926 indie games in this list, released 2012–2026, from developers such as Dennaton Games, Empyrean, Frozen District. 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.
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.
Real estate flipping is the theme of House Flipper 2, a casual simulation built around the business of renovating homes for resale. It follows the original House Flipper from 2018 and was released for Windows in 2023. Development was handled by Polish studio Frozen District together with Empyrean, with Frozen District and PlayWay sharing publishing duties. The sequel holds a Metacritic score of 79.
Hrot, stylized HROT, is a first-person shooter from Czech developer Spytihněv, released in full in May 2023. It pays tribute to 3D shooters from the 1990s, naming Chasm: The Rift and Quake as its main inspirations. The game spent time in early access from January 2021, starting with the first of its three episodes, and reviewers singled out its level design and atmosphere for praise.
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.
Hydroneer is a mining sandbox from British indie studio Foulball Hangover, released on Steam in May 2020 and built with Unreal Engine 4. Its store listing combines adventure, casual, simulation and strategy tags, pointing to open-ended play built around mining. Console versions for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S followed in May 2026, timed to the game's sixth anniversary.
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.
By Binx Games, Croteam Incubator, Croteam · Croatia
I Hate Running Backwards is a 2018 vertically scrolling shoot 'em up developed by Croatian team Binx Games with Croteam, with Devolver Digital as publisher. Solo or with a partner, players run backwards through procedurally generated, partly destructible levels, fending off enemies advancing from the bottom of the screen with two weapons, a melee attack and a charged ultimate ability. Series hero Sam Stone is playable, and it was the first Croteam Incubator release.
Ib is an adventure horror game viewed from above, in which the title character is trapped inside an eldritch art gallery and joins forces with Garry and Mary to find a way back to the real world. It was the debut of Japanese creator kouri, first released in 2012 as freeware made in RPG Maker 2000. This commercial remake, rebuilt in RPG Maker MV with refreshed visuals, music and mechanics, came out through Playism in April 2022.
IMSCARED is an independent horror game in which the player must outsmart two entities, White Face and HER, that reach beyond the game window to tamper with the computer itself, for example by creating files or crashing the program. It was made by Italian solo developer Ivan Zanotti using GameMaker. A tenth-anniversary remake arrived in 2022 with higher resolution, a better frame-rate and new content, and an Android port followed in 2024.
In Sound Mind is a psychological horror game from We Create Stuff, a studio based in Israel, released on Windows in September 2021. Steam lists it under action and indie, and it belongs to the horror tradition of unsettling atmosphere and dread rather than straightforward combat. Its store publisher is Black Lantern Collective, and it holds a Metacritic score of 75. The available facts say little about its specific mechanics, so treat it as a horror title first and foremost.
In Verbis Virtus is a first-person fantasy adventure in which spells are cast by speaking their incantations aloud into a microphone. The voice-driven magic is used across a mix of action and puzzle sections. It was developed by Italian studio Indomitus Games with Unreal Engine 3, entered early access in May 2014 and was released on Steam for Windows in April 2015.
In Infection Free Zone, a viral outbreak has turned most of humanity into aggressive infected, and you must keep a community of survivors alive. By day you direct groups as they scavenge for supplies and fortify their settlement; after dark, those defences are tested by waves of attackers. Polish studio Jutsu Games developed it, Games Operators handles publishing, and it entered Steam early access in April 2024 for Windows.
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.
Inquisitor is a role-playing game from Czech company Cinemax, first released in 2009 after close to a decade in development. Bringing it to English-speaking players took another three years of translation work, which led to a GOG.com release in September 2012. It was later greenlit on Steam in 2013 and arrived there that August, where it holds a Metacritic score of 64.
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.
Released in 2016, Inside is a puzzle-platform horror game from Playdead, the Danish studio behind Limbo. Players guide a boy through a dystopian world in 2.5D, solving environmental puzzles while trying to avoid death. Development moved from Limbo's custom engine to Unity, partly funded by a Danish Film Institute grant, and the game earned critical acclaim, game of the year nominations and several independent awards for technical achievement.
Interdimensional Vending Machine is a surreal survival game drawing on the SCP-261 concept. The player controls a homeless girl in a warped city who relies on an impossible vending machine, where each coin buys strange food and every meal alters her path. It was developed by Neuroticfly Games, a studio based in the Philippines, published with HoruBrain, and released for Windows in June 2026.
Intrepid Izzy is a 2D platformer structured as a Metroidvania, with exploration of linked areas and gradual progression. It was made by Senile Team, a studio from the Netherlands, for Windows and also for the Sega Dreamcast. Backed through a successful Kickstarter in 2017, it went through several delays before reaching Steam in July 2020. Later digital versions came to modern Nintendo, PlayStation and Xbox consoles.
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.