An editorial guide from The Gaming Nest to indie games from Europe, the Americas, Asia, Africa, MENA and Oceania — each with original notes and a link to its store page.
These are editorial pages. The developers and publishers are not affiliated with The Gaming Nest unless explicitly stated.
Return of the Obra Dinn is a first-person mystery puzzle game set in 1807, when a merchant vessel lost for five years drifts back to the English coast with no known survivors. Sent by the East India Company, the player uses a pocket watch that recreates each death to work out the fate of all sixty people aboard. Created by Japan-based developer Lucas Pope, it won the Seumas McNally Grand Prize and uses a 1-bit monochrome art style.
Reventure is a comedic action-adventure that sends players to save a princess from the Dark Lord while poking fun at role-playing games, especially The Legend of Zelda. Its open world reacts to what the player does, and those choices can lead to any one of 100 different endings. Spanish studio Pixelatto released it in June 2019 as an expanded take on its Ludum Dare jam entry Lonk's Greedy Adventure, and critics singled out its humor.
Rezrog is a turn-based dungeon crawler inspired by tabletop games, in which a party of adventurers sets out to bring peace back to the land. Players upgrade their skills and look for enemy weaknesses to exploit tactically as they push deeper into dangerous dungeons. It was made by Soaphog, a studio from Latvia, published by Kasedo Games, and released in May 2017 on Windows, Mac, and Linux, with a Metacritic score of 70.
RimWorld is a science fiction construction and management simulation in which AI storytellers steer events, so each colony becomes a generated narrative rather than a pure test of skill. It was designed by Canadian developer Tynan Sylvester, with Ludeon Studios as publisher, and began as a Kickstarter-backed early access project in 2013 under the name Eclipse Colony. Version 1.0 arrived in October 2018, and console editions followed in 2022.
By Leonard Menchiari, IV Productions, Ivan Venturi Productions · Italy
RIOT: Civil Unrest is a real-time strategy game that recreates riots drawn from actual events, letting the player take the side of either the police or the protesters. Director Leonard Menchiari, formerly an editor and cinematographer at Valve, lived through riots himself and made the game to tell those stories. Developed in Italy with IV Productions, it was funded on Indiegogo in 2014, entered early access in 2017 and fully released in 2019.
Rise of Industry is a business tycoon game in which players construct and run an industrial empire, working to expand it during the early decades of the 20th century. It was created by Dapper Penguin Studios, an independent team from Spain, and published by Kasedo Games. After an early access period that began in February 2018, it reached full release in May 2019, and a sequel, Rise of Industry 2, arrived in 2025.
Rivals of Aether is a competitive platform fighter that critics commended for the depth of its gameplay. It was created by Dan Fornace, released through Aether Studios in the United States, built in GameMaker, and arrived on Windows in March 2017. The game grew into a wider series set in the shared Aether fantasy world, including a dating sim, a deck-building game, a roguelike, a comic series and a full sequel, Rivals of Aether II, in October 2024.
Roboquest is a roguelite first-person shooter from RyseUp Studios, an indie developer from France, built in Unreal Engine 4. It combines first-person gunfights with the run-based structure of the roguelite format. It spent time in Steam early access from 2020 before its full launch on PC and Xbox in November 2023. PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 versions followed in May 2025.
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.
Rolling Line recreates the hobby of model railways as a sandbox with a low-poly visual style. Players lay out track and scenery, explore existing layouts and share their creations online, playing solo or with others on a flat screen or in virtual reality with support for a wide range of headsets. It was developed and self-published by Gaugepunk Games from New Zealand and launched on Windows in April 2018.
Roto Force is a twin-stick shooter, the kind of action game where one control moves your character and another aims your fire. It was developed by Accidently Awesome, a studio from Austria, and published by PID Games and East2West Games. The game was released in 2023 for both mobile devices and personal computers, including Windows, macOS and Linux.
Rubek is a casual puzzle game built around rolling and matching colours, with levels meant to bend your thinking as you plan each move. Beyond that core idea, its store information describes it only in broad casual and indie terms, so expect a compact, focused logic challenge rather than a story-driven experience. It was developed and published by Xigma Games, an Indian studio, and released in October 2016 for Windows and Mac.
