A cult classic Wolf Editor RPG Horror Game (think of it similar to RPG Maker Horror if you know what that is) which was remastered with new graphics, touches, and content for a commercial release. Mad Father brings together a Gothic Horror Dark Fantasy setting with a 'Science Gone Wrong' sci-fi edge, featuring a variety of scenarios based off of pretty simple mechanics, but gets the pacing down, a likable cast of characters, and fun twists and turns to keep you engaged. It's rather charming all around.The first episode in a horror visual novel with choices that affect things, it's a pretty good showing for a series that hopefully continues. You're a father trying to keep a family falling apart together as you unknowingly descend into a horror scenario.It plays to a lot of typical horror set-ups, but it has excellent execution. Great sound design, some good scares, a good atmosphere, engaging pacing, with some good variety, an interesting setting and story, and it plays well. It's just a really well done version of what I think most people think of when they think, "Indie Horror Game."This is an interestingly strange one. You're on a ship with a few other people on a lifelong space journey for the benefit of mankind, and can form romantic relationships with them. However, as the voyage goes on longer, things about the other people on board and the whole voyage begins to blur in their meaning and the truth behind them. The character interactions and some twists and turns won the shoe here, not really scary but gave me goosebumps a few times from unexpected directions and execution. Short, though.A dark fantasy horror point'n'click about a young girl named Fran Bow who's parents are murdered and she's admitted to a mental asylum. Her pet cat back from home tells her to escape the asylum, but a demon tells her if she ever leaves this place he personally will hunt her down. It's very charming with a likable cast of characters, there are some chapters I personally like more than others but it's become a cult hit for good reason.It's a detailed 2D B-Horror game which is puzzle focused. It has a lot of weirdness to it which does add to the sorta' fun factor of it, it's part horror comedy almost. However it also is very graphic, intense, and surprisingly scary at times. It's a bit supernatural grindhouse, and quite challenging at points. If that makes any sense. If that sounds up your boat, then this may be for you.A girl gets in a tragic accident and awakens in a deranged doll factory. The game actually has a really good story which may not be what you're expecting from the premise, it's pretty challenging though. It's got this morbid dark fairytale feel at times, has some good exploration, and some great still art for scenes.A really, really good gothic horror rogue-like. Simply to pick-up, but with a lot of mechanical and hidden depth. If that doesn't sell you, it's strangely similar to the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games, if you're familiar with them. You go through generated dungeons, 11 different dungeons in all with 10 floors each dungeon,and as you play through a dungeon at some point you'll switch from being a human to a vampire, which has some pros and cons and part of the game is learning how to use your time as a human before turning into a vampire.This is one of those horror games that knows exactly what it is, and does what it aims to very well. In this case, you're in a creepy old house where several toys are alive and hunting you. You collect various items to distract and hamper them from getting you, and each behaves in a different stalking pattern to make things interesting. If you don't like chaser games, this one won't win you over, but is one that's actually nicely designed mechanically, and also pretty fucking scary at points. You can tell the development team spent some time to make memorable stalkers with fluid yet creepy animations and took the time to polish this little hidden gem.Full disclosure on this one before I begin talking about it, this is more an interactive graphic novel than a game. There's very little gameplay to be spoken up, and the whole experience is really on-rails. However, it gets a recommend due to an interesting world, cast of characters, story and writing you get to experience through it which is all rather engaging and interesting.This game is literally about a week away from coming out of Early Access. This game follows a girl and her older sister who get kidnapped and try to make their way back home. It's surprisingly charming in a lot of ways, goes over a variety of emotions through its course, has a lot of interesting twists and turns, and a likable cast of characters.In the 1930s Italy, we join a woman who years later returns to a mental institute she was once admitted to before it shut down, and begins to relive through her memories. This is a walking simulator with some light puzzles, and it won't be to everyone's taste, but it may strike with some who've had to struggle with mental health due to a very respectful but sometimes brutally honest view of the matter. The game does not hold back its punches, the realities some had to and still have to deal with, and the game does not shy away from disturbing procedures that were done in the past in gruesome detail, or the blooming