15 indie games in this list, released 2012, from developers such as Ronimo Games, Data Realms, Daedalic Entertainment. 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.
Awesomenauts is a multiplayer online battle arena that moves the genre into a side-on 2D platforming view, where rival teams of characters clash in competitive matches. It was created by Ronimo Games, a company from the Netherlands, and reached Windows in 2012. The PC version later became free-to-play with an in-game currency, went offline in 2023 after Ronimo went bankrupt, and was revived by Atari in 2025 as a paid game with matchmaking restored.
Played in 2D from a side-on, scrolling view, Cortex Command is an action game that Steam also files under strategy. It comes from Swedish studio Data Realms, which has worked on it since 2001, and it launched on Steam in September 2012 for Windows and Mac. The available facts describe its format and long development rather than specific systems, so it is best seen as a side-view action title with strategic elements and a long history in development.
Deponia is a comedic point-and-click graphic adventure following Rufus, who lives on a planet made of junk and dreams of escaping to Elysium, a city floating above it. His plans shift when he ends up helping an Elysian get home and stumbles onto a scheme endangering Deponia itself. Daedalic Entertainment of Germany developed and published it in 2012, and it opened a series continued by Chaos on Deponia, Goodbye Deponia and Deponia Doomsday.
Euro Truck Simulator 2 is a non-linear truck simulator set across a compressed version of Europe. Players haul cargo between cities in articulated trucks, then expand into a business by purchasing more vehicles and depots and hiring drivers. Czech developer SCS Software built it on its own Prism3D engine and released it in 2012 as a sequel to Euro Truck Simulator; the intro reports over 22 million units sold.
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.
Released in 2012, Legend of Grimrock is an action role-playing game and the debut of Almost Human, a four-person indie team from Finland that funded development itself. It is a real-time, grid-based dungeon crawler in 3D, modelled on the 1987 classic Dungeon Master. It launched on Windows in April 2012, with OS X and Linux versions that December, and it was followed by the sequel Legend of Grimrock II in 2014.
Lucius is a 2012 horror adventure from Finnish studio Shiver Games, released for Microsoft Windows. Players control Lucius, a six-year-old boy who is the son of Lucifer, using telekinesis and mind control to arrange fatal accidents for the residents of Dante Manor one by one. The game led to two sequels, Lucius II: The Prophecy in 2015 and Lucius III in 2018, extending the story of its unsettling young protagonist.
Mikołaj Kamiński, an independent creator from Poland who works under the name Sos Sosowski, made McPixel, a comedic puzzle game first released in 2012. Kamiński handled publishing himself, bringing it to Steam in September 2012 for Windows and Mac. Steam files it under action and adventure alongside its indie tag, and it holds a Metacritic score of 76.
Sine Mora is a horizontal shoot 'em up in 2.5D, where movement is locked to two axes while the world around it is rendered in full 3D. Time is the central factor, feeding into a distinctive time-based mechanic alongside elaborate boss battles, and its diesel punk setting is populated by anthropomorphic characters. Hungarian studio Digital Reality co-developed it with Grasshopper Manufacture, and it holds a Metacritic score of 77.
Super Hexagon is an action game by independent developer Terry Cavanagh, with a soundtrack by Chipzel. It grew out of Hexagon, a prototype Cavanagh made in early 2012 for a game jam lasting twelve hours. The game launched on iOS that September, with Windows and macOS versions arriving three months later. Cavanagh is from Ireland, and the original was built with Adobe Flash tools. It holds a Metacritic score of 88 on its store page.
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.
Dominoes Pro is a mobile dominoes game with an offline mode against computer opponents and an online mode with random matchmaking or private rooms for playing with friends. It stresses strategy, memory and a bit of luck in classic tile play. It is one of several dominoes titles from Maysalward, a mobile game studio founded in 2003 and headquartered in Amman, Jordan.
Pou is a mobile virtual pet game in the Tamagotchi tradition. Players feed, clean, dress and entertain a small brown creature, play minigames to earn coins and spend them on cosmetic items for their pet. It became one of the most downloaded mobile games of 2014 and now lists more than a billion Google Play installs. It was created by Lebanese designer Paul Salameh and is published under his company Zakeh.
Tarneeb Pro is a mobile version of Tarneeb, the four-player partnership card game popular in the Levant. Players bid for a number of tricks or go for a Kaboot, and play with a partner to target scores of 31, 41 or 61, relying on card counting and some luck. It is developed by Maysalward, a studio headquartered in Amman and one of the longest-running game developers in Jordan.