68 indie games in this list, released 2021, from developers such as Bubblebird Studio, Aeternum Game Studios S.L, Naps Team. 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.
Haven Park is a relaxed adventure about caring for a nature park. Players wander its grounds, gather materials and put up buildings that help draw visitors in, with exploration encouraged at every turn. It was the debut release of Bubblebird Studio, published by Mooneye Studios in 2021 as the first title in its Mooneye Indies line for smaller creators. Reviewers enjoyed its presentation and gentle tone but were less taken with its mechanics and puzzles.
Aeterna Noctis is a Metroidvania that Steam files under action and adventure, placing it in the genre known for combat and exploration. Aeternum Game Studios, a team from Spain, both developed it and published it on Steam. The game launched in December 2021 across Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, arriving on PC and current consoles at the same time.
Baldo: The Guardian Owls is an RPG-flavored action-adventure that combines combat, exploration and puzzle solving in a hand-drawn open world. Its inspirations include The Legend of Zelda and the films of Studio Ghibli. Developed and published by NAPS team, a studio from Italy, it was delayed from a planned 2020 Switch launch and arrived in August 2021, later appearing on PlayStation 5 in 2024.
Before We Leave is a city-building game in which players lay out and grow settlements, a genre focused on planning, resources and expansion. Steam classifies it as a casual simulation and strategy title. It was made by New Zealand developer Balancing Monkey Games and released by Team17 in May 2021. The available sources do not describe its setting or systems in more detail than that, so it is best approached as a straightforward builder.
A point-and-click adventure, Behind the Frame: The Finest Scenery is one Wikidata also classifies as an escape-room style game, suggesting a focus on puzzle-solving. Taiwanese developer Silver Lining Studio created it, with Akupara Games and Akatsuki Taiwan co-publishing. It launched in August 2021 on Windows, macOS and mobile, later reaching Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4, and it holds a Metacritic score of 73.
Bloodroots is a hack-and-slash action game developed by Canadian studio Paper Cult. Drawing on the Western genre, it casts the player as Mr. Wolf, a man chasing revenge after a betrayal. It first launched in February 2020 on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and Windows, followed by an Xbox Series X/S version in July 2021. Steam lists it as an indie action title, and it holds a Metacritic score of 76.
Cookie Clicker is an incremental game created in 2013 by French programmer Julien Thiennot, known as Orteil. You start by clicking a giant cookie, then spend your haul on buildings that bake automatically and upgrades that boost every source of output. Production grows exponentially and the tone gradually drifts toward cosmic horror. There is no traditional ending; instead you can ascend to restart with faster growth, and the game is credited with helping shape idle gaming.
Crab Game is a free multiplayer party game inspired by the Netflix series Squid Game. Players face off across a string of minigames, and the goal is to be the final one still standing. Its creator and publisher is Daniel Sooman, a Norwegian indie developer known online as Dani. The game launched on Steam for Windows in October 2021 after an itch.io release for Linux and macOS, with those versions reaching Steam that November.
Released in 2021, Cruelty Squad is a tactical first-person shooter from Finnish independent studio Consumer Softproducts, run by artist Ville Kallio, and built with the Godot engine. Players are a biologically augmented assassin carrying out black operations for a corporate security firm, with stealth elements woven into missions. Its deliberately abrasive, surreal look stands out, and its themes satirise capitalism, corporations and the gig economy.
CryoFall is a multiplayer science-fiction survival game from AtomicTorch Studio, a Singapore-based developer, with its full Steam release arriving in April 2021 through publisher Daedalic Entertainment. Players establish a colony on an abandoned planet far in the future, staying alive while working through technology, farming, trade, industry and cybernetics. Its Steam tags span RPG, simulation and strategy alongside massively multiplayer play.
Dandy Ace is a roguelike action dungeon crawler about a magician trying to break out of a procedurally generated world. He fights using magic cards that trigger attacks and abilities, and pairing different cards produces different effects. Brazilian studio Mad Mimic developed it and Neowiz published it for Windows and macOS in March 2021, with console ports later that year. Critics received it positively and often compared it with Hades.
Deeeer Simulator is a comedic sandbox game in which the player is reborn as a deer and can either wander a stylised city or wreck it with a range of supernatural powers, including a stretchy neck that works like a grappling hook, while hunting for secrets. Taking cues from Goat Simulator, it was developed by Gibier Games in Japan and published by Playism, leaving early access in November 2021.
