Video Exclusive: Our 8 Picks From October Next Fest
Just a video today, so apologies to those of you who prefer things in written form! This one covers our picks from October 2025’s edition of Steam Next Fest.
Review: CloverPit
In what is likely a game’s most self-aware moment of 2025, at one point when answering the phone in CloverPit I was presented with the following question:
Are you even having fun?
And while I have to admit that did initially get a small chuckle from me, it did give me pause for thought… was I?
Review: Heroes of the Seven Islands
I have no idea how small the subset of gamers who’ll know what I’m talking about here is, but a huge number of the PC games I played pre-2005 were sold by publishers Sold Out Sales & Marketing through their £4.99 label Sold Out Software. That company, through a journey that I’m fairly sure is only of interest to me, is now Fireshine Games, but the orange and white boxes those games came in are still ingrained deep within my memory…
Not-a-review: 5 Interesting Indies For the End of September
September 2025 has been an interesting month for indie games. Apparently there was some sort of hotly-anticipated release which dropped with short notice at the start of the month, but here at IndieLoupe we’ve had a keen eye on a few of September’s more modest titles: those which might’ve been somewhat overshadowed. From last week’s release, Henry Halfhead, to my unexpected personal favourite game of the month, Heroes of the Seven Islands (review coming next week!), there’s – as always – been a tonne of games worth looking at.
Review: Henry Halfhead
Full disclosure: with this game’s protagonist being a weird little bald guy with a big nose, I did feel something of a personal affinity with them before I’d even seen a title screen. Henry Halfhead, from Swiss developer Lululu Entertainment and publishers popagenda, began life as a university project where students were tasked with designing a character who had both a significant disadvantage and an exceptional power. The result was Henry Halfhead whose fairly-obvious disadvantage is that they are, as their name would suggest, half a head. Luckily for Henry, they’re not stuck that way forever, as their superpower allows them to transform into any object of their choosing.
Review: The Drifter
Look, I have to be honest, I don’t usually like Point & Click Adventures. I’m in my thirties, but when I was a kid it kinda felt like they were already on their way out; I never really got into the likes of Monkey Island or Grim Fandango… so surely this Australian Pulp Adventure Thriller isn’t going to be for me either?
Review: Occlude
Occlude is a new ‘cosmic-horror card game’ from developer Tributary Games. From initial appearances you could be forgiven for thinking that it’s little more than a slightly spooky Solitaire, but you’ll quickly learn that there’s a lot more going on here than those first impressions might suggest…
Review: Squeakross, Home Squeak Home
I missed Squeakross: Home Squeak Home’s release a couple of weeks ago, mainly because there were a trio of other games that had rather taken over my life in early June. Two of those are the subject of our most recent articles, but the third (and the one I’ve spent the most time playing) was something I didn’t think was going to be particularly relevant to any of our reviews.
Review: Click and Conquer
IndieLoupe’s first ever review was on Digseum, and hey look! It’s another Digseum article!
Wait. This isn’t Disgeum.
What the hell is it?
Video Exclusive: Many Nights A Whisper
A review, of sorts, today for Many Nights a Whisper. Typically our video exclusives aren’t post here in the Reviews feed, but I know not everyone who checks the website sees them otherwise, and this one took a good amount of work!
For those of you who prefer our written reviews, we’ll be getting back to the usual programming next week, so stay tuned. Otherwise, enjoy the video, and see you soon.
Review: Into the Restless Ruins
There’s no escaping from the fact that Into the Restless Ruins from developer Ant Workshop and publisher Wales Interactive is yet another roguelike deckbuilder. While I’m rapidly getting to the point where I’d politely ask developers thinking of approaching the genre to make literally anything else, I will say that it proves that there’s still something new that can be eked out of the it: that there’s still some uncharted territory there. And it might well be one of the best ones I’ve played.
Review: The Horror at Highrook
Full disclosure: I’m not really a fan of the occult. Be it vampires, ghosts, or Lovecraft, it’s a bit of a hard sell for me, as far as themes go. Which is to say that The Horror at Highrook from Nullpointer Games might already be starting at something of a disadvantage with this review.
