Ever had a night out with friends in nature, enjoying the sounds of the fire, staring into the night sky and willing to talk about anything since you're so bored and the last bits of good gossip were shared an hour ago? Free indie game Longest Night is exactly that as a group of friends turn towards the constellations to help pass the time with one another. While recounting the history from long ago of the very odd world they live in we may even learn a few things about their own past.
Life is a struggle. Death is a struggle. And the biggest struggle of all happens within the mind of a man caught In Between. An indie physics puzzler by gentlymad and Head Up Games, In Between is a beautiful, contemplative, and quite challenging work that faces a deep topic in and engaging and entertaining way. If you don't mind a little pixel-precision in the gameplay, you'll be in for quite the emotional journey.
In this interactive short by Loved creator Alexander Ocias, wander down a misty shoreline, and get an ending that depends on the things you interact with, and how. Short and simple but beautifully atmospheric and thoughtful, it's a neat little piece of art to play any day.
Watch as destinies intertwine and pasts scream out for future consequences in this free indie interactive tale by Eight Bit Skyline. The story is linear, but the choices you make as you interact with characters and your surroundings pull you into the finely crafted drama, and leave you with chills.
As a curious blind kitten in search of your friend, you must travel across town and use your senses and sound to reveal obstacles and make your way around, in this simple but gorgeous little experimental platformer made in just 72 hours.
Also free in HD download for PC and Mac, Mateusz Skutnik takes us on another lovely rustic stroll in this hidden-object game where ten little gnomes are cunningly hidden throughout the calm black-and white streets, with no timer to get in the way.
A woman sits in front of a camera in a police station, interviewed seven different times about the disappearance of her husband. In front of you, you have access to the full archive of clips, searchable with keywords, and it's up to you to discover the whole truth in this inventive and engrossing indie interactive mystery narrative, also available on iOS!
Your daughter Suzanne is having a house party for her "artsy" friends, and she insists that you, her mother, don't need to help. In this short but very sweet free indie game, you'll wander the house and get to know your daughter and her friends a little better... often just by watching quietly from the sidelines.
Join disaffected twenty-something Kelly as she makes an awkward phone call while driving in the rain, in Three Fourths Home, a piece of indie interactive art by Bracket Games. It is a work that is heavy on text and theme, and light on humor and action. Still, fans of thought-provoking interactive literature should not miss it.
Moondrop's website describes Amphora as "a peculiar puzzle game that mixes story elements and physics", and there can be no more accurate description of this gorgeous looking game. Guide a young girl into womanhood with shadow puppets and magic. Certainly the thick atmosphere can make things a little unintentionally hilarious at times, but overall Amphora is haunting, beautiful work.
In this lovely indie adventure, you find yourself deep in the snowy woods on Longest Night, fulfilling a promise and seeking the forest god. It's gorgeous, funny, and just a little creepy... so it's too bad everyone seems certain you're going to die.
Everyone is always bothered by the unexplained bump in the night. But what if the noise is more simple, like someone rustling in the supposedly empty bunk below you. Each night you are haunted by nightmares, but they are nothing compared to what happens when you are awake.
Thomas has a, uh, complicated relationship with his sister in this atmospheric indie horror game based on real-life struggles with OCD and depression. Though many will find the gameplay simple and repetitive, a striking visual style and masterful use of imagery and atmosphere makes it worth checking out.
Bottle Rockets is a sci-fi platform game by James Earl Cox III set to the song "Alberto Balsam" by Aphex Twin. A short artistic work about mothers, daughters, and space, it integrates a glitchy aesthetic quite well into the plot and gameplay, and will generally succeed in making those who play it feel all the feels.
A fantastic art game with an arresting pixel-based art style, this physics-based platformer follows a rebel searching for their lost love in an alien-infested world. But it's not about the aliens. It's about survival, loneliness, and the sacrifices we make for those we love.
Dan and his family have come to an isolated summer home for a few months to let Dan work on his new book, but each of them has their own wants and problems to deal with, and the choices they make will shape their relationships and their lives in unexpected ways, even if it seems impossible to make everyone happy. Part stealth adventure, part interactive art, this is a unique and compelling indie game best suited to players who favour slow introspection and character drama.
Inspired by cult hit exploratory horror adventure Yume Nikki, this game uses minimal dialogue and no direction to force you to piece together the story and interpret the imagery yourself. Sabitsuki never leaves her room, but through her computer, she can explore her mind... but is she ready for what she finds?
What do you get when you mix Hieronymus Bosch, a minimalistic setting and a curious teenager? Madness, that's what! CAVE! CAVE! DEUS VIDET. is a bizarre trip down the rabbit hole, during which you can expect everything from the seven deadly sins to learning about medieval history to slowly losing your mind. And it's all weirdly awesome.
Ever since the Behavioral Act of 1923, the government's had a little more freedom to enforce... certain things. Have you done well in school? Have you behaved? If so, you've got nothing to worry about. If not, you may end up in a house stuffed to the gills with surveillance equipment, forced to play 3 Blind Mice: A Remediation Game for Improper Children. Made by Seemingly Pointless, it's more an experience than a game... but if you like creepy situations or dystopian settings, it delivers both very well.
In the middle of the US Civil War, a soldier has been captured and is about to be executed by hanging. If only the rope would break, perhaps he could make his way home... An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge, made by Seemingly Pointless, is an artsy adaptation of a story that many of you may already know. Does it hold up? That's for you to decide.
Casper is a boy living in a black and white world with a gambling drunkard for a father. When he finds out his dad has gambled their ranch away, he must find a way to save his home. Cross Stitch Casper is a bleak story of a broken family and an unusual point-and-click experience, made even more poignant by the unique embroidered graphics.
The Yawhg is coming... but nobody knows it yet, and in the six weeks leading up to its arrival to your cheerfully oblivious town, you'll guide up to four people in their daily lives. The choices you make and the skills you have them learn will come into play when the time comes, but more than anything else, this gorgeous and surreal fantasy visual novel/choose-your-own-adventure indie game is a fantastical piece of narrative work with tons of replayability.
Proteus is a exploration-based piece of interactive art by Ed Key and David Kanaga. In it, players take a walk through an abstract procedurally-developed island. While Proteus is probably not going to challenge the conception some have of art games as low-rez inaction-fests, that niche of gamers who'd be interested in a chill 45-minute retro vacation will find it a place worth hearing, and a song worth exploring.
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