Just as you finish building your house and brush back your lovely locks to take it all in, a strong wind blows and carries every last piece of your house away. Kicking you when you're down it also steals all your beautiful hair except for one last strand. Thankfully, you've been gifted teleportation shoes and your quest to take your house back has just begun in this action adventure for Android and iOS!

Available free to play on iOS and Android, or for a flat fee on Steam, this adorable indie casual island sim gives you a place to kick back with as you help the town grow around you. Perform quests. Catch bugs. Build a museum. Plant crops and flowers. All this and more await you in a cheery little Animal Crossing-alike that's fun for all ages.

Flux and her companion JuiceBox are just on their way to deliver some packages when their ship gets destroyed by a giant floating purple space head. Now they're stranded on an alien world, and they'll need to build, bash, and craft their way is they want to get home... as well as deal with the villain himself. A bizarre and fantastically funny indie action adventure with crossplatform play for desktop or Android and iOS that's worth every penny.

Also available for Android, in this creepy underwater indie puzzle platformer, you play a lone diver exploring the crumbling hulk of a sunken ship, but you may not be prepared for what you find inside. Despite some kinks, an excellent short, scary gem with an itty-bitty admission fee that delivers big on atmosphere for a satisfying adventure.

It's time to pay a visit to a very special hotel, where the guests are strange, and the dinner menu changes every night... just make sure you're not on it. Rusty Lake delivers a gorgeously creepy and extremely morbid point-and-click puzzle game for desktop or Android and iOS, where every hotel guest has a different set of needs, and YOU have some very unique recipes.

Simple can be smart, and this indie puzzle game is simply gorgeous to boot. Play as a little monster who just wants to build bunches of snowmen (and snowwomen!) by solving clever, tightly designed levels with rich atmosphere that will suck you in no matter what the weather is like outside. Also for iOS and Android!

Help Lumi find her grandpa in this beautiful puzzle adventure game. During your search you will meet and help the quirky inhabitants of Lumino City. Solve puzzles, and fix machines in the mechanical town, while searching for anyone with information on who might have kidnapped the town handyman.

Dust awakens, completely amnesiac, only to find himself being hailed by a talking sword that claims to have been summoned by him. And the sword's diminutive, sassy guardian who is none too happy about being dragged into Dust's quest for identity. But in Humble Hearts' stunning indie action RPG adventure, Metroidvania gameplay combine with memorable characters and fast-paced combat to deliver a gripping story of love, hate, friendship, and forgiveness.

In this fast-paced arcade indie platformer, also available for iOS and soon for Android, you're falling down a well filled with all manner of strange creatures and treasure. Your only weapon? A pair of gunboots, of course. Downwell marries simple to pick up mechanics with hard to master gameplay for an addictive experience filled with power-ups, upgrades, unlockables, and more. What's at the bottom?

When your sister goes missing, you discover she was leading a dangerous life you never knew about, and now you're part of it. Match gems to defeat monsters and unlock powerful armor and spells in this casual Puzzle-Quest-alike. Despite suffering from clunkiness left over from its initial incarnation as a free-to-play mobile game, it's still goofy good fun.

Elena's father is missing, and after dreams drive her to an old mansion, she discovers her ancestors left her more than she ever imagined. Use the power of her amulet to converse with spirits and solve puzzles, uncovering the history of the manor, in this gorgeous but short indie game, also for consoles and iOS and Android.

Proton Studios serves up a simple but addictive mash-up of shooter and incremental idle game, as you take up your pistol and purchase automated, upgradeable weaponry to shoot your way through stationary red cubes in levels packed with achievements, power-ups and more. Also free for iOS and Android, as well as Steam!

Collect and eat bugs as a spider in this atmospheric exploration game, for your PC or your iOS. Creep into every nook and cranny to find clues to solve the mysteries of the abandoned estate while building webs to snag yourself some dinner. Whether you're in it for the exploration, or are driven to get a high score, you'll be sure to be entertained.

The Grim Reaper is a little lonely, and he's got a plan to literally MAKE friends by flooding the world and ferrying some cuddly animal souls right into his arms. In this ghoulish and clever indie puzzle game, also for iOS, guide sheep, wolves, and other critters onto rafts and out of harm's way... SOMEtimes.

