It’s been an interesting month to be an indie game fan. There’s no shortage of new releases to keep us busy, and social media has been abuzz with debates about what qualifies and what doesn’t qualify for the “indie” moniker, especially in the wake of Annapurna Interactive’s successful release of the coming-of-age narrative game. mixed tape.
Microsoft ID@Xbox The program has provided development hardware and publishing support to independent teams of all sizes around the world and has helped thousands of games launch directly to your Xbox console or the Xbox app on PC.
If there is one undeniable truth for indie games, it is that there is a wide net that covers a multitude of game genres, ultimately bringing together a collection of unique experiences that can have a lasting impact on those who play them.
Here at Windows Central we’ve been celebrating the indies and the ID@Xbox program for a while now, highlighting new monthly releases, big and small, that we think are worth your time. From solo development projects like the recently launched OOLO to those supported by larger publishers such as 11 bit studios (Frostpunk, The Alters) and Annapurna Interactive (Lost, Featured people).
With so many new experiences being released every day, it’s easy for some truly great games to fly under the radar, so here are five recently released indie games that should be next on your gaming list.
engine slice
In 2008, EA published mirror edge — a minimalist, hyper-modern action platformer that challenged players to do first-person parkour through a glass city to take down an oppressive regime. The game was nothing short of a hit and was followed by a sequel in 2015. Unfortunately, that was the last we saw of the speedy Faith, but Mirror’s Edge certainly managed to kickstart a new platforming genre, with some indie developers taking up the torch to keep that genre moving even today.
Motorslice, developed by Regular Studio and published by Top Hat Studios, is one of those indie games that gives speed racers and parkour addicts a new playground to explore. Players become “P,” a young woman tasked with parkouring through a dilapidated megastructure filled with deadly traps and home to massive bosses. As “Slicer,” P is armed with a chainsaw and accompanied by a malfunctioning orb drone whose task is to eliminate the machines from an abandoned structure at all costs. However, nothing is as easy as it seems and P will have to climb, run and slide through the brutalist and liminal landscape of Motorslice.
Featuring an atmospheric soundtrack by Pizza Hotline and fully voiced by Kira Buckland, Motorslice is the low-poly acrobatic parkour game you’ve been missing, now available as part of a Ultimate Xbox Game Pass either PC Game Pass subscription. Motorslice is compatible with Xbox Play Anywhere, so you can purchase it on your Xbox Series|S, Xbox on PC, Xbox cloud gamingor compatible handheld device to enjoy fast-paced sliding and slicing action.
Constance
Do you know what goes well with platforms? Metroidvanias. The two genres go together like paint and brushes, which is a perfect way to introduce Constance. Developed by Blue Backpack and published in partnership with ByteRockers’ Games and PARCO Games, Constance is a story set in a non-linear connected world where the player wields a powerful paintbrush capable of using special techniques that can be used to uncover secrets, sketch inspiration found during the journey in the player’s journal, and enhance those sketches.
Upgrade and customize Constance’s abilities by upgrading sketches, but be careful! Brush techniques can increase corruption in Constance’s painting, which can have negative effects if full corruption is reached. Like similar platform games, Constance leans on its difficulty, but gives its players the opportunity to continue challenges by dying or trying a different path from a safer location.
Constance paints a meaningful narrative about the psyche and explores the character’s mental health through different biomes and enemies that represent elements of the struggle with creativity, work-life balance, and finding one’s purpose. Constance is now available on Xbox Series|Yes.
Urban Jungle (Complete Edition)
Developed by Kylyk Games and published by Assemble Entertainment, Urban Jungle is a charming simulator and puzzle game where players, as Pharita, can manage a collection of plants to create an enchanting plant-filled paradise. Each floor has its own value and players must distribute them throughout the apartment to maximize comfort and aesthetics. Plant placement is a strategic challenge despite the stress-free gameplay cycle. Moving between plants to achieve the most optimal aesthetic helps unlock new plants, adding to the game’s emotional storytelling by engaging in environmental puzzles. Other elements of the apartment are also interactive, such as lamps and humidifiers.
Urban Jungle is available as a standalone game, but as a DLC story expansion involving a blossoming love story between Pharita’s brother Rachata and her boyfriend Nurgun. Design and decorate Nurgun’s new home and help ensure every detail is perfect so Rachata can propose to him. The additional story chapter can be purchased as DLC for Urban Jungle, or the game and DLC can be purchased together as a complete edition.
Urban Jungle is now available on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox on PC, and compatible portable devices with support for Play Xbox anywhere.
strange antiques
In 2022, developer Bad Viking teamed up with Iceberg Interactive to publish Strange Horticulture, a cozy and wholesome occult puzzle game that dabbles in all things witches, plants, and, well, the strange. It was a well-received point-and-click puzzler in which players managed their own plant shop and ventured through strange environments to add to their growing collection of plants that could cure what ails you or maim your enemies. It seems natural that Bad Viking will expand into that universe, this time with Strange Antiquities.
Strange Antiquities returns to the baffling shop management genre of its predecessor, but forgoes the herbology of its past in favor of new arcane artifacts. The townspeople have a lot of unusual problems, and only the products found in their quaint, candlelit shop can help. Observe your clients, listen to their stories, and then make the decision to help them even if it means cursing your enemies with cowardly affliction.
Developed by two brothers from the United Kingdom, Strange Antiquities invites players into a world that is eerily dark yet welcoming in its warmth, full of quirky NPCs to interact with and unique destinations to explore as you unlock and discover more about the city of Undermere and the antiquities that can be found there. Strange Antiquities is now available at xbox one and Xbox Series X|S.
Coma 3: blood lines
Developed by Dvora Studio and published by Headup, The Coma 3: Bloodlines is the latest entry in a series of 2D run-and-hide horror adventures set in Seoul, South Korea. The private Sehwa High School has become a hotbed for people who study the cursed underworld and the dimension of nightmares. Coma 3 expands beyond the walls of the private school to allow players to explore new locations and experience the mysterious occult.
There’s no combat in The Coma 3, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing to fear. Horrible programs running amok will be happy to hunt you down and chase you, making stealthy and strategic movements your only chance of survival for the game’s three playable characters. Players who have experienced the previous games in the series can look to The Coma 3: Bloodlines for a satisfying closure to the story, where solutions to the mysteries of the past will finally be revealed.
The Coma 3: Bloodlines is now available on Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One.
