406 indie games in this list, released 2012–2026, from developers such as Wispfire, Hidden Folks, 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.
Herald: An Interactive Period Drama is a single-player adventure with visual novel elements and a branching story. Players decide how the protagonist Devan Rensburg acts and talks to others, which reshapes the plot, and the game tackles colonialism and other social themes. It was the debut of Wispfire, an indie studio in Utrecht, Netherlands, released in 2017. It won the Indie Prize Showcase award for Best Narrative at Casual Connect in 2015.
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.
High Times is a dating sim and visual novel with a cooking twist from Yangyang Mobile, an independent studio in the Philippines. Players work as a Mood Confectioner at The Hotbox, a doughnut shop set in the invented city of San Mazo, baking treats laced with mood enhancers that shift how customers feel. Released in July 2026, it marks Yangyang Mobile's fifth commercial release and was partly funded by a 2024 Kickstarter campaign.
Hollow Knight: Silksong is a Metroidvania and the follow-up to Hollow Knight, starring Hornet after she is captured and carried to the unfamiliar kingdom of Pharloom. Players explore a large web of connected regions, fighting enemies, clearing platforming challenges and taking on quests with an expanding set of skills, tools and movement abilities. It was made by Team Cherry, an independent studio from Australia, and released in September 2025 after growing from a planned expansion into a full sequel.
Hotline Miami is a violent top-down shooter set in 1989 Miami, following a silent masked killer as he wipes out the Russian mafia. Every level must be cleared of enemies by any means available, and each animal mask grants its own ability. Swedish duo Dennaton Games, programmer and writer Jonatan Söderström with artist Dennis Wedin, built it in about nine months with GameMaker. The 2012 release is frequently named among the indie titles that shaped the decade that followed.
Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number is a top-down shooter that expands on the first game's story, covering events before, during and after Jacket's rampage through several different playable characters. Levels are still about eliminating every enemy using whatever works, and the Steam version includes a level editor for sharing custom stages. Swedish studio Dennaton Games originally planned it as DLC before it grew into a full sequel, released in March 2015.
House Flipper is a simulation game whose title points to its theme of renovating homes. Steam lists it under simulation, casual and strategy among other tags. Polish developer Empyrean made it, with Frozen District and PlayWay as publishers, launching in May 2018. A mobile edition came out in 2020 and a sequel, House Flipper 2, followed in December 2023, though the available sources do not describe its mechanics in detail.
Human Fall Flat is a comedic puzzle platformer whose levels can be tackled again and again in different ways. Critics gave it mixed reviews overall, but the replay value of its puzzles and its funny character animations earned praise. It comes from No Brakes Games, a studio based in Lithuania, was published by Curve, and launched on PC in July 2016. It has since sold over 58 million copies, ranking it among the best-selling games of all time.
I Am Bread casts the player as a slice of bread trying to reach the toaster. Movement relies on abilities like gripping onto surfaces, and levels become puzzles about climbing across rooms while dodging dangers such as knives, pets and dirty floors that spoil the bread. Bossa Studios, based in the United Kingdom, developed and released it in April 2015, and the humorous idea later continued in a follow-up, I Am Fish, in 2021.
Inked: A Tale of Love, a puzzle-platform game from Croatian studio Somnium Games, was first demoed in Zagreb during the 2016 edition of the Reboot Infogamer convention. Its story moves between Nameless Hero, a rogue samurai searching for his beloved Aiko, and the comic book artist Adam. The distinctive look resembles papercraft outlined in ballpoint pen on grid-lined notebook paper, and the game first arrived on Steam in April 2018.
Inmost is a cinematic puzzle platformer that alternates between three playable characters, an old man, a knight, and a young girl, each searching for answers. Their stories are woven together across two different worlds and deal with pain, loss, and the bonds between people. Lithuanian developer Hidden Layer Games created it, Chucklefish published it, and after debuting on Apple Arcade in 2019 it reached Windows and Mac in August 2020.
Inscryption is a roguelike deck-building game from Canadian studio Daniel Mullins Games, directed by Daniel Mullins and published by Devolver Digital in 2021. Set in a cabin, it has the player face a mysterious gamemaster across a tabletop card game, gradually folding in puzzles, escape-room ideas and a cryptic metafictional story. It grew out of a Ludum Dare jam prototype and went on to win several Game of the Year awards.
