Want to get your game published without the hassle of dealing with a big name company?
Want to create something that stands apart from the rest?
Indie games aim to do just that. It used to be more difficult to create something with a little budget, but with the use of crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter and GoFundMe, more Indie developers are using these to support and fund their dreams.
Read on to find out which 11 Indie horror games made the cut and the rating I gave them on the creepy scale!
11. Dead Realm
Dead Realm Gameplay
Ghosts inhabit the abandoned mansion of a deceased electricity tycoon. As you explore the environment it becomes clear that you and your friends are being hunted.
Or maybe… you’re hunting them.
Dead Realm is a multiplayer action game that takes place in a haunted mansion. In it, you assume the role of either a ghost, who gets to hunt the other humans or a human who has to survive.
The game is a silly sort of horror, in which jump scares are more amusing than actually scary. As the ghost, you can play as a baby ghost or as a ghost werewolf, both of which provide their own comic relief. Though the thought of playing a creepy giggling baby to scare your friends is appealing.
This game looks fun in the sense that it’ll keep you laughing and you’ll get few jump scares out of it. I’m rating it 5 out of 10.
The better to eat you with!
10. Viscera Cleanup Detail
Viscera Cleanup Detail Trailer
Have you ever wondered what it must be like to be the person who has to clean up after gory disasters like murders or the aftermath of an alien invasion? I haven’t, but if you have, Viscera Cleanup Detail might just be the game for you.
You play as a janitor on a space station and while that may sound boring, did I mention that you’re not cleaning toilets, but gore instead? After a gruesome and bloody battle between aliens and humans on a space station, you’re left to clean up the mess.
Not as scary as it is gory, the game support multiplayer and local co-op in which you can clean up with your friends as well.
Don’t feel like cleaning? There’s also a mode in which you can make more of a mess. It’s a psycho’s playground out there!
I’ve gotta give this game a 6 out of 10 on the creepy scale based on the fact that it’s cleaning up gore. It looks like a blast to play with friends though!
Cleaning with friends has never been more fun!
9. Five Nights at Freddy’s 4
Five Nights at Freddy’s 4 Trailer
In August 2014, we first got a glimpse into the world of Five Nights at Freddy’s. Now, the fourth and final installment is out and it’s giving us the creeps!
The terror has followed you home in the fourth installment of the games series. You take on a different role this time, as a child who realizes that he is not alone at home. With only a flashlight, you must preserve the battery power and use it to scare off the monsters.
Will you make it until 6 am or will Freddy and his friends get you?
For me, this game is jump scares all day and night. It’s popular on Steam and amongst players, but I want something with a little more story to it. I give it a 6 out of 10 creepy rating.
Little Bunny wants to play.
8. Doorways: Holy Mountains of Flesh
Early Access Teaser
Agent Thomas Foster is a telepath and as such, has the burdening ability to see things that others can’t. This is how he came to unravel the mysteries behind Juan Torres. He must visit crime scenes and use his ability to piece together what happened and solve the mystery.
Played in first person, Doorways: Holy Mountains of Flesh has a complex story and is the 4th installment of an episodic series. The game is only in early access so you can expect to see some updates and changes as the game continues to progress.
Overall I give this game a 7 out of 10 on the creepy scale. I mean, would you just look at the guy below?
Open wide.
7. Boogeyman
Boogeyman Gameplay
Thought the Boogeyman wasn’t real? Think again.
8-year-old Thomas and his family have just moved into a new house with a dark past. In his new room, he finds a tape player with a tape inside, and a flashlight. It isn’t long after nightfall that the tape begins to play on its own and Thomas realizes he’s not alone.
Based on the trailer, the game rings familiar to the Five Nights and Freddy’s series in which you have to keep an eye out on “entrances” where the Boogeyman can enter to get you.
I’ll be the first to admit that I was afraid of the dark. Hell, if I’m home alone at any point in time I have to sleep with the TV on. The story for this game is similar to Five Nights at Freddy’s 4, but to me this game is more terrifying.
So yeah, I give this a 7 out of 10 on the creepy-o-meter.
