A dark fantasy wave-survival game where you defend the city of Sodermark as a divine champion bound by the Blood Vow — building defences by day, and fighting through swarms of shadow-born horrors by night. I spoke with the four-person team behind it, who are aiming for a 12–18 month release window and already pushing well beyond what you’d expect from a small studio. They’ve done their research, built from player demand, and wrapped it all in a world that feels ambitious yet deliberate — like a promise they intend to keep.

What if rhythm games were driven by colour instead of sound? That’s the spark behind Huedini, a slick top-down roguelike where you swap between red, green, and blue to absorb enemy attacks and unleash devastating spells. The devs spoke about wanting every encounter to feel like a colour puzzle — quick thinking, fast switching, and pure flow. It’s one of those ideas that sounds strange until you play it, and then it just clicks.

You are — quite literally — an abnormally long arm. Your job? Steal valuables, charm guards, and slither your way through absurd 2D stealth puzzles, complete with Aussie voiceovers and plenty of chaos. Talking to the team, it’s clear they lean into the ridiculousness on purpose; it’s equal parts comedy and clever design, with each level feeling like a punchline that gets better the longer your arm stretches.

A deckbuilder where defence isn’t optional — it’s everything. You parry, counter, and plam your moves perfectly to survive each voyage. The devs explained that most deckbuilders make defence passive, so they flipped it: here, blocking is rhythm, and success depends on precision. Each death adds to your debt with Davy Jones himself, turning risk and reward into a literal curse.

During lockdown, I spent a few questionable hours playing Tingus Goose on mobile — a “goose-growing simulator” where capitalism meets biology. Seeing it reborn for Steam, rebuilt from the ground up, was oddly heartwarming (and still deeply cursed). The devs are leaning into the absurdity even harder this time, and the result is grotesque, hilarious, and strangely addictive. Coming next month.

A surreal puzzle-platformer where you copy, paste, and reshape the environment to uncover the secrets of the NONOLITH. There’s no tutorial, no hand-holding — just the quiet world to figure it out. Chatting with the creator, it was clear that this hands-off design philosophy is intentional; every discovery, even learning what the buttons do, is part of the puzzle. It’s pure indie energy — weird, confident, and brilliant.

A first-person puzzle adventure where you manipulate fire, water, electricity, and magnetism to stabilise collapsing dimensions. I met the solo developer behind it — someone who recently secured government funding to go full time. His goal is to make the project look and feel like a full team’s work, and honestly, he’s already there. INDIGO Initiative feels sharp, cinematic, and far bigger than a one-person studio should allow. He’s now looking for a publisher to take it further.