The 13 Best Indie Games to Play in 2026
Original GameVexo illustration.
The best indie games to play in 2026 aren’t all new — the strongest lineup right now mixes genre-defining classics like Undertale and Celeste with newer standouts like Mouthwashing and Baby Steps, and every one of them still holds up against this year’s biggest releases.
Big-budget games get the marketing budgets, but indie developers are still where most of gaming’s best ideas actually come from — a talking sword, a heart-shaped SOUL, a submarine full of blood, a mountain you climb one clumsy footstep at a time. We picked these 13 games because each one does something genuinely different, not because they topped a sales chart. If you’d rather see what’s coming next instead, our most anticipated games of 2026 roundup covers the big upcoming releases.
Why Indie Games Are Worth Your Time in 2026
Indie games keep punching above their budgets because small teams can take risks that big publishers won’t. Half the games on this list — Undertale, Celeste, Fez, Limbo — were made by teams of five people or fewer, and they’re still shaping how bigger studios design combat, dialogue, and even marketing. If you’re building out a Switch 2 library, most of this list runs beautifully on it; check our ultimate Switch 2 gaming setup guide if you want to get your setup dialed in first.
Indie culture has also spread well past gaming itself. Even collectible card games have taken notice — Magic: The Gathering’s Secret Lair line recently spotlighted Stardew Valley, proof that beloved indie games are becoming crossover icons far outside their original platforms. And if fast-paced action is more your speed than story-driven indies, our 9 best FPS games to play in 2026 list is a good next stop.
Undertale
Story-Driven RPGUndertale drops you into a world of monsters after a fall underground, then hands you a choice almost no RPG offers: you can spare every single enemy instead of fighting them. It remembers what you do, right down to which characters you talked to, and rewrites its own story around your choices.
✓ Why We Love It
- You can complete the entire game without killing a single monster
- Bullet-hell style combat that’s genuinely fun to dodge, not just a stat check
- One of the most quoted, most remixed soundtracks in indie gaming history
✕ Keep In Mind
- The “true” ending requires a full pacifist playthrough, so avoid spoilers going in
- Combat leans on reflexes, which can trip up players who prefer pure turn-based RPGs
What sets Undertale apart from every game on this list is replayability with a conscience: a genocide run and a pacifist run are practically two different games, and the story genuinely reacts to which one you pick. It runs on almost anything, which is part of why it’s stayed one of the most-searched indie games year after year.
Celeste
Precision PlatformerCeleste follows Madeline as she climbs a mountain that seems to push back against her the higher she goes. Underneath the tight, pixel-perfect platforming is an honest story about anxiety and self-doubt that never feels like it’s lecturing you.
✓ Why We Love It
- Dash-jump-climb controls that feel incredible once they click
- A built-in Assist Mode that makes the story accessible without removing the challenge for purists
- The free “Farewell” chapter is one of the best pieces of DLC in the genre
✕ Keep In Mind
- Default difficulty is genuinely hard for players new to precision platformers
- Chasing every strawberry and B-Side can take dozens of extra hours
Celeste earns its spot as the best pure platformer on this list because it respects every skill level at once — Assist Mode lets anyone see the story through, while the optional B-Sides and C-Sides are some of the toughest platforming challenges in indie gaming.
Transistor
Action RPGTransistor puts a talking sword in your hands and drops you into a city that’s being erased block by block. Its signature Turn() ability freezes the action so you can line up a chain of moves like a puzzle, then watches it all play out in real time.
✓ Why We Love It
- Turn()-based planning layered on top of real-time combat is still unlike anything else
- Jen Zee’s painterly sci-fi art direction and Darren Korb’s synth score carry the whole mood
- Deep build variety from combining the same abilities in different functional slots
✕ Keep In Mind
- Shorter than most RPGs, so it can feel over just as the systems click
- The plot is told obliquely through overheard logs rather than direct exposition
From the same studio that made Bastion, Transistor swaps that game’s spoken narration for a quieter, sadder tone — the sword itself narrates, and every fight doubles as a conversation between the two of you.
Bastion
Action RPGBastion is the game that put Supergiant Games on the map, and it’s aged remarkably well. The ground quite literally builds itself beneath your feet as you explore, while a gravel-voiced narrator comments on your every move in real time.
✓ Why We Love It
- The reactive narrator makes every playthrough feel personal, even on repeat runs
- Huge weapon and idol combinations let you reshape the difficulty and playstyle on the fly
- Hand-painted environments that still hold up over a decade later
✕ Keep In Mind
- Camera and combat feel a little dated next to Supergiant’s newer games
- Some late-game arenas reuse earlier enemy patterns
If you enjoy Transistor above, Bastion is the essential prequel-in-spirit — same studio, same love of narration and hand-painted worlds, but a faster, punchier combat loop that rewards experimenting with its huge arsenal.
