Windows Central Insider
Each week, dozens of indie games make their way to the Xbox storefront. Each new game is an opportunity to explore a new world, experience a new story, and solve new puzzles. But there’s only so much time in a week, and it can be a challenge to sort through every offering for the hidden gems.
To help, we here at Windows Central have been sorting through indies to help you discover interesting new stories and adventures, from cozy bug-collecting extravaganzas to perilous survival horror puzzlers. Here are a few recently released indies that we think should be at the top of your “to-be-played” list.
Hollowbody
If you’re looking for that early 2000s horror nostalgia set in a tech-noir infused world, Hollowbody should be on your radar. Hollowbody is a survival horror puzzler set in the dystopian near-future.
Players become a Shipper named Mica who has traveled into a deadly exclusion zone, but she only has a two-hour window to find her missing partner, Sasha, and get out. It would be pretty boring if things went smoothly, however, and Mica quickly finds herself in a dangerous predicament where her equipment has failed, and she is trapped in a twenty-mile death zone sealed off by towering walls.
Players will have to manage Mica’s limited resources and solve challenging environmental logic puzzles in order to push through the exclusion zone. Hollowbody does favor puzzles and resource management over combat, but there are some difficulty options for those who want to ramp up (or down) the difficulty.
This fully voice-acted, single-player horror adventure, which developer Headware Games originally launched on PC in 2024, sits at a respectable Very Positive rating with over 1400 Steam reviews — and is newly available on Xbox Series X|S as of June 4.
Escape Simulator
Not all puzzle aficionados are fans of horror scenarios or playing alone. For those of us who want the help of a friend and a more casual puzzle-solving experience, there’s Escape Simulator. Developed and published by Pine Studio, Escape Simulator brings the fun and challenge of an escape room to your game room.
The standard edition of Escape Simulator features 28 rooms, each filled to the brim with unique puzzles that require players to search the room for solutions. Need to unlock a cabinet? First, you’re going to have to find a book and decipher the hieroglyphics to secure the code.
Or maybe a glowing message from the other side can help you to spell out the hidden passcode for the puzzle behind the painting? Every puzzle in Escape Simulator can be completed solo, but it’s so much more fun with friends helping you break vases, move furniture, and collect tokens before the timer runs out.
Players can grab friends to escape from a wild collection of themed rooms, from ancient Egypt to outer space. Should the initial 28 rooms not be enough puzzles for you, there are five additional DLC packs to expand your options, including Steampunk, Magic, and Wild West themes.
Escape Simulator is available now on Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox on PC, Xbox Cloud Gaming, and compatible handhelds. This one’s on Xbox Game Pass and Play Anywhere, making it even easier to convince your pals to help you out with the gamerscore completion.
Kabuto Park
Summer is fast approaching, and it's bringing with it sun, heat, and bugs. Sunburns and bug bites are no fun, but thanks to developers Doot and Zakku, and publisher Seaven Studio — the team behind cozy city builder Minami Lane — we can all enjoy the perks of summer without the downsides in Kabuto Park.
Playing as a little girl on summer vacation, Kabuto Park allows players to catch beetles, butterflies, bees, and more, then train them for the Summer Beetle Battles Championship.
This short and sweet bug-collecting game lets you build up a team of elite bugs from the ones you collect from around the world. Pet them, feed them candies, and train them up to be victorious in tiny bug sumo battles. Upgrade your bug net and boots at the local shop to unlock new areas with new bugs or make rare bugs appear more often so you can secure even more victories.
Kabuto Park is a wholesome, 2–4-hour single-player experience that even arachnophobes can enjoy. Try it now on Xbox Game Pass or pick it up for under $6 on Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PC, Cloud Gaming, and compatible handhelds.
CRASHOUT CREW
Aggro Crab — known for Peak and Another Crab’s Treasure — is back again with another challenging friendslop adventure, this time at the De Nile Shipping company. Grab your friends to create a crew of up to 4 forklift drivers and head to the warehouse to ship out orders on waiting trucks. How hard could it possibly be?
Crashout Crew has the potential to unseat Overcooked as the best game for ruining friendships. Every player has their own little Easy-Grab forklift, which can be customized via color and funny little hats and is equipped with the most important equipment (a horn, plus boosting and drift capabilities, of course!)
Warehouses are built for speed, which is important when your crew is facing near impossible deadlines to deliver devious combinations of packages like bulls and fine china, barrels of oil and lanterns, or rambunctious chickens and very fragile eggs.
Just when you think you’ve got a handle on the process of shipping out unruly cargo, the ghosts start acting up, throwing around your package to create dangerous hazards. If it’s not the ghosts, then the AC goes out and turns the floor into actual lava. Rolling blackouts leave your crew scrambling in the dark, and let’s not forget the invasive cacti and sneeze-inducing pollen.
Grab your friends on Xbox Series X|S, PC, Cloud Gaming, or compatible handhelds and race to finish more than 20 challenging contracts in Crashout Crew, available now on Xbox Game Pass with Play Anywhere support.
Luna Abyss
After spending some time with cozy and chaotic coop this month, we round out the list with something a little more hellish. Luna Abyss is a story-rich first-person shooter and bullet hell with fluid platforming, where players step into the shoes of a prisoner by the name of Fawkes. Beneath the surface of the mimic moon, Luna, is a sprawling but derelict structure where prisoners like Fawkes are sentenced to explore in search of lost technology.
Luna Abyss features multiple endings for its deep narrative that plays out with the help of environmental storytelling. However, not everything we’re told about this megastructure is perfectly accurate, and it’s up to the player to discover the secrets hidden among the horrors below the surface while under the watchful guidance of the prison’s AI, Aylyn.
While weaponry and abilities are scarce at first, players can guide Fawkes through Luna Abyss’ visually commanding red, black, and white world to discover upgrades that can help them push through the challenging campaign. Combat, while important in Luna Abyss, isn’t exactly center stage.
Fawkes’ looted arsenal can make quick work of enemy combatants. Finding movement upgrades, however, like double jumps and air dashes, can help you overcome obstacles and provide a new level of challenge that isn’t common for first-person shooters.
Luna Abyss, developed by Kwalee Labs and published by Kwalee, is available now on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox on PC, Xbox Cloud Gaming, and compatible handhelds with support for the Xbox Play Anywhere program. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate or PC Game Pass subscribers can play Luna Abyss at no extra charge as part of their subscription plan.
