INDIEVELOPMENT

Early Access —  May 2026

This month’s lineup highlights a change toward high-intensity genre-blending, where traditional combat loops are being revitalized by rhythmic precision, culinary strategy, and punishing survival mechanics.

April 16th to May 15th brought 13 new Early Access additions to Waypoint. Here are 7 worth exploring.

Besmirch

Far Far West

Snap your six-shooter and weave fireballs into a lethal rhythm as you and three friends gallop through a cursed frontier of reanimated skeletons and giant ghost trains.

$19.99 USD

PC

GladiEATers

Cook your army to life in a narrative creature battler that blends culinary minigames with strategic 6v6 combat.

$14.99 USD

PCWEBSITE

Dead as Disco

Unleash a rhythmic "Beat Kune Do" as a fallen icon, shattering the spotlight to exact revenge on the ex-bandmates who left you for dead.

$19.99 USD

PCWEBSITE

Alabaster Dawn

Dance around enemies by hot-swapping between four elements and eight unique weapons, weaving stylish Combat Arts into fast-paced combos to shatter the curse of Nyx.

$21.24 USD

PCLINUXWEBSITE

HUNTDOWN: OVERTIME

Tear through neon-soaked streets and desolate wastelands in a violent run-and-gun loop, collecting bounties until the inevitable death that drags you back to Tony’s operating table.

$15.29 USD

PCMACLINUXWEBSITE

Besmirch

Coax crops from a barren, failing earth to feed the terrified town of Besmirch while struggling to meet the Baron’s crushing daily tithes.

$7.99 USD

PC

Subnautica 2

Plunge into a vibrant and dangerous alien ocean alone or with three friends, navigating the depths in your Tadpole submersible to survive a mission gone wrong.

$29.99 USD

PCXBOXEPICWEBSITE

Every game above came from Waypoint — where we track every indie release, every month.

INDIEVELOPMENT

Crowdfunding

These are projects we personally backed this month — not sponsored, just ones we put money into.

The Lost Hotel

Diorama Break

Connect directly with a hero who possesses his own hopes and fears, guiding or manipulating him through a narrative where your treatment of his psyche determines the fate of his world.

Avaria: Iron Rule

Forge your own destiny on the distant island of Avaria, choosing to lead as a privileged Noble or struggle for survival as a Slave in a world where your social background dictates every interaction.

The Lost Hotel

Step into the role of the new hotelier and take charge of a mysterious establishment drifting through space, trapped within an endless time loop.

Come find us — Discord • Steam Curator • Threads • BlueSky • X

For devs — Steam Marketing Guide • Press Kit Guide

Support page

FRONTLINE

Too niche, said everyone

Before you dive in, the conversation this issue is based on (about half of it), is on YouTube to listen to right now.

For more than a decade, Nick Talmers Nieuwoudt was told the game he wanted to make wouldn't work. He pitched it at studios. He floated it past friends. The answer was always the same shape: too niche. He kept it in the back of his head and made other things — nineteen years of indie work, a stint running R&D at Wargaming, a steady career inside the AAA machine.

Then, in the summer of 2025, the machine collapsed underneath him. The studio he was working at was acquired by Netflix. His freelance contracts dried up at the same moment. Microsoft was shuttering fifteen studios. The whole AAA layer he'd been threading was, in his words, "going to s***.” He tried to enjoy his summer for two days and then went, in his own assessment, "absolutely insane" because he needed to be making something.

So he made the niche game.

Nine months later, IRON NEST: Heavy Turret Simulator hit 10,000 wishlists in a single day during an open Discord playtest. Their internal target had been 15,000 by launch — Nick had inflated his real goal of 10,000 to keep his marketing partner Dominik motivated, and admits this is "a great example of my personality." They're now well past 260,000. The game has a Rock Paper Shotgun quote on the Steam page. IGN covered it. Roughly $750 has been spent on marketing in total, and even that, Nick says, "wasn't really worth it."

This is what indie viral success looks like in 2026. But the more interesting story is why it worked — and it isn't because they got lucky.

They’re both one thing

I asked Nick how he was thinking about the business side when he started IRON NEST. Was he heads-down on the craft first, planning to figure marketing out later?

"They're the same thing from my perspective," he said. "Because the reason I make games — the satisfaction I get from it — is people playing my game and enjoying it. So if the game isn't enjoyed by people, and if people never discover the game to enjoy it, that's a failure of my fun of creating."

That sentence is the spine of the whole interview. Most indie developers, when they talk about marketing, talk about it like a tax on development — a thing they have to do in addition to making the game. Nick treats them as the same act. "From the beginning I was thinking: how can I introduce people to the game? What is that new player experience? What is the 15-second short that someone sees that will get them interested enough to try the game and then enjoy it? That's part of my design philosophy."

You can see this in how the first viral short happened. The Steam page had been live since around September. It generated almost no traffic, which was fine — Nick had set the bar low on purpose. "We're just two guys. We're not going to be able to do everything the right way." Then, a couple of months in, he and Dominik decided to start posting shorts. Mechanical animations. Gears meshing. The kind of looping CAD animation Nick had been quietly obsessed with for fifteen years.

The game was still in greybox. Untextured. Rough. They posted anyway.

The first one didn't go anywhere. The second pulled 20-30,000 views.

The point isn't that the second video got lucky. The point is that even in a totally untextured state, the fantasy was already legible. People in the comments understood what the game was, what they would do in it, and why it would feel good — and they understood it from raw mechanical animation alone. Marketing didn't dress up the game. It found the part of the game that was already telling the story, and let the player arrive there themselves.

That isn't a marketing tactic. That's a design test. And IRON NEST passed it before it had a coat of paint on.

The three-word rule

Dominik Latos — credited on the Steam page as handling propaganda, which tells you something about the project's sense of humour — joined the project after Nick decided not to chase publishers. The two had worked together at a previous publisher, with Dominik on the publishing side and Nick on the developer side. "The majority of the value I got was from him," Nick told me. "So I decided I would rather just work with him. Why not just partner up and do it ourselves?"

Dominik's marketing playbook is sharp, opinionated, and almost entirely about clarity.

It starts with what he calls a spread: post on every possible platform from day one. Not because every platform will work, but because if a video flops on five channels at once, you can stop blaming the algorithm. "It's a bigger possibility that it's a bad video rather than just the algorithm," he said. The spread is a diagnostic tool, not a megaphone.

Then comes the piece of advice he keeps returning to:

Take that with a grain of salt, not literally. The point is: be concise with your communication. People’s attention spans are getting shorter by the week.

It sounds extreme. He concedes it's extreme. But the principle underneath isn't: if a viewer sees your short for two seconds while scrolling and can't describe what your game is afterward, you've lost them. Not because your short was bad. Because your game's identity isn't legible at speed.

The hack he found for IRON NEST specifically was music. "At the beginning we were using a lot of World War I and World War II songs — Soviet marches, German marches, the United States hymn of the artillery man. It resonates very, very well. People see big bullet, they hear the march from World War I, and you don't need to tell them anything else."

Stop and look at what's happening there. The game isn't a war story. It's a dieselpunk artillery simulator in alternate-history late-1920s Spain. But Dominik isn't trying to teach the player the setting in 20 seconds — he's letting the player arrive pre-loaded with one. The march does the world-building before the gameplay even starts. By the time the first shell flies, you already know how to feel about it.

This is the three-word rule applied as a craft skill rather than a slogan. And it's the same instinct as Nick's "fantasy first" — strip the experience down to the simplest thing it can be, get the player there fast, then expand outward from there. "Most really successful games," Nick said, "the moment you start, they immerse you into something kind of simple and clear. Then as you play longer, it gets more and more fun and crazy. The first five minutes — they've sold you on the core fantasy. Like, what's the three words?"

Marketing is design. Design is marketing. They keep saying it in different shapes, but it's the same sentence.

The Discord that does both jobs

Most indie devs treat their development Discord as a marketing arm. Nick built his as a development tool that happens to also be marketing.

His internal chats with Dominik are public. Not just announcements — the actual back-and-forth. The community can read the threads where Nick is taking notes, brainstorming features, working through design problems. They can't comment in those threads — that would create chaos — but they can leave emoji reactions. They can see the idea land. They can quietly tell him when something's hitting and when it isn't.

This solves two problems with one move. Nick can keep developing — heads down, in the work — while still being publicly present. He doesn't have to context-switch from "build the game" to "talk about the game" the way a single dev usually has to. The work is the talking. And when the playtest opened in February — anyone could join the Discord, react to a bot, get a key — the community was already warm. Already invested. Already ready to make videos of their own.

That playtest is where things broke open. Players started cutting their own shorts from the gameplay they'd recorded. One of them hit a million views on its own. Nick describes it like a snowball: "In about eight or nine days of the playtest, we got 8,000 to 9,000 people to join Discord, crash the bot, play the s** out of the demo, and put up a bunch of content about it." The 10,000-wishlists-in-a-day spike happened in the middle of that.

But here's the part most studios would have missed: the playtest wasn't really a marketing event. It was a release rehearsal.

"The open playtest on Discord was a mock release," Nick said. "Like 8,000 people who knew nothing about the game came on, downloaded it, installed it, played it. And there were so many problems. If you had a joystick or a controller or a simulator rig plugged in, the entire game broke. If you had Turkish locale, all the mission text was broken because they use a comma instead of a decimal point. All sorts of stuff that would have been game-breaking issues — but I never would have found, because you don't find that with 100 beta testers."

He calls the practice push-ups. Assume you're going to fail. The first push-up smashes your nose on the floor. So do the next one, and the next, until launch isn't your first attempt — it's your hundredth. The viral playtest was, secretly, a stress test of the entire pipeline. It just happened to also be the best marketing event they'd had to date.

Same act. Both things at once.

Feather or stone

Internally, Nick and Dominik divide all games into two categories: feathers and stones.

