Hey y’all, it’s the start of a new month! Last month I shared stuff that was presented to me by Steam’s personalized calendar, and I think I’ll commit to making this a regular thing. So, here are the indie games coming out in September that Steam thought I should know about. Again, this is stuff that Steam thought I’d personally vibe with, so if there’s a game that you feel is missing, well, maybe that game just didn’t fit my good vibrations. And again, I’ll be omitting anything that uses AI. Fuck you.

On the 8th, we have Thousand Hells: The Underworld Heists, developed by A Sharp and published by Kitfox Games. Billing itself as a tactical narrative game, you assemble a team that’d be capable of descending the underworld and navigating the choices presented to you. With lots of choices and characters , Thousand Hells promises a lot of replayability.

A Sharp has plenty of experience with making this kind of game with their Six Ages series. The series grew out of King of Dragon Pass, which was originally released in 1999 and found more success with its re-releases. Thousand Hells looks to be a fresh start with a whole new mythology. Personally, this is definitely something in my wheelhouse.

Releasing on Early Access the same day, we have Randwerk’s Wanderburg. It’s a roguelike where you’re out to conquer the surrounding land. But you’re not some wandering hero or a normal army, no. Instead, you’re controlling a mobile fortress like a mech, consuming resources and building yourself up to fight armies and their own mechanized strongholds.

It seems like a neat idea for a roguelike, speaking as someone not as in love with roguelikes as I used to be. I don’t know how Wanderburg will end up, but it does call for community feedback during the Early Access period, so it may end up being something super good when it leaves Early Access.

Speaking of Early Access: on the 9th, Iron Gate AB’s Valheim finally exits its own Early Access. Originally released back in 2021, Valheim is a co-op survival game of vikings roughing it out in a cruel world. Valheim may be one of Early Access’ most successful works, boasting of hundreds of thousands of reviews on Steam with plenty of attention online. It may be a bit high-profile for this blog, but it’d be silly to not acknowledge this game.

I actually have a copy of Valheim myself that I last played near when it originally launched. I don’t think it clicked with me, but comparing to what I remember how the game was to how it is now, it’s astonishing how much has changed. I’m not sure if I’ll ever delve back in myself, but Valheim undeniably’s done great for itself.

But now, we gotta acknowledge another big game. Maybe the series isn’t big in the public consciousness, but it’s big when it comes to the sphere of indie games in general. Whether you’re a fan of bullet hell games, video game music, yuri, or a mix of that stuff, you have a home with ZUN’s Touhou project. Touhou’s created a sub-culture with a strong series of games and a commercial fangame culture building off its mythology. I’ve seen some Deltarune fans scoff at the more explicit Touhou references in the game, and I get it, y’all hate the inspirations of the game you love so much; y’all love jacking off to the shmup action of Undertale/Deltarune‘s combat system because you hate turn-based RPGs, but hate the idea of engaging with shmups outside of these games, get out of here.

And for the appropriate date of 9/9, a remake of the sixth game, Embodiment of the Scarlet Devil, arrives. A scarlet mist has descended on the land of Gensokyo, and local shrine maiden Reimu and magician Marisa sets out to resolve the supernatural incident in a bullet hell adventure. With remastered graphics, music, and a sort of casual mode where you can play with unlimited lives, Embodiment of Scarlet Devil is making a bold return for modern audiences.

Scarlet Devil may be the entry that’s most familiar in the overall gaming sphere, being the first entry that released on Windows. You may know the song UN Owen Was Her, which incidentally also got me into Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None – both good stuff. I wish I could play this, but I just don’t have the reflexes for shmups like I used to have and I’d get overstimulated hard by Touhou’s action and music. But for the shmup and/or yuri lovers out there, this is definitely the game for you.

Hopping on Early Access on the 10th is Shroom and Gloom, developed by Team Lazerbeam and published by Devolver Digital. There’s a dungeon full of mushroom monsters that you’ll be fighting through with some deckbuilding action… though, you can simply opt to eat the monsters too like you’re on some Dungeon Meshi shit.

