Cleaning games have exploded in popularity and I am not immune to the dopamine hit of seeing something or someplace once covered in dirt now sparkling clean. Speldosa Interactive’s newest game Muri: Wildwoods provides that same satisfaction and then some. Between the gameplay and the art style, I didn’t want the demo to end. Muri: Wildwoods is a cute cleaning game where I take the role of a cleaner, named Pelle, equipped with a power washer and supported by my friends on Team

In 2022, I took a big step into the future by buying a top-of-the-line gaming PC. In 2025, I took a big step into the past by buying an old CRT from Facebook Marketplace. And now, in 2026, I need to figure out how to connect the two to play Prison of Husks in its ultimate form. I just have to hope that NVIDIA has a component cable driver for their 4000-series GPUs. Prison of Husks is a third-person Soulslike action game, but I was transported by its visual aesthetic even befo

Isle of Reveries is described by developer desertcucco as “Game Boy Color-inspired.” A nod to three very specific Game Boy Color games, perhaps. Isle of Reveries wears its inspirations as plainly and proudly on the screen as the dev does in his name. This is a game that does not so much pay homage to the Game Boy Color era of The Legend of Zelda, but is in loving worship of it. Impressively, it seems to be pulling off its tribute in all the ways that matter most. As young her

One of my favorite RPG tropes is when we begin our adventures in the world with a festival to help get settled in, and Aikyam’s demo captures those feelings of anticipation and happiness that I love when games kick off with a party. It gets us invested in the characters as we see them having fun, we get to familiarize ourselves with the traditions of the world, and it immediately sets up stakes for what we’ll eventually feel compelled to protect. Following this tradition, Aik

From opening grey and white pixels cluttering the screen in a bleak snowstorm, I could feel the weather coming through the soft glow of my monitor. Deep Pixel Melancholy has a self-explanatory title in that way. Within minutes of the game’s introduction, the familiar tedium of routine work settles in. Egor, the protagonist whose story you follow, wakes up in a drafty, cramped apartment. The only luxury is the computer that he scrimped and saved to purchase over the course of

Dust off your college party skills in a game for your life in Death Pong. Following in the footsteps of Buckshot Roulette and CloverPit, I got a taste of a dingy, dark twist of beer pong. In Death Pong, you wake up in a dive bar with a debt to pay. The bartender Gustav offers you an opportunity to clear this debt, but from his glowing eyes to two illuminated counters, things immediately feel off. Death Pong brings beer pong to a digital space, and it’s not easy. You control a

Mystery is where my adventure with Graytail begins and ends. In the deepening night, rain clatters loudly to the ground outside. My dimly lit detective’s office looks classically noir, though brought to life in a refreshing 2.5D pixel style. My head is killing me and a sudden wailing from the phone nearby does nothing to ease it. I pick it up to a voice identifying itself as a doctor. A doctor? Have I been to the hospital? Will my screen-splitting symptoms get worse? How many

Sometimes a game looks so simple, yet I know there’s a lot going on behind the scenes. That’s the case with KAZ, an arcade-style roguelike that has me smashing the arrow buttons frantically to get the highest score possible before my time runs out. The concept is pretty simple. I’m presented with a couple of tiles for my character to move on. The best way to describe it, think of a game board that may have squares or tiles to move on. The first couple of levels will only have

In the early 2000’s, in my little suburban neighborhood of Ogden, Utah, I used to rollerblade around the cul de sac at sunset with my ipod mini. It was a time where everything was beautiful and nothing hurt, and it wasn’t until I got my hands on RollerGirl that I was immediately taken back to that specific time and place. As someone who prioritizes slice-of-life games with simple and satisfying mechanics, I feel predisposed to enjoying RollerGirl. When I noticed that music i

It’s 1998, and somehow you find yourself in a room with a girl who’s just about to do a terrible thing. She says her name is Reina, although you’re not too sure if that’s true. All she wants is for everything to end. And you’re about to help her achieve that goal. That’s the setup for Rain98, the debut visual novel by C#4R4CT3R. In a Tokyo where the rain never stops, both of you will change the world. To do so, you have to perform a ritual. Well, Reina will be doing that, but

Finite Reflection Studios, the team behind the minimalistic souls-like Void Sols, is aiming to put yet another twist on the souls-like genre by combining it with the collect-a-thon nature of the platformers of old in Mouseward. The demo places us in control of a member of the Royal Mouse Guard who awakes from the dead. As soon as I gain control, I begin wandering through the starting section with various graves on either side of me. The Royal Mouse Guard controls like most ot

If your life were at stake, would you take a gamble? In Black Jacket, you have been taken to the underworld, seemingly having died. But the ferryman can be bribed to return you to your previous life. All you need is some Soul coins. And the way to earn those is to play blackjack, of course! Not that this is a regular game of blackjack: in this roguelike deckbuilder, you can build insane combos, take control of your opponent’s deck, and just bend the rules in general. Do you h

I love the aspirational nature of a city builder. After a long, hard day of existing in a world where it sometimes feels like everything is falling apart and the very seams of society are fraying, it can be so cathartic to sit down and try your hand at being in charge of everything. Even better when “everything” is a cute little vertical village atop a vibrant and peaceful tree! The trailer for Treetopians immediately captured my attention with its friendly, almost Play-Doh-l

One of the most prominent trends in indie gaming is seeing the mashup of two genres or themes to make something entirely new. There’s Moonlighter, and its relaxing shop management playing opposite its loot-gathering dungeon crawling. Dredge is perfect for fans of both fishing and eldritch horror, and Cult of the Lamb intersects village management with tight combat. In many cases, these concoctions can best be summed up as, “It’s like if X and Y had a baby!” And now, after che

Twins of Olus on paper sounds like anything else. An action adventure game set in a fantasy world could be any number of games out on the market, especially in the ever-growing indie space. But Team Verdant’s offering had unique mechanics, concepts, and vibes that left me wanting more after my brief time with the demo. Team Verdant? More like “Team VerDamn, That Was a Fun Time.” The crux of the game’s mechanics, as well as its thematic storytelling, is Lions and Creo, two ent

Since Vampire Survivors launched four years ago, in its wake we’ve seen hundreds of games take up the formula. At one point, I figured that we had maybe seen it all. But never doubt the creativity of indies. Midnight Horde proves the point. Featuring base-building and constant climbing, playing through the game made me realize just how impactful something like directional movement is. Without any real introduction, you’ll start Midnight Horde on the rooftops of Gothic cathed