Every year, I look forward to Summer Game Fest. Sure, I love the big reveals. I love seeing the Residents of Evil, the Finals of Fantasy, the Calls of Duty… well, two out of three ain’t bad. The point is, I love spectacle as much as the next person, and there’s no denying that the video game Godfather himself, Geoff Keighley, loves himself some spectacle. I’ve said all week that as far as I was concerned, this was the best Summer Game Fest yet, and I found no greater proof in that claim than when I attempted to make the best indie games list. The original plan for this year was a tight 20, but before I knew it, I found myself in a dark room pacing back and forth, trying to figure out how I was supposed to whittle down such a large list of games to such a small number. So I went back and looked at what I did last year. 26! Okay, great! Adding 6 more games to the list will make things much easier. WRONG! Getting to 26 only made me realize more just how good a year Summer Game Fest had. So I started making calls. I started asking folks what I should do. A lot of them told me I had the wrong number and to never call again. Nothing like hearing, “sir, this is a Dominos,” when you’re dealing with a crisis. But then, it hit me. This is my website. I can do whatever I want. 30 it is, then about 5 minutes later I said, 35 it is.

That’s right, folks. This year is the big one. 35 of the best indie games that I saw during the Summer Game Fest. Here’s how it’ll work. First up, there will be the coveted top 11. That will then be followed by the other 24 amazing games. Now, if you see something you like, all you have to do is click the picture, and you will be taken to that game’s store page where you can add it to your wishlist. So without any more yapping, here are the 35 best indie games I saw from this year’s Summer Game Fest.

11.) Minegeon Renegades

Developer: Kickstone Studio

Publisher: Kickstone Studio

Release Date: July 14, 2026

• After a failed heist, a group known as the Renegades is forced to flee, crash landing near the mysterious planet Paimo. With no other choice, they descend into its depths in search of help and uncover secrets that should have remained buried.
• Descend solo or with up to two friends into the dangerous depths of PAIMO. Coordinate your abilities, share gadgets, and work together to survive. But watch your back… sometimes you’ll need to unleash your inner Renegade and break away from the group to maximize your rewards.
• Inside the MineGeon, every run is a chance to grow stronger. Level up to unlock powerful Gadgets that grant a wide variety of upgrades to aid you in battle, equip a variety of weapons to match your playstyle, and choose Ultimates that can completely change how you approach combat. Combining Gadgets, Weapons, and Ultimates creates unique synergies that will shape your descent into PAIMO.
• PAIMO is filled with minerals that bring out your inner greed. The deeper you descend, the greater the rewards and the risks. Collect valuable minerals and trade them for permanent upgrades, but choose wisely when to send them back to your ship.
• The biomes of PAIMO are home to a vast array of enemies. Throughout your journey, you’ll encounter the Scavengers, who will do anything to stop your descent. Why are they so determined to keep you from going deeper? Each biome culminates in a boss battle that will push your skills and strategies to the limit.
• Progression is key to your survival and success. As you explore and gather resources, you can upgrade your skills and equipment to grow stronger with every run. Invest in permanent upgrades for your spaceship and enhance each Renegade’s attributes to prepare for the challenges ahead.
• Access the Galactic Express PC to buy over 200 items, decorations, and themed objects from the biomes you explore, and customize the interior of your ship to your liking. Organize your base, visit other Renegades’ ships online, and show off your setup to the community.
• Choose from three classes, each with their own ultimate ability and unique stats. From Marshall, the resilient Tank, to Trevor, the deadly DPS Gunslinger, and Ari, the balanced Engineer. Find your role within the team and combine your strengths with other Renegades to maximize your chances of surviving the descent into PAIMO.
• Deep within PAIMO lie mysterious monoliths pulsing with ancient technology. These relics let the Renegades decide how to continue their descent, vote as a team to choose the path that benefits everyone, or follow your own ambition.