Rue Valley is a narrative role-playing game about Eugene Harrow, who is trapped in a time loop lasting 47 minutes in a small desert town. Adventure and casual elements are part of its listed genres, and the repeating window of time is central to its premise. Emotion Spark Studio, a team based in Serbia, developed it, published by Owlcat Games and released in November 2025, and critics gave it mixed reviews.
Runestone Keeper is a roguelike game developed and self-published by Blackfire Games, a studio from China, with its iOS version handled by Cimu. It released on Windows and Mac OS X in March 2015, then arrived on iOS later that year and on Android in 2017. Steam tags it with the Strategy, RPG and Casual genres, while Wikidata classifies it more broadly as a strategy video game.
Rust is a multiplayer survival game from UK studio Facepunch Studios, fully released in February 2018 after an early access run that started in 2013. Players scavenge or steal materials, manage hunger, thirst and health, craft gear and fortify bases, while the biggest danger comes from other players rather than wildlife. Clans, raiding and firearms drive much of the conflict, and scheduled server wipes regularly reset progress so each cycle starts fresh.
RV There Yet? is a cooperative adventure in which a group of friends tries to drive a rear-wheel-drive RV home from a camping trip across punishing terrain. Getting the vehicle through rough ground takes teamwork, and hazards such as bears can damage the RV and injure players along the way. Swedish studio Nuggets Entertainment developed and self-published the game, which came out on Windows in October 2025 and found a large audience on Steam.
SAEKO: Giantess Dating Sim is a dark visual novel and dating sim from Japanese developer Safe Havn Studio, published by Hyper Real. Players are Rin, a captive of Saeko, a young woman who can shrink people and secretly preys on them. Rin must look after the other miniaturized prisoners while his relationship with his captor slowly develops. The game launched on Windows and Linux in May 2025, pairing its unsettling premise with choice-driven adventure storytelling.
Sairento VR is a virtual reality action game that combines first-person shooting with free-flowing close combat. Players move acrobatically with triple jumps, wall runs and power slides, slow down time in mid-air and switch between katanas, firearms, bows and throwing glaives, upgrading their kit as they progress. It was made by the Singapore-based studios Mixed Realms and Swag Soft and launched for PC VR headsets in February 2018.
Sands of Salzaar is a fantasy strategy action RPG from Chinese indie studio Han-Squirrel Studio, published by Hong Kong's XD and fully released in 2021. Players create a character, fight battles, recruit troops, run a fief and delve into dungeons across a war-torn realm where five factions compete. It offers a story campaign and a sandbox mode, and has been likened to a blend of Mount & Blade, Diablo and Dynasty Warriors.
Satisfactory is a first-person factory-building simulation in which a pioneer lands on an alien world and turns its resources into ever larger production lines. Early work centres on building a space elevator, and shipping parts through it to the FICSIT corporation unlocks new tiers of machines and technology. Swedish studio Coffee Stain Studios built it in Unreal Engine 4, ran it in early access from 2019 and launched the full release in 2024, where it holds a Metacritic score of 91.
Save Room - Organization Puzzle turns survival horror inventory management, in the style of Resident Evil 4, into a series of puzzles about fitting items into a briefcase. Space can be freed by combining items, healing with them or reloading weapons. Brazilian developer Fractal Projects released it on Windows in April 2022, and critics liked how cheap and carefully detailed it was while noting it was simple and brief.
SC2VN is a free visual novel taking place in South Korea in the first competitive years of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty. Players follow Mach, a hopeful who wants to turn professional, through a story praised for portraying esports honestly, including its emotional cost and the real chance of failing. It was developed by Team Eleven, a studio from the United States, released on Windows in September 2015, and a prequel titled Don't Forget Our Esports Dream came later.
Schedule I is an open-world crime simulator with a dark comic streak. Players start a drug trafficking business in Hyland Point, a fictional city, and grow it over time, mixing business management with tactical strategy as the operation expands. It is developed by TVGS (Tyler's Video Game Studio) from Australia and entered early access on Windows in March 2025, where it picked up a large audience through Twitch and TikTok livestreams.
Scorn is a survival horror adventure steeped in biopunk themes, with first-person shooter elements among its listed genres. Its imagery takes inspiration from two visual artists, Zdzisław Beksiński and H. R. Giger. It was developed by Ebb Software in Serbia using Unreal Engine 4, published by Kepler Interactive, and released in October 2022, with a PlayStation 5 version following a year later.