Once upon a time, the United States of America would enjoy a holiday called “Thanksgiving.” However, over time, as culture shifted and the country changed, it eventually evolved into the day of celebration we now all know and love. That’s right, Thanksgaming! It’s the day of the year when everyone in America—and all around the world—gets together to celebrate unknown indie games.
As has become an annual tradition on Kotaku, we put out a call to indie developers to let us know about their upcoming or recently released games that have gone under the radar, so we can highlight them here on this big platform while the gaming news is taking a day off to stuff its face with turkey.
As ever, our including these games here is not a comment on their quality, as unless otherwise stated, we haven’t played them. Instead, these are randomly* selected from the hundreds of emails we received (over 400, in fact, to give you an idea of how many games are out there), to highlight just what extraordinary variety and possibility that exists withing the broad world of independent gaming.
If you want to support these developers and their projects, there’s a bunch of stuff you can do. Adding them to your Wishlist makes a real difference, helping developers get both algorithmic and financial attention, let alone that it reminds you to buy it when it’s out. Telling others is huge too! Nag your favorite YouTuber to check it out. Force your grandparents to play the demo. Etch the game’s URL into your nearest mountainside.
OK, ready? And yes, this is a slideshow, get some cope. It’s how I can get away with doing these articles, so we all just accept it. Also, if you narrow your browser to portrait, or read on your phone, it removes the slides.
*I apply the smallest amount of curation to what’s featured, but it’s minimal.
2 / 22
There’s a very wonderful current trend for old-school FPS games made in the style of Heretic and Duke Nukem, with those chunky 2.5 pixels, and I love it. But it also leaves me craving the same but shinier. HELLBREAK looks like it’ll offer me that—absolutely madcap first-person shooting, combined with violent spells, all with a sort of Diablo-infused bunch of health bars and upgrades.
It’s set rather nebulously between the two world wars, with a soldier in hell fighting to save his soul, and weapons that are demonic versions of the arsenals of the era, and will include a score system based on combos. It’s due to enter Early Access at the start of next year.
Developer: Double Barrel Games
Release date: Q1 2025
Steam
3 / 22
I used to think I didn’t like sokoban puzzles, until I realized I was writing the phrase, “despite being a sokoban game” in so many articles that I had to face up to the fact that…I just like them. With this new-found awareness, I’m pumped to see that After Light Fades embraces the block-shoving concept, in a game ostensibly about someone accepting their grief through a spiritual journey, but with its emphasis on the puzzles.
There’s a demo out, although no release date yet.
Developer: Orchid of Redemption
Release date: TBA
Steam
4 / 22
It might just be that I’m very old, but there’s something adorably nostalgic about the presentation of Iron Village. It’s a city-builder combined with a railway manager, but presented in 2D pixel graphics that reminds me of a particular childhood era of gaming. Of course, it then carries over the more modern sentiments of the genre, with greater complexity of systems and resource management. There’s a demo on the Steam page.
Developer: Lunar Chippy Games
Release date: TBA
Steam
5 / 22
I have to confess my eyes glaze over when I see the words “roguelite tower defense,” but fortunately in this case I could still see enough to note the following, “with RTS elements.” Because goodness gracious, Dawn of Defense looks epic.
It’s got hexes on its grid for you strategy sickos, hordes of attackers for the tower defense weirdos, and multiple-choice upgrades for the roguelite acolytes. It also looks fantastic, too. There’s a demo for it, available on Itch.
Developer: 6side Studio
Release date: TBA
Steam / Itch
6 / 22
Oh my gosh, look how adorable this is! Not just the art so pretty I want to cuddle it, but an adventure game based around gathering magical stickers! There have been a few sticker-themed games of late, but most have felt too reliant on the gimmick, without the depth underneath. This, from the footage and descriptions, looks like a fundamentally strong adventure game, with the sticker element as a bonus. Downloading the demo as I type.
Developer: Mudita Games
Release date: TBA
Steam
7 / 22
Retro Gadgets has been in early access since 2022, so there’s a chance you might have seen it before. But I hadn’t! And I’m surprised, given what a fantastic premise this is: it’s a “sandbox” game in which you can design and build your own…retro gadgets!
