Best Upcoming Indie Games 2023 (And Beyond)

Want to see the best upcoming indie games of 2022? Join us as we count down the most anticipated new indie game releases.

PC gaming is one of the best ways to find and play new indie game releases before they explode in popularity and get ported to console.

And while 2024 hasn’t been exactly kind to AAA game studios, indie developers have managed to pick up the slack and keep us entertained.

In this list, we’ll highlight the best upcoming indie games releasing in 2024 and beyond, including lesser-known titles that may not be on your radar just yet.

Related:Best Exploration Games On PCBest PC Simulation Games 2023Best Sandbox PC Games 2023

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For those unfamiliar, The Forest is an ambitious survival horror game that focuses on crafting and combat with surprisingly intelligent enemy AI.

Like many survival games, the story is fairly nonlinear but there was always enough to chew on for players interested in learning about the game’s creatures and setting.

For the sequel, developer Endnight Games looks to be expanding the universe with new characters and events revolving around yet another mysterious island.

In addition to better graphics and more fluid combat, Sons of the Forest will be a more team-focused endeavor than the original, which added online multiplayer post-launch.

Mina the Hollower is the next title to come out of Yacht Club Games, best known for the indie platformer Shovel Knight.

Much like its predecessor, the game centers on action-platforming gameplay with similarly retro-inspired visuals.

In it, players take on the role of the titular Mina, a skilled inventor and “Hollower” who travels around Tenebrous Isle to investigate a mysterious power outage.

Along the way, she’ll encounter a host of foes that must be dispatched using Mina’s trusty whip and burrowing ability.

Coining the term ‘ratoidvania,’ Curse of the Sea Rats is a new indie Metroidvania adventure game due out in early 2023.

Developed by Petoons Studio, the game sees you assuming control of a crew of pirates that have been turned into rats by a witch.

To undo the curse, they’ll have to explore a vibrant hand-drawn world while overcoming platforming challenges and defeating bosses.

Along the way, you’ll unlock new abilities for each crewmate that can be combined with up to three friends via local co-op.

Next up on our list is The Plucky Squire, an upcoming indie platformer developed by All Possible Futures and published by Devolver Digital.

The premise centers on a group of storybook characters, namely a squire, that discover a three-dimensional world outside the confines of their pages.

Jumping between 2D and 3D worlds, they set off on a mission to rescue their friends while battling bad guys, solving puzzles, and overcoming obstacles.

There are also some fun nods to popular video game franchises and tropes along the way, so we’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for this one in 2023.

Little Devil Inside is a visually striking action RPG with survival elements and a distinct cartoony art style that adds a surreal quality to the game’s overall appearance.

It’s made by South Korean developer Neostream, who kickstarted the game back in 2015 and interestingly enough, originally planned to release it for the short-lived Nintendo Wii-U.

In it, you play as a brave adventure on a quest to save the world by killing off powerful arch-demons.

The game features a semi-open world filled with side activities to explore when you need a break from the main path.

Tchia is an upcoming open-world adventure game in which you play as a young girl exploring a physics-driven sandbox.

The game offers tropical locations to discover, characters to get to know, and hidden surprises around every corner.

Additionally, Tchia has a special ability that lets her magically transform into 30+ different animals as well as 100+ objects.

This is reflected in both the story and gameplay, with Tchia using her powers to help her friends, explore the island, and escape danger.

If you’re a fan of fast-paced action games like we are, then you should definitely consider wishlisting Shady Knight ahead of its release.

The hack n’ slash first-person platformer sees you climbing massive, enemy-filled towers as you clear out each floor using an arsenal of medieval weapons.

Your character can build momentum by sliding and wall-running as well as tear apart enemies with slam attacks, powerful kicks, and a good old sword throw to the enemy’s head.

Shady Knight’s emphasis on verticality and open-ended combat looks like the perfect recipe for engaging and varied gameplay.

Blood Bowl has never shied away from doing its own thing, blending turn-based strategy, Warhammer lore, and American football into a neat little package.

While among the more niche titles coming to Xbox, Blood Bowl 3 includes a number of improvements and new features that fans of the series will appreciate.

For one, gameplay adheres to the official rules of the latest edition of the board game, complete with new skills and redesigned passing mechanics.

There’s also a new competitive PVP mode that offers new league management tools and a solo campaign open to all 12 included races, with room for customization.

Initially announced as a 2018 release, Atomic Heart has had one of the more interesting development stories, with rumors suggesting it may not even be the same game anymore.

Categorized as a “first-person shooter with RPG elements,” the game is well into the process of development at studio Mundfish, a Russian-based indie game studio.  

Evoking memories of sci-fi staples like BioShock and Fallout, Atomic Heart takes place in an alternate reality where the Soviet Union’s research has led to a technical revolution.

Players assume control of a Soviet KGB officer tasked with infiltrating a secret facility that’s gone radio silent.

Empyrean, the studio behind House Flipper, has revealed their next simulation game will focus less on redecorating homes while upping the blood factor.

Body of Evidence sees you becoming a “cleaner” for the mob, a specialist in the field of promptly getting rid of dead bodies using all tools at your disposal.

This includes using a lockpick to access locations, hiding corpses in lockers and closets, and cleaning surfaces until all traces of blood have been removed.

With the growing number of weird simulation games out there, it was only a matter of time until we would reach this point.

Mineko’s Night Market is an adorable adventure game inspired by Animal Crossing that features vibrant environments and more cats than one could ever dream of.

You play as a curious girl getting used to her new home on a Japanese-inspired island at the base of Mount Fugu.

With an emphasis on the story and exploration, the game sees you trying to unravel the island’s many mysteries, including a mythological Sun Cat God named “Abe.”

