5 Must Play Indie Games for Your "Me Time"
Life is noisy. Sometimes you just need to vanish into a world that’s weird, wonderful, and wholly yours. These five indie gems aren’t just games, they’re escapes. From deciphering ancient tongues to spying on strangers (ethically, promise), here’s your ticket to unforgettable solo adventures.
1. Rusty Lake
Where your brain is in line, but you won’t want to.
Imagine David Lynch directing a point-and-click puzzle game. Rusty Lake serves up surreal, atmospheric mysteries across interconnected titles (Cube Escape, Roots, Hotel). You’ll collect memory cubes, solve eerie riddles, and unravel generational trauma in a black, and, white nightmare that’s oddly cozy.
Fun Fact: The studio’s games are all connected: solve one, and you’ll spot clues linking to others. They even have films for players to solve puzzles in actual real, life.
Download it because: You love piecing together lore like a detective on absinthe. Perfect for late, night play with the lights off.
Platform: iOS, Android, Steam.
Start with: Cube Escape: Paradox (it has a companion short film!) (and it’s free!).
2. The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood
Tarot cards, witches, and intergalactic drama. No broom required.
You’re Fortuna, a witch exiled to an asteroid for 200 years. To escape, you strike a deal with a cosmic horror, then craft your own tarot deck to divine futures and manipulate a coven’s political fate. Gorgeous pixel art, LGBTQ+ rep, and choices that bite back.
Fun Fact: Cards aren’t just pretty, they’re puzzles. Combine symbols (e.g., "regret" + "fire") to create unique readings that alter story paths. You can actually design your own tarot cards!
Download it because: For the vibes. It’s part visual novel, part deck, builder, and 100% a vibe check on your moral compass.
Heads up: Mature themes (self, harm, identity).
Platform: Steam, Nintendo Switch.
3. Oxygen Not Included
The Sims meets Interstellar’s outtakes.
Manage a colony of "Duplicants" trapped inside an alien asteroid. Oxygen, food, and sanity drain fast. You’ll build toilets, tame volcanoes, and recycle colonist farts into fuel (yes, really). It’s ruthlessly complex but addictively rewarding.
Fun Fact: That fart, recycling mechanic? Totally viable. One player ran a base entirely on "natural gas". Sustainability.
Download it because: If you’ve ever yelled at SimCity for being too easy. The physics (heat, gases, fluids) are freakishly realistic.
Platform: Steam.
Pro tip: Grab the Spaced Out! DLC for multi, planet chaos.
4. Chants of Sennaar
Babble your way to godhood.
Inspired by the Tower of Babel myth, you climb a massive ziggurat where each floor’s inhabitants speak a unique, unsubtitled language. Decode symbols through context (e.g., observing rituals or murals) to reunite warring cultures.
Fun Fact: Developed by just two people! It won 2024’s Best Indie Game at the NY Game Awards and scored a Hugo nomination.
Download it because: That "aha!" moment when glyphs click is pure dopamine. Like Heaven’s Vault, but with more stealth and less spaceships.
Platform: Steam, Switch, PS4.
5. Do Not Feed the Monkeys
Big Brother is you.
A "digital voyeur simulator" where you watch strangers via hacked cams while juggling rent, hunger, and a shady online forum. The catch? Intervene ("feed the monkeys"), and chaos erupts. Ignore a kidnapping? Congrats, you’re a monster.
Fun Fact: The title is literal: one subject is a caged primate. Feed it, and... well, don’t.
Download it because: For the moral vertigo. It’s Papers, Please meets reality TV guilt, and darkly hilarious.
And, judging fictional people > judging yourself.
Platform: Steam, iOS, Android.
Why These Games?
They’re weird, thoughtful, and unapologetically niche. No billion, dollar budgets, just studios pouring soul into pixels. Whether you’ve got 20 minutes or 5 hours, each game gifts you a world to get deliciously lost in.
"Me time" isn’t just scrolling. It’s stealing memories in Rusty Lake, reading fates in deep space, or recycling farts on an asteroid. Go on, press download.
P.S. Sales alert! Oxygen Not Included and Chants of Sennaar often hit 40, 70% off on Steam. Wishlist ’em and wait for the ping.