The boogeyman isn’t under your bed.
6. Reveal the Deep
Reveal the Deep gameplay trailer
Explore the wreck of a 19th century steamship in this short indie game in which you piece together the story of the ship through clues.
In Reveal the Deep you play an unnamed diver who explores the wreckage to discover exactly what happened to the ship. It’s a retro-style puzzler that takes the player to the depths of the deep, dark ocean.
If you like to support indie games, then check out Reveal the Deep for only $.99 on Steam.
Basically any game that deals with deep sea mysteries gives me the heebie jeebies. I give it a 7 out of 10 creepy score.
What will you find deep beneath the ocean?
5. Kholat
Kholat official release trailer
Deep in the Ural Mountains, you must uncover a mystery and survive.
In 1959, nine hikers went missing in the Ural Mountains. Known as the Dyatlov Pass Incident, the story is still a bit of a mystery. This is the basis of the story behind Kholat.
An indie survival horror, you take on the role of an adventurer who has the chance to explore and discover where the events occurred so see if you can make sense of any of it.
This game is unsettling in its own right. The mystery of what happened is still just that: a mystery. Theories from avalanches and hypothermia, all the way down to a yeti attack have been made in an attempt to truly understand what went down. You won’t find the answer, because there isn’t one, but you will experience the fear.
The game is narrated by Sean Bean, which is a treat for anyone who is a fan.
The overall creep factor of this game for me is an 8 out of 10 based on the fact that it’s based on a true story. Also, the thought of being stranded in the woods and hunted by something terrifies me!
Mysterious beings of Ural Mountain.
4. Wick
Wick Trailer
Local legend says that the spirits of missing children can still be seen at night. In order to experience this, you must follow three rules.
1. You must go at midnight.
2. Only bring a candle and matches.
3. Survive the night.
Experience ghost stories come to life in Wick, where you must survive the night in the woods with only your candle. Those who dare to enter realize very quickly that they are not alone. Will you survive the night and live to tell the tale?
Murderous dead ghost children in the forest give this game an 8 out of 10 on the creepy scale.
Oh hello there.
3. Fran Bow
Fran Bow: Official Trailer
After finding the bodies of her dismembered parents, Fran flees to the forest with her cat Mr. Midnight where she blacks out. Later she wakes up at Oswald Asylum, a mental institution for disturbed children. She has one living relative and she makes it her mission to escape the institution and be reunited with Mr. Midnight and aunt.
Fran Bow is a point and click game in which you control Fran and help her to escape a mental institution. She has a dream in which her cat tells her to take the pills to help her escape. When she acquires the pills from the nurse’s station and takes them, her reality becomes gruesome and twisted, but holds clues as to how she must escape from the asylum.
After playing the demo, I give this game a solid 9 out of 10 creepy rating. If you like creepy psychological horrors and point and click games, give Fran Bow a try!
Is this reality?
2. Layers of Fear
Layers of Fear Trailer
A painter on his quest to finish his magnum opus, his masterpiece of all masterpieces, finds himself spiraling into madness.
A look into the mind of a tortured artist, Layers of Fear takes us on a psychedelic adventure. As he struggles to complete his masterpiece, pieces of the puzzle begin to unfold. What will his madness uncover?
I give this game a 9 out of 10 on the creepy scale! If you want into the mind of a madman, then check out this game.
A Macabre portrait
1. SOMA
SOMA Gameplay trailer
Simon Jarrett wakes up on an underwater research facility called PATHOS-11 with no memory of how he arrived there. He discovers that the facility is in a crisis, with the AI and machinery beginning to think that they are human. Trying to piece together what happened he meets friends and foes along the way as he solves puzzles and gathers clues.
It’s hard to really get into what SOMA is about without giving too much away. The game is embedded with deep a psychological plot that will leave questioning long after you’ve finished the game.
Psychologically terrifying and stuck at the bottom of the ocean? 10 out of 10 on the creepy scale!
What happened here?
Did your favorite Indie horror game of 2015 make the list? Be sure to share your thoughts below!
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