Shroom and Gloom differentiates itself with first-person exploration and a separate deck dedicated to the exploration layer of the game. Being able to explore the setting seems nice, especially with its strong hand-drawn aesthetic. There seems to be a stronger focus on upgrading cards as your method of getting stronger instead of gathering passives, which seems like a shift from the normal flow for deckbuilder roguelikes.

Something escaping Early Access on the 10th is Andrei Fomin’s Effulgence RPG, which originally released in December of last year. If you have a love of ASCII art, this is a game for you, as the game is defined with a world of 3D models made up of ASCII characters. You guide your party on an adventure, defeating the surreal ASCII grotesqueries and taking their characters to a printer where you could reform them into weapons and abilities to help you further.

Effulgence has a really cool aesthetic, and I love the whole thing of recycling the characters that made up the things you beat into something new. It’s kinda a more light hearted contrast to being able to straight up devour your enemies in Shroom and Gloom.

Anyway, let’s head into horror. Also releasing on the 10th is Welcome to Elderfield, developed by Chris Cote and published by Kwalee. The town of Elderfield presents a cozy horror RPG experience, where you’re managing a farm in a place haunted by eldritch horrors. There’s in-depth RPG combat amidst your escapades of farm management and relationship building, and while you can turn down the difficulty of that to have a truly cozy time… you’re already dealing with the Horrors, so where’s the fun in that?

The Steam calendar presented me with a bunch of cool stuff for the 10th that I’d be into, but personally, Welcome to Elderfield‘s my favorite out of the batch. I know I talk a lot on this blog about not liking cozy games because I have a power in misery mindset, but the cozy stuff in this game feels like it’d work for me because it makes for a good contrast with the game’s other elements. It’s like a mix of sweet and savory, I love that shit.

My calendar for the next few days was blank or didn’t have indie games, but we finally get back into the swing of things on the 16th, which has a whole bunch of games. Well, at least, games Steam think is geared toward me.

Starting things off, we Roman Sands RE:Build, developed by Arbitrary Metric and published by Serenity Forge. The game tells a story of two narratives. In one, you are the employee of a resort about to be destroyed by the sun – but the customers don’t care about that, they just want you to do your damn job. In the other narrative, seemingly after the end of the resort, you are the lonely caretaker of a decaying research station, and you must deal with a parasite that threatens your work – even at the risk of your own life.

A game about the apocalypse where you’re workers trying to maintain a status quo despite everything, huh? Feels bad. Personally, Roman Sands does seem neat, though I don’t think I’d be playing it for the sake of my mental health. If you liked the studio’s previous game, Paratopic, you’d definitely like this.

But maybe that can be balanced out with a cozy contrast. We also have Woodo, developed by Tiny Monks Tales and published by Daedalic Entertainment. You are presented with a world of dioramas that tells a story with a narrator guiding you. You place pieces into the scene to see how things interact and chug the story along.

Woodo aims to be a game that’s meant to call back to the feelings of childhood. Alternatively, I think the actual kids of today could be handed this game as an alternative to current technologies breaking their brains today. If a kid is going to be locked on the computer, they should at least have that focus trained on something cute that encourages playfulness and tells a story instead of brain frying AI slop.

For another game with storybook vibes, we have MONOWAVE, by Studio BBB, a puzzle-platformer about emotions. The Prism Tree once regulated all the emotions in the world, but one day, those emotions separated and the land fell into disrepair, with some places going all in on an emotion and becoming unstable. You play as the guardian Mono on a quest to reunite the land’s emotions in a healthy way.

Use the power of joy to jump higher with joy, the power of sorrow to swim, the power of anger to… walljump, I guess, and the power of anxiety to tank through threats. I’m… not sure how these emotions fully correlate with their actual powers besides jumping with joy, but eh, I’m not a cop. It looks like a cute platformer that aims to tell a story about empathy, and good god there needs to be more empathy in the world.

Akiba Lost is a visual novel by IzanagiGames that relies on live-action footage, calling to mind things like Shibuya Scramble. But we’re not in Shibuya, we’re in Akihabara, where six women mysteriously disappeared 13 years ago. A game developer aims to make a game about the incident when he is suddenly threatened with the disappearances repeating again. The game has you switching between him, his sister, a streamer, a food writer, an idol, a shrine maiden and a cosplayer, showing different perspectives of their intertwined fates.

