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 discussion over what does and doesn’t qualify for the moniker of ‘indie’, especially in the wake of Annapurna Interactive’s successful launch of the coming-of-age narrative game, Mixtape.
Microsoft’s ID@Xbox program has provided development hardware and publishing support to indie teams of all sizes across the globe, 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’s that there is a wide net that covers a platitude of gaming genres — ultimately bringing together a menagerie of unique experiences that can have lasting impacts on those who play them.
We here at Windows Central have been celebrating indies and the ID@Xbox program for a while now, highlighting monthly new releases, large and small, that we think are worth your time. From solo-dev projects like the recently released OOLO to those supported by larger publishers like 11 bit studios (Frostpunk, The Alters) and Annapurna Interactive (Stray, People of Note).
With so many new experiences launching every day, it’s easy for some really awesome games to slip under your radar, so here are five recently released indies that should be next in your game queue.
Motorslice
In 2008, EA published Mirror’s Edge — a hyper-modern, minimalist action platformer that challenged players to first-person parkour their way through a city of glass to take down an oppressive regime. The game was nothing short of successful, and a sequel followed in 2015. Unfortunately, that was the last we saw of the fast-moving Faith, but Mirror’s Edge certainly managed to kick off a new genre of platforming, with a few 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 such indie giving speedrunners and parkour junkies a new playground to explore. Players become “P”, a young woman tasked with parkouring her way through a ruinous megastructure laced with deadly traps and harboring some massive bosses. As a “slicer”, P is armed with a chainsaw and accompanied by a malfunctioning orb drone tasked with eliminating the machines of an abandoned structure at all costs. Nothing is ever as easy as it seems, however, and P will have to climb, run, and slide through the brutalist and liminal landscape of Motorslice.
With an atmospheric soundtrack by Pizza Hotline and fully voice-acted by Kira Buckland, Motorslice is the acrobatic, low-poly parkour game your backlog has been missing, and it’s available now as part of an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate or PC Game Pass subscription. Motorslice is supported by Xbox Play Anywhere, so you can pick it up on your Xbox Series X|S, Xbox on PC, Xbox Cloud Gaming, or compatible handheld for some fast-paced slide and slice action.
Constance
You know what pairs well with platforming? Metroidvanias. The two genres go together like paint and paintbrushes, 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 special techniques that can be used to discover secrets, sketch inspiration found during the journey in the player’s journal, and upgrade those sketches.
Enhance and customize Constance’s abilities by upgrading sketches, but be careful! Brush techniques can increase the corruption in Constance’s paint, which can have negative effects if full corruption is reached. Like similar platformers, Constance leans into its difficulty, but gives its players a chance to continue challenges upon death or try a different path from a safer location.
Constance paints a meaningful narrative about psyche and explores the character’s mental health via different biomes and enemies that represent elements of struggling with creativity, work-life balance, and finding one’s purpose. Constance is available now on Xbox Series X|S.
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 a delightful, plant-filled haven. Each plant has its own value, and players must arrange them throughout the apartment to maximize coziness and aesthetics. Plant placement is a strategic challenge despite the stress-free gameplay loop. Moving around plants to for the most optimal aesthetics helps to unlock new plants, adding to the game’s emotional storytelling by engaging in the environmental puzzles. Other items in the apartment are also interactive, including lamps and humidifiers.
Urban Jungle is available as a standalone game, but a DLC story expansion involving a blossoming love story between Pharita’s brother, Rachata, and his boyfriend Nurgun. Design and decorate Nurgun’s new home and help make sure all the details are perfect for Rachata so that Nurgun can propose. 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 available now on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox on PC, and compatible handhelds with support for Xbox Play Anywhere.
Strange Antiquities
In 2022, developer Bad Viking partnered with Iceberg Interactive to publish Strange Horticulture, a cozy and wholesome occult puzzle game dabbling in all things witchy, planty, and — well, strange. It was a well received point and click puzzler that saw players managing their own plant shop and adventuring through strange scenarios to add to their growing collection of plants that could cure what ails you or maim your enemies. It only seems natural for Bad Viking to expand on that universe, this time with Strange Antiquities.
Strange Antiquities leans back into the puzzling shop management genre of its predecessor, but forgoes the herbology of its past for new arcane artifacts. The townsfolk have a plethora of unusual problems, and only the goods found in your quaint, candle-lit shop can help. Observe your customers, listen to their stories, and then make the choice to help them even if it means cursing their foes with a dastardly affliction.
Developed by two brothers from the UK, Strange Antiquities invites players to a world that is both eerily dark and yet inviting in its warmth, full of quirky NPCs to interact with and unique destinations to explore while you unlock and discover more about the town of Undermere and the antiquities that can be found there. Strange Antiquities is available now on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S.
The Coma 3: Bloodlines
Developed by Dvora Studio and published by Headup, The Coma 3: Bloodlines is the latest entry in a 2D run and hide horror adventure series set in Seoul, South Korea. The Sehwa Private High School has become a hotbed for people studying the cursed underworld and nightmare dimension. The Coma 3 expands beyond the private school’s walls to allow players to explore new locations and experience the mysterious occult.
There is no combat in The Coma 3, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing to fear. The hideous shows that are running around unchecked will gladly hunt and chase you down, making stealth and strategic movements your only chance for survival for the game’s three playable characters. Players who have experienced the earlier games in the series can look to The Coma 3: Bloodlines for satisfying closure to the story, with solutions to the mysteries from the past finally being revealed.
The Coma 3: Bloodlines is available on Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One now.