Top 12 Indie Games Releasing in January 2026

If you enjoy independent indie game coverage, consider supporting Indie-Games.eu on Patreon. It helps keep the site independent.

As 2025 draws to a close, it’s the perfect time to look back and forward. Before diving into our latest list of the most anticipated indie releases for January 2026, be sure to check out our Top 12 Indie Games of 2025. From survival titles and fast-paced ARPGs to city-builders, there is plenty to play, and you can find them all right here.

StarRupture

• Release Date: January 6, 2025
• Publisher: Creepy Jar
• Genre: Survival / Base-building
• Platforms: PC

StarRupture is an upcoming first-person open-world survival base-building game developed and published by Creepy Jar, the studio behind Green Hell. It blends automation/factory-building (reminiscent of Satisfactory), resource management, exploration, advanced combat, and co-op survival on a hostile alien planet called Arcadia-7 in the Ruptura system.

Past Fate

• Release Date: January 7, 2025
• Publisher: Icy North Games
• Genre: MMORPG
• Platforms: PC

Past Fate is an upcoming open-world MMORPG developed and published by studio Icy North Games. Set in the medieval fantasy world of Nendhir, it emphasizes player freedom: explore vast continents/islands, choose your path as a mercenary, engage in skill-based action combat, build/upgrade ships for naval PvP, hire/train soldiers/crews/mercs, craft/gather/fish, tackle dungeons/world bosses, and participate in faction wars amid rising dark threats like the Cult of Voxyx and dragon Yddrad.

Pathologic 3

• Release Date: January 9, 2025
• Publisher: HypeTrain Digital
• Genre: Horror
• Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S

Pathologfic 3 is an upcoming psychological horror adventure game developed by Ice-Pick Lodge (creators of Pathologic 2) and published by HypeTrain Digital. It focuses on narrative-driven survival with RPG elements, strategy, time manipulation, diagnostics, and branching choices in a plague-ravaged remote town on the Russian steppe where every decision matters across realities.

Quarantine Zone: The Last Check

• Release Date: January 12, 2025
• Publisher: Devolver Digital
• Genre: Simulation / Management
• Platforms: PC

Quarantine Zone: The Last Check is an upcoming first-person simulation/management game developed by Brigada Games (debut title) and published by Devolver Digital. Players command a vital checkpoint in a zombie-ravaged collapsing city, screening terrified survivors with high-tech tools, making life-or-death decisions, managing resources, upgrading defenses, and fending off hordes, blending Papers, Please-style inspections with base survival and moral dilemmas.

Craftlings

• Release Date: January 15, 2025
• Publisher: ARIANO Games GmbH
• Genre: Strategy / Management
• Platforms: PC

Craftlings is an upcoming single-player strategy/resource-management game developed by solo developer ARIANO Games GmbH. Inspired by ’90s classics like Lemmings, it features nostalgic pixel art, relaxing OST (20 tracks), and humorous SFX. Guide “hapless” but diligent Craftlings to gather resources, automate production chains, build/upgrade settlements (farms to barracks), assign professions (lumberjack, miner, warrior), and tackle level challenges across biomes.

Philna Fantasy

• Release Date: January 15, 2025
• Publisher: Anotherindie
• Genre: ARPG
• Platforms: PC

Philna Fantasy is an upcoming single-player pixel art Action RPG developed by Sailike Game and published by Anotherindie. Delivering classic retro vibes with modern depth, players choose from four classes (Berserker for melee, Ranger for ranged precision, Chrono Mage for time/battle control, Assassin for stealth strikes) and explore the continent of Votland over 15+ hours of combat, puzzles, loot hunting, crafting, and character building.

Earth of Oryn

• Release Date: January 19, 2025
• Publisher: Stray Fawn Publishing
• Genre: City-builder
• Platforms: PC

Earth of Oryn is an upcoming single-player city-builder and strategy game developed solo by Earth of Oryn and published by Stray Fawn Publishing (of The Wandering Village). Featuring unique low-poly art, it lets players shape medieval kingdoms from nothing: building cities/castles, managing citizens’ needs via kindness or tyranny, enacting laws/religion, handling economy/trade/research, raising armies for real-time battles, and exploring biomes in a living world that grows, falls, and rebuilds.

MIO: Memories in Orbit

• Release Date: January 20, 2025
• Publisher: Focus Entertainment
• Genre: Metroidvania
• Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch 2

MIO: Memories in Orbit is an upcoming single-player 2.5D metroidvania action-adventure game developed by French indie studio Douze Dixièmes and published by Focus Entertainment. Featuring watercolor-inspired art blending comics, paintings, and anime aesthetics with lush, decaying sci-fi environments, players control nimble android MIO in fluid, precision-based platforming, combat, and exploration across a massive, interconnected spaceship labyrinth.

Nova Roma

• Release Date: January 22, 2025
• Publisher: Hooded Horse
• Genre: City-builder
• Platforms: PC

Nova Roma is an upcoming single-player city-builder developed by Lion Shield (creators of Kingdoms & Castles) and published by Hooded Horse. Set during the decline of the Roman Empire, players lead survivors to a new land to construct Nova Roma, a thriving metropolis through resource management, divine appeasement, intricate water systems, and societal growth.

Cairn

• Release Date: January 29, 2025
• Publisher: The Game Bakers
• Genre: Survival / Climbing
• Platforms: PC, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5

Cairn is an upcoming third-person survival-climbing simulation adventure game developed and published by The Game Bakers (creators of Furi and Haven). It delivers realistic rock-climbing mechanics with survival/resource management, tense ascents akin to “boss fights,” and an emotional narrative on an unclimbed peak, consulted with real alpinist Élisabeth Revol for authenticity.

I Hate This Place

• Release Date: January 29, 2025
• Publisher: Feardemic
• Genre: Survival / Horror
• Platforms: PC

I Hate This Place is an upcoming isometric craft-based survival horror game developed by Rock Square Thunder and published by Feardemic (Bloober Team family; co-dev by Broken Mirror Games). Inspired by Kyle Starks and Artyom Topilin’s award-nominated comic, it features bold ’80s comic-book art, dark humor, and reality-warping nightmares in a cursed open world: scavenge, craft, stealthily manipulate sound to trap sound-hunting monsters, and survive dynamic day-night cycles.

Vampires: Bloodlord Rising

• Release Date: January 30, 2025
• Publisher: Toplitz Productions
• Genre: Survival / ARPG

Vampires: Bloodlord Rising is an upcoming isometric open-world survival action RPG developed by Mehuman Games and published by Toplitz Productions (known for Medieval Dynasty, Survive the Fall). A vampire simulator blending base/castle-building, clan management, crafting, exploration, and choice-driven story – think V Rising meets Medieval Dynasty in a gothic Balkan-inspired horror setting.