I’m so incredibly pleased to welcome you to the fifth—fifth!—annual celebration of unknown or under-known indie games, Indie-Penance Day. It’s the day Kotaku completes the sacrament of forgiveness for AAA coverage by dedicating large amounts of space to smaller games. It’s also a good pun.

How is this difference to Thanksgaming, you ask? Shush. It’s a good pun. Unlike “Thanksgaming.”

As ever, I solicited submissions from independent developers via social media, which has resulted in hundreds of emails (239 as I start writing this), from which I will choose entirely at random. And then use a level of discretion. I implore you to look through them all, and wishlist anything that grabs your interest—doing so makes a massive difference for the developers, because it affects the mysterious algorithms running under Steam, and helps these games get more attention. Also, it’ll remind you to buy the game when it’s out!

Given most of these will be unreleased games, I obviously haven’t played them, so inclusion here is not an indication of their quality—we’re going on vibes, folks. But anything that can help get eyes on any of the approximately 20,000 games that will be released on Steam this year makes a big difference.

Last bit of business: I’ve compiled this as a slideshow, and you have to just suck that up. It pays the bills, and it’s how I can get this on the site. (But top tip: if you’re browsing on desktop, just narrow your browser window to a portrait width and it’ll unfurl into one long article.)

Cupiclaw

It’s bizarre to note that Cupiclaw is not the first rogue-lite deckbuilding claw machine game I’ve seen! At the end of last year, Dungeon Clawler was released, and it’s combination of Slay the Spire and arcade machine is fantastic. And it only makes me want more games using the mechanic. Cupiclaw takes a very different approach, however, feeling more inspired by the likes of Balatro: here you scoop items from the claw machine into a prize pool, and the items you gather affect one another based on their properties. You could end up blowing up all your winnings, or massively multiplying them, with the ability to tweak the contents of the machine in between rounds. I can’t wait! And am installing the demo.

Developer: Typin
Release Date: TBA
Steam Page

In Hope Voiden

Browsing the unfiltered new release lists on Steam, as I do every week, I see a lot of games calling themselves “survival horror.” Few look like anything I’d want to play. But wow, In Hope Voiden is grabbing me. First, that name! What a name. Secondly, well just watch the trailer. Look at that art! It just looks stunning, and very, very spooky. It describes itself as having both permadeath and persistent consequences, which is deeply ambitious—you’ll play as 12 different characters, each with a unique task to complete, and their failures impinging on all the others. Wow.

Developer: Stillburch Games
Release Date: TBA
Steam Page

Time Travel Shanty

Time travelling pirates is a woefully under-used genre, so thank goodness for Time Travel Shanty. This is a third-person action game, with apparently some roguelite (because that’s law now) and some metroidvania. It looks like good fun, somewhere between Hades and Zelda, although right now movement looks a little stilted. (And there’s one heck of a typo in the trailer!) There’s no release date yet, so presumably still lots of time and work to come—definitely on my wishlist.

Developer: gypynkt
Release Date: TBA
Steam Page

Platypus Reclayed

In 2002, before widespread indie gaming was a twinkle in the milkman’s eye, there was a game called Platypus. It was a horizontal scrolling shooter, with all its art made via claymation, and was a critical, and lingering, success. Originally distributed via CD-ROM (because it would have to be!), it went on to get a PSP release, and then in 2009 was released for both PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Indie Games. Rather sadly, the original creators lost control, and a sequel was made and released without their involvement in 2007. But don’t frown! Original developer Anthony Flack has bought back the rights, and is working with a new team on a remake. That’s this. It’s a total remake, reprogrammed, and brand new claymation. Those gloopy clay explosions look so fun.

Developer: Claymatic Games
Release Date: TBA
Steam Page

Exark

The world is ending. I mean, that’s not breaking news, but it’s also the premise in Exark, a pixel-based city-builder, set on an enormous flying ark on its journey toward the rim of the world.

I’m just enormously pleased to inform you this is a game that involves mining cheese, and indeed rearranging the organs of a manta ray-shaped demi-god. Those are the two elements I look for in any game, so I’m well in. Also, oh my goodness, look at the little idle animations on those pixel animals!

Developer: Robot Cat Limited
Release Date: TBA
Steam Page

Teeto

With obvious Rare vibes, Teeto is a third-person action-platformer, in which you play a little blue dude giving a rabbit a piggyback. Apparently the rabbit made the blue blob? It’s from a New Zealand couple (apparently one proposed to the other via the game?!), with their own toddler providing voice work. Your globular blue guy can absorb objects from the world, taking on their properties, Kirby-style, while you leap around a world in the manner of a Spyro.

Developer: Eat Pant Games
Release Date: TBA
Steam Page

Liha

You know what Liha looks like to me? As if Descent were made by a Darwinia-era Introversion. And to be absolutely clear, that’s about as high as my compliments get.

Obviously, because otherwise there’s a $45 million fine from the Indie Police, this is a roguelite, where each of your 360 degree exploratory dives to collect tech and upgrades can end in disaster. But that sounds like a great concept, and I want to play it now. NOW. But it’s not out yet, dammit. Oh, but there is a demo!

Developer: Game Kombinat
Release Date: TBA
Steam Page

Rogue Eclipse

So many explosions! This is a proper old-school space shooter, but presented in proper new-school pretties. Yes, roguelite, but inspired by both Star Fox and Armored Core, this really does seem to want to recapture space combat arcade gaming. Plus, I love the ambiguity in the art, the smokiness of the battles. You can see for yourself in a demo.

Developer: Huskrafts
Release Date: TBA
Steam Page

Leaving Home

I swear to god, I scour Steam for new point-and-click adventures all the time, so I have no idea how Leaving Home snuck past me last month. Thank goodness I stumbled on it here instead.

This is by Bart Bonte, who has been making super-stylized puzzle games for a long time, most especially during the Flash era. His latest, as you might have surmised from the title, is about leaving a home. But, not forever, just for the day. I’ve got it installing already.

Developer: Bart Bonte
Release Date: Out Now
Steam Page

Bat to the Beat

As soccer becomes an ever-bigger deal in the U.S., you have to wonder which other British-dominated sports could make the transition. But surely never cricket. So massively popular in Australasia, Africa, South Asia and the West Indies, as well as the UK, it remains utterly unfathomable to the United States. So, what if someone took cricket, and combined with with a rhythm action game?!

Incredibly, that’s the conceit of Bat to the Beat, a game by Kunal Joshi, based out of Michigan. It sounds splendidly bonkers, and there’s a demo to double-check.

Developer: Kunal Joshi
Release Date: Q3 2025
Steam Page

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