282 indie games in this list, released 2011–2024, from developers such as Leonard Menchiari, Daniele Vicinanzo, Giulio Perrone, DO MY BEST, Yangyang Mobile. 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 Leonard Menchiari, Daniele Vicinanzo, Giulio Perrone · Italy
The Eternal Castle Remastered is a cinematic platformer and adventure presented as a remaster of a 1987 game that never actually existed. Set in a distant future, it follows a colonist whose ship goes down on Earth while trying to escape the planet. Leonard Menchiari led development alongside Daniele Vicinanzo and Giulio Perrone in Italy, and it was released in 2019. It holds a Metacritic score of 73.
The Final Station is a side-scrolling shooter that layers train simulation and exploration on top of its combat. It was developed by the Russian studio Do My Best Games, and brought to Steam by publisher tinyBuild in late August 2016. Critics praised its originality and world-building while pointing to its linear structure, and a DLC called The Only Traitor followed in 2017 with a new lead character whose story runs alongside the main one.
The Letter is a horror visual novel in which seven people are caught up in a deadly curse and must struggle to survive it. The story places as much weight on the characters' own darker impulses as on the supernatural threat stalking them, asking how far each will go to stay alive. It was developed by Yangyang Mobile, a studio based in the Philippines, and released in July 2017 for Windows, macOS and Linux.
The Lion's Song tells, across four point-and-click episodes, the stories of artists and thinkers in early twentieth-century Vienna, each wrestling with creativity, ambition and what society expects of them. Decisions in one chapter link the four stories together and can change details that appear later. Austrian studio Mi'pu'mi Games grew it out of a Ludum Dare jam entry by designer Stefan Srb, and it took the indie game prize at the Deutscher Entwicklerpreis in 2016.
The Long Dark is a survival game from Canadian studio Hinterland, fully released in 2017 after an early access period that began in 2014. Players take on the roles of bush pilot Will Mackenzie and doctor Astrid Greenwood, stranded in the freezing Canadian wilderness after a geomagnetic storm. Development was backed by seed money from the Canada Media Fund and by a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2013.
The Stanley Parable is a story-driven game in which players steer a silent protagonist named Stanley while a British narrator, voiced by Kevan Brighting, describes what he ought to do. Ignoring those directions is allowed and gets folded into the story, leading down branching paths to many endings before the game starts over. Davey Wreden and William Pugh rebuilt Wreden's Half-Life 2 mod on the Source engine as Galactic Cafe, a studio from the United States, releasing it in 2013.
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.
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.
A 2D cinematic platformer from Polish studio Puzzling Dream, The Way follows a space explorer who cannot come to terms with his wife's death. After discovering ancient texts about eternal existence on one of his final expeditions, he returns to that site hoping to bring her back. PlayWay published it for Windows in 2016, and its play combines platforming with puzzle solving.
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.
This War of Mine looks at war from the viewpoint of ordinary civilians instead of soldiers on the front line. Players manage a small group of survivors in a city under siege, scavenging for food and medicine and facing hard moral choices that shape how each character's story ends. Polish studio 11 bit studios developed and published it in 2014, drawing on the siege of Sarajevo and other conflicts for inspiration.
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.
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.
Titan Attacks! is a fixed shooter in the arcade tradition, where the player's craft slides along the bottom of the screen and fires upward at descending waves of alien invaders. Critics liked its art style and moreish flow but noted a limited amount of content. It was developed and self-published by Puppy Games, a studio in the United Kingdom, first appearing in 2006, and it was followed by Revenge of the Titans in 2010.
To the Moon is an adventure game by Canadian studio Freebird Games, designed by Kan Gao in RPG Maker XP and first released in 2011. Two doctors try to grant a dying man's final wish through artificial memories, and the player guides them through his past, exploring the story and solving puzzles to rebuild what he remembers. Mechanics are kept light, putting the weight on narrative, music and emotional themes.
Toribash is a free-to-play fighting game viewed from a third-person perspective, where fights unfold turn by turn rather than in real time. Nabi Studios, a developer from Singapore, created it, with Nicalis as publisher, first on Windows in 2006, with OS X and Linux versions arriving in May 2014. A Wii port came out in 2010, and a sequel, Toribash Next, launched in January 2024.
Trailblazers is a racing game, tagged on Steam with action, sports and casual categories alongside racing. It was developed by Supergonk, a studio from the United Kingdom, and published by Rising Star Games. The game came out in May 2018 on Windows, Mac and Linux through Steam, with console editions for PlayStation, Xbox and Switch landing in that same month.
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.
Transformice is a free-to-play online multiplayer platformer from Atelier 801, the work of two designers from France: Melibellule, who handles art, and Tigrounette, who programs the game. Built on Adobe Flash, it first launched as a browser game in May 2010. A standalone free-to-play version later arrived on Steam in January 2015, playable on Windows, macOS and Linux.
Transport Fever 2 is a business simulation from Swiss studio Urban Games, published by Good Shepherd Entertainment and first released in 2019. Players plan and operate transport networks, laying routes over land, water and air as their world grows and prospers. It is the third game in the Transport Fever series, and a follow-up titled Transport Fever 3 was announced in 2025.
In Unbound: Worlds Apart you guide Soli, a mage who can open portals into alternate realities, each with its own effect such as bending time, reversing gravity or transforming Soli himself. These portals drive the puzzle-platforming as you gather crystals that unlock gates to the dark world. Romanian studio Alien Pixel Studios developed and published it in 2021 after a Kickstarter campaign, and it received generally favorable reviews.
Undertale is a role-playing game about a child who tumbles into the Underground, a hidden realm of monsters sealed beneath the surface. Battles play out as small bullet-hell dodging sequences, and players can talk their way to sparing foes rather than killing them, choices that reshape story and characters. Toby Fox, an American developer, made almost all of it himself, including script and music, and it launched in 2015 using GameMaker.
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.