You can solder boards, wire in switches and buttons, and then even code your own CPUs. You can also see gadgets others have made, take them apart, learn that way. Honestly, this should be in every classroom! It’s already fully playable, but developing in response to its community, which deserves to be a lot bigger.
Developer: Licorice ehf
Release date: Nov 20, 2022
Steam
8 / 22
Describing itself as “a chess-like tactical game,” Skygard Arena is a turn-based MOBA-like, where you can battle through a campaign, or take on other players in a PvP mode. It looks like a splendid combination of board game design and video game possibilities, and you can find out for yourself since it released into Early Access just a few days ago.
Developer: Gemelli Games
Release date: Out now
Steam
9 / 22
Why are you God for only a day? Because Judgment Day is coming! In God For A Day, you play as the son of God, and have to make decisions about a town—Hopewood—and its residents, that determine the future it will see. You learn about people, their stories and their secrets, and then make life-changing decisions about their destinies!
It all sounds wonderfully heretical, and there’s a demo out now to see just how much.
Developer: Funky Forest
Release date: 2025
Steam
10 / 22
A “boxing rogue-like” is an intriguing opener indeed, that only gets more eyebrow-raising when you learn it’s about battering your way out of Jotunheim so you can beat up your father, Thor!
The Steam page claims a tale of “self-improvement philosophy” alongside a nine-part boss rush, with unlockables that will impact repeat play, all within a complex story set in Norse mythology. Which I bet isn’t a game you were expecting to read about. There’s a demo, but no release date as yet.
Developer: Moonsaurus Games
Release date: TBA
Steam
11 / 22
I’m very conscious of not letting these features get overtaken by 79 variations on the current zeitgeisty genre, and right now that’s unquestionably X + roguelike (where they mean “roguelite”). But look, I’m a mortal man, and when the next email I randomly click on tells me “billiards + roguelike,” what am I supposed to do?
I’ve managed to go 47 years without finding out what billiards actually is, beyond “pool with obstacles,” but it’s obviously a brilliant premise for an arcadey take on hitting balls with a stick. Also it features a lot more explosions than I was expecting. It came out earlier this year on Steam and Switch, and there’s a demo available.
Developer: Ludokultur
Release date: Out now
Steam
12 / 22
An arcade, physics driven soccer game, played by cute little cartoon animals, and it’s already managed to secure an Among Us crossover event before the game even has a release date?!
This is in fact a follow-up to 2021’s Button City, a low-key cozy narrative game about a little fox and his chums. The indigenous-owned Albuquerque developer, Subliminal, seems to be all about the adorable cuteness, and if they can match that with a solid sports game combined with a sweet between-game narrative, I think this could do well.
Developer: Subliminal
Release date: TBA
Steam
13 / 22
Woah, this has some serious The Lion King on Sega Genesis vibes! Or is it Donkey Kong Country? Ooh, and a hefty dose of Crash Bandicoot. Oh, just pick your own classic platformer. It looks utterly gorgeous, and its recent console release last month saw a bunch of very positive reviews, albeit from lower-profile gaming sites. So you can grab it right now on Xbox, PS5 and Switch. It’s out on PC next week, although lacks a demo right now.
Developer: VEA Games
Release date: Dec 6
Steam
14 / 22
2023 was the year when far too many “X + deckbuilder” games came out, to the point of farce. That’s slowed down enough this year to let novel additions stand out a bit better, and Sultan’s Game certainly looks novel. It’s an RPG, but played using cards, and it’s all about exploring one’s less innocent urges.
You’re constantly required to make “dreadful choices,” which might be murdering an innocent, lavish spending, dangerous adventures, or extravagant carnal pursuits. Presumably much like your Thanksgiving plans. Of course, you can choose to disobey the Sultan and risk a regicidal route. And, apparently, even slay dragons. The art looks fantastic, and the whole thing is intriguing. And indeed there’s a demo.
Developer: Double Cross
Release date: Q1 2025
Steam
15 / 22
If I gave you 870 guesses what Mudborne might be about, you’d still never get to: a casual, frog-breeding genetics sim. Because you’re a big old dummy.