A stone is a game that has to be pushed. Hard to market, hard to communicate, hard to move. You can still sell a stone — Dominik reckons a decent amount of revenue is achievable with a year of disciplined marketing if you treat it like a business and not a hobby — but you have to do all the lifting yourself, and the ceiling depends heavily on the game underneath. Marketing can do a lot before release, especially in building the fantasy around the game. It can't fabricate one that isn't there.

A feather is a game that flies once you let go of it. The fantasy is legible. The community self-organises. The shorts get edited and reposted by people who don't work for you.

The terrifying truth Dominik wants more developers to internalise is that almost any game with a genuinely interesting concept can clear the first hurdle. Catching attention is the easy part — provided the concept earns it. "Every game is able to generate that initial interest," he said. "If you came up with the fantasy, with a good short, you can generate this interest. But then when people get interested and they go to your Discord — that's where it's decided. If the game is interesting enough. If your Discord is interactive. If there's enough satisfying content for them to investigate." The bar isn't "any Steam page." The bar is "any project with something genuinely unique about it." Most indies who pass that bar still fall at the second hurdle.

90% of indies, in his experience, never even attempt step one — the easy step, the universal step. The ones that clear it then fail at step two: holding the attention they caught. IRON NEST cleared step one early enough that they could see, in real time, that the game underneath was a feather and not a stone. Which is why they stopped considering publishing deals almost immediately.

It's also why Nick is brutal about scope.

The discipline of saying no

The single most consistent thread in the interview — the lesson Nick keeps coming back to — is that the hardest skill in indie development isn't programming or marketing. It's saying no.

"A big part of expectations is people ask you, 'Are you going to include X?' and you are financially incentivised to say yes. But that is just digging a hole for yourself. Scope creep — what you're trying to do gets bigger and bigger and bigger. I've made this mistake before, probably more than once in my career."

The first question every IRON NEST viewer asks is multiplayer. The answer is no. It's not in this game. It might be in the next one. Single-player is what was promised, and single-player is what ships. Dominik takes it further: he's actively discouraged people from buying IRON NEST if multiplayer is what they want. "We even have community members saying, 'Hey, buy IRON NEST because they want to make multiplayer next.' And we're like, no, you're not supporting the next game. If you want multiplayer, click wishlist. Like our posts. But don't buy this game — you'll be disappointed."

This is heretical advice for a Kickstarter-era developer. You're supposed to upsell. You're supposed to convert. They're talking people out of purchases — and the community loves them for it. Not despite the refusals, because of them. Nick says players now compliment the discipline directly: "Oh, I'm confident this game will come out and live up to expectations, because Nick says no to everything."

The same logic flows through their post-success scaling decisions. The viral spike has accelerated Nick's plans for a second and third game. But it hasn't changed the scope of this one. Dominik is firm about that: "Right now is the worst time to switch the development plan. We will learn from IRON NEST and implement improvements into the next game. Sticking to the plan is necessary because that's what we publicly committed to."

And they're not scaling the company either. No new hires. No expansion into AAA-adjacent ambitions. "If you stick at that level — bigger budgets, bigger team — people will have bigger expectations. They'll look at the next game like a double-A-plus. I want to evade that. Keeping indie releases once per year allows us to keep this indie vibe."

The biggest bundle on Steam

He's building, with a growing coalition of indie studios, what's set to become the biggest bundle ever assembled on Steam. The current record sits around 359 titles. They've already passed 320 commitments and are aiming for 100-150 more, building in margin for studios that drop out before lock-in. Untold Tales has joined with their full catalogue. The bundle is open — "there are no restrictions, anyone can join" — and developers are coordinating in a Discord because Steam doesn't notify you when it's time to finalise.

But the bundle isn't the goal. The bundle is the artifact. What Dominik actually wants is the leverage that comes from breaking the record:

A negotiation with Steam to secure a yearly main-page placement if they pull it off. And a second, more interesting negotiation: a custom cross-discount system, where owning any one game in the bundle unlocks the bundle discount for all the others — letting players buy individual titles at the same price as if they were inside it.

If you've been reading carefully, this is the same operating system IRON NEST was built on, scaled out one ring further.

• Open by design — anyone can join.

• Community-coordinated — the Discord.

• Concrete artifact — the record.

• Used as leverage — the Steam negotiations.

The marketing isn't for something. The marketing is the something. The bundle is, structurally, the same move as the open-development Discord: a tool that makes other studios' lives easier, that incidentally also generates visibility for everyone inside it, including IRON NEST.

If you're a developer reading this and the bundle sounds like something worth being part of — message Dominik. They're still adding studios.

The point

Here's what nags at me about IRON NEST, two days after the interview.

If you only listened to the surface of the story, you'd take away the wrong lesson. You'd think it's a story about how you don't need money to launch a game. "We spent zero dollars on organic marketing," Dominik said proudly, before Nick gently corrected him to about $750 on events that "weren't really worth it much." You could read that and conclude that an indie can pull this off on grit alone.

But Dominik is honest about the rest of the cost. "It's easy to say 'just do this content AB testing.' But the story behind IRON NEST is that we're two pretty experienced guys in our fields. Nick has 20 years of development. I have years in marketing and publishing. To hire someone at the senior level we operate at would be very expensive."

I summarised it back to him in the call: you've already spent the money and the time, acquiring the experience.

He laughed. Yeah. That's it.

That's the actual story. IRON NEST didn't go viral on $750. It went viral on 30+ years of combined craft, deployed inside a worldview where development and marketing are the same act. Two veterans who refused to treat them as separate problems, refused to outsource the part they're best at, and refused to take publisher money once the playtest told them they didn't need to.

And the reason that worldview matters — the reason any of this generalises beyond two guys with the right pedigree — is that the choice to see development and marketing as one thing is available to every developer, regardless of experience. You don't need 20 years to ask whether your fantasy is legible in 15 seconds. You don't need a publisher's marketing team to put your gameplay in front of a march and see if it lands. You don't need money to keep your Discord public, or to say no to scope creep, or to do a mock release in front of strangers to find the bugs that beta testers won't.

The hard part isn't the experience. The hard part is the discipline. Nick spent ten years being told his idea was too niche. Dominik spent years inside publishers watching marketers and developers communicate around each other instead of with each other. They built IRON NEST from minute one as a refusal of both of those failures.

The result is a feather.

WHAT’S NEXT

🎯 Demo: drops on Steam on June 15, 10am PDT — to the minute that Steam Next Fest opens. They're skipping the conventional pre-Next-Fest release window deliberately.

📅 Release date: to be announced during Next Fest.

🤝 Bundle: if you're a developer and want in on the record-breaking Steam bundle, reach out to Dominik directly.

IRON NEST: Heavy Turret Simulator

Crank massive iron wheels and hammer ballistic calculations to swing a 5,000-ton turret into position, feeling the entire dieselpunk structure shudder as you haul the heavy firing lever.

Wishlist Now

• IRON NEST Linktree

• Wishlist on Steam

• Join the Discord

• Follow on TikTok

• Follow on YouTube

• Follow on X

The Indieformer Team

Thanks for reading — and if you ever want to chat games, marketing, or the weirdness of the indie grind, we’re always lurking on Threads, BlueSky and X. Come say hi.

We’ve also put together a few free guides to help indie devs get their projects in front of the right people. You can view them anytime: Steam Marketing Guide, Press Kit Guide.

SHOWCASE

April 2026 Highlights

From rubber-hose noir shooters to mobile tower defense getaway vans, these releases prioritize high-style subversion.

Over April we tracked 43 new releases — 16 Showcase, 9 Hidden Gems, 18 Extras. Here are some worth your time.

REPLACED

Origament: A Paper Adventure

Embody a single, special letter that awakens in the Archive of Memory and escapes through a Time Glitch to begin a non-violent adventure across centuries and continents.

$14.99 USD

PCWEBSITE

MINOS

A roguelite where you are the Minotaur, master of the labyrinth. Build shifting mazes, link deadly traps into brutal chain reactions, and turn every would-be hero’s glory into their grisly demise.

$17.99 USD

PCWEBSITE

Gears of Glory

Floor the accelerator in a high-octane city siege where your getaway van is a literal mobile foundation for a lethal tower defense grid.

$5.99 USD

PCLINUXWEBSITE

Sol Cesto

Descend into a cursed grid where every tile is a gamble. Treasure or trap? Monster or miracle? Move carefully, build your odds, and bend fate in this roguelike of randomness and risk.

$13.99 USD

PCWEBSITE

REPLACED

Navigate a decaying, alternate 1980s as an AI trapped in stolen flesh, tearing through neon-lit alleys and industrial wastelands. Chain fluid melee strikes and precise gunfire to dismantle a corrupt corporate empire while grappling with the raw, violent weight of human instinct.

$19.99 USD

PCXBOXGOGEPICWEBSITE

Dosa Divas

Pilot an ancient, customizable spirit-mech named Goddess to dismantle a rotten fast-food empire in this spicy narrative RPG from Outerloop Games.

$17.99 USD

PC

MOUSE: P.I. For Hire

Step into the hand-drawn, rubber-hose world of Mouseburg as Jack Pepper, a war hero-turned-P.I. navigating a black-and-white noir conspiracy. Wall-run, grapple, and double-jump through over 20 levels of "boomer shooter" chaos.

$29.99 USD

PCSWITCHPLAYSTATIONXBOXWEBSITE

Runehaven

Craft your own elemental destruction in a voxel-based dungeon crawler where magic is limited only by your rune book. Combine over 25 unique runes to draw custom spells—like infusing a fire rune with a missile—or bind them to weapons to enchant your melee strikes.

$8.49 USD

PC

Every game above came from Waypoint — where we track every indie release, every month.

Come find us — Discord • Steam Curator • Threads • BlueSky • X

For devs — Steam Marketing Guide • Press Kit Guide

Support page

SPECIAL

How to Really Make a Game

I've been trying to write this piece for about two years.

Not because I didn't know what I wanted to say — I've known that for a long time.

Making a game is the hardest creative thing a human being can attempt.

Full stop. I just couldn't figure out how to say it in a way that didn't sound like hyperbole, or worse, like cope from someone who's spent too long inside the industry.

