Indies to Catch in January 2026!

The new year is upon us, and I am grateful for that. It always brings me such mental refreshment, a reset, a shift of mind to a new year of new opportunities. But the new year also brings new months and plenty of releases. As is tradition, I'm excited to share a few games I’m looking forward to in January! Let's roll.

COSY CARAVAN | 8th January

This one is a bit of a cheat spot on my list, because the game has been out and about for quite some time now. I reckon it landed in Early Access in May of 2024, so it is hardly a new title. But I was always sitting on a bit of a conundrum about how to treat Early Access games in general - in the past I got burned trying to write impressions and reviews on EA titles, and I loathe the very notion of misrepresenting them based on their early stages of development. And so, moving into 2026, I will only ever talk about such games either when they hit their 1.0 release... or in separate texts dedicated to Early Access content.

But back to the game - COSY CARAVAN sort of sells everything it is about in its title. It is a game in which you own a caravan dragged by an adorable, fuzzy, giant bumblebee. And ride around a whimsical, cutesy land to help the impossibly adorable townsfolk with their many tiny needs. Cook meals, craft goodies, set up your stall in various spots to share your stuff with the locals. Meet their request, chat them up, make friendships, just... You know. Soft, tender vibes all around.

I could confidently say that the formula is as stale as it gets, and the game might fall into the tarpit of the most common complaint that the enemies of the 'cozy genre' fling around. That is, that the game is a boring, repeatable set of microactivities, carried entirely by its softness and style. But I think this title avoids it thanks to its premise - the whole notion of being on the move. This isn't a static world, a placid adventure in landed languidity. This adds a very fun layer of impetuous activity. Whenever you are getting itchy to get moving, you can just do so! Explore, gain resources, meet hitchhikers, map the colourful, cheerful world. It's sweet, it's gorgeous, it's fun and beyond adorable.

BIG HOPS | 12th January

The game kind of emerged from nowhere to make a big, amphibian-shaped splash in the community of 3D platformer fans. And for good reason, too, because it is absolutely impeccable. Just play the demo, which is still out and about, to instantly get what I mean. The controls are so tight, so precise, so polished. Controlling your bouncy frog is a delight, and you get the feel that the developers have an instinctive understanding of what makes a 3D platformer not merely work well, but reach new heights. It has that MARIO GALAXY ingenuity, MARIO 64 extreme degree of control with sprinkled-on elegant mechanics from BREATH OF THE WILD. You never feel limited in your approach - if you can dream up a solution, you are more than likely able to execute it in the game proper.

Add to that the superbly crafted trappings of the genre. The puzzles and challenges are fantastic. The world is vibrant, colourful, and fun! The degree of challenge always feels intricately designed - always engaging, always just right. Another brilliant touch that makes this title stand out from its peers is the whole Veggies system. Even if your baseline mobility kit is already vast, you have a selection of veggies that add additional creativity to the motion. Acorns grow into vines, mushrooms become bouncy pads, and apples let you make pivot points and pitons for your froggy tongue to cling to. And there are hardly any limitations on their use. Combine your backpack of goodies to make your own path out of thin air. It's amazing.

HANK: DROWNING ON DRY LAND | 13th January

I remember how wowed I was when I first saw the trailer for this game. It looks bonkers. In the best meaning of that sentence. Deeply stylised with dark comic style, extremely unhinged on the edges, zany and whack. You play as the titular Hank, a rather peculiar hero, who wakes up in his own subconscious after a drunken accident. Using a variety of time-travelling tricks, he now needs to wander through the uncanny landscape of his mental states. For me, this is what gaming should be all about - experiments into insanity, goofy explorations of the strangeness of fiction. Pushing into spaces and places that dare to cross the line of what's 'normal'.

But on top of its wacky premise and kinetic presentation, what makes the game alluring is the mechanical trickery on display. Every scene is a new puzzle, it seems. Every new scenario gives a brand new 'tool' to tackle it. This is, of course, a bit of speculation, based on what we've seen so far, but the game has this feel that I've got when playing IT TAKES TWO - that is, that every new chapter introduces a new gameplay paradigm to quickly settle into. Here you turn back time. There you cooperate with your time-dilated clone. Then you ride a cart through a literal emotional roller-coaster. And in the next scene, you're in a choose-your-own-outcome dialogue with the talkative villain of the story. It looks like the developers are intent on never making you comfortable with one set of features, and want to toss you around between a great variety of them to keep you on your toes. To make the experience fresh from start to the very end. Exciting! But of course, we'll see how it goes when the game comes out.

CARNEDGE | 19th January

This one is so charming I could not leave it out of this list. It's also a very interesting game based on its mechanics - it is a roguelike sort of, but not really autobattler. Byt that, I mean, you don't control your hero directly - he swings his chosen weapon with wild abandon on a timer, and your summons hardly wait for your commands. They happily pick their own targets, politely informing you with a nice orange X over enemies they're going to attack. What you are in control of, however, are two things - first, your gear! Gear is the main meat of the game, what influences your stats, your build, the way you deal and mitigate damage. You get lots of it, can swap it pretty freely, sell the copies, and upgrade the ones you like. The second bit is your target, which is crucial; even though your hero keeps swinging, you can decide who he swings at, and that's a big deal because smacking an enemy interrupts their action. Proper juggling of incoming threats is a fun, exhilarating dance.

But what really stood out for me is the game style and atmosphere. It's... unique, that's for sure. Dark, grim, yet strangely whimsical. Like taken out from old fables, cartoonised, yet with respect to the dark undertones befitting, memetically, German folk tales. The music is fantastic, the constant whispers and backtalk in the background got lovingly under my skin. There's a lot of RNG to nigh every system, yet they never felt punitive or unfair; Upgrading your character stats via a slot machine, recycling items, hoping for your powerful cards to show up each time a timer refills your hand... It's a strange experience of waxing control. You have the tools to win, but they are often reluctant to appear where you need them, so it is an exercise in repetition that never felt sour. I guess because of how meaningless defeat is - failing is but a tiny hiccup, not lingering on, letting you move on and try again right away. It's neat, and I am excited for more.

MIO: MEMORIES IN ORBIT | 20th January

Good enough, welcome back ORI 3. In all due seriousness, a well-crafted metroidvania is always a nice meal to see on your gaming menu. MIO: MEMORIES IN ORBIT is a classic polished to a high degree of shine. You play as a little brave android, the titular MIO, exploring every nook and cranny of the Vessel - a titanic technological marvel, an ark of vast proportions. Something, of course, happened to it - overgrown, overtaken by rogue machines, its purpose lost to time. Your goal? Unravel its secrets, make it whole again, and save its residents from certain doom!

As classic a formula as it gets. So what puts it on my calendar? What makes it worth the time, if it is, by all accounts, a formulaic example of its genre? The simple answer is polish. Just check out the trailers, look at the screenshots... This ain't your regular run-of-the-mill pixel art driven metroidvania. This is that Michelin star gourmet stuff. Superb animations, flowing motions, gorgeous art on display. And at the same time we can see how fluid our protagonist can be, how MIO flies through the labyrinthine corridors of the Vessel with effortless grace. I am sorry to the devs, because I really can't stave off the comparison to ORI duology - which I consider a high praise, since these games were stellar in every way. And given that, I am quite excited to once again fill my tummy full of glorious metroidvania fun.