of sexuality within closed in walls, for example. How can you feel like you're worth anything if you're lead to believe that what you are naturally is wrong? What if the only place you can call home is something that's harmful to you, but you lack any power to control your life. These and many other heavy themes are tackled with a level of tact and maturity in this game.A remaster of The Coma: Cutting Class, a sidescrolling Korean horror game set in a school after hours where your teacher has turned into a deranged killer. You must escape the school, talk with fellow kids trapped in the school with you, and reach one of multiple endings. It's White Day: The Labyrinth Named School inspired, but forges its own path in a rather stylized way.This game has gotten some deserved attention. Hey Taiwan horror game set there during 1960s when the country was locked down under martial law. The horror explores local mythology, the horrors of the real world time period, and the psychological aspects of our lead heroine in an atmospheric story that's engaging and at times surprising.It's a cute horror game with J-Horror and Silent Hill influence with a cute coat of paint. It is sometimes a bit frustratingly challenging (all enemies kill you in one hit), but it has a lot of charm, great production values, a very wide array of threats, and a neat story and world to invest you in it.A classic in gaming history which was remastered for its 25th anniversary and includes deleted scenes, a playable prototype game, documentaries, and more. If you want to experience Night Trap, this is the best way to go about it.This is a "small open world" walking sim with a focus on its narrative. A girl who used to be part of a cult returns to the site of where they used to live now that it's abandoned to face her own history and guilt that's been haunting her since she left. It doesn't really feature a surprising story, but a grounded and well-told one that bases what happened in the cult on real world examples and explores them in a more personal way.This game is better than it initially looks. It uses default RPG Maker sprites almost entirely, though does have custom drawn portraits and CG scenes. It's basically a horror puzzle game with some loose Clock Tower inspiration, and has a pretty interesting twist where you kind of need to play the game twice to get the full experience. It starts off pretty standard honestly, but a bit into it the game begins to get a bit more gripping. After your first playthrough, if you start a second playthrough there is some extreme differences in the game and the story in New Game+, which honestly ends up being the better half of the game even though the first playthrough in itself is nice enough. It's among some of the best in default RPG Maker Horror asset games, you can tell the creators had passion and talent for what they were making, though might not be up your alley if you're not big on puzzles as this game is literally full of them.This game started a franchise that went on for four games for a reason. Play as Frank West, a cameraman who's covered wars as he tries to get a scoop on the zombie apocalypse ans ends up trapped in a mall. Now he must survive against the undead, a cult, and various crazed psychopaths for rescue to come in an open world where you grab what you can get and use it to survive. Really fun, multiple endings, time system may not be to everyone's liking, but the game is well designed with it in mind.This is a great example of how to make an amazing game out of a simple concept. The developer self-admit to the initial idea behind this game being "Pacman as a first-person horror game", but that doesn't really do it justice. You're in a beautiful semi-open world trying to collect various objects as these veiled monsters stalk you, there's various gadgets and gizmos around to utilize in the world for and against your benefit. You explore, go to deeper areas, all in a world with strange beauty, deep horrors, and subtle environmental storytelling. It's quite a little experience.An FMV mystery game where you play as a psychiatrist trying to solve a murder. It's hard to talk about this one without spoiling it, but it's got adventure game elements with its FMV qualities, and a really, really good story.VR only. What starts as a simple visit to an abandoned shooting gallery ride soon goes twisted as there's something evil lurking in these mines... I have a strange affinity for this game. It's well reviewed, but if I think about it, it is a bit reliant on some things, but for whatever reason something about the setting, pacing, and actuality of the game makes me like it a lot.Stuck at the bottom of the ocean, you're losing oxygen and your mind and must try to get out to the surface and survive deep sea creatures. One of the best takes on deep sea horror in games in my opinion, playing on real world deep sea horrors, as well as a twisting madness.VR only. You're trapped in a dungeon and must escape only with your wit, a small light, and stealth. Can you survive and make your way out? It's got some clever tricks for VR users up its sleeve.What can I say about this game which hasn't been said before? It's a merciless turn-based Lovecraftian rogue-like where you have to think greedily and coldly to play with characters lives to earn