I think Akiba Lost looks to be promising, IzanagiGames has had experience working on games like this. While some of their past games have a mixed reception, the studio may have learned from past mistakes. Also god, I haven’t finished Shibuya Scramble yet…

Moving on to the 17th, we have Emberward by Refic Games escaping Early Access. Originally released in 2024, Emberward is a new take on tower defense games where you place tetronomino blocks down to change the layout of the playfield that you also place the towers on. You can craft a maze so that enemies take a longer time to get to you, or you can create large spaces to group your towers together or get bigger towers to make a more efficient killbox. It’s certainly a tower defense that calls for more careful planning.

I remember watching everyone’s favorite bald streamer play Emberward and really liked the look of it. I haven’t touched the game myself, but I feel that it’d give me the same high as Bloons Tower Defense did for me. If you like tower defense games, this is certainly one to look out for.

But never mind Northernlion, let’s look at the streamer LilyPichu, who features prominently in lily’s world xd developed by SonderingEmily. A teenaged Lily had disappeared and you have access to her laptop, which presents a psychological horror mystery to unravel.

It’s a game that calls to mind horror games and videos revolving around ’00s era computer stuff. It particularly reminds me of Desktop Explorer, which I played the Next Fest demo of a few months ago. So if you like stuff like that and/or you’re a fan of LilyPichu, this could be worth looking into.

Continuing the train of 17th releases presented to me, we have Rooster, by Sticky Brain Studios. Rooster of Chinese Zodiac fame has pissed off the rest of the zodiac too much, so Dragon sends Rooster to Ancient China to learn a lesson. Getting entangled with the life of a young boy in the past, Rooster embarks on a series of tasks symbolic of the Chinese Zodiac to better himself.

Rooster is a game that aims to be a cozy time embodying aspects of traditional Chinese culture, from its art style to thematic messaging. Maybe the game’s a bit late to the punch since the Lunar New Year holiday being celebrated in the game happened exactly seven months ago, but perhaps there’s some symbolism I’m missing out on. Still, seems like a nice and simple time.

The 21st brings us Normal Golf Game, by Luke Muscat, aiming to provide a normal game of golf, the game of sinners. As the game is hell on Earth, hell perpetuates with unnecessary (complimentary) simulation elements, challenges, and a meta plot about being trapped in the machinations of a game developer. Just normal golf stuff.

Luke Muscat was the head designer Fruit Ninja and Jetpack Joyride under Halfbrick Studios. With them being more simple games, it’s interesting how Normal Golf Game is something more complicated. I personally respect the vibes of this game, even with my hatred of golf as a concept. Genuine golf enjoyers, never interact.

Dressmaker, by Cozy Lives, presents a cozy simulation of being a dressmaker. You’re going through every step of the dressmaking process, from picking out fabrics, sewing things together, and putting tasteful accessories. You’re designing for various clients with their own tastes that you need to successfully navigate and conform to for the sake of your wallet and reputation – though it’s teased that you can be a real hater and sabotage them.

Dressmaker looks to be a good time, it looks relaxing while being complicated enough to keep from being a bore. Even if you’re not into dresses, I feel that creative players can get a kick out of this.

IGTAP: an Incremental Game That’s Also a Platformer, developed by Pepper Tango Games and published by Gamersky Games, is, well, exactly what the title says. You complete platforming challenges to make money then create clones that repeat your movements as idler money makers. But, if you want to be efficient at the idler money making, you gotta clear the challenges as fast as you can so that your clones can make money faster. As we all know, speedrunning is where the money’s at.

I think the platforming layer of the game is an interesting aspect that can differentiate IGTAP from other idle games. The game’s teased exploration elements also provides something beyond the idle game and speedrunning, which seems pretty neat.

Onto the 22nd, we have Nocturne, by Pracy Studios. Nocturne tells the story of a digital afterlife where eternal life exists, which is honestly something that today’s tech chuds would try to make today. You’re out to confront what it means to be alive in a 10+ hour fusion of RPG and rhythm game with more than a hundred tracks to play to.

