Indie Spotlight: January 2022

The GameGrin Indie Spotlight aims to give attention to videogames that the independent scene has offered us over the past month. Whether it be due to quality, success, or creativeness, these are the independent games that stood out to us over the month of January.

The Anacrusis

13th January 2022

Team up in a 70s-styled spaceship to shoot aliens in this Early Access FPS. Honestly, if you want more then maybe wait until it’s fully released. To be fair, it’s also on Game Pass, so if you’ve got a subscription already there’s nothing stopping you from giving it a try, at least!

Platforms: Windows, Xbox One, Xbox X|S
Play if you enjoy: Back 4 Blood, retro-futuristic aesthetics

Empire of Ember

20th January 2022

Fully destructible environments are something I’ve longed for in more games since the originalWorms. Empire of Ember brings it to medieval times by giving you a town to build up and enemies to crush with magic and sharp objects. There’s also some strategy elements, allowing you to command units — but that’s not what I’m here for!

Platforms: Windows
Play if you enjoy: Angry Birds, destroying things

Pupperazzi

20th January 2022

If you’ve always wanted to run around town photographing animals, then getPupperazzi. If you want more from it than that, don’t worry, you have to keep your social media abuzz, too! And you can share the photos on your actual social feeds, because some games have photo mode, this one is photo mode.

Platforms: PC, Xbox One, Xbox X|S
Play if you enjoy: Pokémon Snap, dogs

Knight's Try

27th January 2022

Now this isn’t recommended because it’s something for me, but I love how Knight's Try looks. It’s got a great old-school aesthetic, and makes you wonder what if all of those super hard platformers I like were in 3D instead of 2D? While it’s not something I like to put myself through, I know that some people like them!

Platforms: Windows
Play if you enjoy: Super Mario 64 blindfolded, breaking your keyboard

Zenith: The Last City

27th January 2022

Like me, you may have become wary of being trapped in a VR game that you can never escape — but Zenith: The Last City actually lets you out. It’s the first VR game that claims to be an MMORPG that actually is one, with combat against monsters, meeting other players, and the fun ability to climb up things like in a certain Switch game.

Platforms: Windows, PlayStation 4
Play if you enjoy: Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization, anime based on VR games

That’s just some of the amazing indie titles released in January, and hopefully there’s something that caught your eye.