Limbo
Puzzle PlatformerLimbo tells almost its entire story through silhouettes and shadow. A boy wakes at the edge of a forest, and every step forward is a trial-and-error puzzle that can — and will — kill you without warning, teaching you the rules through failure alone.
✓ Why We Love It
- A monochrome silhouette art style that’s still being copied 15 years later
- Puzzle design that teaches entirely through action, with almost zero text or hand-holding
- A short runtime that never overstays its welcome
✕ Keep In Mind
- Frequent sudden deaths can frustrate players who dislike trial-and-error puzzles
- Very short, so it’s best picked up on a sale if you’re budget-conscious
Limbo is the blueprint that games like Inside and countless “atmospheric puzzle platformers” have chased ever since — if you’ve never played the original, it’s worth experiencing before any of its imitators.
Fez
Puzzle PlatformerFez looks like a simple 2D platformer until Gomez gains the power to rotate the entire world, revealing that every flat level is secretly a 3D structure viewed from four angles. From there, the puzzles only get stranger.
✓ Why We Love It
- The 2D-to-3D rotation gimmick is still one of the most original ideas in the genre
- Hidden ciphers and symbol languages that turned the community into a real-time puzzle-solving army
- A hand-crafted pixel-art world that rewards genuine exploration
✕ Keep In Mind
- 100% completion leans on cryptic symbol codes — a guide is fair game for the hardest ones
- Some late puzzles require notes and patience that not every player wants to invest
No other game on this list turns its players into a community of codebreakers the way Fez did — entire puzzles were only solved because thousands of players compared notes online, which is part of its lasting charm.
Firewatch
First-Person AdventureFirewatch puts you in a fire lookout tower in the Wyoming wilderness with nothing but a walkie-talkie and a voice on the other end named Delilah. Nearly the entire game is a conversation between two strangers, and it’s carried almost entirely by writing and voice acting.
✓ Why We Love It
- A relationship told entirely through radio dialogue, without a single cutscene
- Some of the best painterly wilderness environments in any indie game
- Choices that shape the tone of the relationship without forking into a maze of endings
✕ Keep In Mind
- No combat or traditional gameplay systems — go in expecting a story-first walking sim
- A short, tightly-paced runtime that some players wish went further
Firewatch proved a two-person conversation could carry an entire game, and it still holds up as one of the tightest examples of “walking sim” storytelling — if you’re new to the genre, this is the one to start with.
Oxenfree
Supernatural AdventureOxenfree sends a group of friends to an island for one night that goes sideways fast, after tuning an old radio opens a rift to something that shouldn’t exist. Conversations overlap and interrupt naturally, the way real friend groups actually talk.
✓ Why We Love It
- A dialogue system where characters talk over and interrupt each other like real people
- The radio-tuning mechanic ties directly into the ghost story instead of feeling like a gimmick
- A distinct neon-and-moonlight visual style that’s aged beautifully
✕ Keep In Mind
- Light on traditional puzzles — it leans almost entirely on story and atmosphere
- A sequel, Oxenfree II: Lost Signals (2023), is worth playing once you finish this one
Oxenfree’s overlapping dialogue system influenced a whole wave of narrative indies that followed it — few games have matched how natural its conversations feel, even years later.
Figment
Musical Action-AdventureFigment takes place entirely inside a mind that’s lost its courage, and it looks the part — a storybook-meets-surrealist world where every boss fight doubles as a musical number. It’s one of the most visually distinct games on this list.
✓ Why We Love It
- A genuinely unique premise: you’re exploring the inside of someone’s psyche
- Boss fights structured as full musical numbers instead of standard combat
- A surreal, hand-drawn art style that doesn’t look like anything else here
✕ Keep In Mind
- Combat mechanics are fairly simple next to the puzzle and atmosphere side
- A sequel, Figment 2: Creed Valley, expands the formula if you want more afterward
Figment’s willingness to turn boss fights into songs is a genuinely rare idea, and it works because the game commits to the bit fully rather than treating music as a background layer.
The Long Dark
SurvivalThe Long Dark drops you into the Canadian wilderness after a geomagnetic disaster, with no zombies and no monsters — just cold, hunger, injury, and wildlife. It’s one of the most systemic, unforgiving survival simulations ever built by an indie team.
