July 2026 delivered a surprisingly strong lineup of indie titles, even with big-budget releases like Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced and Splatoon Raiders dominating the conversation. It was a particularly stellar month for murder mystery adventures and indie farming sims. From cozy farm life to inventive puzzle adventures, these are the ten indie games we enjoyed most over the past month.
The Mermaid Mask
Just when it seemed SFB Games couldn’t top 2019’s Tangle Tower, along came The Mermaid Mask, an engaging point-and-click murder mystery full of humour and heart. Set amid the waters of a remote fishing town, it asks you to work out why a submarine captain was murdered by parsing the rumours and speculation around him. With significantly improved puzzle mechanics, plenty of new suspects, and a whip-smart script, it delivers everything you could want from an indie murder mystery.
D-topia
D-topia is a futuristic puzzler unafraid to probe big questions about automation and AI. From Annapurna Interactive, it casts you as a facilitator tasked with keeping residents of a sterile facility happy, fixing glitches and learning their stories. What it says about those weighty topics may not be surprising, but the unnerving narrative adventure, complete with a cold, clinical vibe, is well worth playing. If at first everything seems cosy, think again.
Moss: The Forgotten Relic
Moss began as a pair of incredibly immersive VR-only titles, and this month the adorable platforming world finally reached flat-screen players. Guiding the mousy Quill on an old-school action-platforming adventure through forests, snowscapes, and castles remains fantastic, even with the change in format. A teensy bit of magic may have been lost, but the beauty of guiding a tiny hero through a ruined world still feels fresh.
Teeto
Teeto instantly transports you back to the era of Crash Bandicoot, Spyro the Dragon, and Super Mario. It’s a 3D platformer collect-a-thon that lets you take on the unique abilities of objects and the environment, giving it a distinctive flavour. That it was mostly made by a team of two is astonishing. It’s a fun, chaotic adventure to enjoy solo or in split-screen co-op.
Cat Mail Co.
No indie roundup would be complete without a cat game, but Cat Mail Co. offers a particularly paw-some twist. You run your own post office, sorting and delivering parcels with feline co-workers. The result is an extremely relaxing and organisational job simulator, made more fulfilling by the joy your simple actions bring to the surrounding islands and their thankful residents.
Fading Echo
Fading Echo makes you feel powerful from the outset, shifting between dimensions and transforming into a ball of water to traverse space. As a master of the elements, you deal with enemies in varied ways, with elemental liquids like slime, lava, and water informing one another naturally. It’s a neon-drenched, combat-focused jaunt that feels like the best Avatar: The Last Airbender game never made.
Case Solved: The London Files
Noir detective fans will be drawn to this handcrafted 2D case-cracking adventure set in a dank, smoky 1960s London. It rewards the most observant players, requiring close attention when comparing clues and facts. We occasionally wished for a touch more handholding, but that didn’t stop us from enjoying a mystery story that can be completed in a couple of hours.
Bokura
Bokura is a sweet, charming pixelated puzzle-platformer that’s strictly co-op, so grab a friend. With 90s-inspired retro visuals and a calm, serene colour palette, it follows two boys running away from home. It proves you can do a lot with very little, even if not every puzzle is clearly signposted. Butting heads with a partner is part of the fun in this inherently cooperative adventure.
Moonlight Peaks
Moonlight Peaks has become the breakout farming sim of 2026, and for good reason. At first it seems like a typical farming game with crops and town-building, but here you roleplay a vampire in a world of dark mystic magic. Build your dream spook-infused homestead, cast spells, and brew potions alongside more traditional sim elements. Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley fans should definitely dabble in these dark arts.
Mythmatch (Nintendo Switch)
Having originally launched on PC in March, the wonderful top-down town-builder Mythmatch arrived on Nintendo Switch this month in fine form. Set in Greek myth, you play the outcast god Artemis, exiled from Olympus, and must prove yourself in the mortal realm by building a community and relationships. Treating the gods as the source of all evil is nothing new, but merging farming and social sim elements gives it a unique edge—one of the year’s most distinctive genre takes.