10.) Alchemic Beasts

Developer: White Guardian Studios LLC

Publisher: White Guardian Studios LLC

Release Date: 2027

• Alchemic Beasts is a monster-taming adventure focused on exploration, discovery, and meaningful creature companionship. Rather than treating monsters as simple collectibles, the game centers around building relationships with beasts that evolve through interactions, battles, and shared experiences.
• Every beast has its own personality, behaviors, strengths, and relationships that directly affect combat, obedience, interactions, and evolution paths.
• The Alchemic Beasts each have distinct personalities that shape how they respond to you, making the journey to becoming best friends with your Best Friend either challenging or effortless.
• Obedience: Your bond with each beast directly affects its performance in combat. Neglecting your relationship may lead to reduced obedience.
• Tame Your Beast: Use emotes to influence your beast’s emotions, strengthening or weakening its mood, bond, and obedience.
• Alchemic Evolution lets your beasts reach their full potential, but only if you meet certain conditions. They might need a specific generation, element, or time in places like the Void to unlock special variations.
• Beast can also reach a natural evolution through combat and leveling up. Using alchemy on a beast will negate a beast’s ability to evlove naturally to its ultimate form.
• Building is central to both story progression and bonding, as you and your beasts work together to rebuild Mizu by constructing structures, clearing land, and expanding the town. As they labor side by side, beasts grow closer, form relationships, and help create homes for new residents.
• Townsfolk: The people you rescue throughout Mizu will return to the Mayor’s Town and help restore it. They’ll assist with beast taming while also opening new shops, services, and attractions.
• Decorations: Unlock a variety of items to customize your town and make it your own.
• Battle alongside powerful alchemic beasts in tactical turn-based combat where status effects, ultimate abilities called Alchemic Bursts, and beast biology shape every encounter. Exploit enemy weaknesses, evolve your creatures through alchemy and experience, and build synergistic teams that grow stronger through the bonds they form both in and out of battle.

9.) Ghostless

Developer: Coffeenauts

Publisher: Coffeenauts

Release Date: TBA

• GHOSTLESS is set in an alternate 20th century, 15 years after a Cold War AI super-intelligence turned against humanity. You take on the role of the Envoy, sent to investigate rumours of a facility where AI is creating a new secret weapon. Your ship gets shot down, leaving you stranded and outnumbered. Your only chance of survival is to find and recruit locals and build a guerrilla resistance to fight back against the machines. Just be careful who you trust…
• Exploration, platforming and combat combine when you venture out into a ruined city. Scavenge for resources, search for survivors and fight robotic adversaries.
• Expand your base camp and assign new recruits to crafting stations to build better gear and weapons. Managing the size, health and status of your colony is vital to progression.
• Analyze clues, observe behaviors, and interview recruits to root out android impostors posing as human to sabotage your resistance from within.
• Enemy strongholds can’t be dealt with alone. Lead your comrades into exciting set-piece battles to take them down and open up new areas of the map.
• Uncover the truth about what happened to this world in a dark sci-fi plot about humanity, creation and survival.

8.) Poly Fighter

Publisher: Heartloop Games

Developer: Heartloop Games

Release Date: Coming Soon

• Welcome to Poly Fighter, a unique roguelike fighting game. Step into the ring in a single-player arcade showdown where every defeat teaches you, and every win transforms your fighter into something stronger.
• No ranked ladders. No online stress. Just pure, expressive 1v1 combat. 
  Choose your path through escalating leagues and make every choice count.
• Earn new moves mid-run, then swap and upgrade to craft devastating synergies.
• Will you become a zoner, grappler, or rushdown menace? Build your destiny!
• Simple controls means even beginners can pull off flashy combos and pick up new moves quickly. With all the possible movesets you can build, veterans will find endless potential for expressive fighting. 
• Unlock a massive cast of playable characters each with unique perks. Combined with an enormous list of possible moves to learn from each opponent, there are thousands of possible build options for you to find.
• Rise through 3 leagues and test yourself in ascension runs and secret boss fights. Every run will provide different moves to pick from, making no single run the same!

