Top 10 Indie Games Releasing in August 2023

Teaser: Get ready because we’re doing this every month now!

We're back, baby! My wife and I have compiled a list of 10 indie titles we're looking forward to this month. It was difficult (as it usually is, thankfully), but we've made it out the other side. Now we'll be sharing them with you! But enough blabbing — I'm sure you want to get to the good stuff. 

Oceanhorn 2: Knights of the Lost Realm

• Release Date: 2nd of August
• Genres: Action-adventure, RPG
• Developer: Cornfox & Brothers Ltd.
• Publisher: FDG Entertainment

I'll be painfully honest with you — I've not played the original entry yet. Unfortunately, when I bought the game a few years back, my wife and I only had one PC, and considering we're gaming journalists... well, you can imagine we had no time for non-work gaming.

This entry has gone through some extreme makeover, as it looks a lot more like a game from Dragon Quest now! The story is set a thousand years before the event of the original, and we’ll step into the shoes of a young Knight as he attempts to unite three factions in order to save the world! It looks fantastic and smooth, and I really can’t wait to jump into both games now!

I Am Future: Cozy Apocalypse Survival

• Release Date: 8th of August
• Genres: Open-world, survival craft
• Developer: Mandragora
• Publisher: tinyBuild
• Check out the demo here!

I Am Future mixes two genres I never thought could go well together but always secretly wanted anyway: cosy and survival. In it, you'll spend your time trying to uncover the mystery behind civilisation's last day... or not, because I'm probably going to just spend it cosying it up with my cute robots!

When I first saw I Am Future, it was through my co-worker's preview, and I was devastated I hadn't gotten to try this nuanced survival game! I couldn't fathom a better (and weirder) mix of genres than survival and cosy! Now, thankfully, the game will be coming out soon, and nothing's stopping me from getting my hands on it this time! Take that, Pezh!

Tales & Tactics

• Release Date: 10th of August
• Genres: Strategy, RPG
• Developer: Table 9 Studio
• Publisher: Yogscast Games

This upcoming title also took a handful of genres and mixed them together to create perfection! It even sounds good through just genres alone: a roguelike, strategy, squad-based, auto battler game in a Tabletop RPG setting. You love it already, too, don't you?

Jokes aside, as I began reading about Tales & Tactics, I was absolutely smitten by the entire idea of it! The roguelike element makes me feel comfortable jumping into a strategy battle, knowing defeat is not the end. And honestly, you could just mix RPG with anything, and I'd be the first in line! Definitely gotta keep an eye on this one!

Atlas Fallen

• Release Date: 10th of August
• Genres: Action-adventure, RPG
• Developer: Deck13
• Publisher: Focus Entertainment

Atlas Fallen is one of those names that has been floating around everywhere for a while now, and I'd be lying if I didn't admit that the name is the first thing that drew me in, as Atlas has always been one of my favourite Titans; plus, it sounds poetic, doesn't it? 

This, of course, has nothing to do with him and everything to do with a corrupt Sun god who has terrorised humanity for far too long. In this sandy adventure, we'll get to jump head-first into hectic hack-and-slash battles with a friend! That's basically all it takes for me to get excited: to find out I can play with my wife! I'm already geared up and ready to go because the sand-gliding and combat seem fantastic! Sign me up!!

Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle

• Release Date: 29th of August
• Genres: Survival horror, third-person
• Developer: Invader Studios
• Publisher: Leonardo Interactive, 4Divinity
• Check out our preview for the game!

After my wife got me hooked on survival horrors, I've done nothing but jump into anything with the tag (especially if it's a Resident Evil title). And although I've been taking a bit of a hiatus from it to play more relaxing games (namely, Disney Dreamlight Valley), I think I'm ready to jump right back in!

This is one of those titles that I've heard about a lot but never really got around to playing. It turns out that, as a fan of the Resident Evil franchise, I've been missing out big time! What would I do without my wife? Probably miss out on this awesome game! 

Honourable mention

As always, my wife and I are terrible at just choosing 10, no matter how hard we try. But I just couldn’t let my part of the article end without squeezing in one last title: Word Factori! This charming indie game is very minimalistic (which I love) and has a super interesting premise. I definitely have my eye on it now!

And that's it for my list for this month! Next up, I'll be passing the stage to my wife to tell you all about hers. Take away, my honey bee!

Artura Dawn

Indie titles have a special place in my heart — many of them have been my favourite games, and the fact that a lot of these are passion projects built by a smaller team is just romantic in a way. That, and of course, they hurt Wally the Wallet a lot less while still giving me plenty of hours to enjoy! This is my half of the top indie games I'm looking forward to!

