Continuing from yesterday’s collation of unknown and under-known indie games, Thanksgaming 2023 rides again with another ten fantastic-looking games you’ve almost definitely never heard of.
As ever with this series, these games are chosen at random from hundreds of emails, and unless I say otherwise, I’ve not played them. The idea is, there’s going to be at least something appearing here that’ll pique your interest. If you want to support these games before they’re released, the best thing you can do is click the “wishlist” button on their Steam page.
Let us tarry no longer: here are ten wildly different indie games well worth your attention.
No, you’re not dreaming. This is a real-life game that actually exists. Even after you slap yourself. It’s a four-player deck-building apocalyptic party-based progressive dating sim! You hit on people, gather cards, battle monsters, and randomly slaughter your own friends, all while perhaps playing as a fish-headed, lobster-clawed man naked but for a banana hammock. This is the game all those Gamers were warning you would happen if you kept letting your liberal values run amok.
Even better, it just came out this month, with 400 scenarios, 12 weirdos to date, 120 endings, and the opportunity to work with or sabotage your friends.
Developer: Lemonade Flashbang
Release date: Out now
Make sure you watch this trailer, because My Familiar looks incredible. This is a ‘90s-style RPG, real TMNT vibes, in which you play as one of six different creatures, many of them ducks, one a “sort of weird, purple rabbit/goblin/rat thing.”
The art looks like something out of peak LucasArts, and the combat looks a ton of fun. Very excited to play this, and there’s a demo that’ll let me.
Developer: Chintzy Ink
Release date: Q4 2024
In the most realistic depiction of parenthood of all time, Meg’s Monster is an RPG about trying to protect a lost child, but if she cries, the world ends. Oh, and you’re a grumpy monster from the underworld. Is this based on my life?
Beyond that amazing setup, the game’s big twist is that your character, ogre Roy, starts with 99,999HP and it’s tough to get him hurt. It’s not him you’re worrying about, it’s Meg, and her apocalyptic tears. At just four hours long, this is one of those rarest things: an RPG you can finish.
Developer: Odencat
Release date: Out now
There are real Nintendo vibes to this cutesy cartoon snowboarding game, due out in the middle of next year. The music, barks and of course modernized N64-ish art all make me think of the Big N. Plus, it just looks so cheerful!
There’s a demo already, and the final game will have eight-player online multiplayer, and four-play local, plus that all-important combination of snowboarding and gliders that only makes sense.
Developer: Byteparrot
Release date: Q2 2024
With clear echos of those classic ‘90s Sherlock Holmes games, Casebook 1899: The Leipzig Murders is a German point-n-click adventure with deductive reasoning, and even the ability to fail at solving a murder. I love how crunchily mid-90s everything looks in the trailer above.
There’s a demo available, the whole game due early next year.
Developer: Homo Narrans Studio
Release date: Q1 2024
Ooh I love a clever idea! In Projected Dreams, you need to arrange 3D objects in a pile such that they cast a shadow in the shape of something else. Do so, and the shadow pings alive. So say you need a rocket ship, you gather items from this girl’s bedroom, match them up to the outline on the wall, and when complete the rocket will magic into existence.
This one’s still a long way off, aiming for the middle of science fiction year 2025, but there’s already a demo.
Developer: Flawberry Studio
Release date: Q2 2025
I introduced my son to Slay The Spire last night, and he’s already better at it than me. Looks like CosmoPirates is going to be another to show him when it comes out next year. This is a space-based deckbuilder, that looks like it’s played a lot of Mega Crit’s legendary roguelite, applying the principles to exploring strange planets and fighting weird aliens.
Developer: BlackMoon Design
Release date: Q1 2024
You certainly can’t accuse IDUN of not having much going on. The clip above does a fantastic job of showing off this tactical RTS’s scale, as it keeps on becoming ever more improbably frantic.
Oh, and its features boast “liquid blood simulation.” There’s a demo, and the game’s out early next year.
Developer: IDUN Interactive
Release date: Q1 2024
The award for Cleverest Title goes to Typecast, a game in which you…type to cast spells. While there have been a fair few typing games over the years, I’ve never seen one that’s also a bullet hell. Fortunately, it just came out, so now I have.
I just did. So you use the mouse in your right hand, left hand on the keyboard, and hit the letters that appear in your circle. And it’s manic. And a lot of fun.
Developer: Gutter Arcade
Release date: Out now
A tile-based dungeon crawler, but you can walk on the walls and ceilings? Yes please! That’s the opening thesis of He Who Watches, a full game based on a jam-winning idea from 2022.
With a bow as your main tool, I love this conflation of old-school blobber and new-fangled puzzle game. There is, thankfully, a demo, and the whole game is due out in the middle of next
Developer: Danga
Release date: 2024