A woman sits in front of a camera in a police station, interviewed seven different times about the disappearance of her husband. In front of you, you have access to the full archive of clips, searchable with keywords, and it's up to you to discover the whole truth in this inventive and engrossing indie interactive mystery narrative, also available on iOS!

The story line to AlPixel's free indie adventure game seems rather simple. You go out for a late night walk to help you sleep only to find yourself being sucked into an alien world. You need to solve puzzles to start the machine that pulled you out of your world. But as long as you're there you might as well explore a new culture, and learn a new language if you're up for the challenge.

Addictive arcade action is back, as you match tiles while running through infinite dungeons and sailing across a bizarre sea! Earn and unlock monsters for your crew to provide bonuses, bring new characters aboard to upgrade your equipment, and much more in this great indie game for your computer, or iOS and Android!

Also available for iOS and Android, this indie strategy game makes roguelikes adorable by sprinkling in some sassy Finnish mythology. Captured by the totally wicked dark lord Sproggi to heal the land and rebuild a village, you'll need to unlock and harness the unique abilities of each character class and memorize the behaviours of monsters as you deal with a cantankerous goat woman, sneaking sentient shrooms, and more.

Serafina's spent her entire life isolated in the jungle with only her father for company, but when he's kidnapped and she sets out to rescue him, she discovers more than she ever thought possible about the world and people outside, and herself, in this pay-what-you-want (including free!) indie otome visual novel, also available for Android.

Wrap your mind around this appealingly sleek and deceptively simple indie game, also with a free demo for iOS and Android, where the whole level wraps around you. Walk into the bottom and pop out on top, and push blocks through force-fields and around obstacles to reach the exit.

Remember the block-shoving Tetrobot from Blocks That Matter? He's back, and this time you're sending Psychobot inside him and plenty of other broken-down Tetrobots in what may be the most enjoyable hardware recovery-based puzzle game ever!

How far down can you make it in this fantasy rogue like dungeon crawler from Slashwear Interactive? Also available as a download and for Android with iOS on the way, pick your familiar and your class and fight your way through different realms to be the true hero.

The kingdom is in peril, and undead armies are rising all across the land! You are Lethal, the king's champion, and you and your band of trusty adventurers must put a stop to the skeleton legions! This browser-based RPG is a miniaturized prelude to the full Lethal RPG: War PC/mobile game, but it's still stuffed to the gills with enemies to fight, pets to collect, bosses to take down, and sidequests to venture on. Venture through the forest, desert, and mountains to take on lizardmen, bandits, evil mushroom-wielding sorcerers, and more!

Now available on PC, Oceanhorn is the story of a young boy who sets out to avenge his father against a legendary monster from the depths of a drowned world. Though it might be a bit TOO casual and Zelda-like for some, this action-adventure is an absolute stunner, and a cheerful, vibrant game for any age and skill level.

Ryan North, Kate Beaton, Anthony Clark and more combine talents to make one behemoth of a Choose Your Own Adventure gamebook with a seriously comedic style for iOS and Android as well as Mac, PC, and Linux. In the iconic tale of Hamlet, do you follow the rules... or do you play as someone else entirely and travel through time, thwart terrorists, advance ghost marine biology, and more?

The town of Pixton needs your help to eradicate evil in this rogue-like RPG! Choose your pixely heroes and embark on a difficult journey filled with hilarious encounters as you help the townfolks and level up. Saving your game before battle is for wimps, so be prepared to fight to victory or death.

Have you ever imagined what it would be like to colonize a distant planet? Jump into the shoes of a space pioneer in this sci-fi interactive fiction. The decisions you make effect not just your relationship with your new husband, but potentially the whole planet. What will you choose?

Harebrained Schemes improves on their hit indie strategy RPG with a return to the magic and cyberpunk world all chummers know and love. You and your friend Monika were supposed to be on a simple job, but suddenly you find yourself with a big target on your back, and tasked with leading a group of veterans who neither know nor trust you... but maybe you can change all that, and save the world, too.

Help Fiddle track down Geoff the Murderer while navigating a charmingly absurd Victorian London. With a cast of quirky characters, and great art and music, this point-and-click adventure will quickly draw you in.