Dice Legacy mixes city-building with real-time strategy, layering roguelike structure and survival mechanics on top of settlement management. That combination means runs carry risk and each attempt can end differently. It was developed by DESTINYbit, a studio in Italy, and released on Steam for Windows in September 2021. The game holds a Metacritic score of 70.
ElecHead is a puzzle platformer about Elec, a tiny robot whose head sends an electric charge through whatever surface it touches. Players power up platforms and machinery by making contact, working out how to route energy through each room to move forward. It was created by Japanese indie developer Nama Takahashi and launched on PC in October 2021, with music and sound by composer Tsuyomi. Console versions for Switch and Xbox One followed afterwards.
Encased is an isometric role-playing game with turn-based combat, set in a science fiction post-apocalyptic world. Its design draws on classic computer RPGs such as Fallout and Wasteland, along with the Strugatsky brothers' Soviet novel Roadside Picnic. It was developed by Dark Crystal Games in Russia, entered early access in 2019, and reached its full release in September 2021 under publisher Prime Matter.
Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights is a dark fantasy action role-playing platformer about Lily, the last priestess left alive in a land where a deadly rain turns living beings into undead. Waking in a church with no memory, she sets out to find where the rain comes from, calling on the spirits of undead she has purified to fight for her. Japanese studios Adglobe and Live Wire developed it, releasing it in June 2021 after early access.
Escape Simulator is a puzzle game played in first person, developed and published by Croatian studio Pine Studio, released in October 2021. Built around the escape room format, it has players solve puzzles to find their way out of locked rooms. Steam lists it under Adventure, Casual and Simulation, and it holds a Metacritic score of 82. A sequel, Escape Simulator 2, followed in October 2025.
Exo One is a science fiction adventure game with a casual, exploratory feel and simulation elements, according to its store genres. Exbleative, a developer from Australia, made it, with Future Friends Games handling publishing, and it launched for Windows and Xbox in November 2021. A PlayStation release followed in June 2024, bringing the game to a wider audience.
Home Alone is the opening episode of Fears to Fathom, an anthology of short psychological horror games based on supposedly true stories sent in by players. Each chapter presents a self-contained tale told from the perspective of someone who lived through it, and Steam lists this one as a free-to-play casual adventure. The series is made by Indian solo developer Mukul Negi, known online as Rayll, and this first episode arrived free on Steam in 2021.
Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach casts players as Gregory, a young boy trapped overnight in a huge entertainment complex. He must slip past hostile animatronic mascots and a night guard until morning arrives. Unlike earlier entries, this ninth main installment in the series opens up into free-roam play. Steel Wool Studios in the United States developed it with Unreal Engine 4, and ScottGames published it in December 2021.
Golf Club Nostalgia is a golf puzzler set on an Earth abandoned by humanity, where the wealthy who escaped to Mars return to play among the ruins. Players shoot through wrecked monuments, malls and museums while the story unfolds mostly through a radio broadcast soundtrack. Made by Demagog Studio from Serbia, it first appeared on mobile in 2018 and reached Windows in 2021, with critics praising its music and art over its simple golf.
Granny 3 is an adventure game from DVloper, a developer based in Slovakia, released on Steam for Windows in 2021. The goal is to get away from Granny and Grandpa, and the player is given five days in which to manage it. The store listing offers little detail beyond that premise, which frames the game as a race against time to break free from the two antagonists before the days run out.
GRIME is a Metroidvania with role-playing systems and a soulsvania streak, built around exploring an interconnected world and fighting through it. It comes from Clover Bite, an independent developer in Israel, and was published by Akupara Games. The game first arrived in August 2021 on Windows and Google Stadia before reaching PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo Switch in later years. Critics were broadly positive, and a follow-up, Grime II, was announced in 2023.
HighFleet, also titled HighFleet: Deus in Nobis, is a strategy game with action sequences in which the player commands a fleet of heavy metal airships. The campaign unfolds on Elaat, a dieselpunk post-apocalyptic world, where the goal is to take a rebellious region said to hold a nuclear reactor. It was created by Russian developer Konstantin Koshutin, published by MicroProse in 2021, and spent over ten years in development under the working title Hammerfight 2.