15 New Fall Video Game Releases That You Don't Know About Yet
Overview & Key Takeaways
The best indie games of fall 2026 include cozy puzzle games, farming sims, action adventures, and more.
Fall 2026 isn’t entirely defined by those big-budget, AAA games, however. Too-many-to-count indie and AA under-the-radar games are coming out week after week all season long. Below are 15 indies coming out this fall we’re looking forward to, ordered by their release dates. For the most part, we've stuck to games with confirmed release dates, but make a few exceptions for games we’re just too excited for to not include.
15 Oops! You’re the Hero!
Image: Artificium Games
Release date: Sept. 15
Where to play: Windows PC
Not all heroes wear capes, and not all heroes even want to be heroes. That’s the case in Oops! You’re the Hero!, which follows a thief who steals an ancient artifact and mistakenly gets dubbed a hero in the process. Learn to embrace the hero’s life and face monsters head on, or stealthily sneak by them like the thief you were. Oops! You’re the Hero! also includes flying sheep. Will GTA 6? I think not.
14 Woodo
Image: Tiny Monks Tales/Daedelic Entertainment
Release date: Sept. 16
Where to play: Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox Series X
Assemble cute dioramas in the wholesome Woodo. You’ll place wooden toys and objects in light puzzles and gradually see a cute scene come to life, like a group of animals chasing each other around a tiny house or a seafaring adventure. Woodo sets out to capture simple joys of childhood, joys that can be easily forgotten over time.
13 Dressmaker
Image: Cozy Live/Free Lives
Release date: Sept. 21
Where to play: Windows PC
Dressmaker is a cross between a management sim and a dress-up sandbox (think Infinity Nikki). You’ll get to know your town’s clientele while designing and crafting dresses for them. You’re in control every step of the way, from purchasing materials to designing your dresses in a sketchbook to putting all their pieces together. There’s also a cat who hangs around your shop and, yes, you can pet it.
12 Toem 2
Image: Something We Made/Popagenda
Release date: Sept. 29
Where to play: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox Series X
Grab your camera and get to helpin’ in Toem 2. It’s a cozy adventure where you wander around a black-and-white town and photograph its charm and eccentricities along the way. Help solve people’s problems, like unblocking sewage pipes with your camera, which acts as a Swiss army knife. While you will have a journal to track quests and discoveries, part of Toem 2’s appeal is photographing for the fun of it.
Get Polygon’s Wishlister newsletter
A weekly cheat sheet to what you’ll eventually love to play. No buying, no commitment — just saving for later.
Free. Unsubscribe anytime.
11 Songs of Glimmerwick
Image: Eastshade Studios
Release date: Sept. 30
Where to play: Windows PC
With its vibrant art style and trees that look like paper cutouts, Songs of Glimmerwick is like a children’s storybook in video game form. It’ll take you to a magic school, but instead of using a wand to cast spells, all magic flows through music. Cast spells to open up new paths, or to just chat with some trees. There’s plenty to do outside of school, too, as in this life sim you can attend festivals, enjoy some local drama, join a band, and more.
10 Echo Weaver
Image: Moonlight Kids/Akupara Games
Release date: Oct. 8
Where to play: Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox Series X
Metroidvania fans will want to keep an eye on Echo Weaver. Explore a ruined society stuck inside a time loop, which gives Echo Weaver a bit of a roguelike flair. You’ll use time as a resource to barter, heal yourself, and explore hidden shortcuts. Meet and learn from quirky survivors inside the loop, including a “pizza-slinging cat.” No word yet if you can pet said cat, however.
9 Forever Ago
Image: Third Shift/Annapurna Interactive
Release date: Oct. 8
Where to play: Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox Series X
Publisher Annapurna Interactive has already had a strong 2026 with People of Note, Mixtape, and D-topia. It’ll look to continue that hot streak with Forever Ago, a story-focused road trip adventure. You’ll venture out in search of redemption, exploring new lands and making new friends along the way. One of those new friends looks to be a stray dog, so we’re sold.
8 Order of the Sinking Star
Image: Thekla, Inc.
Release date: Oct. 8
Where to play: Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, Windows PC
You might not need another puzzle game after Order of the Sinking Star delivers a 500-hour, 1,000-puzzle experience. (Don’t fret though; you can still finish the game itself without finishing all those puzzles.) Led by Braid creator Jonathan Blow, Order of the Sinking Star is all about hand-crafted puzzles that connect to and build off of one another. You’ll gradually learn and master puzzle mechanics, and then master how those mechanics combine together to solve new and more difficult puzzles.
7 Penguin Colony
Image: Origame Digital/Fellow Traveler
Release date: Oct. 8
Where to play: Windows PC
Tuxedoed penguins plus H.P. Lovecraft makes Penguin Colony, a cosmic horror game starring a playable penguin. It’s a re-imagining of Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness and other stories, and finds you as a penguin following the misadventures of humans in the Antarctic. Watch as they slowly lose their minds in search of ancient power. Then conceivably go back to your penguin family to do… whatever it is penguins do when not starring in a Lovecraftian horror game. (They’re probably just chillin’.)
6 Silver Pines
Image: Wych Elm/Team17
Release date: Oct. 8
Where to play: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox Series X
Metroidvanias meet survival horror in Silver Pines. A private investigator heads to the middle-of-nowhere town Silver Pines in search of a missing musician. His investigation leads him to monsters and mysteries lurking about the spooky city. While exploring every nook and cranny in Silver Pines, scrounge for and manage resources in true survival horror fashion.