This is, extraordinarily, genuinely what we have here, in a game so bizarre-sounding I’m not even going to try to pithily sum it up in my own words, but rather just paste what was in the email:
You use your different frogs to affect the world, and open portals between a waking and ‘dreaming’ hibernation realm – kinda menu management crafting minigames meets link to the past world exploration + puzzles! for example you use really angry frogs to melt ice, or really hungry frogs to clear deadly algae blooms
Yes please, I would like some of that.
It’s by ellraiser and TNgineers, who previously created a beekeeping sim, APICO. Mudborne is TBA, but there’s a demo on the Steam page.
Developer: ellraiser, TNgineers
Release date: TBA
Steam
16 / 22
Making a frog-breeding genetics sim look entirely normal is Scissors In Hell, a first-person dungeon crawler that appears to have been born of a fever dream. Oh, and it has turn-based combat and base-building? Wow.
Don’t get me wrong—this is straight on my wishlist. I mean, it apparently offers the chance to set unicycle-riding octopuses on fire, or annoy a group of bat-people who cosplay as the Pope, and I never miss any game with those features.
Developer: Z. Bill
Release date: TBA
Steam
17 / 22
If anything, it’s taken a weirdly long time before people started evolving the Vampire Survivors formula into more involved RPGs. Wildkeepers Rising appears to be attempting precisely this, by combining that billion-enemy frenzy with a creature collector!
It seems like it’ll work with roguelite runs, but you’ll bring different companions with you each time, and it promises a storyline, which the VS-spin-off genre is usually entirely missing.
There’s to be an alpha test next week via Steam, with an Early Access launch to follow, although there’s no date yet for when that will be.
Developer: Lioncode Games
Release date: TBA
Steam
18 / 22
Can you combine Resident Evil and PS1 lost disc horror? Is that tautology? I think 10 Dead Doves says you can. This fixed-perspective horror about exploring an urban legend called the Ant Farm, while trying to find the cause of dead birds in Appalachia looks all sorts of crazy.
There’s a demo, and the full game is out in just a couple of weeks. This is a comedy horror, which is a tough genre, but if it can pull it off, this could be fascinating.
Developer: Duonix Studios
Release date: Dec 13
Steam
19 / 22
One day historians will pinpoint the exact moment when inventory tetris went from a gripe to a feature. In Deadly Days: Roadtrip, it’s a core component of the game, boasting, “A well-organized inventory is your best life insurance.”
This is a frenzied zombie survival game, combining Vampire Survivors with exploration, and indeed managing your inventory in such a way as to best synergize your selection of weapons and tools. Which sounds ace. There’s an open playtest due in the middle of December, with the release planned for next year.
Developer: PixelSplit
Release date: 2025
Steam
20 / 22
I love a game where looking at a screenshot makes me feel completely overwhelmed. Journey to Incrementalia achieves this splendidly, and even more-so in the video above. Stuff’s definitely going on!
This is an “active incremental auto-battler,” it says, and it’s all about casting spells to break down 99 walls to reach the lost city of Incrementalia. And you know what? I love growing to “insane heights of power,” so perhaps this is very much the game for me. I’m absolutely fascinated—and can play it right now, given it was released last month, and is just $4 in the Steam sale.
Developer: Adam Travers
Release date: Out now
Steam
21 / 22
As someone not especially musically able, rhythm games are not my forte. Until they’re weird, and then I’m in. Playing Thumper on a VR headset at a gaming show before it was released, so I had no idea what was about to happen to me, was a particular highlight. Hyperbeat, while obviously not the same vibe, seems to meet the right criteria.
The game’s page describes it as featuring “each note flying at you indicating whether you slash, ride, or dodge your way through an endless dream.” This is the work of childhood friends Alice Bottino and Chancellor Wallin, with a demo out, and a full release next year.
Developer: Alice Bottino, Chancellor Wallin
Release date: 2025
Steam
What an extraordinary selection, and I’ve barely made a dent in the pile of emails. But fear not, I’ll be back with another 20 games from the heap tomorrow!
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22 / 22