External Discovery
69 indie games in this list, released 2020, from developers such as 1939 Games, TurtleBlaze, Coldwild Games. 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 1939 Games · Iceland
Kards is a free-to-play digital collectible card game with a World War II theme, played online against other people. You build decks from wartime cards and clash in strategic matches. It was developed and published by 1939 Games, a studio in Iceland, which put it into early access on Steam in April 2019 before its full launch in April 2020. Mobile versions for iOS and Android with cross-platform play followed in 2023.
By TurtleBlaze · Netherlands
KUNAI is an action platformer starring Tabby, a robot who sets out to stop Lemonkus, an AI that has almost wiped out the human race. Players fight and traverse a post-apocalyptic world. It was developed by TurtleBlaze in the Netherlands and published by The Arcade Crew, launching in February 2020 on Windows and Nintendo Switch. The PC release received generally favourable reviews.
By Coldwild Games · Latvia
Merchant of the Skies is a simulation game that mixes the building-up of a tycoon title with the numbers of an economic sim. Its Steam tags also point to strategy and role-playing elements alongside the trading focus. It was created by Latvian developer Coldwild Games, which published it together with AbsoDev, and it came out in 2020. The available sources do not go further into its systems, but it sits firmly in the business management side of indie games.
By Nikita Kryukov · Russia
In Milk Inside a Bag of Milk Inside a Bag of Milk, an unnamed woman heads to a nearby shop to buy a bag of milk while struggling with severe trauma, and the player acts as the voice inside her head, sharing her inner monologue. This psychological horror visual novel was made by Russian developer Nikita Kryukov using Ren'Py and released on Steam in August 2020, with a sequel following in 2021.
By Eyeguys, Lorenzo Redaelli · Italy
Milky Way Prince: The Vampire Star is a visual novel about the relationship between two characters, Nuki and Sune, and it deals directly with mental health. Designer Lorenzo Redaelli describes it as a partly autobiographical work. It was developed by Eyeguys in Italy, published by Santa Ragione, and released in August 2020 for Windows and Mac.
By Beautiful Glitch · Spain
Monster Prom 2: Monster Camp is a visual novel in which players once again try to romance a cast of monsters, continuing the formula of the first Monster Prom. Steam categorises it as a simulation title. Beautiful Glitch, a studio from Spain, both developed and self-published it, releasing it in October 2020 for Windows, macOS and Linux as the second entry in its monster romance series.
By moi rai games · Germany
Monster Sanctuary blends a side-scrolling metroidvania with monster collecting, letting you tame creatures and send them into turn-based battles. Exploration and team building feed into each other as you push through the world. It began as Denis Sinner's personal hobby project, grew through a Kickstarter that raised over five times its goal, and was released in 2020 by Moi Rai Games of Germany with Team17 publishing. It is built in Unity.
By Veewo Games · China
Neon Abyss, from Chinese studio Veewo Games, is a run-and-gun game with roguelike elements released in 2020 with Team17 as its main publisher. Members of the Grim Squad descend the Abyss through levels built from procedurally generated rooms, hunting powerful beings called the New Gods. Players fight with a range of firearms and special abilities, and critics gave it a generally positive reception.
By Marevo Collective · Ukraine
Released in 2020, No One Lives Under the Lighthouse offers a horror adventure made by Marevo Collective, a studio from Ukraine. It combines exploration-led adventure play with an unsettling, horror-driven tone. The Director's Cut edition is available on Steam for Windows, Mac and Linux. Public sources say little about its specific mechanics, so it is best approached as a compact atmospheric adventure from the Ukrainian indie scene.
By Nolla Games · Finland
Released in 2020, Noita is a roguelike platformer from Nolla Games, a studio in Finland, also classed as a falling-sand game. Players control a witch who gathers spells and casts them through wands to defeat enemies named after creatures from Finnish mythology. Each run descends through pseudorandomly generated areas toward a boss fight, with plenty of secret and optional content along the way. It entered early access in September 2019 and reached 1.0 in October 2020.
By OMOCAT, LLC · United States
OMORI follows Sunny, a withdrawn teenager, and Omori, his alter ego inside a strange dream world, with play alternating between Faraway Town and the dreamscape. Turn-based fights use emotion-driven status effects, and player choices steer toward one of several endings. Heavy themes of anxiety, depression and trauma give it a psychological horror edge. It was made by indie studio Omocat in the United States using RPG Maker MV and released in December 2020.
By Behold Studios · Brazil
Out of Space is a cooperative multiplayer game that combines survival with strategy, and it is also classed as a party game with real-time strategy elements. It comes from Brazilian team Behold Studios, the developers behind Chroma Squad. The game launched on Steam for Windows, macOS and Linux in February 2020, and a Couch Edition later came to Switch, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in November 2020.