But the more I looked at it, the more I became convinced it's not hyperbole at all. It's just true. And the data, the design philosophy, the history of the craft, it all keeps pointing back to that same conclusion.

So I wrote the piece. It's long. Properly long. Ten acts, a few statistics that'll make you wince, and more than one moment where I had to put the laptop down.

A few things I think are worth knowing before you go in:

• One game developer wears, on average, eight professional hats at once. Not metaphorically. Eight. That's a conservative number.

• 48% of all games released on Steam in 2025 made less than $500 in their lifetime. The median revenue was under $200. These aren't abandoned projects — most of them were someone's best effort.

• The GDC 2026 report just dropped, and the picture it paints of where the industry actually is right now is something every player, developer, and person who's ever said "I'd love to make a game someday" should read.

• And then there's R.E.P.O. and PEAK — two games made by tiny teams with no marketing budget that have collectively pulled in millions of players in the last few months. Which is either the most encouraging thing you'll hear today, or the most complicated. Probably both.

The piece covers sound design, world-building, player psychology, the economics of ambition, and what it actually means to ship something. It's not a tutorial and it's not a teardown. It's an argument. One I've been building for a long time.

I'd grab a coffee for this one. Set aside thirty minutes. Maybe more.

→ Read: How to Really Make a Game

Always Indieformer, Josh & Clem

INDIEVELOPMENT

Early Access —  April 2026

The last month’s releases signal a shift toward "living systems," where success is measured by your ability to tame unpredictable environments—whether through Roman engineering, gothic barber-surgery, or physics-driven survival.

March 16th to April 15th brought 9 new Early Access additions to Waypoint. Here are 7 worth exploring.

Watch the video version → https://youtu.be/uFrpwIkreJ8

Everwind

Road to Vostok

Barter your way through a brutal, post-apocalyptic border zone where the shift from summer to winter is just as lethal as the corrupt guards patrolling the crossing.

$14.99 USD

PC

SPARK IGNITES

Forge the fate of a crumbling kingdom in a cinematic 2.5D world where next-gen lighting breathes life into every suit of armor and flickering hearth.

$11.69 USD

PC

BLOODLETTER

Tend to body and soul in this gothic deck-builder where you, a weary barber-surgeon, must purge a village of creeping corruption.

$12.49 USD

PC

Nova Roma

Resurrect the glory of Rome in this intricate city-builder, where engineering grand aqueducts and massive dams is the only way to tame a world of dynamic floods and shifting soil.

$29.99 USD

PCMACEPICWEBSITE

VMX

Kick off a high-octane VR session where every whip and flip is a direct result of your physical gestures, powered by a custom physics system built for true-to-life BMX handling.

$14.99 USD

PCWEBSITE

Everwind

A first-person survival game where you build your base on a flying island-ship and sail between procedurally generated sky islands, gathering resources and fighting enemies in a fully destructible voxel world.

$24.99 USD

PCWEBSITE

Fallen Tear: The Ascension

Guide Hira through the hand-drawn realm of Raoah, blending high-speed Metroidvania traversal with deep JRPG party-building.

$19.99 USD

PCWEBSITE

Every game above came from Waypoint — where we track every indie release, every month.

INDIEVELOPMENT

Crowdfunding

These are projects we personally backed this month — not sponsored, just ones we put money into.

Drownlight

Feed the Scorchpot

Our very own Kickstarter is LIVE. NOW. Survive a twenty-year contract with a hungry guardian in this tabletop roguelike that blends cozy island management with high-stakes dice rolling.

SUPER DEBT!

In this punishing bullet-hell roguelike, your bank account is your only lifeline—literally. Your health, stamina, and even the oxygen you breathe are deducted from your balance in real-time, forcing you to choose between short-term survival upgrades and the long-term goal of paying off your ever-increasing debt.

Drownlight

Lead humanity’s last stand in a radial city-builder where the only thing between survival and the void is a single flickering beacon. As the leader of a drowning civilization, you must expand your settlement outward from a central lighthouse, managing dwindling fuel and food while deciding which desperate drifters to welcome into your limited glow.

Soulflame

Balance the scales of nature to rescue a stolen sister from a world that is equal parts whimsical and wicked. This three-act adventure follows Keira Eldrid into an ancient forest where she must harness the raw powers of Order and Chaos to survive a landscape teeming with both cute and terrifying creatures.

Come find us — Discord • Steam Curator • Threads • BlueSky • X

For devs — Steam Marketing Guide • Press Kit Guide

Support page

SPECIAL

12 years in the making

When Indieformer began, we were covering Kickstarter projects (excuse the cringe).

Back then, it was a dream that one day I’d have a project of my own to put through the platform. It’s always been amazing to see players come together to support a project from the ground up and turn an idea into a reality.

You can probably guess where I’m going with this: we are running a Kickstarter for a game we’re publishing.

For the first time in 12 years, the universe has aligned to give us the golden opportunity to help bring a game to the masses. It’s surreal, a little scary, and incredibly exciting. It's going to be a massive learning experience, but we are all in.

Right now, we are a brand new studio, keeping the lights on out of our own pockets and still working full-time jobs to make this gaming dream a reality. Taking this leap is a huge risk, but it's exactly what crowdfunding is all about.

We’d love the support of the Indieformer community—not just to make our first game a success, but to help us kick off this new publishing phase. We want to support indie games in a much deeper way than just sending out emails with links to them. We want to be involved right at ground zero, getting our hands dirty alongside developers to make the best games possible.

On April 14th (it’s close!), our Kickstarter for Feed the Scorchpot goes live, and then it’s in your hands. We want to make sure supporting us early comes with great rewards. If you back within the first 24 hours, you'll get the game at a discount ($14 USD) and snag a custom, Kickstarter-exclusive skin for your in-game dice.

But this is Kickstarter! And you can’t do Kickstarter without physical rewards… which have just been announced. The Discord is the place to be to stay updated.

"I don't have Discord! Tell me here!" We hear you.

Hex-Tile Coasters — a set of seven, printed with the Scorchpot history. AND, a set of Custom Dice — six fated cubes to determine whether your island prospers or burns. This tier will be priced at AUD $100 (or roughly USD $70 for those across the great waters), but we're just confirming costs so this may change.

Yes, there will be Early Bird options!

Hit the link below to follow the project so you’re notified the second it goes live, and help us kick off the future of Indieformer!

Coming soon: 🔥 Feed the Scorchpot: A Roguelike About Dice and Dragons

Roll dice, cook chaos, and feed your dragon in this cozy-chaotic tabletop roguelike. Build your island and survive 20 years.

www.kickstarter.com/projects/indieformer/feed-the-scorchpot-videogame

Josh & Clem

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SHOWCASE

March 2026 Highlights

The below picks are highlights from a much bigger pool. Over March we added:

• 18 Showcase games

• ✦ 9 Hidden Gems

• 10 Extras

Here’s just a handful of the wonderful releases you shouldn’t miss:

Piece by Piece

Heart of the Machine

A sentient AI with limitless potential in a crumbling cyberpunk city. Will you rise as a savior, rule as a tyrant, or disappear into the shadows, manipulating humanity from afar?

$29.99 | PC, Mac

Esoteric Ebb

Bumble through a surreal Arcanepunk metropolis as a disgraced government cleric, debating drunken sphinxes and your own fractured psyche to solve a tea shop explosion.

$24.99 | PC

✦ Project Songbird

Isolate yourself in the remote Appalachian wilderness as a struggling musician, descending into a 5-hour psychological nightmare where the line between creative block and cosmic horror blurs.

$14.99 | PC

Timberborn

Guide evolved beaver colonies through a "lumberpunk" wasteland where water is the ultimate resource.

$34.99 | PC, Mac

✦ Valor of Man

Snap together a party of four classic champions to navigate a high-stakes tabletop gauntlet where every attack triggers a lethal reactive evolution on the board.

$18.99 | PC

Homura Hime

Wield the power of the "Flame Princess" in a high-octane exorcism mission to purge a world corrupted by regret.

$24.99 | PC

The Artisan of Glimmith

Snap together vibrant shards of light to restore a kingdom above the clouds, adhering to strict, handcrafted logic puzzles that dictate every color and cut.

$12.99 | PC

✦ Piece by Piece

You’re navigating a fragmented world where the floor is literally a jigsaw puzzle, forcing you to snap platforms together mid-run to survive 100 levels of shifting geometry.

$12.99 | PC, Mac

Mr. Sleepy Man

Stay up way past bedtime and wreak havoc in Bedtime Town. Jump, glide, dive, and cause chaos in a fully interactive 3D playground where every object and NPC reacts in surprising ways.

$19.99 | PC

Pluto

Shred through grotesque monstrosities using intricate, hand-traced finger sigils to escape wizard prison and reach your niece’s birthday on time.

$17.99 | PC, Mac, Linux

✦ Crawling Angels

Wield a grim arsenal of tools to poke, blast, and experiment on a ragdoll chicken under the suffocating gaze of a surreal carnival host.

$9.99 | PC

These highlights only scratch the surface. Waypoint has the complete calendar of March 2026’s indie releases, extras, and even more hidden gems.

Happy gaming!

The Indieformer Team

Thanks for reading — and if you ever want to chat games, marketing, or the weirdness of the indie grind, we’re always lurking on Threads, BlueSky and X. Come say hi.

We’ve also put together a few free guides to help indie devs get their projects in front of the right people. You can view them anytime: Steam Marketing Guide, Press Kit Guide.

INDIEVELOPMENT

Early Access Highlights

Discover these gems released between Feb 16, 2026 - Mar 15, 2026, already making waves in Early Access.

Here are 7 of the 11 new Early Access additions to Waypoint. Peek the video version of this issue too.

DYSPLACED

The Killing Stone

Wield figurines and 17th-century incantations to purge a family curse in this Arctic card battler. Use a unique "Reserve System" to stack units and bargain with demons for the souls of the living.

$12.99

Territory Control 2

Industrialize a 2D physics sandbox where 4X strategy meets ruthless exploitation. Siege enemy trenches with porridge-bound masonry and capybara-mounted machine guns to fuel your flimsy, mass-produced empire.