✓ Why We Love It
- No combat gimmicks — the environment itself is the real antagonist
- Deep systemic survival mechanics: calories, fatigue, freezing, and injury all interact
- Gorgeous painterly art direction across every region of the map
✕ Keep In Mind
- Slow, punishing pacing by design, which won’t suit players who want fast action
- A sequel, Blackfrost: The Long Dark 2, is announced but its early-access window has slipped past 2026
The original Wintermute story mode finally wrapped up in 2026 with Episode Five, “The Light at the End of All Things,” closing out a story campaign that’s been building for nearly a decade — a great reason to jump in now if you’ve been waiting for a complete experience.
Mouthwashing
Psychological HorrorMouthwashing follows the five-person crew of the cargo ship Tulpar after a crash strands them in deep space with dwindling supplies and no way home. The story jumps back and forth in time, and the lo-fi PS1-style visuals make even ordinary rooms feel wrong.
✓ Why We Love It
- A non-chronological structure that recontextualizes earlier scenes as the story unfolds
- Lo-fi, early-PlayStation-style art direction used to genuinely unsettling effect
- One of the best-reviewed horror stories of the decade, sitting at a Metascore of 88
✕ Keep In Mind
- Heavy, disturbing themes throughout — check content warnings first if that’s a concern
- Very short at around two hours, so it’s built for one tense, focused sitting
Mouthwashing is the newest breakout horror indie on this list, and it earned that reputation fast — critics and players both point to its structure as the reason it lingers well after the credits roll.
Iron Lung
Horror / Submarine SimIron Lung seals you inside a cramped, rusting submarine and sends you into a literal ocean of blood on an alien moon, with only sonar, a cracked porthole, and a grainy external camera to navigate by. It’s horror built entirely on sensory deprivation.
✓ Why We Love It
- Near-total sensory deprivation horror — you can barely see anything, and that’s the point
- Minimal, PS1-era low-poly presentation that somehow makes the dread worse
- Short enough to finish in a single sitting without losing any of its tension
✕ Keep In Mind
- Very short at roughly an hour, so it’s best grabbed on a sale rather than at full price
- The claustrophobic pacing and blind navigation won’t suit players who need constant action
Iron Lung’s premise proved sticky enough to inspire a 2026 film adaptation directed by Markiplier, with creator David Szymanski assisting on the screenplay — a rare jump from a one-hour indie horror game to the big screen.
Baby Steps
Physics ComedyBaby Steps casts you as Nate, an unemployed 35-year-old in a onesie, and asks you to walk him up a mountain one foot at a time — literally, since you control each foot individually with the mouse. It’s from the creator of Getting Over It, and it’s just as capable of humbling you.
✓ Why We Love It
- A walking mechanic that’s genuinely never been done this way before
- Constant slapstick comedy that turns failure into the whole point of the experience
- An open world to climb, with optional routes far harder than the main path for skill-chasers
✕ Keep In Mind
- The core control scheme is intentionally awkward, which won’t click for everyone
- Optional challenges get brutally difficult, echoing the studio’s Getting Over It roots
As the newest entry on this list, Baby Steps is the one to watch if you want to see where physics-based “Foddian” games go next — it takes six years of development and turns the humble walking simulator into an open-world skill test.
Quick Comparison
| Game | Genre | Platforms | Playtime | Our Pick |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Undertale | Story-Driven RPG | PC, Switch, PS4, Xbox, Mobile | 6-10 hrs | #1 Best |
| Celeste | Precision Platformer | PC, Switch, PS4, Xbox One | 8-10 hrs | #2 Value |
| Transistor | Action RPG | PC, Switch, PS4, Mobile | 6-8 hrs | #3 New |
| Bastion | Action RPG | PC, Switch, PS4, Xbox, Mobile | 6-8 hrs | #4 |
| Limbo | Puzzle Platformer | PC, Switch, PS4/5, Xbox, Mobile | 4-5 hrs | #5 |
| Fez | Puzzle Platformer | PC, Switch, PS4, Xbox | 8-12 hrs | #6 |
| Firewatch | First-Person Adventure | PC, Switch, PS4, Xbox, Mobile | 4-5 hrs | #7 |
| Oxenfree | Supernatural Adventure | PC, Switch, PS4, Xbox, Mobile | 4-5 hrs | #8 |
| Figment | Musical Action-Adventure | PC, Switch, PS4, Xbox | 5-6 hrs | #9 |
| The Long Dark | Survival | PC, PS4/5, Xbox, Switch | 40+ hrs | #10 |
| Mouthwashing | Psychological Horror | PC (Steam Deck Verified) | ~2 hrs | #11 |
| Iron Lung | Horror / Submarine Sim | PC, Switch, PS5, Android | ~1 hr | #12 |
| Baby Steps | Physics Comedy | PC, PS5 | 10-15 hrs | #13 |
