Indie Games to Keep Your Eye On: June 2021 Edition

Indie games are one of the few things that give me any hope for the future anymore.

In a popular media landscape littered with live-action remakes (ew), reboots, remasterings, reimaginings, redo’s and unwanted sequels, I observe games as continually offering new and fresh ideas that cover the spectrum of the human experience and tell untold and unique stories.

The last five years have been difficult, arduous, and frightening. America descending into fascism followed by the worst global health crisis in over a century have made people tired, demoralized, and hyper-aware of how fragile the bonds that hold our society together really are.

Indie games, if nothing else, remind me that humans are capable of creativity that is worth preserving. If nothing else, indie games take me to a fantasy world that makes everything in our plane of reality bearable, or at least remind me that they’re temporary.

All emotions, good or bad, tell us something about ourselves. Some of the games on this list are grim or surreal or sad or disturbing, yet in my view, they are all worth checking out just because they offer something so utterly different.

Here are the indie games that caught my attention in June.

Grime

This game is a weird one.

It’s strange. It’s surreal. It’s dark. It’s…dare I say, grimey?

Grime is a game that caught my attention while I was visiting Facebook groups for gamedevs. It really caught my interest because of it’s stark and utterly unique visual style.

It just looks so utterly weird and grim that I can’t look away. The monsters and weapons and worlds don’t look like they’re designed so much as sculpted.

Grime looks like something you’d see in a sculpture garden designed by Rodin or Max Ernst. Protruding teeth and bones. Globules of pulsating flesh. Creatures with no faces and only arms for limbs that walk on all forms. This game is really a trip.

Grime is functionally a Metroidvania but it just looks and feels so utterly different from the flood of pixel art games I’m used to seeing in the genre that it deserves a mention for that alone. It’s like something you would see in a bad dream that made you wake up feeling uneasy and uncomfortable for the whole day.

Grime is slated for release on August 2nd of this year. Support the release by following Grime on Twitter,  wishlisting on Steam, or joining the Grime Discord.

Honey, I Joined a Cult

I intensely dislike all cults and forms of brainwashing, among which I include most forms of organized religion. Yet, there’s something about cults that fascinate me at the same time. I recently emailed the Heaven’s Gate cult to satisfy my morbid curiosity after hearing that they respond to their emails. Turns out they do. It’s pretty interesting to see why people who join groups like this believe in all the whacky bullshit they do.

Honey, I Joined a Cult pokes fun at groups like this by making a management sim about creating a personality cult. You indoctrinate members into your flock. You get the slip-on journalists and FBI agents. You sustain the worship of your followers and make them wear stupid outfits. You keep the cult leader happy.

The art style and sense of humor remind me of something like Oxygen Not Included. I guess Heaven’s Gate was long enough ago that people can make fun of it now.

Honey, I Joined a Cult is expected to release in 2021. Wishlist Honey, I Joined a Cult on Steam, and follow the devs on Twitter. You can also follow the games progress with the hashtag.

Mandragora

Mandragora is a game that sets out to combine the challenging and unforgiving combat of Dark Souls with the narrative and lore of the Witcher series.

The devs are admirers of both games, but each saw something in one that the other was lacking. Mandragora is their effort at combining the two.

While the concept of mashing up defining features of two different games isn’t particularly original, Dark Souls and Witcher III: The Wild Hunt are both games I really enjoy. Plus, the art is quite nice, the animations are quite fluid, and the gameplay footage nails the atmosphere spot-on.

The Twitter is also pretty fun to follow, apart from posting their gorgeous art the devs also poke fun at their own character design. Gamedevs are notorious for having big egos, and it’s nice to see a devteam that doesn’t take itself too seriously.

Support Mandragora by following them on Twitter, and joining the Discord,

Tails of Iron

I never read the Redwall books when I was a kid, but this game makes me want to read them.

Tails of Iron is an action-adventure RPG that tells the story of an epic war between medieval civilizations of rats and frogs. Think of it like Game of Thrones meets The Secret of NIMH. 

Acts of heroism. Desperate holdouts against hordes of war-hungry barbarians. Lineage and destiny. Swords clashing against shields. Heroism against impossible odds.

It’s funny how stories like this seem more real somehow than when they’re portrayed by live-action actors. It’s a bit like Valiant Hearts, a game that depicts the grim reality of your situation in spite of not having a single sentence of spoken dialogue.

This is a game I’ll follow with interest. You can follow the devs OddBug Studio on both Twitter and Instagram. It’s also set to be released in September to be sure to wishlist Tails of Iron on Steam.

No Longer Home

No Longer Home is a game that looks a lot like Donut County, and if it wasn’t inspired by that game I will be shocked.

However, rather than being offbeat and quirky, No Longer Home is a game that’s melancholy and sad. It’s a semi-autobiographical story about a nonbinary queer couple in college who become separated by circumstance. Magic is real in this game, but it exists in the context of an otherwise realistic world with mundane things like cars and universities and coffee shops.

This is a story that I can relate to. I’ve had to start over or dig myself out of a hole on more than one occasion. Having been in two long-distance relationships, I know the pain of being torn apart or separated or just being away from people you love.

You can follow No Longer Home on Twitter and play the demo on Steam.

Wrapping up

In a world that seems to be on the brink of destruction, games like this help me think that maybe, somehow, things will end up being ok after all. They’re not all very happy or uplifting games, but each of these are unique, creative, and inspiring.

If you want to know what new indie games are doing something cool, unique, or different, be sure to subscribe to my newsletter on the sidebar and be the first to know!