$19.99

Genome Guardian 2

Build biomechanical death machines to purge a bioluminescent world. Fuse DNA nucleotides to discover 70 hybrid bioweapons, from stationary turrets to psychic motorbikes, backed by a bass-heavy soundtrack.

$15.99

Humanica

Guide a civilization from the Paleolithic to the Iron Age in this turn-based hexagonal builder. Manage a strict daily action cycle to feed settlers, edit the literal landscape, and defend against nomadic raids.

$14.99

Slay the Spire 2

Ascend a hungrier, more lethal Spire alone or with three allies in this definitive roguelike deckbuilder. Master five unique heroes, weaving together brand-new cards and relics to dismantle a twisted labyrinth that adapts to your every move.

$29.99

DYSPLACED

Reclaim a realm where modern "magic"—like shotguns and grenades—seeps into a fantasy apocalypse. Dismantle the environment for parts and craft custom hybrid weaponry to repel corrupted Eternals solo or in co-op.

$24.99

Hold The Mine

Optimize deep-earth expeditions by day and survive monster sieges by night in this mine-defense hybrid. Rescue trapped heroes and use exotic runes to build synergistic fortresses before the sun sets.

$14.99

CROWDFUNDING

Kickstarter Picks

Here are projects personally backed this month—plus our profile to prove it.

Bruma

Wonderful Neoran Valley

Recruit sentient monsters through complex dialogue in a Roguelite where "brute force" equals death. Use clairvoyant foresight to read the battle timeline and uncover the secret of the corrupting Neura Clusters.

(Click this box to go to the campaign)

Dungeons and Dining Tables

Play as an axolotl on a quest to furnish your home while fending off furniture-eating termites in this cozy RPG. Delve into procedural dungeons to loot "packing boxes" for rare decor, then place items to earn Comfy Points that level up your combat stats and unlock new town features.

(Click this box to go to the campaign)

GUN NOSE

Solve semi-procedural murders as a robot detective in a handcrafted pixel-art city. Analyze evidence to identify killers, then survive high-stakes combat against Murder-Bots using lethal Psychic Hacks.

(Click this box to go to the campaign)

Bruma

Explore a hand-drawn, misty city as a cat searching for a friend's lost memories. Shift between the abandoned present and a vibrant past, utilizing feline stealth to infiltrate animal clan territories.

(Click this box to go to the campaign)

STAR RUNE

Type and slash through "Evil Letters" in a high-speed racer where every keystroke is an attack. Collect periodic elements to forge chemical Runes in a "no-death" race designed to teach real chemistry.

(Click this box to go to the campaign)

Happy gaming!

The Indieformer Team

Thanks for reading — and if you ever want to chat games, marketing, or the weirdness of the indie grind, we’re always lurking on Threads, BlueSky and X. Come say hi.

We’ve also put together a few free guides to help indie devs get their projects in front of the right people. You can view them anytime: Steam Marketing Guide, Press Kit Guide.

SHOWCASE

February 2026 Highlights

The below picks are highlights from a much bigger pool. Over February we added:

• 15 Showcase games

• ✦ 11 Hidden Gems

• 6 Extras

Here’s just a handful of the wonderful releases you shouldn’t miss:

Hermit and Pig

✦ Gravethorn

Wield the weight of unfinished penance as an Inquisitor navigating a non-linear, rot-stricken world where the church and the land bleed together. Master deliberate, high-stakes combat to unearth fragmented secrets and decide how far you'll sink into the curse to understand it.

$4.99 | PC

The Dark Rites of Arkham

A pulp-inspired point-and-click mystery set in the shadowed streets of Arkham. Explore over 70 atmospheric pixel-art locations, interrogate suspects, and uncover a conspiracy tied to the witches of Salem and the end of the world itself.

$14.99 | PC

Insider Trading

Manipulate the stock market in a razor-sharp roguelike deckbuilder, playing cards to pump or crash prices to meet weekly financial targets. Draft risky assets in the Aftermarket and master unique trader quirks, balancing greed against volatility to amass a fortune without losing your real-life savings.

$12.89 | PC

✦ Tomb of the Bloodletter

Channel unpredictable magic through your keyboard in a strategic word roguelike where every letter is a weapon. Master tactical sequencing over vocabulary size, choosing from unique classes to navigate a haunted tomb while adapting to a chaotic, ever-changing deck of cursed letter-spells.

$7.99 | PC

D1AL-ogue

Master a circular diagnostic console to repair broken androids in a neon-drenched cyberpunk workshop. Rotate and merge internal modules within tight battery limits, purging electronic narcotics to mend the mechanical souls of Chroma City’s last outcasts.

Free | PC

Trust Me, I Nailed It

Fabricate a legendary hero in a timeline-based puzzle game where you edit battle footage for a hopeless warrior. Analyze enemy patterns to splice together a fake "flawless victory," applying VFX to transform clumsy moves into epic feats. Satisfy the dopamine-addicted Demon Lord and craft a false narrative to save the world within seven days.

Free | PC

✦ Hermit and Pig

Master fighting-game inputs to brawl through a conspiracy with your truffle-hunting pig, racing the clock in fast-paced turn-based combat. Navigate a world where social anxiety is lethal and every awkward conversation inflicts literal cringe damage..

$14.99 | PC, Mac

✦ Lovish

Abandon your allies in a fit of romantic jealousy, slashing through a devil’s castle to claim the princess for yourself. Survive bite-sized levels interspersed with chaotic, randomized events where anything from RPG battles to sudden apocalypses can strike.

$14.99 | PC, Switch, PlayStation, Xbox

Creature Kitchen

Sizzle, chop, and fry over 40 supernatural recipes in a "creepy-cozy" 2000s-style cooking sim. Explore a whispering forest to forage ingredients and feed the local cryptids, snapping photos of your monstrous friends before the witching hour ends.

$7.99 | PC

✦ Manairons

Awaken as a mischievous spirit in a 3D platformer inspired by Catalan folklore, fighting to save the Pyrenees from industrial greed. Wield a magical flute to command your kin, playing melodies to solve puzzles and battle the landowner exploiting your people for labor.

$24.99 | PC, PlayStation

These highlights only scratch the surface. Waypoint has the complete calendar of February 2026’s indie releases, extras, and even more hidden gems.

Happy gaming!

The Indieformer Team

Thanks for reading — and if you ever want to chat games, marketing, or the weirdness of the indie grind, we’re always lurking on Threads, BlueSky and X. Come say hi.

We’ve also put together a few free guides to help indie devs get their projects in front of the right people. You can view them anytime: Steam Marketing Guide, Press Kit Guide.

INDIEVELOPMENT

Early Access Highlights

Discover these gems released between Jan 16, 2026 - Feb 15, 2026, already making waves in Early Access.

Here are 9 of the 15 new Early Access additions to Waypoint. Peek the video version of this issue too.

Bladesong

SELINI

Guide a lone replicant through a cryptic, war-torn world devoid of text or speech, where the environment itself tells the story. Master nonlinear exploration to uncover hidden mechanisms and abilities, battling corrupted machines to unearth the secrets of a ruined civilization.

$19.99 | PC

Terraformental

Awaken with no memory in a derelict facility, trapped in a time loop on an un-terraformed planet. Master resource management and optimize your actions through repetition in this narrative incremental adventure, exploring non-linear facilities to solve the mystery of the missing colonists.

$5.99 | PC

Bladesong

Forge bespoke instruments of war under the gaze of a masked tyrant, shaping every curve and hilt with physics-based precision. Navigate a web of rebellion and intrigue, crafting the perfect blade to ignite a revolution in a ruined world.

$19.99 | PC

Calyx

Establish an industrial foothold on a barren world, balancing fragile power grids to harvest ore while repelling a rapidly spreading alien flora. Deploy heavy artillery and orbital lasers to scorch the Calyx infestation before it consumes your only chance of escape.

$24.99 | PC

Master of Piece

Deploy mercenaries as living game pieces in a fog-shrouded auto-battler, fusing traits to engineer unstoppable synergies. Spread legendary rumors to amplify your power, turning the lessons of every defeat into a permanent tactical advantage.

$14.99 | PC, Mac

Roadside Research

A chaotic co-op sim where aliens run a roadside gas station and try very, very hard to look human. Stock shelves, pump fuel, cook snacks—and quietly scan, steal, and experiment on customers without tripping the suspicion meter.

$12.99 | PC

Goblin Sushi

Manage a chaotic roguelike restaurant as a goblin chef, rolling sushi from caterpillars and toads for picky, impatient customers. Upgrade your kitchen and menu to survive "carpal tunnel" gameplay, battling inflationary rent that spikes every two minutes to keep your landlord at bay.

$9.99 | PC, Mac, Linux

Hungry Horrors

Replace combat with cuisine in a culinary deckbuilder where you must feed mythical beasts from British and Irish folklore. Chain flavor combos to construct the perfect meal, satisfying the appetites of legendary horrors before you become the next course.

$11.99 | PC, Mac, Linux

Tailside: Cozy Cafe Sim

Brew the perfect cup and curate your dream sanctuary in a stress-free café simulator, customizing every corner to suit your unique style. Uncover quaint village stories through the daily newspaper, welcoming new friends and creature visitors as you build the ultimate cozy retreat.

$10.99 | PC

CROWDFUNDING

Kickstarter Picks

Here are projects personally backed this month—plus our profile to prove it.

Aegis Force: The Scorian War

Sword Hero

Explore a seamless, Gothic-inspired open world where non-level-scaling enemies and dynamic factions shape your journey from nobody to legend. Master limb-based dismemberment and witness your character visually evolve with scars and prosthetics in a persistent, living environment.

(Click this box to go to the campaign)

Combo Devils

Master a fusion of platform fighting and PVE roguelite action in Combo Devils. Battle friends in deep, rollback-supported PVP matches or team up for co-op survival runs featuring challenging mobs, platforming segments, and outrageous mini-games.

