I’m back again, talking about indie video games I’ve found recently that I think look awesome. Again, I’ve tried to include a range of genres and styles here, but have likely missed some truly fabulous entries. As such, I’d like to reiterate that my inbox is always open to players or devs with interesting projects they’d like displayed.
Importantly, the following projects are developed by small teams, and some are even developed by individual people. As such, the final product may differ from what is shown here as work on each game continues. But all of them show incredible promise, and I wanted to show them off.
The Rabbit Haul
I originally found The Rabbit Haul while writing my article on solo dev indie games, but didn’t include it because I later found it was developed by a small group (Caldera Interactive). Now I can talk about this very cool game. Let’s cover exactly what makes it so unique.
Mixing combat, tower defense, and resource management, you must farm crops and defend against bandits to build up your hometown. The game has a very unique art style, and reminds me of one of my favorite roguelites, Cult of the Lamb, with a fun tower defense twist. A demo for The Rabbit Haul is now available on Steam, and I highly recommend giving it a try.
Diggin
Incremental games are definitely my guilty pleasure genre, and Diggin is a fantastic entry. Like The Rabbit Haul, this game currently has a playable demo. I downloaded it in prep for writing this article, and played it about 10 times longer than I thought I would.
Developed by Longshot Studios, in Diggin, you must repeatedly drill underground to gather resources. You use said resources in the skill tree to gain upgrades, which allow you to dig further and gather more. As mentioned, this game consumed much more of my time than I initially expected, and if that’s not a sign of its entertainment value, I don’t know what is. With some appropriate visuals and a charming soundtrack, Diggin is worth diving into.
Star Scrap
Star Scrap is a twin-stick shooter bullet hell that looks like a perfect representation of both genres. The Steam page also mentions a heavy amount of customization and abilities, so it’s highly likely that the level of possible builds in this game is incredibly high. Developed by Feral Fidget, you play as a bounty hunter in an immense amount of debt.
You must fight your way through waves of enemies, upgrading your ship and collecting as much scrap as possible. Accompanied by “Scrap”, your talkative drone companion, this game looks like a great amount of fun. More than anything, though, it looks quite difficult, with the promotional material showing a massive amount of enemies and attacks flying at the player. Overall, this is definitely one for fans of brutal shooters to look out for.
Adopt Me Please
Akin to recent titles such as No, I’m Not a Human and Papers, Please, Adopt Me Please will have you working as an employee at an animal shelter, taking in strays. The issue is that some critters are not what they appear to be. Creatures known as Mimics will attempt to enter your shelter, and it is your task to make sure they don’t.
Developed by Misty Bay, this game looks to be an interesting time. The art style is what got me interested. Even the creatures supposedly safe have uncanny features, and the people who adopt them will also be subject to scrutiny. This game looks incredibly stylized, and I wanted to showcase the creepy yet cool designs in this title.
Nonu
Being developed by Karmic Bit, Nonu is a sidescrolling platformer with a focus on combat. Claiming also to be a soulslike, Nonu genuinely looks like a lot of fun. The possibilities for challenge and puzzle-solving seem vast here, especially when interwoven with what looks like quite a complicated combo system.
Using elemental abilities alongside martial arts, enemies (which actually have healthbars surprisingly) will be blocking your path between you and the next platform. I see this game being very challenging, but more than anything, I’m quite interested in seeing the Souls formula used in a 2D combat game. I will definitely be keeping an eye on this project.
And that’s another weekly round-up of indie games I found that look cool. Again, I’ve undoubtedly missed some great projects, but I will definitely be scouring the internet to try and find more promising ventures. Until then, I’ll keep a close eye on the projects mentioned here.
FAQs
This is sort of up for discussion, as many titles have recently claimed to be “Indie”. The general rule, though, is that if it’s developed by a single person or a small team with little or no financial assistance from an outside agency, it can be called an indie game.
With limited financial help, indie devs usually self-market their titles. This could mean posting about them online or simply uploading them to Steam. Finding good titles takes some effort, but it is always worth it to find interesting titles.
If you have an indie title, either developed by you or simply one you think is interesting and want more people to know about, reach out to the Kyusai team, or me personally, and we’ll make sure it gets covered.
