9 best indie games released in October – smaller-scale gems worth jumping into and playing
If you're looking for a selection of smaller indie releases to play in between tentpole AAA launches, the month of October had plenty to offer.
Here's our pick of the best smaller titles to check out from the year’s spookiest month.
While it’s had to believe we stand on the cusp of Christmas almost arriving, helping to offset this sense of impending doom were a whole suite of interesting indie titles worth playing between AAA launches like Pokemon Legends: Z-A and The Outer Worlds 2. There were plenty of scary treats to check out, of course, but also a selection of intriguing wholesome and moreish smaller delights too.
From interactive superhero stories that go against the grain to roguelike remixes of classic genres that will have you repeatedly playing for hours, here’s our selection of the 9 best indie games released in October. Let’s dive in…
Absolum
An incredibly moreish roguelike gameplay loop meets the tight combat of a 2D beat-em-up in Dotemu’s utterly brilliant Absolum. Set in an entirely original fantasy world, you take on the role of four characters – each with different skills – who must fight ferociously through several hubs and biomes in the hopes of taking down an evil king.
Unleashing havoc never gets repetitive, though, since different Relics and power-ups are randomised in each run, affecting the abilities of all four heroes in increasingly interesting ways. Beat-em-ups rarely feel as satisfying to play through as this, with Absolum representing the genre’s true Hades moment.
Ball x Pit
Ball x Pit is yet another addictive roguelike from October that is perhaps best described as Breakout for the Vampire Survivors generation. You essentially must fling endless amounts of balls against a never-ending onslaught of approaching enemies, using the walls of the pit and several different upgrades to keep them at bay.
It makes for a genre mashup that’s incredibly hard to put down, particularly as you unlock new characters and different types of elemental balls to fling out after building up your base back at home. Ball x Pit is very much 2025’s biggest, ahem, breakout indie title.
Power Wash Simulator 2
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. This is exactly the approach developer Futurlab clearly took when following up its fan-favourite cleaning sim with a sequel. For the most part, Power Wash Simulator 2 looks and plays exactly as you’d expect, only this time you’ll be cleaning up all kinds of surfaces across a totally new campaign featuring all manner of trickier, dirtier locations.
This time, however, you have your own home base to transform and customise too. That said, for players who simply want to enjoy the oddly relaxing pleasure of blasting away dirt with water-powered tools, Power Wash Simulator 2 is a great way to continue the high-powered cleaning fun.
The Lonesome Guild
Isometric action RPGs rarely come packed with as much cuteness as The Lonesome Guild. Focused on a ragtag band of anthropomorphic misfits, you’ll smash and bash your way through all kinds of cutesy battle scenarios while growing the bond and relationships between the whole group.
Being able to switch between all six on the fly means that boredom will rarely ever set in, with players heavily encouraged to find their perfect combination of heroes to better co-ordinate attacks, solve puzzles, and explore all that the world has to offer. The Lonesome Guild is as sweet and wholesome as action RRPGs get.
Dreamed Away
An action RPG very much styled and designed in the vein of Earthbound, Mother 3, and more modern takes like Undertale, Dreamed Away as a beautifully put together retro adventure. Centred on a boy, Theo, and his journey to step into a nightmare world of dreams in the hopes of rescuing his sister, it exudes on impending sense of melancholy that always leaves you guessing what terror or fright might be around the next corner.
Such themes combine with a simple yet effective art style and combat system to give Dreamed Away a dream-like quality, one where you never know if you’re awake or asleep.
Chicken Run: Eggstraction
If you told me that the canonical sequel to last Netflix’s Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget would rear its head as a kid-friendly stealth game in the style of Metal Gear, I wouldn’t have believed you. And yet, here we are.
It doesn’t quite reach the awe-inspired hearts of Kojima’s classic, of course, but the Claymation-like aesthetic combines with the typical twee style and humour of Aardman’s body of work to create a co-operative family game that does justice by the IP. Whether you’re using cardboard boxes to hide or would rather gun it, Chicken Run: Eggstraction is packed full of charm.
Silly Polly Beast
October wasn’t short on horror themed indie treats, but the one that stuck out to me most is Silly Polly Beast. Part narrative adventure and part third-person shooter, you play as the titular Polly trying to survive through purgatory itself by any means possible after falling from a devastating height.
Silly Polly Beast pulls on familiar survival horror staples, but the inclusion of branching pathways and an undeniably punk-rock aesthetic helps it stand out. It’s easily one of the coolest indie horror games to launch this month, hence why its brand of demon-slaying is worth checking out.
Space Chef
Space Chef is the type of indie game that does exactly what it says on the tin. Casting you as a trainee chef who’s inherited his cosmic kitchen from his grandma, it’s your job to cater to the hungry folks littered across the Horseshoe Nebula galaxy. Doing so means exploring new planets and systems to learn new recipes, whipping them up in your home space, and then delivering to customers and running your own restaurant as necessary.
The art style might be a little crude, but it gives Space Chef plenty of character. It’s definitely a life-sim game worth tucking into for foodie gamers out there.
Dispatch – Episodes 1 to 4
Few games make as great of a first impression as Dispatch, the new episodic adventure series from former Telltale developers about a former Superhero turned deskbound dispatcher. It’s a more mature take on the otherwise tried-and-tested superhero genre, pairing stellar writing with an impeccably gorgeous art style that will have you thinking you’re watching a prestige animated movie or TV show.
I’d honestly expect nothing less from the director of Tales of the Borderlands and the first season of The Wolf Among Us. Episodes 1 to 4 are out now, and I can’t wait to see where the adventures of Mecha Man go next.