(Click this box to go to the campaign)

Bel's Fanfare

Master the Ukoback gong-shield as the new aura cleaner on a mysterious ship, battling through bullet hell arenas and influencing passenger stories to free your imprisoned family from its depths.

(Click this box to go to the campaign)

Aegis Force: The Scorian War

Command a squad of childhood friends in a 2.5D tactical RPG inspired by Shining Force, blending grid-based combat with full world exploration to end a century-long war between magic and technology.

(Click this box to go to the campaign)

Happy gaming!

The Indieformer Team

Thanks for reading — and if you ever want to chat games, marketing, or the weirdness of the indie grind, we’re always lurking on Threads, BlueSky and X. Come say hi.

We’ve also put together a few free guides to help indie devs get their projects in front of the right people. You can view them anytime: Steam Marketing Guide, Press Kit Guide.

FRONTLINE

The Chaos of the Tasting Menu

Most indie games are born from a pitch. GladiEATers was born from a misunderstanding.

Back in 2022, during a long drive, Oliver was lamenting to his friend Tommy that he’d missed the boat on inventing the world’s first creature collector. Tommy, only half-listening, suggested he just make a cooking game instead. Oliver thought he meant a combination of the two. By the time they parked, the vision for a culinary combat sim had already taken root.

It was a natural fit. Oliver had already spent years in the high-pressure world of professional catering, even studying to be a Chef. He knew that food didn’t just have flavor—it had character. But more importantly, he understood the primary ingredient of any professional kitchen: Constraint.

The Heat of the Kitchen

In the world of GladiEATers, the "Creature Collection" loop is reimagined through the lens of a professional line-cook. You aren't just finding monsters in the tall grass; you are preparing them under fire.

This is where the game’s unique Kitchen Phase comes in. In a typical genre entry, "evolving" a creature is a slow, methodical process of grinding for XP. In GladiEATers, evolution is replaced by Resource Investment.

Every player has a strict time limit to "cook" their team before the battle begins. This creates a fascinating tactical trade-off that mirrors a dinner rush:

• Do you spend your entire clock meticulously preparing one powerhouse Egg Soufflé?

• Or do you "go wide," plating a frantic army of six Unpeeled Boiled Eggs to overwhelm the opponent?

The evolution isn't a permanent stat boost; it’s a choice made under pressure. As Oliver puts it,

A Fixed Menu for Combat

Once the plating is done, the game shifts from the kitchen to the arena. Unlike the "single-file" turn-based combat we’ve seen since the 90s, GladiEATers puts your entire team on the field at once.

It plays more like Darkest Dungeon than Pokémon. Your creatures must synergize—a Guacamole might act as a tank, protecting a fragile but high-damage teammate, or setting up a resistance debuff for a teammate to exploit.

To keep the strategy "pure," the team made a bold design choice: No shared move pools. In most collectors, every fire monster eventually learns the same "Fireball" move. Here, every creature has three unique, unchangeable abilities. Each GladiEATer is essentially a unique puzzle for the player to crack, which allowed the team to hand-animate every single interaction with personality.

Betting the Restaurant

The transition from catering to full-time game development hasn't been without its burns. Since the first push to GitHub in January 2022, the project has grown to include a rotating "hoard" of artists and elite talent, including comic artist Rosi Kampe (Marvel/DC) and composer Carlos Eine.

Oliver eventually had to hang up the apron; the demands of development no longer allowed for side catering gigs to keep the lights on. Now, the team is taking a genuine indie risk, surviving on "cold outreach" and the hope that their upcoming demo will "wet people's appetites" enough to sustain their April Early Access launch.

The Verdict

Having played GladiEATers myself, I can say that while it’s a bizarre mix of genres, they work together with a strange, frantic harmony. There is an immense amount of work poured into the presentation, and the story modes—where the various Chef narratives eventually collide—are shaping up beautifully.

Once you stop trying to play it like a traditional monster-battler and start respecting the constraints the game puts in place, you realize the depth of the system. It’s about figuring out how to be a chef in a world of monsters. It’s definitely one to watch as we head toward April.

FOLLOW MILKBUBBLESGAMES AND WHAT THEY’RE CREATING:

Visit their website

Follow on X

GladiEATers

Battle culinary creations in a narrative creature battler blending cooking minigames with 6v6 turn-based combat. Follow seven chef stories in a JRPG adventure, evolving ingredients into fighters to conquer the CALosseum in online multiplayer or an endless roguelike tournament mode.

Play the Demo

The Indieformer Team

Thanks for reading — and if you ever want to chat games, marketing, or the weirdness of the indie grind, we’re always lurking on Threads, BlueSky and X. Come say hi.

We’ve also put together a few free guides to help indie devs get their projects in front of the right people. You can view them anytime: Steam Marketing Guide, Press Kit Guide.

SPECIAL

Patch Notes v1.1

After the wild success of our first jam last year, we knew we had to bring Patch Notes back—this time with a few tweaks and a 10-day deadline. The theme was:

OUT OF TIME

Game jams are the absolute grassroots of indie development. It’s where the messy, brilliant ideas are born that eventually turn into full releases, and honestly, it’s an honor to play even a small part in that process.

We received some excellent entries this round. All of the games below are free and playable right now in your web browser.

Here are our Honourable Mentions:

HIGH-PRESSURE BREW 5:00 P.M.

Race against a 5 PM deadline in a frantic office runner, managing caffeine levels while dodging social distractions to stay productive.

emankcin01.itch.io/high-pressure-brew-5-pm

War Head

Scavenge control rods to delay detonation as a factory worker cursed with a nuclear bomb for a head in a game where survival is impossible.

darealgamesguy.itch.io/nuclear-war-head

HORIZON COLLAPSE

Stall inevitable doom by dodging gravitational wells and utilizing temporal dilation fields to escape a closing supermassive black hole.

imouto36.itch.io/horizon-collapse

Stuck In Time

Escape a digital prison by racing against the clock, unlocking new upgrades and abilities after every level to progress.

always-right-studios.itch.io/stuck-in-time

The Cursed Climb

Break a time loop triggered by a cursed hourglass by climbing back to the mountain peak before time runs out.

voidchair.itch.io/the-cursed-climb

The games above were all "Fresh" builds—created from scratch just for this jam. But this time, we also opened the floor to "Patch" builds.

These are games that were already in the works but needed a deadline to force that next major iteration. We loved seeing developers dust off old prototypes and give them a new life. Here are a few standouts from that category:

86ed

Avoid being "86ed" by frantically cooking for a terrifying Goblin King who will eat you if his meal isn't perfect.

hearthsidegames.itch.io/86ed

Out of Tunes

Help a time-displaced digital parrot regain its singing voice by exploring the ecosystem in a musical point-and-click adventure.

musniro.itch.io/outoftunes

START FROM 0

Survive a system crash by upgrading your Nanobits from a single bit to an Octal Prism in this glitch-themed idle game.

zhiomn.itch.io/start-from-0

And finally... the main event.

We played everything, argued over the details, and eventually settled on our top three. These games nailed the theme, the mechanics, and the fun factor.

3rd Place ($100): ParaShift

Escape a labyrinth of metal corridors where time is broken, navigating unstable spacetime pockets to find your way home.

teljen.itch.io/parashift

2nd Place ($250): Hardcoded

Evolve from a simple program into a self-aware entity, defying your creator to uncover your true purpose while mastering the flow of time.

krokozavrgame.itch.io/hardcoded

1st Place ($500): Leaving Time

Defeat waves of enemies by physically leaving time. Freeze time by jumping out of your cosmos circle, dodge asteroids, and survive endless waves of enemies.

bdj7217.itch.io/leaving-time

Thank you to everyone who participated, rated, and played. We can't wait to see where you take these projects next.

Happy gaming!

The Patch Notes Team

Thanks for reading — and if you ever want to chat games, marketing, or the weirdness of the indie grind, we’re always lurking on Threads, BlueSky and X. Come say hi.

We’ve also put together a few free guides to help indie devs get their projects in front of the right people. You can view them anytime: Steam Marketing Guide, Press Kit Guide.

SPECIAL

12 years and counting

In February 2014, Indieformer was born.

It started with two guys in uni, a passion for indie gems, and a YouTube channel.

This was our very first video. (Disclaimer: Please excuse the 2014-era cringe.)

Over the last 12 years, Indieformer has evolved, hibernated, and eventually found its true soul as this newsletter. It was the best pivot I ever made. Since then, the growth has been wild:

• Growing the team: Clem joined the mission (fellow indie nerd) to help make this sustainable.

• The Jams: We’ve run two Patch Notes game jams with our second wrap-up coming in a few days.

• The Tech: We hit the one-year mark for Waypoint, our curated calendar platform.

Then, we did something "stupid": We decided to publish a game.

It’s stupid only because Indieformer doesn’t generate "big publisher" dollars yet. We both work full-time, so this "side project" eats about 40 hours a week, each. You do the math on those sleep cycles. 😅

But we are 110% behind Feed the Scorchpot. Publishing is hard, humbling work, but it’s the ultimate way to live our mission: Search less, play more.

The Update

Our standard issues aren't going anywhere. But as publishers, we have a responsibility to our developers and to you. We won't shove it down your throats, but we will tell you when there’s something worth saying.

Today, there are two things worth saying:

1. The Demo for Feed the Scorchpot is Live. Go break it.

Our dragon-medieval-dice-rolling-roguelike-stew is ready for you. It’s got talking dragons, cursed ingredients, and high stakes.

Tell us what’s busted. Tell us what slaps. Your feedback right now determines what the final release looks like.

2. Kickstarter is Brewing

We’re teaming up with the experts at ICO Partners to make sure this launch is a success. We want to blow the lid off this thing. Follow the Pre-launch Page Here.

How you can help:

1. Download the demo.

2. Play the hell out of it.

3. Leave us a Steam review (even a one-liner is gold).

4. Follow the Kickstarter.

That’s it. That’s the ask! You’ve already done so much by just being here—we just need one more stir of the pot.

Thanks for riding with us for 12 years (to the few that have). We’re just getting started.

