> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://arcade.ghostcms.templates.codememory.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Ten indie games you should not miss this autumn - URL: https://arcade.ghostcms.templates.codememory.com/ten-indie-games-you-should-not-miss-this-autumn/ - Published: 2026-08-25T09:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-08-25T09:00:00.000Z - Description: We played 47 small games that come out before the end of the year. These ten are worth your money. - Author: Yuki Tanaka - Tags: News, #Import 2026-09-30 16:46 The big releases of the autumn will get all the posters. These ten games will not, and each one gave us something a blockbuster could not. We played every game on this list for at least five hours. They are in the order in which they come out. ![Small teams, small budgets and the best ideas of the season.](https://arcade.ghostcms.templates.codememory.com/content/images/2026/09/indie-pad-1.jpg) Small teams, small budgets and the best ideas of the season. ## 1\. Lanternfall A climbing game with no enemies. You carry a lantern up a mountain, and the light is your only tool: it shows handholds, wakes sleeping bridges and keeps the cold away. It takes six hours and we did not want it to end. Made by four people in Lisbon. **Out 2 October, PC and console.** ## 2\. The Night Shift Cat You are a cat in an apartment block, and it is 3 a.m. Each flat is a small puzzle about the person who lives there. You do not solve their problems. You knock one thing off one shelf, and their morning changes. It is funny, and then, in the last hour, it is not. ![The Night Shift Cat has 24 flats and 24 small stories.](https://arcade.ghostcms.templates.codememory.com/content/images/2026/09/indie-cat-1.jpg) The Night Shift Cat has 24 flats and 24 small stories. **Out 9 October, PC and handheld.** ## 3\. Greenhouse Protocol A strategy game about growing plants on a space station with a broken computer. The computer gives you wrong numbers, and you learn to read the plants instead. Each run takes 40 minutes. We have done 30\. **Out 16 October, PC.** ## 4\. Slow Train to Vostok A detective story on a train that takes seven days to cross a frozen country. There are 19 passengers, one has done something, and you have no power to arrest anybody. You can only talk, listen and choose where to sit at dinner. The writing is the best on this list. ![](https://arcade.ghostcms.templates.codememory.com/content/images/2026/09/indie-train-1.jpg) ![](https://arcade.ghostcms.templates.codememory.com/content/images/2026/09/indie-garden-1.jpg) Seven days on a train, and a garden in orbit that does not follow the manual. **Out 23 October, PC, console and mobile.** ## 5\. Brickyard Blitz A two-player puzzle game for one sofa. One person builds a wall, the other knocks it down, and every 60 seconds you change roles. A match is five minutes. Our office tournament lasted three weeks and ended one friendship. **Out 30 October, console.** ## 6\. Ember & Ash A small role-playing game about two sisters who repair lighthouses. Fights use cards, and the cards are letters the sisters write to each other. When a card is used three times, the letter is finished and you can read it. There are 60 letters. **Out 6 November, PC and handheld.** ## 7\. Hex Harvest A farming game on a board of 61 tiles. Each season you place seven tiles, and each tile changes its neighbours. It looks calm. It is the most difficult puzzle game we played this year, and the most fair. **Out 13 November, PC and mobile.** > We removed every feature that did not make the player think for ten seconds before placing a tile. That was most of the features. > > **Oskar Lindqvist, designer of Hex Harvest** ## 8\. Static Bloom A horror game with no monsters. You repair radios in a village where everybody left in a hurry. The radios play the last things they received. We played it in one evening, with headphones, and then we turned on all the lights. **Out 20 November, PC.** ## 9\. Kite Season A flying game for small children and tired adults. You fly a kite over a coast town, and the only goal is to find all 40 wind songs. There is no way to fail. It is the game we recommend to people who say they do not play games. **Out 27 November, console and mobile.** ## 10\. Dead Reckoning Club A sailing game with a real map and no markers. You find your position with a compass, a clock and the stars, and the game teaches you how. After eight hours we could find north on a clear night in the real world. That is not a sentence we expected to write. **Out 4 December, PC.** ![Most of these games were made by teams of fewer than ten people.](https://arcade.ghostcms.templates.codememory.com/content/images/2026/09/indie-dev-1.jpg) Most of these games were made by teams of fewer than ten people. ## The list at a glance | Game | Type | Length | Platforms | | -------------------- | -------------- | ----------------- | ------------------- | | Lanternfall | Climbing | 6 hours | PC, console | | The Night Shift Cat | Puzzle | 5 hours | PC, handheld | | Greenhouse Protocol | Strategy | 40 minutes a run | PC | | Slow Train to Vostok | Detective | 9 hours | PC, console, mobile | | Brickyard Blitz | Puzzle for two | 5 minutes a match | Console | | Ember & Ash | Role-playing | 14 hours | PC, handheld | | Hex Harvest | Puzzle | No end | PC, mobile | | Static Bloom | Horror | 3 hours | PC | | Kite Season | Flying | 4 hours | Console, mobile | | Dead Reckoning Club | Sailing | 20 hours | PC | ## How we chose We played 47 small games that come out between October and December. Each of the four writers made a list of ten. A game needed at least two votes to get on this page. Three games got four votes: Lanternfall, Slow Train to Vostok and Hex Harvest. If you buy only three, buy those. 💡 Most of these games have a free demo. Look for the demo button on the store page before you pay. We will review several of these in full when they come out. Members get each review two days early.