External Discovery
13 indie games in this list, released 2014–2023, from developers such as Alawar Stargaze (Warm Lamp Games), KillHouse Games, Andrii Bychkovskyi. 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 Alawar Stargaze (Warm Lamp Games) · Russia
Beholder is an adventure game about life under a totalitarian regime where the state watches everything. Players act as a landlord appointed by the government, planting bugs, sneaking into tenants' flats and deciding whom to report to the authorities, with the moral cost left to the player. It was developed by Warm Lamp Games in Russia, published by Alawar in November 2016, and released for Windows, Mac and Linux.
By KillHouse Games · Romania
In Door Kickers, players command a SWAT unit belonging to Nowhere City's fictional police department, planning real-time tactical operations against criminals and terrorists. Romanian indie studio KillHouse Games developed and published it for Windows in October 2014, later bringing it to iOS and Android in 2015. A spin-off, Door Kickers: Action Squad, appeared in 2017, and the game holds a Metacritic score of 83.
By Andrii Bychkovskyi · Ukraine
Farlanders is a turn-based city-building strategy game about founding a colony on Mars, with puzzle elements on 2D grid maps that are procedurally generated. Every structure must link back to the base through wires, pipes or tunnels, terraforming is central to success, and limited space forces careful trade-offs between food, water and energy. It was created by Andrii Bychkovskyi in Ukraine, published by Crytivo, and released in January 2023.
By Ironhide Game Studio · Uruguay
Iron Marines is a real-time strategy game in which the player commands a military force defending a space colony from alien invaders. Each mission centres on a powerful hero unit supported by soldiers, mechs and other troops across varied objectives. It was developed by Ironhide Game Studio in Uruguay, launched on mobile in 2017, came to Windows, macOS and Linux in May 2019, and was well received by critics.
By Shiro Games · France
Northgard is a real-time strategy game that also carries 4X elements, developed and self-published by Shiro Games in France. It is built on the Heaps engine and came out in 2018 on PC before spreading to consoles and mobile devices. Critics were generally positive at launch. Its lasting popularity led to a 4X board game adaptation, Northgard: Uncharted Lands, which appeared in 2022.
By Ndemic Creations · United Kingdom
Plague Inc: Evolved is a real-time strategy sim from Ndemic Creations, an independent UK studio, and a PC and console remake of the developer's earlier Plague Inc. Players create a pathogen and evolve it with the goal of wiping out humanity through a deadly plague. An epidemic model with a detailed, realistic set of variables governs how the disease spreads and how severe it becomes, a design that drew the attention of the CDC.
By Leonard Menchiari, IV Productions, Ivan Venturi Productions · Italy
RIOT: Civil Unrest is a real-time strategy game that recreates riots drawn from actual events, letting the player take the side of either the police or the protesters. Director Leonard Menchiari, formerly an editor and cinematographer at Valve, lived through riots himself and made the game to tell those stories. Developed in Italy with IV Productions, it was funded on Indiegogo in 2014, entered early access in 2017 and fully released in 2019.
By Free Lives, Clockwork Acorn · South Africa
Terra Nil flips the usual city-building formula: instead of expanding and consuming resources, players place structures to rebuild damaged ecosystems and bring nature back. The game draws on the climate crisis and on the ideas of the rewilding movement. It was developed by the South African studio Free Lives together with Clockwork Acorn, published by Devolver Digital, and released on March 28, 2023, with mobile versions offered through Netflix Games.
By Mouldy Toof Studios · United Kingdom
The Escapists is a strategy game from UK developer Mouldy Toof Studios, published by Team17, in which you play an inmate trying to break out of progressively tougher prisons. Reviewers liked the freedom to tackle each escape your own way, though some found learning its systems through trial and error frustrating. After debuting in Steam Early Access in 2014, it launched fully in 2015 on PC and consoles, and a sequel followed in 2017.
By Weappy Studio · Belarus
This Is the Police 2 mixes story-driven adventure with strategy, putting you in charge of a small-town sheriff's department. You assign officers to incidents, make difficult calls and fight turn-based tactical encounters while the returning protagonist, now living as Warren Nash, hides from federal agents in the fictional town of Sharpwood in 1987. It is a sequel from Belarusian developer Weappy Studio, published by THQ Nordic in 2018.
By Funatics Software · Germany
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.
By Whale Rock Games · Ukraine
We Are The Dwarves is a real-time tactics game in which the player commands a trio of dwarves travelling through space on a mission to rescue their home world. Battles unfold continuously rather than in turns as the player directs the three heroes. It was made and self-published by Whale Rock Games, a studio based in Kyiv, Ukraine, and came out in 2016 for Windows, Mac and Linux, with Steam tagging it under action, RPG and strategy.
By Weappy Studio · Belarus
This Is the Police is a strategy adventure from the Belarusian studio Weappy Studio. You play Jack Boyd, a police chief in the fictional city of Freeburg who has 180 days left before a corrupt mayor forces him into retirement. Each day you assign officers to emergencies and investigations, while the story pulls you into crime and corruption along the way.