Thronefall

• Release Date: 2nd of August
• Genres: Strategy, Tower Defense
• Developer: GrizzlyGames
• Publisher: GrizzlyGames

The tower defence genre has been notoriously my least favourite one for a couple of years. Truth be told, there is something unappealing to me about standing around and waiting for everything to do the job only after being able to upgrade and partake in the action once again. This is actually why historically, my favourite tower defense has always been the Orcs Must Die! franchise.

That said, Thronefall is an upcoming tower defence title that I'm quite excited about — the beautiful graphics and being able to build a kingdom are only two additional pluses aside from fixing my main complaint: you can partake in the action. I don't need to be the sole hero that saves the world, but I'm more than happy to see a group of them join in with me and fight back, making it feel more gratifying, almost like a team effort.

Pilfer: Story of Light

• Release Date: 4th of August
• Genres: Adventure, 3D Platformer
• Developer: Vincent Prom
• Publisher: Vincent Prom

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: platformers are a genre I just adore. There is not a single platforming game that I'd say no to (trust me, I tried with Hell Pie and still rated that game a really high score). So it's a no-brainer to me whenever I see a 3D platformer that looks up my alley.

Pilfer: Story of Light fits all of the boxes that I need to enjoy a game: it has cute graphics, it's a platformer, it's a platformer... Really, all it needs to be is a platformer, and I'll be automatically on board to try it. Plus, the adorable protagonist is a huge bonus, especially with all the unlockable costumes!

Chicken Journey

• Release Date: 22nd of August
• Genres: Pixel Graphics, Cute
• Developer: loonyware
• Publisher: loonyware
• Check out the demo!

Read above for my thoughts on platformers, and then add a sentence somewhere along the lines of "I love CHICKENS", and you have every reason you need for me to try Chicken Journey. I may be a simple-minded gal, but it's not something I'm ashamed of.

Chicken Journey has been on my radar ever since my wife noticed that it fuses my favourite animal with my favourite genre, and ever since then, I just can't really stop thinking about it. The adorable graphics and gameplay seem excellent, and I even tried the demo recently! It's been on my wishlist for a long time, and it'll be in my library soon…

Noun Town Language Learning

• Release Date: 31st of August
• Genres: Adventure, Puzzle
• Developer: Noun Town
• Publisher: Noun Town
• Check out the demo!

I'm a bilingual gal, and historically, I've tried to become trilingual. Whether it was Japanese or Latin (yes, both of these were for nerdy reasons), I have wanted to learn to pick up a third language for a while. And although I've all but given up on this goal, Noun Town is still something that is of interest to me.

There are two reasons why I want to try this game out: the first is that I really want to see if this will help me learn more in comparison to everyone's favourite owl-with-murderous-intent, Duolingo. The second is because I really want to play the game with it trying to teach me Spanish and see if it can teach me anything of my native tongue.

Trine 5: A Clockwork Conspiracy

• Release Date: 31st of August
• Genres: Action, Adventure
• Developer: Frozenbyte
• Publisher: THQ Nordic

Trine is a franchise I've always wanted to try to play more of. I played the original to 100% completion amidst my attempts to bolster my Steam profile with more achievements, and the gameplay is just fun to pick up and solve some puzzles along the way.

I'm sure the formula hasn't changed too much over the other almost half a dozen entries (wow, that is a LOT of Trine to get through), but I still really want Trine 5. The graphics look great, and I want to see the differences between the first entry and the last, as the evolution of franchises is always such a fascinating thing to experience first-hand.

Honourable Mentions

Every time we make one of these articles, we (me) give ourselves (myself) the benefit of choosing some honourable mentions because we (me) are undecisive and can't narrow it down from the forty we (me) choose. Guilty as charged, I have chosen two games to add to my honourable mentions section!

Blasphemous 2: This game was actually going to be in the list above, but there is one reason I didn't add it: I haven't played the first. I love the premise of Blasphemous, and I've always had the intention of playing the original, but I just haven't found the time. Now with a sequel, it's almost nail-bitingly exciting to try its predecessor and see if I'm going to pick it up.

Diebrary: Diebrary is already out, and it looks great! This survivors title has beautiful colours and an interesting art design that I'd like to try. After finishing Vampire Survivors 100%, I'm looking for something to fill the void while I wait for the release of its co-op mode and I can play it with my wife, and Diebrary might just be it!

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Thank you so much for checking out our Top 10 Indie Games Releasing in August! Truth be told, we love covering indie games here at GameGrin and supporting them, which is why we always try to go out of our way to get them, and totally not because we also have just too many games to include in just one list. See you next month!