2026 is upon us, bringing with it a flood of fresh indie game releases – and the first edition of this monthly article series to help you navigate what’s new!
Each month I’ll be compiling a little guide to the forthcoming indie releases that have caught my eye — and this is the first instalment. January has a surprising amount of intriguing games on the slate already, from a cyberpunk hack ’n’ slash saga to a Fez-like Game Boy-style adventure to a realistic mountain climbing simulator. If you’d like to see gameplay of the games in question, there’s a video version of this piece too. Feel free to send tips for next month’s article to johnisgaminginthewild(AT)gmail(dot)com.
January 5th: Dunecrawl (PC)
An intriguing isometric action-adventure, Dunecrawl is a top-down open-world game with a bright, fresh art style. One to four players can ride giant crabs around a colourful open world, shooting themselves out of a cannon to get on solid land and do some dungeon crawling. The vibe reminds me of Nobody Saves The World with that silky high-speed arcade feel to the combat, and the local or online multiplayer looks like a blast.
January 9th: Pathologic 3 (PC, PlayStation, Xbox Series)
The first Pathologic game came out way back in 2005. It’s a trilogy of first-person survival-RPG-type games made by Russian studio Ice-Pick Lodge, and while they haven’t been big critical successes—neither Pathologic 1 nor 2 broke a Metacritic 70—they have a strong cult following.
In the third instalment, you play as a troubled doctor with 12 days to stop a plague from sweeping through your town. You diagnose patients, investigate victims, and deploy quarantines and curfews to try and stop the spread of the disease, all while managing your eroding sanity. It’ll be interesting to see if this third instalment can do a bit better with the critics.
January 12th: Big Hops (PC)
Big Hops is a jolly little game that was a big hit at the last Steam Next Fest. It’s an adorable little parkour platformer In which your highly mobile little frog can jump, belly slide, wall-run, climb, and generally scramble over any obstacle that’s put in front of them. There’s a stamina meter to add some jeopardy and an order-of-actions puzzle dimension. You can also use your frog’s long, lashing tongue to swing over gaps, solve puzzles, and collect items and gadgets. The game was successfully Kickstarted last year but didn’t make the console ports tier, so hop onto Steam to try the demo, or pick it up when it releases.
January 13th: Hank: Drowning on Dry Land (PC)
This visually striking title is a time-manipulation stealth/puzzle game. You navigate mazelike areas, trying to not get caught – but if you’re spotted by a guard, you can wind back the hands of time and try again. This does mean some trial and error, but for a certain kind of player, I think it’ll be an addictive challenge. And it clearly has style for miles.
January 14th: Kejora (PC, console ports to follow)
A hand-drawn puzzle platformer made by a small studio in Indonesia, the visuals of Kejora make it stand out from the pack. It has a fresh Studio Ghibli influence, with fresh nature, rolling landscapes, and cute houses, and a fun time loop premise too. If you enjoyed Planet of Lana, and you’re waiting for the sequel, this could be a fun game to tide you over.
January 14th: Cassette Boy (PC, PlayStation, Xbox Series, Switch)
There’s been a trend for Game Boy-style adventures in recent years, but Cassette Boy comes with a Fez-like twist—you can rotate the environment from that Zelda-like perspective to an isometric viewpoint, revealing paths forward, puzzle solutions, and secrets. It’s a pleasure to see developers not just keeping this style of game alive but doing new things with it too.
January 20th: Bladefall (PC)
A cyberpunk hack ‘n’ slash game with juicy, neon-drenched visuals, intense, fast-paced combat, and cinematic cutscenes. The 2.5D art is an interesting stylistic mishmash that seems to belong in several console generations at once, and the game’s text promises a simulation twist, giving it more layers than it initially seems.
January 20th: MIO: Memories in Orbit (PC, Xbox Series)
An ambitious sci-fi Metroidvania, Mio is clearly inspired by the Ori games, switching out the lush fantasy forest setting for an intriguing sci-fi megastructure. You play a tiny robot — the eponymous MIO — who plops down out of a nest-like cocoon of cables with an unclear purpose. You explore a giant world, scuttling through pipes, talking to robotic NPCs, fighting brutally difficult enemies, and starting to piece together what’s gone awry in this interesting game world. The demo was slick and fun, but I’m crossing my fingers for difficulty options.
January 22nd: Hermit and Pig (PC)
This extremely charming top-down pixel art adventure was a big hit at last autumn’s Next Fest. You play as an eccentric hermit prepper who lives with his pig on a mountaintop, drinking rainwater and tripping balls on psychedelic mushrooms. But when something bad happens in the local village, you’re drawn out of seclusion and into some kind of corporate conspiracy. The game has a cool turn-based battle system where you have to refer to the hermit’s notebook to figure out your best attacks, although you can turn off the complex inputs if you wish—shout out to Heavy Lunch Studio for taking a humane approach to accessibility.
January 22nd: Cult of the Lamb: Woolhaven DLC (PC & console)
Cult of the Lamb was a bigger success than anyone imagined, selling over 4.5 million copies since launch—for reference, that’s more than Stellar Blade or Split Fiction. The latest DLC is the biggest yet, offering a whole new area with its own storyline of a fallen lamb civilisation. I played Cult of the Lamb at launch when it was riddled with frustrating, progress-halting, soft-locking, save-destroying bugs — so this is a good opportunity to dust it down and witness the final form.
January 28th: Steel Century Groove (PC)
A rhythm RPG based around mech dance battles, this game exudes peak Tokyo craziness energy, even if the studio—Sloth Gloss Games—is based out in California. It has a rhythm combat system where hitting the beat will unleash dance-battle attacks and a campaign to enjoy with a story about this bizarre game world. You can customise your mech, and it looks like you can even upload MP3s into the game if you get tired of dancing to the pumping, high-energy soundtrack.
January 29th: Most Hype Game Award — CAIRN (PC, Steam)
I love methodical traversal-focussed games like Death Stranding and Jusant. Cairn ups the ante with a more technical version of rock climbing where you control each of your climber’s four limbs individually, groping for handholds and footholds and managing your stamina. You have to plan your route up each section of sheer mountainside, and you absolutely cannot rush, or you’ll soon be tumbling back to ground level. The climbing controls work improbably well, and there’s some depth here too in how you prepare, stock up on resources, and make a plan for each climb with meals, finger tape, and pitons. I can’t wait to finally try to summit this unique, challenging game.
January 29th: The Perfect Pencil (PC)
A dreamy action-platformer with a welcome dose of surrealism in its dreamy visual style and writing. You play as a weird little guy called John who can scan the world around him, revealing hidden information, secrets and lore. It also has platforming, puzzles, and combat and seems to be an interesting take on action-platforming, with some Metroidvania elements thrown in.
