63 indie games in this list, released 2023, from developers such as Babil Games LLC, Danar Dev, Game Cooks. 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.
Arkan: Dawn of Knights combines match-3 puzzle battles with 4X kingdom building. After a villain shatters the key of time, heroes from different eras and myths arrive in the player's world, and the player summons them from key shards to fight monsters in puzzle-driven combat while expanding a kingdom on a shared map. It was released for iOS in 2023. It is published by Babil Games LLC, a company PocketGamer.biz lists as based in Dubai, UAE.
Anonymous Messages is a short atmospheric adventure set in an eerie forest. You wake with no memory, carrying only a flashlight and a cassette player, and search for six tapes whose anonymous messages calm your rising heart rate while slowly restoring your past. The forest becomes more hostile with each tape. It is a game by Danar Dev, the label of Kurdish Iraqi solo developer Danar Kayfi, and it also appears on his itch.io page.
AVO Escape Space is a story-driven escape-room game for VR set aboard a spaceship caught in a meteor storm. Playing as the last passenger, PatientZ, you solve a chain of puzzles with help from the ship's AI, AVO, while uncovering what the vessel was really for. It won at the Very Big Indie Pitch in Dubai. It comes from Game Cooks, the VR and mobile studio founded in Beirut by Lebanese brothers Arz and Lebnan Nader.
Colored Effects is a 2D puzzle platformer in which each colour gives the player a different ability. You switch between colours and their effects to get through levels, collect gems, beat bosses and solve environmental puzzles. It is the first PC release from TACSOU, the one-person studio of Moroccan developer Soufiane Tacherifine, and it is also sold on Nintendo Switch.
End Up Alone is a first-person horror thriller set after a deadly virus has spread. A young survivor tries to escape the depths of a company building, using a small bow to kill parasites and following messages left along the way. It supports a Kurdish interface and subtitles. It is the first game from Fast X Play, a studio based in Erbil, in Iraq's Kurdistan Region, which later released Deep in the Dread.
Fateel is a puzzle adventure about a crime detective who wakes from a coma locked in a basement with a gang's explosives. Across 25 rooms of rising difficulty you push boxes, carry and place bombs and read dialogue clues to reason your way out. The game began on mobile and was brought to PC with improved visuals and sound by Evolite Studio, a Jeddah-based Saudi studio.
The Infinity Road is a free endless driving game modelled on classic car-dodging arcade games. You steer to avoid traffic and chase a high score across four modes, with classic and modern control schemes and hard versions of each that reach top speed faster. It was developed by OONY TEAM, which describes itself as a Saudi indie game studio run by four members of the Aljunibi family.
The Moroccan Castle 3: Behind The Secrets is a first-person horror game set inside an old Moroccan castle. The player is a young archaeologist exploring its ruins, solving puzzles, finding clues and dodging traps and supernatural creatures to learn the castle's history. It is the final part of The Moroccan Castle trilogy by AJB Games Studio, the Moroccan studio founded by developer Ayman Jbari.
Tribal Knights is a casual strategy game in which players lead a raided desert tribe back to strength. A wheel of fate hands out coins, attacks, raids and shields, and the tribe grows from a camp of tents into an oasis with crops and cattle while players raid rival tribes. It is part of the board and casual portfolio of Chickmania Entertainment, a mobile studio based in Amman, Jordan.
West Hunt is a social deduction game for one to eight players set in an Old West town. One or two outlaws hide among NPC townsfolk and cause trouble while sheriffs try to spot the imposters by their behaviour before the town is thrown into chaos. NewGen, an indie studio based in Tunisia, developed it with Wandering Wizard as publisher, and the game has sold hundreds of thousands of copies since its 2022 early access launch.
Zamakan is an endless runner set in an alternate history where ancient Egyptians became a spacefaring civilisation. You pilot an Egyptian-styled ship through an asteroid field, and the twist is a visible space-time grid: heavy objects bend it, so obstacles warp the path around them. The aim is to travel as far as possible without a collision. It is a collaboration between two Egyptian developers, Split-E (Shady El Mously) and Mansoura-based Game Hermits.
9 Years of Shadows is a Metroidvania from the Mexican studio Halberd Studios. You play Europa, exploring Talos Castle with her ghostly companion Apino, defeating enemies and bosses to collect armor pieces that open new areas. Its hand-crafted pixel art is about bringing color back to a world covered in darkness.
Long Gone Days is a modern-day RPG from This I Dreamt, written, developed and illustrated by Camila Gormaz. A young soldier becomes disillusioned with the operation he serves and deserts to prevent an international war. Overcoming language barriers and building unlikely friendships is as important as combat.
Rusted Moss is a twin-stick shooter Metroidvania in which you swing across the map with a grappling hook. You play Fern, who wakes in a wasteland of aging machinery and forgotten creatures called Fae, and sets out to recover the stolen pieces of an entity known as Titania. Its grapple movement gives familiar exploration a fast, acrobatic feel.
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.