Gameplay revolves around completing daily tasks such as crafting items, breeding cats, and maintaining a shop.

Fans of relaxing adventure games have a lot to look forward to in 2021, with narrative-driven experiences like Dordogne from French indie developer Un Je Ne Sais Quoi.

In it, you play as a 32-year-old woman named Mimi who starts reliving her childhood memories while visiting her grandmother’s old home in southwest France.

Swapping back and forth between the present and the past, Mimi will explore the rooms of her grandmother’s home while also guiding her 10-year-old self through puzzles that affect the present.

Along the way, players will have the chance to collect unique photos, sounds, objects, and words to fill up Mimi’s journal and document her fondest memories from summers in Dordogne.

Sporting a similar retro-inspired art style to that of Undertale, She Dreams Elsewhere is a surreal RPG about dreams and their connection to reality.

In it, you play as Thalia, a comatose woman suffering from anxiety as she sets out to confront her demons and awaken once and for all.

Despite being a narrative-driven experience, the game also features a turn-based battling system that pits you against a host of nightmarish monsters.

Thalia can recruit characters to join her party and strengthen her bond with each using a “Connection” system.

While Silksong will retain many of Hollow Knight’s core Metroidvania elements, it will be using them in slightly different ways.

For one, players will be controlling Hornet, a curious bug-like creature who uses a needle to fight.

At the start of the game, Hornet gets captured and taken to an unknown, haunted kingdom.

Players will have to escape the kingdom by making their way upwards instead of downwards like in the first game, encountering over 150 new creatures along the way.

Due out sometime this year, Manor Lords presents an interesting blend of city-builder and RTS battling set during the Medieval Era.

As cities flourish and populations grow, players will be able to expand their horizons by crafting trade routes, building fortifications, and forming armies to defend against invaders.

However, success won’t come overnight, as settlements require constant upkeep to ensure there are enough resources to keep villagers happy and healthy.

Obstacles such as harsh weather conditions, disease, and famine are all unfortunate realities to keep in mind as you progress in the game.

The critically-acclaimed space-flight simulator Kerbal Space Program will be receiving a sequel at some point in 2022.

This is after having development shifted from studio Star Theory to a new in-house team at Private Division, an indie publisher under Take-Two Interactive.

KSP2 looks to introduce a wealth of content and requested features, including more spacecraft parts, colony building, graphical improvements, online multiplayer, and upgraded modding tools.

If you’re one of the many players who found the original interesting but was ultimately intimidated by its steep learning curve, perhaps give it another shot.

Oxenfree is a phenomenal 2D indie horror game that revels in its story-driven gameplay, so naturally, fans were hoping Night School would eventually release a follow-up.

In Oxenfree II: Lost Signals, players follow Riley as she returns to her hometown of Camena to investigate yet another source of mysterious radio signals.

Anyone who’s played the original can safely predict she’ll end up finding more than she bargained for and have to investigate Camena for clues to explain what’s going on.

The sequel will leverage dialogue-driven choices that shape the story and Riley’s connections with other characters, this time via a walkie-talkie chat system.

Rawmen looks to answer the question, “What if Splatoon replaced inklings with naked men who love cooking?”

The game is still very early in development; however, developer ANIMAL appears to have an interesting concept on its hands.

Matches see you controlling a customizable chef and battling against other players using kitchen equipment such as pots, pans, ladles, etc.

You’ll also have control over what dishes your character uses in battle and can even run around slapping enemies with a fish.

As much as we love Grounded, there’s enough room for two small-scale survival games that let us live out our fantasies (and nightmares) of being shrunk down and let loose in a sprawling backyard sandbox.

However, to see the best Smalland‘s world has to offer, you’ll have to brave brutal weather conditions and survive run-ins with various enemies including spiders, birds, rats, lizards, and more.

Fortunately, there is an abundance of hidden resources you can use to craft armor, weapons, shelter, and other tools such as mountable bugs.

You can also customize outfits to acquire special resistances and abilities using various workshops at your camp which can be upgraded over time.

If you like survival games with intricate gameplay systems, Occupy Mars might be right up your alley.

The game sees you exploring the Red Planet in hopes of establishing a colony for future generations to inhabit.

Your job is to build and upgrade your base, research nearby regions, gather resources, grow crops, generate oxygen, and much, much more.

There’s an emphasis on realism and simulation, but not to the point of being unforgiving; that said, expect plenty of deaths early on as you come to grips with life on Mars.

Sidebar Games’ Golf Story was one of the best indie sleeper hits of 2017, telling an uplifting story of a down-on-his-luck golfer who manages to turn his life around by going back to his childhood love of golf.

The studio is back with a sequel, this time expanding its efforts to include a wider variety of sports-based activities and mini-games.

Scheduled to release later this year, Sports Story maintains the 2D presentation of its predecessor while introducing new characters and locations.

This includes a renowned tennis academy where your character will train and a prestigious castle where you’ll get to meet the queen.

Soup Pot made its debut during E3 2021 and is expected to release by the end of the year, giving you ample time to get through many of the other games already mentioned.

It’s a cooking sim that focuses on creativity and capturing the open-ended nature of home cooking by letting you experiment with different ingredients across 100+ unique recipes.

Unlike other cooking sims that want you to follow specific instructions, Soup Pot keeps things pretty loose, allowing you to see your dishes through to the end, even if they turn out looking like a hot mess.

This includes the option to plate dishes how you see fit and snap pics to share with an in-game social media platform where you can grow an audience and get feedback on your latest creations.

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Justin Fernandez

As a fan of both indie and triple-A games, Justin finds joy in discovering and sharing hidden gems with other passionate gamers. In addition to reporting on the latest and greatest titles, he manages GamingScan’s social media channels.

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