Mere months after the release of the original beloved and terrifying game comes a bigger, meaner sequel, though it mostly feels like a more complete game than the first. With new animatronics, new mechanics, and a whole lot of jump scares and unsettling scenes, can you survive your new night shift?

A James Kolchaka/Pixeljam joint production, Glorkian Warrior: The Trials of Glork gives you just the right mix of retro-shooter action, platform stomping, and Saturday morning cartoon. Its difficulty is definitely old-school, but it's bright, bouncy, mindless, and completely unashamed of it, making for fun sci-fi shenanigans.

Science! Ever wanted to be part of discovering a new subatomic particle? Well, Ian MacLarty and Jon Kerney give you a chance in their new jump and run arcade game, Boson X. Fly through 18 levels, bouncing from platform to platform as one of three scientists as you build up enough energy in the super collider. Fail, and you'll fall into the unseeable abyss and have to start the whole experiment over again. Buck up, young scientist! A Nobel Prize awaits!

It should be the easiest job in the world, watching the security cameras at night at a pizzeria with a group of animatronic critters. But with a limited power supply and a growing sense of unease, surviving til dawn will take nerves of steel and fast reflexes in this jump-scare-filled indie horror game.

While camping, Bik is abducted by an extraterrestrial aircraft and so sets off on a 2D point-and-click adventure in the style of Space Quest and other beloved classic games. Soon he's joining forces with the aliens he befriends aboard a space freighter to battle bad guys and, hopefully, someday find his way back home. You can help and have fun while talking to numerous characters, solving story-based puzzles and completing the adventure from multiple perspectives.

Ramble Planet is one of those quirky under-the-radar games you only get the privilege of stumbling across every couple of years. It plays like a scavenger hunt mixed with some RPG elements, though if you've been kicking around Earth planet for a few decades, you'll remember that most RPGs used to have that scavenger hunt feel to them. Ramble Planet simply takes that feature, intensifies it and peels off all the excess, sprinkling in some beguiling text snippets to spark your imagination.

Kero Blaster has arrived! The sidescrolling platform shooter by Studio Pixel looks simple and sweet on the surface, but the difficulty is cranked up high enough to give your reflexes an honest workout. As janitor for the teleporter manufacturer Cat & Frog, your job is to venture out into the dangerous world to fix the company's broken machines. No sweeping or actual repairing involved, just shooting and trying to stay alive!

Featuring randomly-generated levels and a gorgeous, eerie sound design, this game is not for the faint of heart. Travel through each dark dungeon, collecting notes and artifacts by flickering candlelight, with hordes of undead tormentors ready to leap at you from the darkness.

There are only two words you need to see before downloading this game: Studio Pixel. The creator of Cave Story has been hard at work on the upcoming sidescrolling platformer Kero Blaster, but in the meantime, we get a free game! Pink Hour serves as a small taster for next month's big release, stuffing plenty of shooting, pixel-perfect jumps, and painfully high level of difficulty into its cute little package.

David is a game, an arcade game, and David is a very unusual game. Our little polygon hero finds himself in a world of abstract shapes and giant evil beasts that are out to eviscerate him one angle at a time. His only powers are the ability to run away like a little yellow belly and fire slingshot-like blasts at his foes. Sometimes he feels powerful, sometimes victorious, but there's always nagging feelings of helplessness and hopelessness in this dangerous world that just wants David to go away.

Detective work isn't known for its shallow learning curve. Or for being the kind of thing you can do while standing in line at the post office. With Noir Syndrome, however, solving crimes has become quite a bit more casual. This pick up and play adventure game gives you randomly generated murder mysteries to solve, all you have to do is gather the clues and make the arrest! Oh, and pick a few locks, shoot a few baddies, and have a few snacks. Detectives gotta eat too, you know.

Sail the skies and duke it out for supremacy in this colourful and engaging turn-based strategy RPG. With a fantastic steampunk vibe and easy to pick up combat, it's a fine addition to the genre you can even play on your mobile device.

Max and Anne are two very different young people, but they've both found themselves at the same college in the same student housing. Your choices will determine their lives, grades, and even their love-life in this funny, light-hearted, and addictive visual novel simulation!