In Iratus: Lord of the Dead, tactical role-playing meets a roguelike structure, drawing on both RPG and strategy traditions. Available sources describe it only in broad genre terms, so the finer details of its campaign are best discovered in play. It was developed by the Russian studio Unfrozen and published by Daedalic Entertainment in 2020 for Windows, macOS and Linux.
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 Coatsink, GrizzlyGames, Stage Clear Studios · Germany
Islanders is a minimalist city-builder from German indie studio Grizzly Games, whose members made it over seven months while studying game design at HTW Berlin. You score points by positioning buildings on a procedurally generated island, and points refill your stock, unlock new structures and let you move to fresh islands. A session ends when nothing more can be placed. It launched on Steam in April 2019.
J.U.L.I.A. Among the Stars is a 2014 science fiction adventure game from Czech studio CBE Software, remaking the earlier J.U.L.I.A. with improved graphics, altered gameplay and a broader story. The studio developed and published it itself, releasing it on Windows, macOS and Linux in September 2014, and it holds a Metacritic score of 71.
Juicy Realm, a twin-stick shooter with a roguelike structure, comes from Chinese studio SpaceCan Games, with X.D. Network and PM Studio publishing. It launched on Windows and macOS in May 2018, followed by Nintendo Switch in 2019, iOS and Android in 2020, and PlayStation 4 and 5 in 2024. Steam lists it under Action, Adventure, Casual and RPG, reflecting a shooter that borrows role-playing and adventure elements.
Kapital: Sparks of Revolution is an economic simulation about class conflict. You serve as mayor of a capital city in a European country gripped by crisis, balancing policy against growing social unrest and deciding what compromises are worth making to avoid collapse. Steam lists it under simulation and strategy. It was developed by Lapovich Team from Belarus and released by Fulqrum Publishing in April 2022.
Katana Zero is a side-scrolling hack-and-slash platformer about Subject Zero, an amnesiac sword-wielding assassin who can slow time and foresee what comes next. Each level asks the player to clear every enemy without taking a hit, bending time, dodging and exploiting hazards, while dialogue-tree conversations between stages tell a neo-noir story. American studio Askiisoft built it in GameMaker, and Devolver Digital published it in 2019.
Kingdom Rush 5: Alliance TD is a tower defense entry in the Kingdom Rush series, set in the fantasy land of Linirea. As in the series, players build and upgrade defensive towers to stop waves of monsters, and this chapter brings Linirea's warriors and the Dark Army together against a newly rising evil. It was developed by Ironhide Game Studio in Uruguay and released in July 2024 for Windows and macOS.
Kingdom Rush Origins is a tower defense game and the series' third main instalment. Players lead an elven nation against evil forces, building four kinds of defensive towers and upgrading them to cope with increasingly tough waves of enemies. It was developed by Ironhide Game Studio, based in Uruguay, first released on mobile in 2014, and arrived on Windows, macOS and Linux in October 2018.
Knights of Pen & Paper is an RPG from Brazilian developer Behold Studios, released with publishing support from Paradox Interactive and Seaven Studio. It first appeared on iOS and Android in October 2012 and came to Windows, OS X and Linux in June 2013 as the +1 Edition. A Nintendo Switch version called the +1 Deluxier Edition followed in 2018, alongside releases on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
Knights of Pen & Paper 2 is a role-playing game from Kyy Games, a studio based in Finland, published by Paradox Interactive as a follow-up to the original Knights of Pen & Paper. After launching on iOS and Android in May 2015, it reached Windows, OS X and Linux via Steam that October. Critics liked its art and the improvements to gameplay and story, but felt it stayed too close to the first game while being shorter and easier.
Lakeview Cabin Collection is a horror game created and self-published by Finnish developer Roope Tamminen. It follows on from his earlier free Flash title, Lakeview Cabin, released in 2013, expanding that project into a fuller commercial release. After a Steam Greenlight campaign, the collection arrived on Steam, Humble Bundle and itch.io in March 2015. Console versions for PlayStation and Xbox followed in July 2024.