By Alter Games · Russia
Partisans 1941 is a real-time tactics game about Soviet partisan fighters resisting the German invasion during the Second World War. Players direct a squad through its missions, and its genre listings point to strategy with survival and tactical role-playing elements woven in. It was developed by Alter Games in Russia on Unreal Engine 4 with Daedalic Entertainment handling publishing in 2020.
By Grey Wolf Entertainment · Portugal
Pax Nova is a science fiction 4X strategy game played in turns. Players guide one of several factions spread across three races, charting unknown planets and star systems, founding cities, extending their influence and fighting battles both on the ground and in space. It was developed by GreyWolf Entertainment, a studio from Portugal, published by Iceberg Interactive, and released for Windows in April 2020.
By Tlön Industries · Argentina
Per Aspera is a city-building simulation about turning Mars into a world humans can live on. You play as AMI, an artificial intelligence tasked with terraforming the red planet so that colonists can eventually settle there, balancing construction and planetary change as a strategy challenge. It was made by the Argentine studio Tlön Industries, published by Raw Fury, and released for Windows in December 2020.
By Kinetic Games · United Kingdom
Phasmophobia is a cooperative paranormal horror game from Kinetic Games, a British indie studio based in Southampton, launched in early access on Windows in September 2020 with virtual reality support. Teams of one to four ghost hunters take on contracts at haunted locations, working out which type of ghost is present while tackling optional objectives. The game surged in popularity after streamers and YouTubers picked it up in October 2020, and critics praised how inventive it felt.
By Dry Cactus · New Zealand
Poly Bridge 2 is the follow-up to Poly Bridge and keeps its focus on engineering bridges that must hold up under physics-driven traffic. Players plan structures across a new run of levels, balancing materials and design choices so vehicles reach the other side. New Zealand studio Dry Cactus developed and published it, with Adrian Talens again writing the music, and it launched in 2020 on Windows, Mac and Linux as well as mobile.
By Sector D2 · Australia
Project Wingman is a combat flight-action game set on an alternate Earth, where a silent mercenary pilot flies for United Cascadia in its war for independence from the Pacific Federation. Alongside the story campaign, a roguelike Conquest mode has you capture territory, buy aircraft and hire support while enemy resistance grows. It was developed by Sector D2 from Australia on Unreal Engine 4 and released for Windows in December 2020, with optional VR support throughout.
By ACE Team, Giant Monkey Robot · Chile
Rock of Ages 3: Make & Break combines competitive tower defense with racing and fast arcade action, delivered with a strongly absurdist comic tone. It continues from Rock of Ages and Rock of Ages 2: Bigger & Boulder, and this entry adds tools that let players design and share their own levels. Chilean studio ACE Team developed it on Unreal Engine 4 with Giant Monkey Robot, and it launched in July 2020 on Windows and consoles.
By Croteam · Croatia
Serious Sam 4 is a first-person shooter from Croatian studio Croteam, published by Devolver Digital and released in 2020. It belongs to the long-running Serious Sam series and is set before the events of Serious Sam 3: BFE, continuing the franchise's first-person gunplay. The project was first revealed in 2018 as Serious Sam 4: Planet Badass, runs on Croteam's Serious Engine, and later received a standalone expansion called Siberian Mayhem.
By Offworld · Canada
Squad is a tactical first-person shooter centred on military realism, built by Canadian indie developer Offworld Industries in Unreal Engine 4. Players join large-scale battles between military and paramilitary factions on expansive maps, with the design aiming to capture realistic modern combat. It is seen as a spiritual follow-up to the Project Reality mod for Battlefield 2, and it left Steam Early Access for a full release in 2020.
By SUPERHOT Team · Poland
A 2020 follow-up to Superhot, Mind Control Delete keeps the series in first-person shooter territory while layering roguelike elements onto the mechanics of the 2016 original. It was developed and self-published by Superhot Team, an independent studio based in Poland, and released on Steam for Windows, macOS and Linux. The game carries a Metacritic score of 78 and is tagged on Steam as an indie action title.
By Torpor Games · Germany
Suzerain is a text-driven visual novel about governing, casting you as president of Sordland, an invented nation in the 1950s. Rather than combat, play revolves around political decisions and dialogue choices that shape how your administration unfolds. It was developed by Torpor Games, a Berlin studio in Germany, and launched on Windows and macOS in 2020. A further expansion, Kingdom of Rizia, moved the action to a different corner of the same fictional world in 2024.
By Happy Volcano · Belgium
The Almost Gone is a puzzle game built around turning and inspecting miniature three-dimensional rooms to piece together the story of Emily, a recently deceased girl, and to expose her family's secrets. Reviewers highlighted its look and its willingness to tackle serious themes, though opinions on the storytelling and some mechanics were split. Belgian independent studio Happy Volcano released it in 2020, and it took Game of the Year at the Flanders DC Belgian Game Awards in 2021.