Chuck's Challenge 3D is Chip's Challenge for the 21st century. Created by Niffler, a team of indie developers that happens to include the original creator of Chip's Challenge Chuck Sommerville, the multi-platform sokoban-like game takes the tile-based puzzles from the original release and updates it for modern players. You'll still deal with slippery ice floors, falling platforms, enemies marching back and forth, and a large supply of items to collect before you can open the door. But now you'll do it with full camera control and lots of pretty visuals!

You've just moved to a unique town that's got one thing on its mind... card games! In this engaging blend of strategic collectible card battling and quirky adventuring, the great Card King is finally accepting battles, but you'll need to find eight legendary cards to even get a chance at him... and build a deck of 180 different cards in the process!

Shay and Vella are two very different people. Shay lives aboard a ship where the AI loves him a bit too much. Vella is being forced to sacrifice literally everything for her village. Neither knows the other exists, but two extraordinary stories are about to come together in an unexpected way in this stunning point-and-click indie adventure from Double Fine.

A murder has been committed at a tourist attraction deep in a swamp said to be home to a mysterious creature... but as the snarky detective in this gorgeous point-and-click mystery, you'll learn the truth is stranger than fiction!

Welcome to the secret little world of Morphopolis, where tiny forest insects go about their busy lives. In this wonderful and unique hidden-object game, you'll wander into the woods and help maintain a delicate balance by finding items, solving puzzles and thoroughly enjoying the breathtaking, lush environment.

Think you can handle a roguelike easy? You haven't tried this challenging, funny, strategic indie gem. You'll need more than brawn to conquer the quests thrown at you as you struggle to build your kingdom in this turn-based strategy game. Unlock powerful new classes and races, make deals with demons, discover new equipment, and much more with almost endless replayability. Highly recommended.

You'll either love it or hate it, but Ice-Pick Lodge's unique indie horror game is one of the most surreal and striking games the genre has seen in a long time. As a mysterious Lodger who's been having trouble sleeping, dawn seems to be taking forever... and it might never come if you can't figure out the rules to the chilling game of hide and seek you're playing with some uninvited guests, and unravel the mystery of your own past.

A remade version of the classic Sierra adventure game, Leisure Suit Larry: Reloaded has Replay Games teaming up with original creator Al Lowe to bring Larry Laffer swinging into the 21st century. A bit dated (though that's kind of the point), but a hilariously immature experience.

The Inner World is the sort of game you have to tackle with a relaxed disposition. Take your time and soak in the atmosphere. It's worth it. Studio Fizbin has assembled a fantastic adventure game, one worthy of a coveted position as a quick-click icon your computer's desktop. It's the perfect blend of humor and storytelling, puzzle solving and exploration.

Your choices determine the outcome of this choose your own adventure style interactive comic book. Explosions and red clouds are on the horizon. Your cell phone loses reception. Something bad is going on...will you survive? Whether you help others along the way or decide it's every man or woman for themselves, This is Not a Test offers up a great story.

OrangePixel has done it again! The studio known for its nigh-on perfect retro recreations has crafted a top-down arcade RPG similar to the old Gauntlet series. Heroes of Loot puts you in the shoes of an adventurer fighting his way through dungeon floor after dungeon floor, dispatching enemies and grabbing loot left and right. It's just the sort of pick up and play experience that works well on mobile devices, and you'll find yourself quickly hooked by its creative blend of action and RPG elements.

Brash, sassy, and punchy, Ittle Dew and her friend Tippsie want just one thing... adventure, and lots of it! Fortunately the island she's stranded on has that in spades, along with challenging puzzles, humour, and weight-lifting cacti. Ludosity serves up a knee-weakeningly adorable and funny indie action adventure that calls upon classic inspirations like Zelda and The Secret of Mana without ever losing its own style and creativity.

Gorgeous, funny, and packed with wickedly devious levels, this is one iOS/Android game you won't want to put down. Play as an itty-bitty thief and his ferret companion as you point-and-click your way through beautifully designed stages and chapters, each with their own unique story and setup, to rob from the buttheads and give to yourself... or those who need it more.

This barbecue is being crashed by some seriously unruly lizards of the prehistoric sort! Most gophers would turn tail, but you're not giving up your delicious steaks without a fight! Plan strategically and make use of a variety of clever tower types to defend your 'cue against incoming dinos of all sorts, ranging from hordes of sprightly compys to enormous bosses in this indie defense game.