Nocturne seems like a pretty ambitious game, especially with how its music was composed by a live orchestra. Maybe it’ll be something that takes me back to my days of obsessively playing Theatrhythm Final Fantasy, and having an actual story to pursue sweetens the pot.

Coming out the same day, we have Nighthawks, by Wedjey Eye Games. In a world where the existence of vampires have become public knowledge, you rise as a vampire to rule the nightclub scene. It’s a narrative RPG where you navigate the cutthroat life of being a vampire and nightclub owner, where you could take lives and lovers. It’s everything that horny vampire appreciators could appreciate, and with 800,000 words and lots of choices, there’s a lot to appreciate.

The Steam page proudly wears the fact that it was a Kickstarter game, so it’s nice to see more works successfully come out of crowdfunding efforts. As one of those horny vampire appreciators, Nighthawks is happily on my wishlist.

There are a few blank days, so we move ahead to the 29th. Did you like Something We Made’s TOEM? Well on the 29th, we have TOEM 2! Like the first game, you’re a photographer on a quest to see interesting sights and meet new people to take pictures and experience new things.

I have not played the first TOEM, but personally, out of the cozy games that the calendar delivered to me for this month, TOEM’s definitely more my vibes. There’s an adventurous layer to its coziness, and a cozy adventure sounds nice. Not quite the sweet and savory taste that Welcome to Enderfield presents to me, but sometimes you can just enjoy something nice and smooth.

I hear that being a witch this year is hot stuff with the anime premiere of Witch Hat Atelier, so maybe you can choose to embody being a witch on the 30th with Eastshade Studio’s Songs of Glimmerwick. You’re attending a magic university revolving around the magic of music. Learn magic, make friends with classmates and townfolk, explore – just everything you’d want in a magic themed life sim RPG.

Songs of Glimmerwick seems really cool, and to be honest, seems way more interesting of a magic school experience then something that I refuse to name. Surprised I haven’t heard about it until now, but it’s happily on my wishlist.

I hear that football season’s going on. For you losers that whine about “sportsball,” fine, let’s have a football-puzzle game mix to make you nerds happy: it’s Intergalactic Puzzle Touchdown by NEST Interactive. In this game, you’re engaging in match-3 gameplay to advance in the playfield in your favor while throwing up barriers to impede your opponent.

It’s been a long time since I played a match-3 game like You Must Build a Boat, and I think Intergalactic Puzzle Touchdown seems promising. It’ll also have multiplayer, so it may be fun to play with someone else.

Do you love fishing minigames? Well, here’s a game all about fishing: it’s Reel Tiny, by Red Rabbit Games. You’re just a funny little shrew on a fishing grindset. Try to fish up all the fish, do some trading with the locals, and enjoy the radio while you’re casting lines out. Is that the fishing life everybody dreams of? I don’t know, I live in a desert.

It’s another cozy game with a specific focus in mind. Do you like to fish? Reel Tiny may just be for you.

And ending things off, we have Card City Nights Forever, by Ludosity. This is the third in a series of card games – and nah, this ain’t another deckbuilder roguelike, you’re actually engaging in trading card game action. Outside of the card game, you’re on a 3D adventure, where you’ll see that the card game rules all, like any good card game anime.

As for the card game, you and your opponent are placing cards on playmats. You’ll be comboing cards together with their placement rules to send attacks over to your opponent’s playmat while you’re shoring up your own defenses. It looks pretty fun! I feel that I should play the previous Card City Nights games first before I touch this, but it seems swell.

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Aaaand this month comes to a close! There’s lots of things to do, a bunch of things I wish I had the energy to play. And honestly, my looks at my Steam personal calendar just affirms one thing to me: most gamers are fucking boring people. There’s so many that complain about gaming droughts – buddy look around you! There are so many interesting games coming out all the time, I’m sorry that you just jack off to ball and gun games (and ONLY the most bog standard ball and gun games, I know you’re never playing Ultrakill or Pyre). I just know that some of you will marathon through Grand Theft Auto VI for a month then go back to whining about how no new games are coming out. I can feel it.