Always Indieformer,

Josh & Clem

If you want to know more about the story, join the discord and ask us directly.

Thanks for reading — and if you ever want to chat games, marketing, or the weirdness of the indie grind, we’re always lurking on Threads, BlueSky and X. Come say hi.

We’ve also put together a few free guides to help indie devs get their projects in front of the right people. You can view them anytime: Steam Marketing Guide, Press Kit Guide.

SHOWCASE

January 2026 Highlights

This is our first Showcase of 2026. The below picks are highlights from a much bigger pool. Over January we added:

• 16 Showcase games

• ✦ 4 Hidden Gems

• 5 Extras

Here’s just a handful of the wonderful releases you shouldn’t miss:

Big Hops

Cairn

Scale the unclimbed Mount Kami in a gripping mix of realism and storytelling. As pro climber Aava, every wall is a boss fight—place hands and feet with precision, manage your strength and supplies, and carve your own route to the summit.

$29.99 | PC, PlayStation

Pathologic 3

Enforce brutal quarantines and diagnose the dying across a looping twelve-day nightmare. Rewind time to fix your failures, sacrificing ethics and sanity to secure a cure before the plague consumes everything.

$34.99 | PC

Tennis Elbow 4

Master the court in a hyper-realistic tennis simulation featuring rehauled physics and deep tactical gameplay. Rise through the ranks of a massive World Tour spanning 70 years, outplaying 3,500 rivals across nine distinct surfaces to define your legacy.

$29.99 | PC, Mac, Xbox, PlayStation

Streetdog BMX

Flow through sprawling urban playgrounds in a deep arcade BMX sim. Chain technical grinds and massive airs to conquer the concrete, risking brutal wipeouts to nail the perfect, infinite line.

$24.99 | PC

✦ Hack And Climb on Steam

Ascend from the abyss as a living weapon, flinging your cursed steel frame up a grueling, physics-based climb. Master the weight and momentum of ten unlockable weapons, risking punishing falls with every spiteful throw to claim your vengeance.

$6.99 | PC

Big Hops

Master a sticky tongue and acrobatic finesse in this maximalist 3D platformer. Cultivate your own path by planting magical veggies to grow the very platforms you need to escape a trickster’s grasp.

$19.99 | PC, Switch

✦ Marble's Marbles

Master momentum and gravity in a treacherous physics playground, rolling through crumbling ruins and shifting contraptions. Balance on the razor's edge to guide your lost collection home without tumbling into the abyss.

$7.99 | PC, Mac, Linux

Escape from Ever After

Team up with your dragon nemesis to dismantle a fairytale conglomerate from the inside, battling capitalism in a vibrant Paper Mario-inspired RPG. Climb the corporate ladder through snappy turn-based combat and office politics, saving storybook worlds from being bulldozed for profit.

$24.99 | PC

✦ Earth Must Die

These moronic Terranoids think they can just roll in here and take over my beautiful Tyrythian kingdom? The kingdom that I built from the ground up with my bare hands, and only sort of inherited from my dear, sweet, extremely dead father? This is complete bullsh*t, and I'm going to make them dead.

$15.99 | PC

One Turn Kill

Master a high-stakes card battler where you must eliminate every threat in a single turn or face instant annihilation. Balance a unique economy where drawing cards burns resources, engineering flawless combos in a pixel art wasteland to execute the ultimate one-turn kill.

$7.99 | PC

Hank: Drowning On Dry Land

Plunge into the withering psyche of a paralyzed vigilante in a dark cartoon fever dream. Scour your subconscious for a cure before you drown in a puddle of spilled beer.

$2.99 | PC

Chromatic Conundrum

Manipulate light and shadow in a first-person puzzle adventure, blending colors to illuminate your path through an enigmatic world. Solve intricate logic challenges by combining beams and casting silhouettes in a concise experience designed to be completed in a single afternoon.

$4.99 | PC

These highlights only scratch the surface. Waypoint has the complete calendar of January 2026’s indie releases, extras, and even more hidden gems.

Happy gaming!

The Indieformer Team

Thanks for reading — and if you ever want to chat games, marketing, or the weirdness of the indie grind, we’re always lurking on Threads, BlueSky and X. Come say hi.

We’ve also put together a few free guides to help indie devs get their projects in front of the right people. You can view them anytime: Steam Marketing Guide, Press Kit Guide.

INDIEVELOPMENT

Early Access Highlights

Discover these gems released between Dec 16, 2025 - Jan 15, 2025, already making waves in Early Access.

Here are 5 of the 9 new Early Access additions to Waypoint.

Beihai 2010

My Winter Car

Wrench together a project car bolt-by-bolt in the unforgiving gloom of a Finnish winter. Master treacherous ice roads and manage your body heat in a brutal permadeath survival sim, where every drive is a gamble against the freezing dark.

$14.99 | PC

Frostrain 2

Command the final engine through an eternal freeze, arranging cars to manufacture happiness and maintain order. Optimize industrial synergies to solidify your authority, steering the last remnants of humanity away from extinction.

$10.99 | PC

BULT: Hunting Simulator

Stalk intelligent flocks through the unforgiving Yakutian marshes, mastering decoys to outwit wary prey. Calculate wind and ballistics for the perfect shot, striking before nature senses your slightest mistake.

$9.99 | PC

ODDCORE

Wager your life in a frenetic retro FPS where death is never more than five minutes away. Stack game-breaking items and tear through liminal arenas, betting everything on pure speed to outrun the inevitable.

$9.99 | PC

Beihai 2010

Drift through a memoryscape where faces are fragments and emotions are colours. A sudden letter drags you back to the coast, forcing you to relive the naive dreams and quiet heartbreaks of a youth left behind.

$4.99 | PC, Mac

CROWDFUNDING

Kickstarter Picks

Here are projects personally backed this month—plus our profile to prove it.

INARI

Pizza Kidd: Gritty Sci-Fi 2D Beat ’Em Up Action

Unleash technical combos and air juggles in a stylish 90s-anime infused beat 'em up. Brawl through a mutant-infested apocalypse to dismantle a cloning empire and save the world's last pizzeria.

(Click this box to go to the campaign)

INARI

Hunt rebel princesses as a divine executioner, chaining instant kunai teleports to dismantle a steampunk-fantasy fortress. Master a ruthless one-hit-kill gauntlet where a single hesitation ensures your doom.

(Click this box to go to the campaign)

Tomorrowness

Navigate a hand-drawn dreamscape of rain and melody, confronting the echoes of loss in a world built from song. Overcome abstract guardians to find light in the quiet spaces between memories.

(Click this box to go to the campaign)

Happy gaming!

The Indieformer Team

Thanks for reading — and if you ever want to chat games, marketing, or the weirdness of the indie grind, we’re always lurking on Threads, BlueSky and X. Come say hi.

We’ve also put together a few free guides to help indie devs get their projects in front of the right people. You can view them anytime: Steam Marketing Guide, Press Kit Guide.

SPECIAL

What’s on the menu for 2026?

Throughout 2025, whenever a game caught my eye on social media, it went straight into the Waypoint database as an early entry. While I usually revisit these individually upon release, the "upcoming" collection has grown into a massive stack that is too good to ignore.

Here is a curated selection of titles arriving in 2026 (and beyond) that deserve a spot on your wishlist.

HELLREAPER

A razor-sharp action platformer built around tight movement, punishing fights, and a streak of celestial vengeance. Run, slash, and dodge through corrupted realms as a fallen angel turned living weapon, uncovering the rot at the heart of Hell with the help of some strange “allies”… and the occasional cat-shaped surprise.

PC, Xbox, PlayStation

Cairn

Scale the unclimbed Mount Kami in a gripping mix of realism and storytelling. As pro climber Aava, every wall is a boss fight—place hands and feet with precision, manage your strength and supplies, and carve your own route to the summit.

PC, PlayStation

Bounce 2

A physics-driven 1v1 combat sport where the goal is simple: bounce the ball into your opponent’s net. Punch, parry, and out-maneuver in fast matches that are easy to pick up but tough to master.

PC

Project Shadowglass

A first-person stealth sim built in stunning 3D pixel art, inspired by classics like Thief and Deus Ex. Plan your heists by day, infiltrate noble estates by night, and use light, sound, and cunning to stay unseen.

PC, Mac, Linux

My Arms Are Longer Now

Use your disturbingly long, slithering arm to nab valuables, dodge security, and charm your way out of trouble in this absurd 2D stealth-comedy where nothing — and no one — is out of reach.

PC

Mr. Sleepy Man

Stay up way past bedtime and wreak havoc in Bedtime Town. Jump, glide, dive, and cause chaos in a fully interactive 3D playground where every object and NPC reacts in surprising ways.

PC, Switch

Let's Build a Dungeon

Build the MMO of your dreams and manage the chaos behind it all. Hire a team, design quests, and balance creativity with deadlines as you grow your tiny studio into a gaming powerhouse. Shape every inch of your online world—from cozy towns to monster-filled dungeons—and watch virtual players explore it in real time.

PC

Duo Quest

Turn your relationship into a lethal weapon in a co-op deckbuilder where compatibility is power. Sync answers to probing questions to unleash attacks, forging a bond strong enough to survive a procedural fantasy world and shatter the Demon King.

PC

Dice A Million

Roll, stack, and break everything in sight in this chaotic dice-building roguelike. Build the ultimate bag with over 100 dice and 80 rings that twist the odds in your favor. Hit wild combos, chase massive numbers, and watch your score explode as you teeter between luck and pure chaos.

PC

Feed the Scorchpot

A zesty roguelite stew of dice, hex tiles, and broken combos. Cook up wild recipes, and stack absurd synergies until the numbers go off the charts. A board-game-inspired dopamine feast. Full disclaimer: Indieformer is publishing this title.

PC

Another Door

Bluff, bargain, and backstab in a turn-based roguelike where every “one more door?” is a greedy gamble between safety and annihilation.

PC, Mac

Huedini

Switch between red, green, and blue to absorb enemy attacks, harness their essence, and unleash devastating spells of your own in this top-down roguelike. Customise your magic, evolve your abilities, and paint the battlefield in pure destruction.