Money, or freedom. Which will you choose? McBank: The Puzzle of Money and Freedom uses stark, humorous imagery wrapped around a series of quick puzzles that play on the theme of the uneven distribution of wealth and power in modern society. Even though most of the world's money is controlled by a relative few people, the masses continue to support them with their purchases and actions. McBank forces you to to choose with each level you complete, and the results aren't always pretty.

Combine squishy blocks according to colour. What could be simpler, you say? Not much, but it's important to remember that simple doesn't always mean easy, and this free stylish little indie puzzler will give you far more than your value with its devilish design and 40 levels.

Fester's brother has gone missing shortly after discovering gold, and Fester is determined to find him in this retro point-and-click adventure game. Your journey takes you through a small town in the wild West filled with quirky characters and humorous descriptions. Enjoy a Western-inspired soundtrack and great old-school graphics as you search for your missing brother.

Slayin isn't a game, it's a time machine rocketing from an 8-bit past. Pixel Licker's deliciously compulsive mashup of old school action RPG and contemporary endless runner-style progression is so infused with retro spirit that you might forget you're playing it on a device that lacks buttons.

It's a monster's life for you in this casual yet engaging indie simulation from Dejobaan Games! Going from a lowly morsel swimming in a vat of goop to (potentially) a respected elder that can influence the course of history, it's a whimsical, weird, and occasionally gross cross between a choose-your-own-adventure story and a visual novel that offers lots of replay value and laughs.

Last Train to Timbuktu is a puzzle game by Green Eyed Games that plays like a sliding block puzzle fused with a Rubik's cube. A grid of tiles sits before you, each decorated with some grass, maybe a bit of water or some bushes, and a section of track. Simply shift the grid around so the track pieces line up, allowing the train to get from Point A to Point B unimpeded!

Run, Commander Video, Run! Runner2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien is the next chapter in the BIT.TRIP series by Gaijin Games. You've got to jump, slide, kick, and glide your way to all of the gold bars while avoiding getting bonked by a ton of enemies. Sporting a wonderfully wacky atmosphere and fantastically catchy soundtrack, Runner2 is definitely a game you'll want to make a dash for.

From Dumb and Fat Games, creator of Phantasmaburbia, Sling It! is a quick-fire arcade game perfectly suited for satisfying your urge to break things while ridding the world of smoke-belching machines. It uses a simple-style difficulty progression that throws enemy after enemy in your face, challenging you to chip their metallic bodies apart and use the debris as a weapon. A bit of poetic justice, maybe?

Broom attack! Also, you might be trapped in a dream. Or some other sort of subconscious realm. It's tough to tell, but judging from the strange sights and the cryptic "as legend has foretold" messages from sages and statues, there's definitely something odd going on here. Anodyne from Sean Hogan and Jonathan Kittaka is an adventure through a melancholy world that plays out like a classic 16-bit RPG. It borrows some of the best micro-concepts from games like The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, Yume Nikki, and even Earthbound, creating a world that's as innocent as it is moving and as dangerous as it is surreal.

Vampires, man. They're jerks! But admittedly if you decide to live right underneath the most notorious one of them all, you probably deserve whatever's coming to you. Still, when a pack of demon's abduct Luke's pregnant wife Grace in the middle of the night, he sets out to bring her home in this somewhat clunky but gloriously cheesy and fun classic point-and-click adventure for download or iOS.

What's inside the Cave, DoubleFine's latest platforming puzzle adventure? For seven very unusual and very different heroes, that answer is quite personal indeed. But no matter which three you set off to solve the mysteries of the depths with, you can be sure you'll encounter hilarity, challenging puzzles, memorable characters, stunning visuals, and more than a few secrets of the bizarre and personal sort.

Riven, the 1997 sequel to Myst, has finally made its way to iPad! Ported to iOS back in 2010, the team at Cyan had some graphics issues to deal with before a large screen release would be possible. After lots of tinkering it finally happened, and the result is the lush and intriguing Age of Riven staring you in the face, complete with a refined interface and full touch screen controls.

