External Discovery
926 indie games in this list, released 2009–2026, from developers such as Polychroma Games, Iron Gate Studio, Kikiyama. 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 Polychroma Games · Philippines
Until Then is a narrative adventure from the Filipino studio Polychroma Games, set in a fictional city in the Philippines after a global catastrophe. You follow Mark Borja, whose life is upended by strange moments of deja vu, as friends and memories start to feel unreliable. Presented as a visual novel with detailed pixel art in a 2.5D world.
By Iron Gate Studio · Sweden
Valheim is a cooperative survival game from the Swedish developer Iron Gate Studio, set in a procedurally generated afterlife inspired by Viking culture. Alone or with friends you explore, gather resources, build and fight your way toward stronger foes. After a long early access period, its full version launched in September 2026.
By Kikiyama · Japan
Yume Nikki is a surreal exploration game by the pseudonymous Japanese developer Kikiyama, first made in 2004 with RPG Maker 2003. You guide Madotsuki through her dreams, collecting effects that change her appearance and abilities, with no conventional plot or battle system. Its eerie, open-ended dream worlds have influenced a whole wave of later indie games.
By ACE Team · Chile
Zeno Clash is a first-person fighting game with shooter elements and the debut title of the Chilean studio ACE Team. It is set in Zenozoik, a strange punk fantasy world, where Ghat flees his vengeful siblings through close, brutal hand-to-hand fights. Its bizarre, highly original world design made the studio's name.
By Mojiken · Indonesia
A Space for the Unbound is a slice-of-life adventure set in a small Indonesian town in the late 1990s, following two high-school sweethearts near the end of their school days. Quiet everyday moments, a crumbling town and friends facing their inner struggles carry a story that slowly turns strange. It is a story-first adventure that trusts its players with heavier themes than its cozy look suggests.
By Kiro'o Games · Cameroon
Aurion: Legacy of the Kori-Odan is a 2D action RPG from Kiro'o Games, a studio headquartered in Yaounde, Cameroon. It pairs real-time combat with RPG progression inside an original fantasy world of its own making. Beyond the game itself, it is worth knowing as a commercial PC release from a Central African indie studio, a region still rarely seen on global storefronts.
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.
By Maddy Makes Games · Canada
Celeste is a precision platformer about climbing a mountain, built from short, demanding screens that restart instantly when you fail. Beneath the tight jumping and dashing sits a personal story about anxiety, depression and self-doubt, told with warmth rather than melodrama. It is a demanding game that stays encouraging, and one of the best-known indie platformers of its generation.
By Long Hat House · Brazil
Dandara replaces running and jumping with a single idea: you leap between surfaces, sticking to floors, walls and ceilings as you go. That one change turns familiar Metroidvania exploration into something that feels new, with rooms designed around angles instead of ledges. It comes from Brazilian studio Long Hat House and carries a strong, distinctive visual identity.
By Team Cherry · Australia
Hollow Knight is a hand-drawn action-adventure set in a vast underground kingdom of insects, where every new ability reopens places you already walked past. Its combat asks for patience and pattern-reading rather than button speed, and much of its story is found rather than told. A benchmark for small-team Metroidvania design from an independent Australian studio.
By Lienzo
Mulaka is a 3D action-adventure set in the landscapes of northern Mexico and built on the indigenous culture of the Tarahumara. Rather than borrowing a culture as decoration, it makes that tradition the foundation of its world, its creatures and its story. It is an interesting example of an indie team building a whole game around a specific living tradition.
By Lucas Pope
Papers, Please puts you behind a border checkpoint desk, checking documents against a rulebook that grows stricter every day. The work is simple and repetitive on purpose, and the tension comes from the choices it forces: follow the rules, feed your family, or help the person in front of you. A small-scale game that became a lasting reference for storytelling through mechanics.
By Nyamakop · South Africa
Semblance is a puzzle platformer in which you can deform the world: press into a surface and it stays bent, reshaping the level into the path you need. Playing with that single mechanic, the game keeps finding fresh puzzles in soft, squashable terrain. It was developed by the South African studio Nyamakop and is a good example of one idea explored thoroughly.
By ConcernedApe · United States
Stardew Valley starts with an overgrown farm and leaves the rest to you: plant seasonal crops, raise animals, fish, mine caves and get to know the people of a small town. There is no single right way to spend a day, which is exactly its appeal. Created by one developer, it became one of the clearest proofs that a solo indie project can define a whole genre.