the most out of a dungeon of madness. Have fun!An exploration survival horror game from a top-down perspective, it was in development for years and finally came out this year. With fantastic atmosphere and sound design, a quiet and slow burn psychological horror element, twisted monstrosities, and an intriguing story.A horror whodunit mystery game where you investigate a broad variety of suspects in an apartment complex where murders are happening by a strange masked maniacal laughing killer. There's good atmosphere, exploration, puzzles, investigation scenes and mechanics, voice acting, mythology, surrealism, and some okay chaser sequences. If you want a murder mystery horror game, this is a good one.This is a rather divisive game that's probably not what you expect if you haven't played or dug deeper into it. It's got horror, shooter, and investigation elements, it kinda' reminds me of a non-melee focused Condemned but rougher around the edges. The real meat and potatoes here comes from the story, which I will not spoil here but goes in really unexpected directions, and a number of interesting investigation scenes and scenarios. It has actually amazing voice acting, music, and some rather perplexing questions it asks the audience, if any of that may raise your intrigue. Weakest part is definitely the shootouts, though.Now this sequel has all sorts of interesting opinions since it frankly is very different than the original, and some of the changes are good, while others aren't, and much more of the game comes down to subjective chase. The biggest critiques are that you're constantly chased with no breather room in big open levels where it's not always clear where you need to go making trial-and-error affairs and the story is actually rather strange and a bit hard to follow, with pros being the setting itself, it manages to be scary and tense when it wants to be, and a stronger surreal element, plus if you want some outlandish violence, this game's got that in spades. It's a divisive game and many prefer the original, but I think it's an interesting game, thus my rough recommendation here.A really well done horror mystery game, in a similar vein of something like Danganronpa and 999. The first hour is a bit slow character build-up, but once things get going, they really become gripping. It has a complex story and twists and turns that aren't huge leaps in follow and feel rewarding if you figure them out ahead of time and surprising but sensible if you don't. There's a reason why to date the game has maintained a 100% review average on Steam, it's a hidden gem that might turn some off with its art, but completely worth checking out.This has been a cult classic indie horror that's nearly completed (it's fully playable from start to finish and polished now, outside of the ending which they're holding back for full release) that's releasing early next year. It was updated regularly over the years, and now is a really well done indie horror game set in the forest with a ton of secrets, variety, good pacing, and really just an all around well done game. It fits the image of what many imagine indie horror games to be, but is an exceptional one.A stylized 4-player co-op online zombie campaign game (yes, it's actually structured like a campaign, though with a survival mode you can also play). The trilogy in the title is because this is the third game in a series that spun-off from the Sniper Elite games, and for the third game they decided to update the previous two games with new stuff and then release an all new third chapter. With 15 expansive stages with different themes where you must kill the ever-living shit out of Nazi Zombies... And Nazi Skeletons, Nazi Fire Spewing Demons, Nazi Chainsaw Maniacs, and more. That's a lot of demonic nazi killing. It's pretty fun though, notable the last 5 chapters (aka the 'new' third episode) are of higher quality than the rest, but it's all pretty good, and can be a lot of fun with friends. The gunplay is pretty satisfying, the style is on-point, and there's real fun to be had with trying to snipe zombies from a distance, set-up explosive rounds, get in their face with a shotgun and blast them off, though in my opinion they maybe buff'ed the melee from the original games too much, but it's not too much of a detractor.In many ways a successor to LIMBO by the original developers taking what they learned from that and improving on it to make an absolutely atmospheric, detailed dialogue-less narrative with some puzzle platforming and horror of an odd dystopian society. Scale through dying but organized worlds as a young boy trying to get to the heart of a strange city.The indie version of the cult classic Corpse Party. Follow some characters who get trapped in a school in this horror visual novel with light RPG Maker-esque exploration mechanics.This is a rough recommend from me. It with some caution: this game is a required taste. It's a spiritual successor to the Clock Tower series from the director of the original Clock Tower, but it reminds me much more of Clock Tower (PSX). It's janky, rough, has some bugs, and frankly it super obtuse, cryptic, and hard to swallow at times; missing easily missable things can lead you to having to replay an hour of the game sometimes least you go down a bad ending path. It is