Mushrooms. It's all about mushrooms. And keys and crates and stuff, too, but really, mushrooms. In Corrypt, a puzzle game by Zaga-33 creator Michael Brough, your job is to work your way through maze-like screens as you hunt for the items you need to appease unsettled citizens. Using a slightly tweaked sokoban-style setup, be ready to sit and scratch your head as you wonder at the logic of carving a path through groups of wooden crates.

Choose your hero and embark upon a dungeon crawl in Dungelot. In this roguelike you'll face a myriad of monsters as you fight your way deeper into the dungeon. Collect items to increase your stats as you find the key needed to exit each level. How deep can you delve?

Last Day of Work loves virtual sims. I mean seriously loves them, at least according to their lead designer. And, well, their product line, which includes the massively popular Virtual Villagers series. For those of us who love messing with the lives of little virtual people without all that faffing about on an island, Last Day of Work created Virtual Families, a game which featured the animated people without the exploding volcanoes. Now they've come out with the sequel to that fabulous game, Virtual Families 2: Our Dream House, which deepens the gameplay of the original in new and interesting ways, and all for your handy portable iOS device!

Everyone remember Boulder Dash? Back in 1984, a little developer called First Star Software released a puzzle game for Atari 8-bit computers that featured a treasure-hungry character named Rockford who spent his time digging through dirt looking for gems the size of himself. Turns out that activity worked out quite well for him, and it worked out well for us players, too, as the game thrived over the decades with a number of sequels and ports to other systems. Now, almost 30 years later, the hunt goes in in Boulder Dash-XL, a re-imagined and updated version of the classic game that has finally made its way to mobile devices. And you know what? It's still a pretty good time!

Baby it's cold outside, but with your Little Inferno fireplace, you can stay warm and entertained forever... as long as you don't run out of things to burn. The Tomorrow Corporation brings a unique, quirky, and gorgeously addictive indie game that's part physics puzzle, and part adventure, all without leaving your hearth. Who really needs the world outdoors anyway? What could it possibly have to offer... ?

Cook, Serve, Delicious! is a simulation and time management game from Vertigo Games, creator of the similarly spectacular The Oil Blue. If you see a restaurant game and immediately think "casual diversion", let Cook, Serve, Delicious! change your mind. This isn't a light and simple easy to win time management game. It's a full-on simulation that makes you work for your money, pushes you to play faster than you thought possible, and teaches you to strategically plan menus to maximize income without turning the ever-picky customer base away. It's not an easy game to excel at, but it's an easy game to get hooked on, and the challenge of building and running your own restaurant from front to back is going to captivate you for weeks on end.

Created by Colin Northway (Fantastic Contraption) and Sarah Northway (Rebuild) with art by Thomas Shahan, this gorgeous physics game feels like a vertebrate version of World of Goo with the building-centric gameplay of Fantastic Contraption. Using the simple tools of legs and muscles, you must help Quozzle on her quest to find her family as she attempts to traverse terrain as twisted and diverse as you can imagine. How are you going to make it over the next hill? Maybe by attaching two dozen legs to Quozzle's eye and strapping them all together with muscles? Why not, let's give it a shot!

Kairo is a first person puzzle adventure game from Richard Perrin, creator of The White Chamber. Set in a minimalist, somewhat abstract world of temples and stones, floating pathways and mysterious mechanisms, you'll be given no clues as to what you need to do to complete the game. Instead, you'll wander through room after room, using your keen powers of observation to figure out where the puzzles are and how to solve them. It's a game design choice rarely seen since the days of Myst, and it brings with it a satisfying gaming experience that has become increasingly rare in the age of tutorials and online cheat codes.

Super Hexagon, the latest release from VVVVVV creator Terry Cavanagh, is the kind of game that makes you hate games. It will make you feel like an inept player who couldn't play an arcade game even if you were in Russia (where arcade game plays you, we hear). You might even get mad at Terry, who crafted this fast, stylish game seemingly just to show you how often you can fail. But after you lose ten times in as many seconds, you'll suddenly realize that Super Hexagon has you by the collar, has already taken your lunch money, and if you want it back, you're going to have to keep playing. Strangely enough, that's a challenge you'll be thrilled to undertake!