My immediate instinct was that Highrook would be a more structured Cultist Simulator: instead of a game that’s trying to melt your brain, one that wants to guide you through a story with some neat, if not similar, card-placing mechanics. The aforementioned theme certainly helps with that parallel, I’m sure I’m not the first or last to draw it, but I’m yet to see anyone comparing The Horror at Highrook with Stacklands. Point is, it’s easy to see where the comparison comes from, but it doesn’t really tell the full story.
Review: Skin Deep
The ‘immersive sim’ genre can cast a pretty wide net: for different people it can mean a few different things. The keyword is obviously ‘immersive’ – the idea that the game will anticipate what players will want to do, and has systems in place that acknowledge and allow for that. Too many instances where the player tries to do something and the game doesn’t let them, and their immersion is broken, and with it their enjoyment. That’s not a comment on whether Skin Deep from BLENDO Games succeeds in immersing its players (spoiler: It very much does) but to say that, regardless of your exact definition, making one of these as an indie studio seems bordering on madness – at least from the outside.
Review: Blue Prince
Blue Prince. Here’s the review: look at the rating, buy the game, grab a notebook – hell, buy a nice journal specifically for the game, so that you’ve got something better to remember it by than a few scrappy, crappy notes wedged between shopping lists and fantasy football line-ups – and spend your next month of evenings playing it.
Review: The Darkest Files
The Darkest Files from Paintbucket Games sees players take the role of Esther Katz, a young prosecutor in 1950s Germany looking into historic crimes from the tail end of the Second World War. The game is a spiritual successor to Paintbucket’s earlier title, Through the Darkest of Times: both games are, unsurprisingly, pretty heavy experiences, going along with the studio's mission to develop video games that leave a lasting impact and focus on strong narratives.
Long-time readers won’t be surprised to hear that The Darkest FIles sounds like “my sort of” game: digging through swathes evidence and piecing together a story from various accounts… what’s not to like?
Review: Urban Jungle
Urban Jungle is the debut game from three-person studio Kylyk Games. In it, players take the role of Ayta Borisova during snapshots over almost thirty years of her life, between the years 1996 and 2024. As with many cosy games, it opens with Ayta during a fairly miserable moment in her life, worn down by corporate life and being yet another cog in an unappreciative system.
What she’s really passionate about is her plants, with the core gameplay coming from players placing plants to make each of those snapshots a cosy — and green — environment.
Review: Spilled!
Spilled! is the debut game from Dutch solo-developer Lente, in which players control a small boat cleaning up various environmental hazards. It starts with oil spills, which remain the prevalent issue throughout the game, but expands to patches of plastic bottles, oil barrels at the bottom of the seabed, forest fires, and more.
Review: Knights in Tight Spaces
Knights in Tight Spaces takes the ideas introduced in Fights in Tight Spaces and attempts to build upon them. It comes with some fairly significant mechanical changes – more on that later – and eschews its previous, minimalist art style for a highly-stylised, hand-drawn aesthetic. I think the game looks wonderful: everything has been animated beautifully, and the graphics and UI are clean and easily readable. On appearance alone, I’d happily sink hours into Knights. Unfortunately, we don’t play games for their appearance alone, and when it comes to gameplay, it’s difficult not to feel let down.
Review: Expelled!
In inkle’s Expelled!, you play boarding school student Verity Amersham, the prime suspect of the defenestration of another pupil. It’s impossible – you were fast asleep when it happened – but clearly someone is out to frame you, as all the evidence is pointing your way. Can you find a way to prove your innocence before you suffer the game’s eponymous fate?
Review: Block Shop
In Block Shop, from FoolBox Studios, each puzzle has the player take various machines and conveyor belts to transform the level’s input blocks to those displayed in the output.
It’s a game that provides me plenty of personal “Eureka!” moments, but also impresses with its concept and level design.