Indies to Catch in May 2026!

Sweet May is upon us, at last. The times passes swiftly – already first third of the year is behind us, and it feels I barely did anything at all! At least the summer vibes should start soon, which I very much need to function. Anyway, new month means new games to look forward to! April was robust in excellent titles to enjoy, and May is shaping up to be equally full of interesting games to dabble with. As always, there are way too many to list and give them proper justice. That is why I want to shine a little spotlight on the select five that I am most intrigued by. Let’s go!

ISLANTILES | 4th May

The very moment I played the demo I knew this one is going to be a dangerous time sink in the making. It has this naughty thing going on, that the visuals make you think it will be a chill, relaxing game about softcore city building on a colourful island. And then it adjusts the bolts on your collar, zap your cranium with electric juice and demands that you pay attention. Because this is not an easy game. It is not particularly forgiving, either! It is a brainy tile-laying, synergy finding little monster in a lovely guise of a cute island crafting pleasure!

It is possibly the best mix of city builder and deck builder. Your placement matters, your deck matters even more, as you must make sure you have decent sleugh of synergies on hand to play with and score big. With plenty of small but clever system – seasons, build costs, relics, luxury goods, events, trade routes, you name it! – it feels like a robust and complex Eurogame with all the tedious bookkeeping being handled by the machine. As an enthusiast of such boardgame, I am absolutely rooting for it.

AMBERSPIRE | 6th May

I am cautiously curious about this one simply because I love a good city builder. And one driven by dice feels like a fresh idea, so that is a major point of my intrigue with the title. Alas, I don’t believe there was a demo available for this puppy, which is a shame. I might be a little spoiled here, but recently vast majority of indies I was even remotely interested in tending to spawn a demo to nibble on the game and see if it’s to your liking, but oh well… Anyway! AMBERSPIRE has a nice mix of unusual setting, very nice-looking art style and of course previously mentioned uniqueness of a dice driven city building, where you gather crucial resources by tossing dice generated by your structures. A curious idea and I am keen to behold it with my own eyes.

There is another thing that keeps my eyes on this project – complexity. From what I managed to gleam, this game seems to be quite robust. Political factions, characters to lead your struggling city, variety of events, growing your influence, combating the hostile fauna and flora of the peculiar moon you’re trying to make a living on… It all feels well thought out and rather considerable in scope. I would love to see the depths of play similar to something like FROSTPUNK here, but of course time will tell if the game delivers. Fingers crossed!

RUNE DICE | 19th May

The best part about dice games is seeing developers trying their best to find something new do to with the humble cubes. In case of RUNE DICE, the new bit of fun is how you play the dice. You don’t merely toss’em on a board and hope for a good result. No, you flick’em like in Carrom and as soon as they hit another dice of the same colour they merge, upgrade to a higher tier and bounce with gusto in search of more dice to merge. It’s fun, it’s simple, it is energetic! The cleverness, of course, just start here – dice have variety of effects, can be infused with modifier and you have plenty of items, runes and relics to modify how they behave and what you can achieve during a single round of combat.

Enemies and especially bosses do not just slowly crawl your way but also can influence the board with their own dice or passive hindrances to overcome. It’s a very elegant system that fills like a superb fit for a roguelike structure. Building up your box of dice, finding out fun combos to overcome ever-growing challenges… It’s a classic, but the whole flick and merge mechanic feels fresh and was a delight to play out in the demo. Happy to get my mittens on this one and squeeze it for all it can offer!

PHONOPOLIS | 20th May

I know very little about this title, but I know that I quite enjoyed MACHINARIUM. It matters here, because PHONOPOLIS gives me a very similar vibe to it – a puzzle adventure made with stylish visuals, telling a deeper story? Yeah, sign me up! PHONOPOLIS main attraction lies in the visuals. Papercraft world, with muted colors and rugged feel, beautifully animated to offer stunning visuals for each scene to tell a story. And then, of course, puzzles! Sort of expecting every scene to be its own conundrum to solve on our way to free ourselves from the dictatorship of the blaring voice of the mighty leader.

Wait a second… this IS Amanita Design studio! The fellas and fellarinas responsible for MACHINARIUM and SAMOROST series. Well, that changes things in a big way, because every single game they releases so far is a banger – stylish, unique, fresh and peculiar in the best possible way. With that knowledge in mind, I am not sure that PHONOPOLIS will be another fine addition to their list of excellent titles and I am confidently placing this one on my Wishlist.

LIFE BELOW | 26th May

Another city builder? In this economy!? Yeah, and a pretty fun looking one with a unique premise. Because we are diving deep into the inky depths of the seas to build a new… well… Not exactly a city, huh? It’s not Atlantis simulation, it’s more of a reef builder than a city builder, but the mechanical chops seem to be about the same! Nourish new organic structures, heal the depths, bring back thriving life to the Bikini Bottom!

Jokes aside, this one seems to be taking its premise pretty seriously and without sugarcoating of any kind. This is NOT a cartoony game having some soft fun with the whole reef renewal project. No, you will face hazards like oils spills, pollution, warming waters. You’ll have to keep in check the acidity of the waters you are growing your corals and sea sponges in. You must watch for invasive species, cultivate proper environs to sustain schools of fish of every kind. It is a serious game with serious challenges to offer. I am quite looking forward to checking the difficulty level here, to how challenging the actual gameplay will be. But other than that, it just feels refreshing to have a game in this genre with such an unusual premise to build upon. Hah! Build upon! Get it? So yeah, this one is jumping on the “to play” list and you’ll prolly hear about it more from me in the coming months.