Awards and Eurogamer's Game of the Year, plus a D.I.C.E. honour recognising outstanding achievement by an independent game.
By Istikan Studio · Iraq
Bathroom Please! is an absurd comedy puzzle adventure about desperately needing a toilet. With no timer but a shrinking step counter, you cross a park, an office and a public pool, talk your way past strangers and learn each map by heart to reach relief in time. Failure means public humiliation and another attempt. It is listed among the projects of Istikan Studio, a game studio based in Kurdistan, Iraq.
By TACSOU · Morocco
Kitiplant is a grid-based puzzle game about a group of cats that bring dormant forests back to life. Players guide the cats through handcrafted levels where they must share resources and ration their energy, so every move has to be planned. It was made by Moroccan solo developer Soufiane Tacherifine under the TACSOU name and is available on Steam and, as Kitiplant Mobile, on Google Play.
By Dinosaur Polo Club · New Zealand
Mini Metro is a puzzle strategy game from the New Zealand indie team Dinosaur Polo Club about designing a subway map for a growing city. You draw lines between stations and keep adjusting them as new stops appear and passengers pile up. Its clean look borrows from real transit maps, and its sound is generated by your network.
By Creability · United Arab Emirates
Only If is a surreal first-person puzzle adventure from Creability, an independent studio that was based in Dubai. The game plays with the idea of turning figures of speech into literal, walkable spaces, which gives its puzzles a dreamlike logic. Released for Windows, macOS and Linux, it is an early example of an indie PC game coming out of the United Arab Emirates.
By Hempuli Oy · Finland
Baba Is You is a puzzle game where the rules themselves are pushable blocks of words. Break the sentence that says a wall is solid, or rewrite what counts as winning, and a level that looked impossible opens up. It rewards lateral thinking over reflexes, and it grew out of a game jam prototype into one of the most inventive puzzle designs of its era.