Six of the best indie horror games to play for Spooky Season

It’s Spooky Season, known to regular people as October. That means you are contractually obliged to play at least one scary game this month, preferably sharing your experiences in some form with joyfully terrified exultations such as “ommmgggggg” and “I CAN’T EVEN” along the way. But what to play? There are a lot of horror games out there, both in the mainstream and indie spaces.

So what better way is there to finish off your Friday than with a nice list of horror games to get you filling your pants over the weekend? For today’s piece, we’ll focus on the indie side of things — we’ll revisit the subject a couple of times over the course of the month so you have plenty of stuff to enjoy!

Let’s kick off!

Lily’s Well

Adopting an unusual, black-heavy art style reminiscent of 8-bit home computers such as the Commodore 64, Lily’s Well is a cyclical horror game in which you gradually uncover the complete narrative over the course of several short playthroughs.

To say too much about Lily’s Well would be to spoil its creepy, mysterious narrative, but suffice to say all is not well in the world of self-professed “good girl” Lily. Left home alone, she hears the sound of someone who appears to be in peril coming from the well in her garden. Her eventual fate is in your hands, with each of the game’s endings depending on the choices you make along the way — and discovering which things in the game are important and which are red herrings, often with fatal consequences.

Lily’s Well is available for free right now on Steam and Itch.

At Home Alone Final

Like Lily’s Well, At Home Alone Final is a cyclical horror game that rewards multiple playthroughs with additional narrative context and some surprising twists and turns. And like Lily’s Well, explaining too much about what makes this game interesting will spoil the experience to a certain degree, so we’ll refrain from doing that.

The interesting thing about At Home Alone Final is that it initially appears to be a completely linear game, but with each new playthrough you gain more options that allow you to explore different narrative branches. And at one point, the game appears to be over — but it most definitely is not. Keep on playing and you’ll see just how deep this one goes.

At Home Alone Final is available now on Steam for free.

Your Turn to Die

Another horror game that adopts a very distinctive art style, this time combining simple pixel-art backdrops with more detailed character designs, Your Turn to Die is a “death game” that is noteworthy for allowing plenty of time for its characters to grieve after each unfortunate participant bites the dust.

The game features frequent minigame and adventure sequences as well as visual novel-style storytelling, so if you’re up for a game with plenty of interactivity to enjoy, this is a great choice for spooky season.

Your Turn to Die can be played online or as a downloadable title.

The Closing Shift

It wouldn’t be a list of indie horror games without a Chilla’s Art game in there, and The Closing Shift is a great first choice if you’re yet to encounter the Japanese brothers’ distinctive PS2 and VHS-inspired series of immersive horror games.

Placing you in the role of a barista working the night shift at a coffee shop chain, the game’s horror works well because it’s blended so beautifully with the mundanity of your day-to-day existence. As you gradually come to realise the truth behind what’s going on, there’s a wonderful feeling of dread that builds to a dramatic climax for the conclusion.

The Closing Shift is available now for Windows PC via Steam. You can support Chilla’s Art on Patreon here.

My Big Sister

This retro-style horror game from one-man indie developer Stranga Games is a great time — though it’s worth noting that he’s presently working on a “remastered” version of the game, so it might be worth waiting to see how that turns out.

In My Big Sister, you take on the role of Luzia, a sassy twelve-year old with an older sister named Sombria who has been turned into a youkai. Across several different self-contained chapters, you’ll have to investigate the truth behind Sombria’s curse and see if there’s a way to actually break it. And with six different endings to pursue, nothing’s truly certain in this one, aside from the fact you’ll have a good time.

My Big Sister is available for PC via Steam, Nintendo Switch, Xbox and PlayStation 4.

Ib

Finally, I’m sure most of you reading this don’t need me to tell you to play Ib, but on the off-chance you haven’t yet, go play Ib. It’s an all-time classic horror game with good reason, and its original 2012 release was updated with a 2022 remaster that features full English support.

Ib is one of those games that it’s worth going into as blindly as possible, so we’ll leave it at that for now. But if you haven’t yet played Ib, now’s the time to do it!

Ib is available for PC via Steam, with a Nintendo Switch port coming next year.

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