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Splashy blockbuster games are great, but there are there are a huge number of indie and smaller video games worth playing, too. Whether they’re pushing the boundaries of the medium and or offering a creative spin on classic ideas, indie games can be just as interesting as big-budget epics.
Sometimes, though, indie games can fly under the radar. But we here at The Verge love seeking out hidden gems, so we want to use this space to share some of our favorite smaller games that we’re checking out so that you might find something new, or potentially your next obsession.
We’ll be highlighting interesting games you may not have heard of and sharing a little bit about why you should play them. This list will be updated pretty frequently, too — so check back often to see some new recommendations.
Steam’s Next Fest is full of weird-ass, cool-ass games
Steam Next Fest is going on until March 3rd, and I’ve spent a considerable amount of time wading through a seemingly endless carousel of games, filling up my Steam Deck’s internal and external memory looking for the Good Shit™. I’ve landed on four standout game demos that are worth your time now and whenever their full games release.
The best way to describe The Talos Principle: Reawakened is if Portal was harder, less funny, and written by C.S. Lewis if he knew what a robot was. Reawakened is a remaster of 2014’s The Talos Principle. But according to the developers at Croteam, Reawakened doesn’t just take the original and slap on a next-gen coat of paint; it also adds new story content and a new puzzle editor so players can create their own challenges.
Die in the Dungeon will keep you busy until Slay the Spire 2
Image: HypeTrain Digital, INSTINCT3
Die in the Dungeon is a new roguelike deckbuilder that pulls some ideas from Slay the Spire, one of my favorite games, but adds some dice-based twists that have me hooked.
In Dungeon, your goal is to survive through progressively harder maps of enemies by building a deck — but instead of collecting cards, you’re collecting dice. During every hand, you have a certain amount of energy you can use to play your dice. And since you can see every move your enemies will make on the next turn, the game is mostly about strategizing how to attack the baddies while defending yourself.
While Waiting is a playful reminder of the joys of boredom
Image: Optillusion
Boredom is something of a dying concept. Our phones, filled with games and videos and social feeds, allow us to fill every moment with something, whether we’re on a long flight or in line for 30 seconds waiting for coffee. But the silly and playful While Waiting is a good reminder that that can be a good thing — an opportunity for our minds to wander in unexpected directions.
Possibly the best way to describe While Waiting is that it’s what would happen if WarioWare also tried to tell the story of a human life. Which means that it’s a collection of extremely short, often weird minigames that all fit together to follow the story of a singular character through moments of waiting. It starts right from the beginning: the first thing you’re asked to do is wait to be born.
Spirit Swap has way more than lo-fi beats to match-3 to
It’s odd that a match-3 game got me in my feelings so much that I’m considering adding making games to my profession of covering them. But that’s exactly what happened after my delightful time with Spirit Swap: Lofi Beats to Match-3 To.
It’s a mouthful of a name, but damned if the game doesn’t do exactly what it says on the tin. There are little colorful block-shaped spirits, and you swap ‘em around to match three (or more) while charming and calming lo-fi beats bang out of your speakers. It reminds me of the recent trend in anime where the titles of shows are hyper-descriptive to the point of hilarity, and just like those shows, there’s a lot more going on than a simple match-3 game with a chill soundtrack. And I love it.
Rift of the NecroDancer’s story is an intro to some incredible music
Image: Klei Publishing
Rift of the NecroDancer, a new music game from the creators of the music roguelike Crypt of the NecroDancer, solves the problem of exploring a big library of tracks with a simple idea: a story mode.
In Rift, you have to press buttons in time with notes that appear on lanes in front of you, similar to games like Guitar Hero. You only have three lanes to worry about, but the tracks get complex because the “notes” are actually enemies with different movement patterns. A green slime just takes one hit to defeat, for example, but a gold bat takes three beats to eliminate, and with each hit, it hops to another lane.
Citizen Sleeper 2 is the good kind of stressful
Image: Fellow Traveller
More than once while playing Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector, I found myself holding my breath in anticipation as I made a critical decision. As you play, you influence the story and complete missions by using dice, and that means that big choices are often subject to chance. When things went well, I would exhale and feel my body relax — that was, until I had to pick my next die.
Starward Vector is a sequel to 2022’s Citizen Sleeper, and it plays similarly: it’s a text-heavy game that tells a cyberpunk story about a “Sleeper,” or a robot that has been infused with a human mind, that’s fleeing from a criminal overlord (who, eventually, you’ll work to take down). As you play, you’ll use tabletop RPG mechanics to accomplish various tasks so you can survive in the harsh galaxy.
Lok Digital is a surreal puzzle game full of made-up words
At a glance, Lok Digital seems like another cute and clever word game, a perfect distraction to keep on your phone for idle moments. But look closer, and it’s clear something just isn’t right. Yes, it’s a game about creating words to fill out a puzzle board. Except those words aren’t actually real — and they all have special powers. Think of it like an alien take on Scrabble. It takes a while to wrap your head around, but Lok’s surreal setup makes for an excellent brain-scratching puzzler.
There is actually a story of sorts here. Lok takes place in a black-and-white fantasy realm, and your goal is to help little worm-like creatures progress through each level. The stages are grids of squares, and your goal is to turn each one black. (I have no idea how this helps the creatures move, but just stay with me here.) You turn them black by placing letters to spell out words. Completed words will black out squares, and certain words also have the ability to black out even more.
Antonblast is an out-of-control platformer with its heart in the ’90s
Image: Summitsphere
Antonblast is kind of like playing a zany Saturday morning cartoon. It’s brash, maximalist, and often, you’ll feel like you don’t actually understand what’s happening. Somehow, that chaos gels into something that actually makes sense — and, at times, is even calming.
Antonblast just launched in 2024, but it looks like a long-lost side-scrolling platformer from the 16-bit era of the SNES or Sega Genesis. That’s not just due to the fantastic pixel art. There are fun touches like delightfully ’90s-era character designs and Mode 7-like effects, such as your character splatting against the screen when you die, that really make it feel like a missing classic of the era.
The best mobile skateboarding game now has a New York sequel
Image: Snowman
For me, skateboarding has always been about getting into a flow state. Much like playing Tetris, I’m at my best when I’m skating almost subconsciously, not thinking and acting in the moment. It’s not an easy zone to get into, and music has always been my shortcut. So the greatest compliment I can give to Skate City: New York is that I’ve spent the past week fine-tuning the perfect playlist, all so that I can also perfect my runs in the game.
New York is a sequel to the original Skate City; both are available through Apple Arcade, though the first game was eventually ported to consoles as well. It comes from Snowman, the studio behind the Alto series, and the shift to New York is a lot like the move from Alto’s Adventure to Alto’s Odyssey. It’s not an entirely new experience but, rather, one that changes the setting and adds some seemingly small — but very impactful — tweaks.
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