7.) The Hearth & Harbour

Publisher: Fellow Traveller

Developer: Saltstone Studios

Release Date: 2026

• You have left your life and home country behind, travelling north across the sea in pursuit of your dreams and the hope of avoiding the shadow of an impending war. And so, you find yourself in the harbour city of Lewthport, the proud owner of ‘The Silver Spoon’, a run-down restaurant in a run-down part of town. Now it’s up to you to make your dream a reality. With a hefty loan to repay, you’ll need to improve the restaurant quickly… expand the menu, upgrade the decor, build connections with suppliers and keep your customers happy. Meanwhile, a storm is brewing outside. The choices you make will shape the future of both the restaurant and the community around it.
• The Silver Spoon has seen better days. It will be up to you revive it, and give it a new identity. Design the layout, choose the furniture and decor, purchase ingredients and curate the menu to create the kind of place you want to run, and the kind of community you wish to attract.
  • A greasy spoon for the working locals, fuelled by favours?
  • An exotic bistro, that wins favour with its atmosphere, and experimental menus?
  • A gourmet restaurant, that chases tradition and the funds of the upper crust?
• The choice is yours!
• As Maitre’D you’re in the heart of the maelstrom, the difference between success or disaster. Playing out as a turn-based tactical game, you’ll need to seat customers, take orders, and ensure the food comes out promptly, keeping your guests happy and managing the stress of the staff. Getting it right means more money in the till and winning favor with your customers.
• When you’re not serving the locals, you can explore Lewthport, meeting its inhabitants and discovering more about your new home. Visit the market in the morning to stock up on ingredients and build relationships with your suppliers or jump on a tram to go to the harbour district to destress. After work, head for a drink and a yarn at the local pub. The bonds you build and the choices you make will affect both the success of the restaurant and your own standing in the community.

6.) Fourleaf Fields

Developer: BEHEMUTT

Publisher: HypeTrain Digital

Release Date: To Be Announced

• Shoot huge water drops to water your crops, slice enormous carrots and pumpkins into pieces to harvest them, and care for your farm animals – moths, bees, butterflies and ladybugs🐞 Farming has never felt so fresh from this new, tiny perspective!
• Connect with charming neighbors, spark heartwarming events, and even help lonely hearts find each other. As your bonds deepen, raise the Town Rank to unlock new shops, upgrades, and breathe more life into the village 🌿
• Collect stories, connect the dots, and uncover the hidden secrets of your neighbors and the town’s mysterious past through the unique Gossip System – a tech tree fueled by hearsay 🐦
• Roam forests, mountains, and everyday human items that feel enormous when you’re bug-sized – from towering boots to oversized teacups!
• Enjoy cozy adventures solo or with up to 4 players in a world of farming, exploration, and discovery!

5.) Tenebris Somnia

Developer: Andrés Borghi, Saibot Studios

Publisher: New Blood Interactive

Release Date: October 16, 2026

Tenebris Somnia is a survival horror adventure game in the same vein as classics like Silent Hill or Resident Evil – but adapted to a retro 2D aesthetic from the 8 or 16-bit era.

You will struggle to survive while solving puzzles and fighting horrible creatures.

Yet the secrets of the game lie within its cinematics…

When you reach certain key points you will see sequences from a completely different point of view, made in live action with real actors and practical effects – created by a professional and award winning film crew from Argentina.