unapologetically old-school. However, I actually liked the story told in the game, it has some fantastic over-the-top death scenes, enjoyably hammy voice acting, the B-charm the series had in my opinion since PSX game, and feels like a Clock Tower game.This may be an unpopular opinion, but I think as it's own thing this reimagining of Yume Nikki is a pretty good little surrealistic game. It has stronger horror vibes than the original, is often a 2.5D platformer. Go through the surreal dreams of a young girl, solving some light puzzles but mostly taking in the odd atmosphere and exploring the world.This is a remake of a cult classic, it has some old-school design decisions behind it, but the original was surprisingly ahead of its time being really the first 'hide'n'sneak' horror game as we know it, with some older horror conventions mixed in. There's some areas I feel the remake surpasses the original, and others its a bit behind in, but they have continued to update, fix, and add little goodies post release, so the support behind it is certainly there. Compared to the original it does have some new content, including an unlockable new campaign with a new protagonist. My overall opinion is if you want something a bit old-school in the stylings of Korean horror, and don't mind some challenge (since this game is honestly not too easy, especially on harder difficulties - and certain things like hidden ghosts and costume parts are only available on harder difficulties) then you may very well enjoy this. Has some great atmosphere, and a decent amount of replayability with 10 endings and 3 pathways through the game based on your choices with a few drastic differences between the three of them.This was a Kickstarter success story that released earlier this year and has quickly been gaining a cult audience. Seven people fall prey to a vicious curse, and soon will have to deal both with the supernatural as well as the darkness inside of them. It's a very interesting blend of Western/Eastern Horror, having indie developers from American and Asia collaborate together. Really likable and deep cast of characters, some great animated touches, music, full optional English voice acting (and it's actually pretty good), and an all around fantastic horror visual novel.A rather experimental bigger budget game about weird monsters deep in an underground paradise who seem to evolve their AI, adapt, and learn from your actions to get smarter at hunting you.One of the most popular cult classic horror-themed visual novels of all time. I haven't played it yet personally, but I have a lot of people who have told me I need to play this and a lot of people I respect adore this game. What I know about it is that it takes place inside of a manor that's connected to different time periods, each tell and individual but connected story. If you like visual novels, this is supposed to be one of the best in the horror-themed genre.VR only. It's a very Silent Hill inspired VR game, but a really good one. combining classic survival-horror item management and elements with VR and a strong Silent Hill atmosphere and puzzle solving. Honestly if you have VR and want something Silent Hill-esque, I highly recommend this.By the creators of Higurashi, and done by the same team re-translating and releasing the recent fantastic Steam versions of the Higurashi games too, comes the first arc of Umineko, a cult classic horror visual novel about a family and related peoples coming together on a mansion on an island where murder has occurred. However, that's only the beginning. Things may be much more perplexing than they first seem... Allows for updated and new art, as well as other customizable choices and a complete more accurate re-translation from the original release.Duck Hunt turned into a horror game where you play as a kid playing a Duck Hunt knock-off as it strangely begins to feed into the 'real' world, as there's something wrong with this copy of the game. With multiple endings, a fun premise, and a surprising amount of stuff to discover and do in it.A beautiful looking game with strong religious and psychological horror tones. Quickly has become a cult classic, worth checking out. It's more narrative/world building focused than gameplay, but it's an interesting experience.Really the comments on the first Yomawari could apply to it, it's a bit prettier but it's about just as good as the first game and manages to keep things interesting to not tread the same ground as the first game while retaining the charm and quality, and has a great story and urban legends to uncover.---Hope this list is helpful for people. There's a lot of hidden gems popping up in the indie horror scene, I didn't get to recommend close to all of them I wanted to due to a number of them not being the cheapest they've ever been/not on sale, but I think this has turned into a pretty solid list. Of course, I haven't played every horror game out there nor the people in my circles, so sure there's gems I'm unaware of as well.And I'll close off with a small shameless plug, I make my own little RPG Maker Horror games, if you'd like to check them out you can find my games here:I hope you all find some games that interest you among my list, feel free to recommend things did or did not suggest yourselves, and have a Happy Halloween!