Like the classic adventuring PC games of old, here is the type of game you could easily lose chunks of time on as you switch between two characters, gathering anything not nailed down and working your way through hours of conversational threads, all in pursuit of Edna's freedom and sanity. Using the touch screen commands, your first job is to find you way out of a padded cell. Edna and her talking plush companion, Harvey, will win you over with their irreverent observations on life, sanity and the mundane world around us even as you sympathize with her situation. You, like Edna, might soon find yourself going in circles, vacillating between the joy of discovery and the frustration of confusion.

It all begins with an innocent little robot drifting through a leaky cave. It all ends with... well, a lot more than that. Talawa Games' Unmechanical is a physics-heavy action puzzle game where you control a round 'bot flying through an underground factory, trying to find his way back to the surface. It looks like something unsettling happened here not too long ago, judging from the rockslides and blocked passages and all. But you don't have time to hover and ponder, you just want to get out. And as you soon discover, you're not exactly alone down here...

What springs to mind when someone says the word "maze"? Probably not an image of a butterfly dancing along a series of colored tiles to the sound of piano keys. Sergey Mohov, on the other hand, envisioned exactly that, turning the butterfly and piano vision into a gorgeously styled maze puzzle game by the name of Dedale. With music provided by Fractures, it is up to you to brave 100 levels of tile coloring, butterfly leading, maze escaping fun.

Fhtagn! Cthulhu's powers have been locked away, and he needs to save the world to get them back... so he can destroy the world of course. This turn-based RPG from Zeboyd Games affectionately sends-up both Lovecraftian horror and RPGs themselves, but it's also a game with more than ten hours of solid play for an amazing price.

A cinematic simulation of hacking that owes more to Wargames and Sneakers than Kevin Mitnick and Adrian Lamo, Uplink: Hacker Elitecyberpunk intrigue. Originally released by Introversion Software in 2001, and streamlined into the Hacker Elite version for the US market, the latter is now available for purchase from the lovely indie and retro game outlet GOG, and it's a worthy addition to any gamers library.

Penny Arcade and Zeboyd Games combine to deliver this turn-based RPG with a distinctly retro feel that both fits with and stands apart from the previous two installments. Join Tycho and Gabe of the Startling Developments Detective Agency as they attempt to learn the secrets of the mysterious Necrowombicon... while dodging time-traveling dinosaur spies, murderous caterpillars, ancient cults and more in the process. Exceptionally heavy on combat but more than a little funny, it's a surprisingly engrossing little title with a lot to offer in the way of humour and charm if you don't mind a lot of strategy with your gameplay.

Deep within the spaceship, a lowly garbage worker tosses clumps of trash into the incinerator. Outside, asteroids begin pelting the hull, eventually causing the ship to crash on an uncharted planet filled with strange creatures. And now you, lone survivor, must explore and fight your way through an intricate maze-like world as you gather power-ups, fight bosses, and collect every little green square you see. In Wade McGillis's downloadable and mobile game Astronot, you get a good strong dose of pure retro metroidvania-style platform adventuring, and you'll love every minute of stranded torture it brings you.

In Cipher Prime's new puzzler Splice, you've got to rearrange cells in a strand to match the given pattern. Your moves are limited, so you've got to plan each step carefully to succeed. It's kinda like making a dangling chain of coathangers, except with MORE SCIENCE. (And an awesome soundtrack and sweet graphics.)

The developers at Stolen Couch Games have captured that child-like kindergarten drawing time feeling with the one-button puzzle game Ichi, a mobile port of the downloadable version available for Windows and Mac systems. It is only the team's second commercial creation for the iTunes App Store, but they understand that quality is much better than quantity. If the simple visual style makes you think "oh, this game will be a piece of cake!", well, my friend, you'll think twice when level 'some-odd-number' comes around and you can't master it!

It starts with a letter from an old friend inviting you to dinner. How can something so simple, so innocent, throw you into a dark world of murder, mystery, and the supernatural? Set in London in 1603, this enormous Lovecraftian interactive fiction adventure will challenge and immerse you in a world that feels real and dangerous. Available as a free download or as an enhanced edition for Kindle devices and Nook tablets, this 12 to 15 hour adventure is a challenge, but one well worth undertaking.

