Photography Adventures, Chaotic Sheepherding And Other New Indie Games Worth Checking Out

“After the success of Human Fall Flat, and some early VR experiments along the way, we wanted to set ourselves a new challenge, so we thought we’d try something that made use of all of our favorite features from VR, like tactile physics, two-handed interactivity and the interesting gameplay verbs you get to play around with in the space,” Tomas Sakalauskas, the CEO and cofounder of No Brakes Games, said. “Selfishly, I also wanted to make a game my whole family could enjoy. My kid even designed a few puzzles and recorded some voice lines during prototyping.” I love that Sakalauskas’ child helped make the game. That’s adorable.

Keep Driving

Developer: YCJY Games
Publishers: YCJY Games, Kepler Ghost
Platforms: Xbox Series X/S, PS5, Switch. Already available on Steam
Price: $18

This roadtrip RPG (or should that be caRPG?) met a very positive reception when it debuted on Steam last year, and now it’s available on consoles. Mod support just went live in the Steam version too.

This is a management sim set in the early 2000s in which your character drives across the country to attend a festival. You’ll have to overcome challenges, such as sheep blocking the road, using a spin on turn-based combat. Perhaps you’ll pick up hitchhikers and work odd jobs on your journey. You can customize, repair and upgrade your vehicle too. There are multiple endings, and it’s said to take between one and four hours to see each one.

I haven’t played Keep Driving, but the vibes in the trailer are great. It’s currently 30 percent off on Steam until October 8 as part of that storefront’s big Autumn Sale.

Endless Rails

Developer: Studio Monoblok
Publishers: Studio Monoblok, Maple Whispering Limited
Platform: Steam (Windows; playable on Steam Deck)
Price: Usually $7, with a 30 percent discount until October 13

Endless Rails is a mashup of survivors-style action and a tower defense game. In this roguelite, you’ll take charge of auto-firing drones that are protecting a moving train from enemies. At each station, you can upgrade your drones and train, including by merging cars and their attributes in the latter case. You’ll keep that loop going until the train comes to a sudden, permanent stop. Before you jump into your next run, you can unlock some permanent upgrades.

Studio Monoblok designed Endless Rails with short play sessions in mind. The journeys between stations will only take around 20 to 30 seconds each. It could be a good fit for Steam Deck, so I think I’ll give it a go there.

Dog in the Machine

Developer: Studio Chahut
Publisher: Goblinz Publishing
Platform: Steam (Windows, Mac)
Price: Usually $18, with a 20 percent discount until October 13

Here, we have a turn-based tactical roguelite that looks like Into The Breach, except you control a robot dog. The AutoDog that you take charge of is trying to escape a “dystopian mecha-city” and get back to its humans, who are in exile. The mechanical pup will need to overcome a raft of enemy guardians to make it out.

Each stage is designed to help you set up chain reactions that damage a bunch of baddies in a single turn. Before you commit to a move, you can see a preview of how it’ll play out. You’ll spec out your AutoDog on the fly as you progress through a run, including by combining tricks into killer combo moves. Normally, this wouldn’t be my kind of game (I bounced off of Into The Breach very quickly!), but the robot dog and fun title grabbed my attention.