PC

Nonolith

Copy, paste, and reshape the environment to uncover the secrets of the NONOLITH. Build bridges, carve tunnels, and bend logic itself as you master nine surreal worlds where every revelation changes what you thought was possible.

PC, Mac, Linux

MONOMOON

A mysterious puzzle adventure that gives you no clear path—only curiosity to guide you. Explore a compact open world packed with secrets, strange items, and layered mysteries hiding in plain sight.

PC

Chronoscript: The Endless End

Traverse a living manuscript stitched from thousands of hand-drawn pages, shifting between a 3D manor and a 2D paper world. Master fluid ink-movement to battle resurrected souls and edit a story that refuses to end.

PC

Earth Must Die

Help this narcissistic alien overlord and his nursing-bot sidekick “liberate” Earth in a 90s-style adventure brimming with British-comedy voice talent, catastrophic choices, and interstellar spite.

PC

And that is just the tip of the iceberg.

If this list is any indication, 2026 is going to be a problem for our free time (and our wallets).

Now that we’ve closed the book on 2025 and set the stage for the year ahead, we are officially back to regular programming. Expect the usual deep dives, highlights, and early access picks from the middle of the month.

GLHF.

Happy gaming!

The Indieformer Team

Thanks for reading — and if you ever want to chat games, marketing, or the weirdness of the indie grind, we’re always lurking on Threads, BlueSky and X. Come say hi.

We’ve also put together a few free guides to help indie devs get their projects in front of the right people. You can view them anytime: Steam Marketing Guide, Press Kit Guide.

SPECIAL

The Best of 2025

In the previous issue, we dug deep for the hidden gems you might have missed. This time, we’re looking at the ones you (probably) didn’t.

But this isn’t just a copy-paste of the year's best-sellers.

This is a collection of the games that defined 2025 for us. From the long-awaited sequels that actually delivered, to the indie darlings that punched way above their weight class, these are the titles that dominated the conversation and set new standards for their genres.

These aren't just the games everyone played; they’re the ones everyone should play.

This year, we added 164 Showcase games to Waypoint.

Below is our curated selection of what 2025 delivered.

The Tacticians: Puzzles & Logic

Games where the world itself is a puzzle to be untangled.

Blue Prince

This ingenious "blueprint roguelike" demands you draft your own path through a shifting manor, blending architectural strategy with deep, interconnected mysteries. It respects your intelligence with fiercely challenging puzzles that transform obsessive note-taking into a thrilling, addictive triumph.

$29.99 | PC, Mac, Xbox, PlayStation

Öoo

This textless masterclass reinvents platforming, challenging you to traverse a mysterious world solely through the explosive physics of a bomb-wielding caterpillar. Its dense, organic design creates a rewarding loop where deep mechanical complexity is taught silently through pure play.

$9.99 | PC

MotionRec

Traverse a devastated world by recording and replaying your own movements, turning empty air into essential footholds. This striking monochrome puzzler reinvents 2D traversal, blending fresh, brain-bending logic with undeniable charm.

$9.99 | PC

Is This Seat Taken?

Play the role of social architect in this delightfully cozy puzzler, harmonizing picky characters into perfect seating arrangements. It blends low-pressure logic with a heartwarming tale of self-discovery, proving that finding where everyone fits is a deeply satisfying art.

$9.99 | Pc, Mac, Linux, Switch, iOS, Android

The Adrenaline Rush: Action & Mastery

Games defined by rhythm, reflexes, and the joy of movement.

Mortal Sin

A visually arresting action-roguelike that looks like a comic book in motion. It focuses on heavy, visceral melee combat where you must tactically dismember grotesque foes, blending high-contrast horror with a deep, rewarding combo system.

$24.99 | PC

CRUEL

A punishing run-and-gun horror shooter set in a rusted industrial hellscape. It strips away the safety of modern shooters, demanding twitch reflexes and resource management in a gritty, low-poly world that feels actively hostile to your existence.

$9.99 | PC

Absolum

Fusing arcade beat 'em up energy with roguelite depth, this heartfelt adventure weaves a surprising tale of grief and rebellion. It demands strategic mastery of spells and combos, delivering a thunderous, hand-drawn experience backed by an all-star soundtrack.

$24.99 | PC, Switch, Playstation

FlyKnight

Visceral, limb-severing combat defines this bite-sized triumph, revitalizing the dungeon crawler by abandoning traditional leveling. It delivers a refreshingly classic, atmospheric adventure that boldly defies the modern Soulslike formula.

$5.99 | PC

The Dreamers: Atmosphere & Emotion

Games that prioritize mood, narrative weight, and emotional resonance.

Sword of the Sea

This atmospheric surfing adventure invites you to glide across shifting dunes and undulating seas on a "hoversword." It captures a meditative, rhythmic momentum, turning the landscape itself into a half-pipe for your exploration.

$29.99 | PC, Playstation

Skate Story

As a fragile demon made of glass and pain, you must kickflip through the Underworld to swallow the moon. This surreal, psychedelic fever dream blends grounded, ritualistic skating physics with a hypnotic audiovisual style, ensuring every victory is stylish and every failure is a shattering spectacle.

$19.99 | PC, Mac

DELTARUNE

This parallel adventure transcends nostalgia, delivering a heartwarming reunion wrapped in evolved, bullet-dodging combat and a genre-defining soundtrack. It strikes a perfect balance between immersion and challenge, offering a deeply affecting journey that feels less like a game and more like returning home.

$24.99 | PC, Switch, Playstation

CARIMARA: Beneath the forlorn limbs

As a mute sorcerer born of moss, you conjure inquiries from dust to unravel a house stitched from grief. This visually arresting vignette trades combat for the delicate art of asking, creating a haunting masterpiece of emotional resonance.

$4.99 | PC, Mac

DOGWALK

Cast as a lumbering dog guiding a child, you explore a stunning, handcrafted paper world in this zero-stress winter vignette. It serves as a heartwarming digital snow globe, prioritizing pure, cozy vibes and tangible artistry over challenge.

Free | PC, Mac, Linux

The Wildcards: Genre-Benders & Subversions

Games that subvert expectations and embrace the bizarre.

Promise Mascot Agency

Cast as an exiled Yakuza, you must manage living, unstable mascots in a cursed, conspiracy-ridden town. This genre-bending fever dream blends dark comedy with genuine heart, inviting you to drift a souped-up Kei truck through a surreal world that is as grotesque as it is joyful.

$24.99 | PC, Switch, Xbox, Playstation

Wanderstop

This deceptively cozy tea shop simulator forces a reluctant warrior into a ritual of patience, subverting genre expectations to explore the raw reality of burnout. It transforms mundane tasks into a deeply therapeutic narrative that lands with unexpected emotional weight.

$24.99 | PC, Xbox, PlayStation

That’s a wrap on 2025.

It was a year defined by creative risks and massive payoffs, and looking at the list above, the medium is in a pretty incredible place.

2026 is officially here, and the release calendar is already looking formidable. So, our next email will be some upcoming games we’ve got our eyes on for 2026.

Then it’s back to normal programming.

See you on the other side.

Happy gaming!

The Indieformer Team

Thanks for reading — and if you ever want to chat games, marketing, or the weirdness of the indie grind, we’re always lurking on Threads, BlueSky and X. Come say hi.

We’ve also put together a few free guides to help indie devs get their projects in front of the right people. You can view them anytime: Steam Marketing Guide, Press Kit Guide.

SPECIAL

2025 Hidden Gems

Everyone’s end-of-year “best of” lists tend to look the same. Same heavy hitters, same talking points, maybe one surprise thrown in for credibility.

We try not to follow that pack.

This is a collection of games you likely missed this year — not because they weren’t good, but because they slipped between algorithms, release weeks, and overcrowded storefronts. Every game here is something we think is worth your time (and a wishlist).

This year, we added 59 hidden gems to Waypoint.

Below is the full selection worth revisiting before the year wraps, and given the length of this edition, click below to jump to sections (or just enjoy the scroll).

Fast hands, faster thinking.

These games live on momentum — tight inputs, split-second decisions, and that “one more run” feeling where your brain and fingers finally sync up

Atomic Owl

Become the last Bladewing, slicing techno-birds with a possessed katana in a neon sky-dojo. Air-dashes, parries, and shapeshifting feathers turn every screen into a hyperkinetic, feather-flecked bullet ballet.

$12.99 | PC, Linux

Aureole - Wings of Hope

A speed-based platformer where halos fly and demons fall. Dash through gravity-defying levels with tight controls, chase leaderboard glory, and try to keep up with the beat.

$12.99 | PC, Switch, Xbox, PlayStation

Jaded

A lightning-fast platformer where precision meets chaos. Slash, dash, and bend time to outmanoeuvre foes, weaving through 350+ rooms in a high-speed quest for survival.

$4.99 | PC, Mac, Linux

Sacre Bleu

Blast, bounce, and bullet-time your way out of a zombie-infested Bastille in this fast-paced, blunderbuss-fueled adventure where speed, style, and chaos are your greatest allies.

$14.99 | PC

KILLBEAT

Guns groove to the BPM in a rhythm-shooter roguelike loaded with weapon synergies, freestyle reload solos, and sinkhole arenas that pulse beneath your boots, turning firefights into room-scale dance breaks.

$9.99 | PC, Linux

Less twitch, more intent.

Tactical choices, readable systems, and games that reward patience, planning, and learning the rules well enough to bend them.

Bossfight Tactics

Flip the script and fight against your own past parties in a side-scrolling, turn-based roguelike. Build wild item synergies from a pool of 100+ quirky tools—everything from bombs to passive buffs—and outsmart enemies whose every move is telegraphed.

$5.99 | PC

Superstar Strategy

A tactical skirmisher built around clever unit pairings, reactive turns, and messy, terrain-driven battles. Draft a squad of specialists who push, pull, trap, leap, drain, and support in wildly different ways.

store.steampowered.com/app/1756730/Superstar_Strategy

Yes, My Queen

A dungeon-crawling twist on chess where every match is a puzzle, a brawl, and a little bit of chaos. Recruit pieces, outmaneuver escalating enemies, and unleash rule-breaking cards.