One part physics-based slinging game, one part RPG, and one part tactics, SQUIDS from The Game Bakers is a many-layered game that gracefully passes gameplay elements back and forth, creating a dynamic yet cohesive experience. While it starts out with a little Sling-like action, it ends up playing more like Ogre Battle, all without adding too much complexity or foregoing its casual roots. To top it off, SQUIDS looks as good as it plays, featuring top-notch visual design and a storyline and characters that are legitimately fun to engage with!

One part physics-based slinging game, one part RPG, and one part tactics, SQUIDS from The Game Bakers is a many-layered game that gracefully passes gameplay elements back and forth, creating a dynamic yet cohesive experience. While it starts out with a little Sling-like action, it ends up playing more like Ogre Battle, all without adding too much complexity or foregoing its casual roots. To top it off, SQUIDS looks as good as it plays, featuring top-notch visual design and a storyline and characters that are legitimately fun to engage with!

One of the cornerstones of indie game development is, if you'll allow us a moment on our soapbox, freedom. The freedom to make the game you want exactly how you want to make it. While this doesn't always pan out to be as glamorous as it may seem, creating and releasing indie games is an art mixed with a science tempered by the cold hard realities of business. And in a world where distributing your game across multiple platforms is commonplace, there's some very real competition to tangle with out there.

We are not alone. Life has been discovered on Mars, but it's nothing like we ever expected to encounter. In this gorgeous, one-of-a-kind moody action adventure game for iOS, you'll journey deep into the red planet and uncover the secrets buried within its soil. Discover new life forms and challenging puzzles that force you to use the environment to your advantage as you help the planet grow... and ultimately decide its fate.

It was supposed to be a quick and easy heist. Break in to the museum, snag the Lupine Twine Amulet, sneak out. Profit! But then, something unfortunate happened: Lucas MacGuffin put the amulet on. With the amulet permanently attached to him, Lucas now had the unfortunate ability to turn into a werewolf whenever he was exposed to moonlight. On top of that, the entire city went into lockdown as a result of his bungled theft. Making delicious lemonade out of those lemons, though, Lucas turned his misfortune into a boon, using his lupine skills to work his way through town in a sokoban-style adventure. MacGuffin's Curse is one of those light-hearted, funny, challenging and visually gorgeous games you won't be able to put down.

Zaga-33 is a minimalist roguelike created by Michael Brough in one week but later refined into a more polished product for Windows, Mac, and iOS devices. It ditches almost all of the traditional roguelike customs in favor of focusing on just a few gameplay elements for an ultra-refined experience. No stats to track, enemy lists to memorize, or equipment to manage, just pure and simple power-ups and combat!

Bam! Caught ya! Being stealthy is something we all do when creeping around the kitchen at night, going for that last piece of cake before anyone else in the house gets a crack at it. In Stealth Bastard, a stealth platform game from Curve Studios, moving around unseen is what it's all about. Instead of getting busted and forfeiting half a slice of cake, though, you get blasted to pieces by a robot laser the size of your torso. Ouch!

When you hear the phrase "the best things come in small packages", you should mentally amend that to "the best things come in small cube packages". Cubemen is a no-bloat tower defense game that tries to do one thing and do that one thing well: strategy. Forget mini-games, artificially inflated campaigns, and storylines that make about as much sense as a koala flight attendant. Cubemen delivers pure, raw tower defense strategy, and it does it so well, you'll lose yourself each time you play.

The time has come for adventure!... well, a little one, anyway! This simplified roguelike from Ido Yeheili offers three different heroes ready to delve into a dangerous dungeon in search of an evil Minotaur what needs slayin'. While definitely not quite as complex as other titles in the genre, Cardinal Quest offers an ease of use and engaging gameplay that's hard to beat and harder to put down.

You thought you had it bad when you were forced to trick-and-treat with your twin, but things only get worse when he (or she!) is mistaken for an actual piece of candy by the real monsters that are pillaging the town! None of the adults will believe you, but unless you want to be in a lot of trouble when you come home alone, you'll have to embark on a rescue mission in this charming, laugh-out-loud funny adventure RPG from DoubleFine. Create and unlock new costumes and do epic battle as you become the very thing you're dressed up as, and stop a candy conspiracy that could threaten the world!