Stylish beat-’em-ups, platformers and RPGs, and other new indie games worth checking out

• New releases
• Upcoming 

Welcome to our latest roundup of what’s going on in the indie game space. Some gorgeous new games arrived this week, and we’ve got some demos and reveals from upcoming projects to take a look at. 

Later this month, Lorelai and the Laser Eyes studio Simogo is going to celebrate its 15th anniversary with some news and surprises. Perhaps the developer is porting some of its earlier games to more platforms. I’m hoping that we’ll learn about Simogo’s next game as well.

I’m not holding out hope for a sequel to Sayonara Wild Hearts, which is my favorite game of all time depending on the day you ask me (on other days, it’s The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, FYI). However, if Simogo announces a live concert of music from the game, I’m going to do my damndest to be there. I’ll be tuning in on October 28 to learn what the studio has for me us in any case.

Speaking of showcases, Entalto Publishing and developer GGTech ran one of their own this week. The Out of Bounds event shone a spotlight on a dozen indie games, spanning a breadth of genres. 

Also, a quick reminder that the latest Steam Next Fest starts at 1PM ET on Monday, October 13. As always, the week-long event will have tons of demos for you to check out. It’s always worth trying a bunch of them. You never know, you might end up being one of the first few folks to play the next Balatro, Manor Lords or Deep Rock Galactic Survivor.

New releases

Absolum is a beat-’em-up from the folks behind Streets of Rage 4. It’s the first original IP from Dotemu, which has found success with the likes of the terrific Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge. It co-developed this game with Guard Crush Games and Supamonks. The art and animation from the latter looks absolutely divine.

You can play Absolum solo or with a friend. Since it’s a roguelite, you’ll gain upgrades to bolster your character on each run while earning experience that goes toward permanent progression. There are multiple paths to explore, so the replayability factor seems strong here. Engadget senior reporter Igor Bonifacic spent some time with Absolum this summer and was impressed by it. The game received strong reviews this week too.

Absolum is out now on Steam, Nintendo Switch, PS4 and PS5. Dotemu also has another beat-’em-up, Marvel Cosmic Invasion, coming soon.

A few reviews I’ve read for Bye Sweet Carole (which are fairly mixed) dinged it for having clunky controls and some other quality-of-life problems, such as getting softlocked while trying to complete puzzles. I hope Little Sewing Machine can iron out those issues since the presentation of this game is quite something. It looks like an early-’90s animated movie, with hand-drawn animations and, seemingly, a soundtrack to match. 

Bye Sweet Carole is a 2D horror-platformer from publisher Maximum Entertainment in which you play as a young girl trying to find her best friend, who disappeared from an orphanage. It’s out now on PC, PS5, Nintendo Switch and Xbox Series X/S.

Want to see another new game with a unique look that makes it stand out from the crowd? Of course you do. 

Exploration action game Dreams of Another — which landed on PS5, PS VR2 and Steam this week — sees you creating the environment in a dream-like world by shooting at it. Director Baiyon (PixelJunk Eden) and the team at Q-Games used point cloud rendering technology to create the unusual, but captivating visuals. Dunno why they felt the need to put a clown in this game though. Clowns are rotten things.

Dreams of Another arrived on the same day that Q-Games’ PixelJunk Eden 2 hit PS4, PS5 and Steam (it’s coming to Epic Games Store as well). That game debuted on Nintendo Switch in 2020.

Here’s yet another lovely-looking project, and this time it’s a pixel-art game from Teenage Astronauts and publisher No More Robots. In Little Rocket Lab, you play as aspiring engineer Morgan, who sets out to build factories with the aim of achieving her family’s dream of making a rocket ship. It’s more build a rocket, girl, than Build A Rocket Boy.

This is a blend of a factory builder and life sim, and it looks rather charming. Little Rocket Lab has touched down on Steam and Xbox. It’s on Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass.

On the subject of pixel-art games, I couldn’t not include one that came out this week from a developer based in my hometown. Cairn: Mathair’s Curse is a turn-based RPG. It’s set in the early 2000s in the Scottish Highlands and it sees a young lad and his mates dealing with the aftermath of a cult casting an ancient curse on their home. 

Solo developer Ross McRitchie spent five years making Cairn: Mathair’s Curse and his partner, Christine, composed the Celtic soundtrack. It’s said to have plenty of Scottish humor, which speaks to me. The game, which Steam reviews have likened to EarthBound, is out on Steam now.

Upcoming 

I’m looking forward to checking out Blackwood, which is slated to hit Steam in the second half of 2026. It has a pretty great pitch:

By day, you run a DVD store in 2012 New York. By night, you’re a ruthless assassin. Blackwood is a cinematic third-person shooter with grounded melee combat, brutal takedowns, responsive gunplay and a double life to manage.

The facial animations look a little rough in the reveal trailer, but it’s alpha footage and there’s plenty of time to polish it. I’m hoping the team at Bangladesh-based AttritoM7 Productions manages to do that, because otherwise this game is looking quite nifty with its John Wick-style combat.

I do love a game with a great name, and I’ve got a couple to tell you about. Action RPG Bittersweet Birthday has hand-drawn pixel art and nothing but boss battles when it comes to combat. 

Bittersweet Birthday — from World Eater Games and publisher Dangen Entertainment — is set to land on Steam, GOG, Humble and Itch on November 11. It’s coming to consoles later.

Here’s a pinball-themed precision platformer in the mold of games like Baby Steps and Getting Over It. Fittingly, it’s called A Pinball Game That Makes You Mad and you can control it with a single button.

There’s no release date as yet for this project from Azimuth Studios. However, a demo is available on Steam now. Like a good teenage cousin, it’s fun and annoying in equal measure.

Another pre-Next Fest demo I’ve had a chance to check out is for Don’t Stop, Girlypop!, a fast-paced arena shooter with an anti-capitalist bent. I’ve been looking forward to this one since I found out about it late last year. The demo, with its Y2K girly-pop aesthetics and Doom Eternal/Ultrakill-style gameplay, does not disappoint. 

I’m glad the team trimmed the first word from the original name — Incolatus: Don’t Stop, Girlypop! — since the shorter version is much punchier and more memorable. Funny Fintan Softworks and publisher Kwalee haven’t revealed a release date as yet, but I’ll be checking my T9 flip phone impatiently in the meantime.