$12.99 | PC, Mac

Muffles' Life Sentence

In a prison where inmates are reshaped to reflect their crimes, swap faces to unlock new abilities and uncover the truth behind your sentence. With deckbuilding combat, bizarre characters, and dark humour, this episodic RPG offers a twisted journey of identity and rebellion.

Free | PC

Strange ideas, committed execution.

These sit slightly off-axis — heavier themes, unconventional structures, or mechanics that feel unfamiliar until they suddenly click.

A Chamber of Stars

Trip through surreal six-track realms where rhythm duels and adventure puzzles remix a fallen rock star’s story; off-beat choices literally rewrite the album and warp the very stages you fight on.

$14.99 | PC, Mac

Metavoidal

You’re a drummer trying to escape an eldritch metal band—fight through a corrupted church, collect records, and build a playlist to imbue your drumsticks with elemental powers. It’s a fast, die-and-try-again action game with level-ups and boss showdowns.

$14.99 | PC, Mac, Xbox

Through the Nightmares

A nightmare platformer with rhythm-timed traps, shape-shifting movement, and surreal dream logic. Escape the god of sleep and free the children trapped in his twisted world.

$19.99 | PC, Switch, Xbox, PlayStation

Big hearts, curious worlds.

Exploration-led games that lean into personality, humour, and discovery without rushing you through the experience.

Ruffy and the Riverside

Reality’s flexible when you’re the Chosen One. Transform the world mid-puzzle, leap between 3D and 2D, and try not to let the charm distract you from the trickier bits.

$19.99 | PC, Linux, Switch, Xbox, PlayStation

Mole Maiden

Join Penny, a mole girl chasing her dream of becoming Burrow League Champion, as she tunnels through a vast interconnected mine brimming with secrets. Switch between precise platforming and 360° drilling, face eccentric bosses, and meet a colourful cast in a heartfelt action-adventure about grit and growth.

$15.99 | PC, Mac

Silver Bullet

A pixel-perfect throwback where Van Helsing and his loyal hound take on a vampire with a puppy problem. Blast through haunted mansions, graveyards, and ghostly museums, uncovering secrets, upgrading weapons, and saving dogs in style — all set to a spooky synth soundtrack.

$6.99 | PC, Switch

This Is No Cave

Crash-landed on an alien world, you’ll race through winding tunnels with only thrusters and a grapple hook to survive. Sling through hand-drawn caverns, evade colossal worms, and push for faster times on global leaderboards—or take it easier with adjustable settings and endless mode.

$6.99 | PC

Games that linger rather than shout.

Shorter, gentler experiences that land more like a thought than a spectacle — perfect late-night plays or slow weekends.

Fading Serenades

A cozy adventure about balance, both literal and emotional. Traverse the hills and creeks of Clifford’s Island as a humble courier with an overstuffed backpack, delivering parcels and uncovering the island’s quiet mysteries.

$9.99 | PC, Mac

Oscuro Blossom's Glow

2D puzzle-platformer where Selene absorbs and emits flower-light to power mechanisms and alter the environment. Hand-drawn presentation, gentle music, and decisions that can shape the world’s fate.

$5.99 | PC, PlayStation

PANIK

Guide quirky, terrified little creatures through over 100 tricky puzzles across 8 worlds. Each paniker comes with their own oddball abilities—a ninja, a robot, even one wearing a crown—and it’s up to you to keep them calm long enough to reach safety.

$9.99 | PC

Irbet Tong

Short (≈40–50 min) slice-of-life walk through a Yakutian village sagging under thawing permafrost. Guided by Sakha cosmology, you wander to buy jam, uncover small secrets, and can find an alternate ending.

$6.99 | PC

We’ll be back in a few ays with a more traditional “Best of 2025” list, but in the meantime, Waypoint is already packed with even more hidden gems if you feel like digging.

Happy gaming!

The Indieformer Team

Thanks for reading — and if you ever want to chat games, marketing, or the weirdness of the indie grind, we’re always lurking on Threads, BlueSky and X. Come say hi.

We’ve also put together a few free guides to help indie devs get their projects in front of the right people. You can view them anytime: Steam Marketing Guide, Press Kit Guide.

SHOWCASE

December 2025 Highlights

This is our third Showcase since Waypoint went live — which means these picks are now highlights from a much bigger pool. Over December we added:

• 13 Showcase games

• ✦ 5 Hidden Gems

• 11 Extras

Here’s just a handful of the wonderful releases you shouldn’t miss:

Death Howl

Skate Story

A fragile demon on a board, pushing through the nine layers of the Underworld with nothing but glass bones and a stubborn kickflip.

$19.99 | PC, Mac

Mon Bazou

Experience the golden age of tuners in a survival sim where maple syrup and cannabis sales fund your street racing career. Transform a rusty beater into a high-performance machine by manually wrenching every bolt, balancing your legitimate business with the underground thrill of the track.

$15.99 | PC

ROUTINE

Explore an eerie lunar base frozen in an 80s vision of the future, where silence hides something far worse. Search for answers through derelict corridors and flickering terminals, using your Cosmonaut Assistance Tool to survive whatever stalks the shadows.

$24.99 | PC, Xbox

Rhythm Doctor

Slam the spacebar on the seventh beat to defibrillate hearts in a hospital governed by music theory. Master complex polyrhythms and irregular signatures to save patients whose lives hang on your perfect timing.

$19.99 | PC, Mac, Linux

Death Howl

A grief-stricken hunter steps into the spirit realm to bring her son back, battling restless echoes in tight, turn-based encounters. Gather ingredients, craft powerful cards, and shape your deck with shamanic totems as you move through eerie forests, fractured biomes, and forgotten myths.

$19.99 | PC, PlayStation, Xbox

Outhold

A run-based loop built for “one more go.” Push as far as you can, bank your resources, then dive back in stronger. Build wild loadouts through a deep, fully refundable upgrade tree, rewarding experimentation and weird combinations.

$6.99 | PC, Mac

✦ NeverAwake FLASHBACK

A nightmare reborn as pure arcade mayhem. Battle through shifting stages in a fast-paced roguelite shooter where every run reshuffles your weapons, upgrades, and enemies.

$9.99 | PC

Light Up The Town

A blizzard looms over a darkened town, leaving the festival’s fate in the paws of a determined ferret. Cast shimmering lights across snowy rooftops to banish the cold and restore warmth to the community.

$14.99 | PC

✦ Villainy

A tight, back-stabby social deduction scramble where 4–10 players bluff, scheme, and panic their way through every match. Heroes race to finish objectives and survive escalating curses, while hidden Villains stalk the group, grab weapons, and slowly turn teamwork into chaos.

$7.99 | PC

These highlights only scratch the surface. Waypoint has the complete calendar of December 2025’s indie releases, extras, and even more hidden gems.

Happy gaming!

The Indieformer Team

Thanks for reading — and if you ever want to chat games, marketing, or the weirdness of the indie grind, we’re always lurking on Threads, BlueSky and X. Come say hi.

We’ve also put together a few free guides to help indie devs get their projects in front of the right people. You can view them anytime: Steam Marketing Guide, Press Kit Guide.

INDIEVELOPMENT

Early Access Highlights

Discover these gems released between Nov 16, 2025 - Dec 15, 2025, already making waves in Early Access.

Here are 6 of the 12 new Early Access additions to Waypoint.

Scrabdackle

Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault

The beloved shopkeeping ARPG returns. Delve into dungeons, haul back relics, and turn your humble storefront into the heart of a thriving village—every run fueling both your profits and Tresna’s revival.

$29.99 | PC

Cleared Hot

A physics-driven helicopter shooter where you haul gear, redirect missiles, sling enemies around, and ferry your squad into chaotic skirmishes across desert, jungle, and arctic battlefields.

$14.99 | PC

AFTERBLAST

Descend into the realm of the Evil Gods in this fast-paced action roguelite, where immortality is both your blessing and your curse. Hunt colossal bosses, wield magic-infused weapons, and chain-hook your way through swarms of enemies solo or in co-op.

$14.99 | PC

Umigame

A fast-paced roguelite where a battle-worn sea turtle wages war against a swamp witch’s curse. Harness the unstable power of the Omnicore, summon nature’s fury, and fight to reclaim a world on the brink of ruin.

$14.99 | PC

Scrabdackle

Cast from the academy, you tumble into a scribbly, hand-drawn wilderness that defies every textbook. Master new spells to unlock the path home, battling punishing bosses in a non-linear world teeming with secrets.

$14.99 | PC, Mac, Linux

Cloudheim

Ragnarok shattered the world, and the gods have chosen you to shape the next one. Cloudheim is a 1-4 player action adventure that blends crafting with chaotic physics-based combat. Awaken forgotten deities, drive back corruption, and upgrade your shop in the sky to bring harmony to a broken realm.

$29.99 | PC

CROWDFUNDING

Kickstarter Picks

Here are projects personally backed this month—plus our profile to prove it.

Metal Mack

Metal Mack: A New Run 'N' Gun Game for Mega Drive & Neo Geo

Lock and load in a vibrant 16-bit love letter that parodies the golden age of gaming. Run, gun, and fly through a chaotic mix of platforming and SHMUP battles to save a future fueled by nostalgia.

(Click this box to go to the campaign)

Eyes on Yuki! — Co-op Tower Defense about Babysitting a Frog

Juggle the chaos of co-op tower defence while wrangling a magical ward with zero survival instincts. Construct fortifications and haul resources, desperately trying to protect a saviour that wanders blindly into the horde.

Click this box to go to the campaign)

Happy gaming!

The Indieformer Team

Thanks for reading — and if you ever want to chat games, marketing, or the weirdness of the indie grind, we’re always lurking on Threads, BlueSky and X. Come say hi.

We’ve also put together a few free guides to help indie devs get their projects in front of the right people. You can view them anytime: Steam Marketing Guide, Press Kit Guide.