In our panel at PAX West 2024, we shared some of the most ridiculous indie games we’ve come across over the years. Some of these are new, and some are old. Either way, you can be sure they are unlike anything you’ve seen before. All right, let's get started!
Don't Fraud My Heart
Developer: Dogwood Gaming
Release Date: Coming Soon
Platforms: PC - Microsoft Powerpoint (Exclusive Demo Available)
Players: Single Player
A romantic, financially literate tax auditing adventure! Don't Fraud My Heart is a visual novel created entirely in PowerPoint by Dogwood Gaming. Yes, Powerpoint. Don't Fraud My Heart has fun little mini-games full of numbers — the player character is an accountant, after all — combined with a host of adorable characters and other small details in the story that will leave you feeling uneasy. Make up your tax auditing (or frauding), stress over a broken elevator, and meet adorable characters like the high-strung hot mess Sepia-chan and other office-themed waifus.
Just Crow Things
Developer: Unbound Creations
Release Date: August 15th, 2024 (Consoles on Preorder)
Platforms: PC, Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch
Players: Single Player
In Just Crow Things, you're a little crow trying to prove yourself to the world. You'll make new animal friends, poop on unsuspecting humans, and steal all the shiny trinkets! Each level is a little sandbox full of fun items to discover and puzzles to solve while leaving a bit of chaos behind.
Olliefrog Toad Skater
Developer: Mr. Thee
Release Date: 2024
Platforms: Steam
Players: Single Player, Shared/Split Screen PvP
What if Tony Hawk was a frog? Olliefrog Toad Skater is the amphibian-based skateboarding game inspired by the best-of-the-best skating games. Olliefrog Toad Skater prides itself in its faithful recreation of the gamefeel of late 90s and early 2000s skateboarding games. Except now, you can create your own little custom cute frog or toad and hit up the local skatepark. Olliefrog Toad Skater also has an extensive story and career modes and ollie, grind, and kickflip your way to the top. There’s also a Demo available on both Steam and itch.io.
Squirrel with a Gun
Developer: Maximum Entertainment
Release Date: Aug 29, 2024 for PC, Fall 2024 for Consoles
Platforms: Steam, Epic Games, Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5
Players: Single Player
This long-awaited ridiculous indie is a nutty sandbox shooter and puzzle platformer featuring crime and mayhem in pursuit of golden acorns. Play as an obnoxious squirrel with a gun as you terrorize the neighborhood. Fight tooth and claw and gun to escape a secret underground facility and defeat evil agents. In this game, you’re able to upgrade your weapons and locate the other secret bunkers to take down elite bosses and even blow up a tank! In this sandbox adventure, you can explore the world by running around or cruising around in a toy car. And yes, you can even ask for nice pets from curious passersby. Helping people out in the neighborhood allows you to exchange things for goodies (or you can simply mug them). You can even unlock cosmetics to create your own personal squirrely style.
Pizza Possum
Developer: Cosy Computer
Release Date: April 17, 2023
Platforms: PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Steam, Xbox Series X/S
Players: 2 Players - Couch Co-op
Pizza Possum is a short and sweet arcade experience where your goal is to eat as much food as you can without getting caught. It’s an adorable mix of wholesome and mischievous: join forces in 2 player local co-op and add the raccoon into the chaos you hide and seek your way through the village using items and bushes to maneuver your way around the patrolling guard dogs. Chase the frightened pig and goose neighbors long enough for them to drop more food for you. You can even use screams, giggles, and taunting while you make your way to the top of the village to eat the massive pizza and steal the crown from the dog leader’s head.
Wanted Raccoon
Developer: MAD Sprouts
Release Date: Mar 19, 2021
Platforms: Steam (PC, Linux)
Players: Single Player
Wanted Raccoon is a 3rd person open-world raccoon simulator about a raccoon that lived a peaceful life in the forest until one day people invaded it. They cut down the trees and built their own houses instead. Animals` families were taken away from them and all those who couldn`t hide were placed in animal shelters. Our Raccoon met the same fate. Help the raccoon get free, find his family, and find a new home. Steal resources, craft items, build a base, make traps and devices, plan robberies, sneak around and do dirty tricks to people. You can even customize your character and ride around on a skateboard!
ROOMBO: FIRST BLOOD
Developer: Samurai Punk
Release Date: 2019
Platforms: Steam, Switch, Playstation, Xbox
Players: Single Player
ROOMBO: FIRST BLOOD is a comedic, top-down, stealth-action game about being a robot vacuum cleaner and fending off burglars that have broken into your home. Hack smart-home gadgets like lights, doors and various appliances to set up traps, or improvise weapons from objects around the house. Hide under furniture, set your trajectory and plow into your enemies, munching them up once they’re knocked down. Make sure you don’t leave too much blood on the carpet; you’ll need to make sure the house is clean before the family gets home. Only you can save Christmas! There’s also a sequel, Justice Sucks, that is now available!
Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator
Developer: Strange Scaffold
Release Date: December, 2021
Platforms: Steam, itch.io, Xbox, Switch
Players: Single Player
Buy, sell, and trade organs in a strange and evolving universe. Dive into the quivering innards of alien capitalism in the sci-fi body horror market tycoon game you didn't know you needed. There was even a hysterical article about beating the game on Xbox Kinect that we found by Jordan Gerblick from Gamesradar.
Speed Dating for Ghosts
Developer: Copychaser Games
Release Date: Valentine's Day 2018 (from a hotel room in Helsinki, Finland!)
Platforms: Windows/Mac (Steam, itch.io), iOS, Nintendo Switch
Players: Single Player
Have you ever wanted to have deep, meaningful conversations with a smoldering poltergeist who terrorizes rich men in Vegas? How about a ghost dog looking for his owner? Or maybe you'd rather rob a bank? Ghosts are into all sorts of things. Part horror, part comedy, and kinda-sorta heartbreaking, Speed Dating for Ghosts is a game like no other about finding companionship and closure in the afterlife. Meet more than a dozen ghosts of oh so many backgrounds, genders, and time-periods. Learn how they died and lived, then help them find peace... if they like you enough to open up first. Some dates may turn ugly based on what you say and how you say it. Not everyone gets along, and dating can still be so very hard, even in the afterlife. Speed Dating for Ghosts is a wholesome horror game developed by Copychaser Games. In making the game, founder Ben Gelinas set out to create an intentionally short, death-positive experience that focused on memorable characters and themes of loss and regret.
WorldBox - God Simulator
Developer: Maxim Karpenko
Release Date: December 2, 2021 (Steam, Early Access)
Platforms: Android, iOS, Steam (macOS, Microsoft Windows, Linux, Mac operating systems)
Players: Single Player
WorldBox is the ultimate god simulator and sandbox game. It allows you to create your own world and then populate it with a variety of creatures. You can then unleash your creative and destructive powers on your world. You can watch civilizations grow and develop, form kingdoms, colonize new lands, and sail to far continents. You can also wage war against them and watch their empires fall and their towns burn. The possibilities are endless!
Lethal Company
Developer: Zeekerss
Release Date: October 23, 2023 (Early Access)
Platforms: Android, Steam (Microsoft Windows)
Players: 4 players - Online Co-op
Lethal Company is a cooperative horror game set in a dark and dangerous universe. You and your friends are a group of scavengers who explore abandoned moons to collect scrap metal and other valuable materials to sell to the Company. As you navigate through dark and twisted warehouse mazes, avoiding monsters and other hazards, you must work together to survive and complete your mission. Along the way, you will encounter a variety of challenges that will test your skills and teamwork. The game features a variety of locations, from dark and eerie warehouses to vast and treacherous wastelands. As you progress, you will encounter a variety of enemies, from grotesque monsters to cunning traps. You must use your wits and teamwork to overcome these challenges and survive. Lethal Company is a fast-paced, action-packed game that will keep you on the edge of your seat from beginning to end.
Say No! More
Developer: Studio Fizbin
Release Date: April 9, 2021
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, Steam (Microsoft Windows, Mac operating systems)
Players: Single Player
Say No! More is the world's first NPG (NO!-Playing Game) that lets you play as an intern with an unquenchable desire to say NO! to everyone and everything. You can customize your character, say NO! in different styles and languages, and even clap back at your mean colleagues. Your mission: change the world! But be careful, because if you say NO! too often, your character will get fired.
One Hour One Life
Developer: Jason Rohrer
Release Date: Nov 8, 2018
Platforms: Steam, Fastspring (PC)
Players: MMO
One Hour One Life is a survival MMO game developed and published by Jason Rohrer. Each player lives for, at most, 60 minutes in a large, persistent world, with each minute representing a year of life. The player starts out as a baby and must be cared for by other players to survive. Players work together to gather food and materials, build structures, and advance their society.
Taco Tom 2
Developer: Tinzone Games
Release Date: December 14, 2018
Platforms: Steam, Playstation, Xbox, Switch
Players: Single Player, with a multiplayer minigame (up to 2)
Taco Tom is a visual novel with a fun story and exciting mini-games. The game is set in a world where you can speed up time, dash through walls, and collect ingredients to make tacos. As you play, you'll also enjoy silly stock photos that appear in the background too.
Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion
Developer: Snoozy Kazoo
Release Date: April 22, 2021
Platforms: Steam, Google Play, Switch, Xbox, iOS, Playstation 4/5
Players: Single Player
In this top-down action-adventure game, you play as an adorable yet trouble-making turnip. Turnip Boy is on a quest to overthrow a corrupt vegetable government. You must help the turnip avoid paying taxes, solve puzzles, harvest crops, and battle massive beasts. The gameplay in Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion is similar to the top-down Zelda games but with a turnip protagonist.
Thank you so much for going through Game Raven Review’s list of The Most Ridiculous Indies We Could Find! Whether you joined us at the event or are tuning in from home, we’re so glad we could bring some of these indie gems onto your radar.