4.) Vivarium

Developer: Studio Meadowflower

Publisher: Serenity Forge

Release Date: To be Announced

• You wake up in the golden haze of late afternoon. The air is warm, cicadas hum somewhere in the distance, and sunlight spills across your bedroom. And outside your window… there’s a tiny world waiting.
• You play as 11-year-old Jenny, a bright and energetic resident of the terrarium. But this isn’t just her story. Somewhere, buried deep under the summer days and small-town routines, is another life.
• Beneath the nostalgic atmosphere of this close-knit town lies a hidden truth. Explore a “perfect” pocket world to reveal its secrets and progress through a non-linear narrative shaped by your choices.
• Jenny’s charming neighborhood is inhabited by a charismatic cast of characters, each with their own branching and dynamic storylines:
  • A reclusive woman slowly becoming something else
  • A shopkeeper that gives daily album recommendations
  • A funny postal worker who drinks like a fish, and is a fish
  • A nosy retiree birdwatcher, who keeps tabs on the other townies
  • A wandering fortune teller who seems to know too much
• Days in Vivarium are synced to the player’s real-world calendar, allowing for daily new discoveries while unraveling its mysterious narrative. Completing major story events will progress time, but every night provides endless slice-of-life comfort and time that can be spent:
  • Cooking new recipes and tending to your garden
  • Collecting stickers, vinyl records, and classic novels to enjoy
  • Crafting items and decorating your cozy home
  • Repairing equipment and preparing for tomorrow’s adventure

3.) Threads of Time

Developer: Riyo Games

Publisher: Balor Games

Release Date: To be Announced

• From an age where dinosaurs roam to the far-flung future and alternate realms in between – travel across fantastic and distinctive time periods, and discover the threads that bind the ages. Uncover an epic tale of interwoven fates, and secrets that shaped civilizations…and follow the threads of a sinister plot that traverses the tapestry of time.
• Weave together powerful attacks in visually dynamic, strategic turn-based battles. Bend time to your will, unravel enemies’ defenses, and unleash your party’s full potential through devastating team combos.
• Assemble a party of charismatic and unique characters recruited from different eras. Restore the ancient Order of the Time Knights and unite heroes from across epochs to defend the timeline from impending chaos and corruption.
• Step into vibrant worlds powered by Unreal Engine 5, meet lovingly hand-crafted 2D characters and experience the timeless charm of pixel art as you explore through the ages. Threads of Time captures the essence of your favorite retro RPGs, wrapped in a new and immersive adventure.

2.) End of Abyss

Publisher: Epic Games

Developer: Section 9

Release Date: October 1, 2026

• In the depths of a mysterious underground compound, a mission to investigate disturbances of unknown origin spirals into a harrowing descent through a broken and abandoned world. Play as the young combat technician, Cel, as she uncovers the truth behind the facility’s derelict areas and confronts the monstrous creatures that roam them.
• Enter the Abyss. Descend into the halls of a sprawling complex, where broken machines whisper to you from the depths, and nothing you encounter is fully human.
• Fight to Survive. Outmatched by the twisted horrors you face, you must upgrade your gear and adapt, pushing your limits just to stay alive against the crushing pressure of the facility you’re trapped within.
• Explore Lost Paths. Navigate branching paths and uncover hidden areas using your Scanner and the tools you unlock along the way. Pathways open as you grow stronger, allowing you to return to forgotten corridors and secrets once sealed away.

1.) Grave Seasons

• Grave Seasons is a narrative led farming sim with a terrifying twist – someone in the town is a supernatural serial killer.  
• fter a treacherous escape from jail, you’ve made it to your new home in Ashenridge, an idyllic town with some seriously unsettling vibes. While trying to establish your new farming life and embed yourself in the neighborhood, murders start to occur in the town, putting your new peaceful life at risk.
• Grow crops, fish, mine, and participate in the local economy by selling your goods in town. Just remember that what you harvest will play a critical role in your ability to unravel the mysteries of Ashenridge.
• In a cruel twist of fate, you’ve become wrapped up in the sudden murders plaguing this cozy town. Search for clues and investigate the unique townsfolk to uncover the dark truth. What’s a little bit of breaking and entering between friends anyway?
• Discover and craft precious items to ward off against whatever is stalking the town. It’s down to your investigation skills to identify the next victim and save more blood from being spilled.
• Finding a serial killer is no easy task. To do so, you’ll need to complete quests for the townsfolk and build up their trust. Everything you do – or don’t do – will affect how the story plays out. And yes, you can even romance the killer.

That’s Right! EVEN MORE GAMES!!!