Quick Review
If you’re looking for a massive collection of cool indie games from up-and-coming developers, you can’t go wrong with itch.io. With dozens of different game genres to choose from and teams from every corner of the world uploading their passion projects to the site for players to enjoy, you can find just about anything. Plus, browsing the 400,000-game collection by price will turn up the best free games on itch.io which give you the option to download free or name your price rather than requiring you to pay a certain amount.
itch.io’s games are usually by small teams with low budgets and quick development times, especially the ones from game jams. When you find a free, lesser-known indie game that you wanna check out, remember that you can also pay a price of your choosing to help support the developer and let them continue to make great games. So out of the thousands of awesome indie games where you get to name your price, here are the best free games on itch.io.
The Best Free itch.io Games
15. Escape PS1 Hagrid
Developer: Lolscrubs
That’s right, Escape PS1 Hagrid is a survival horror game in which Hagrid from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone on PS1 pursues you through the halls of Hogwarts at night. If you thought Hagrid was kind of unsettling in the original game, you’ve never seen him like this.
For a running joke in the gaming community turned into a video game, Escape PS1 Hagrid is actually super fun. It’s a game that we never knew we needed until developer Lolscrubs brought it into the world. Best of all, Escape PS1 Hagrid is a testament to the sense of humor that you can find on itch.io.
14. Goodbye, Doggy
Developer: Picogram
This short but sweet game tackles the heavy topic of grief after the death of a family dog, and it does so with extreme care. Goodbye, Doggy is a heartwarming experience where you get to play as the ghost of a dog who recently passed away and was buried in his family’s yard. You make your rounds in the house you used to call home, helping your beloved owners overcome feelings of emptiness.
Although this game is very simple in gameplay style, it helps you to look at death in a different light. Goodbye, Doggy is an adorable and sweet game that’s intended to warm your heart, and since it’s free to play, it’s worth sharing with anyone who’s ever been affected by the loss of a dog.
13. Tiny Islands
Developer: David King Made Some Games
Tiny Islands is a mapmaking game where you create maps of little islands in a vast sea, only able to use what’s on the cards dealt to you. The various features that you can place on your islands each work according to their own set of rules so there’s a tricky puzzle element to the game.
For a black and white, hand drawn game, it’s surprisingly easy to get hooked on Tiny Islands and find yourself wishing there was more to the game. When you realize how fun it is to compete with your friends for high scores and compare your islands to see their design choices, it’s easy to see why Tiny Islands is among the best free itch.io games you can play.
12. How We Know We’re Alive
Developer: Motvind Studios
A narrative-based game set in the lesser-known “bible belt” of Sweden, How We Know We’re Alive is an emotional trip in the best possible way. You play as a writer who returns to her small hometown after 10 years away and begins to pick up the pieces of a life that fell apart.
How We Know We’re Alive is a point-and-click adventure animated in pixel-art style and featuring richly complex characters who make the small town of Härunga come to life. As one of the best free games on itch.io, How We Know We’re Alive tells a powerful story that lingers in the minds of players after it ends and makes you reconsider how a seemingly small game can have such a big impact on you.
11. Happy’s Humble Burger Barn
Developer: Scythe Dev Team
How scary can a PS1-era fast food simulation game be? It’s just another night shift at Happy’s Humble Burger Barn where you’re the cook, waiter, and clean-up crew all in one. A couple of odd things happen during the evening, but it’s nothing a fast food worker like yourself can’t handle. So you get in the car and try to go home, but the game has other plans.
Happy’s Humble Burger Barn belongs on this list because it’s so extremely innovative and disturbing at the same time. The ending is unbelievable and it’s really recommended to go in with no expectations in order to get the best experience out of this crazy indie horror game.
10. Andromeda Six
Developer: Wanderlust Games
Andromeda Six is a romantic sci-fi visual novel set in the year 3025 where you’ve just woken up aboard the interstellar ship, Andromeda Six, with six other crew members. The kicker is that you don’t remember anything about your past and the galaxy is in serious political turmoil that could explode at any moment.
For romantic purposes, you opt to play as a male, female, or non-binary character and each of the six crew members represents a different romance path to choose from. The game is still in development and five out of ten planned episodes are playable at the moment, so you can play through each of the branching storylines while you wait. With excellent character development and fantastic writing, Andromeda Six is a great choice if you like sci-fi visual novels with a flirtatious twist.
9. Sort the Court!
Developer: Graeme Borland
It’s safe to say that most of us have considered what it might be like to be a king or queen seated on a throne and in complete control over a kingdom. In Sort the Court!, you get to live out this royal fantasy and see the results of your choices play out over time. With each person who arrives at your court, you hear their plea and then decide if you want to deny or grant their request.
Sort the Court!’s gameplay is super straightforward, with only two choices available at any given time, but it is addictive to say the least. Since the days are relatively short, it’s easy to keep going day after day until your city has either flourished or fallen before your eyes. And the game’s sense of humor is great, keeping the tone light no matter what goes awry in your kingdom.
8. We Become What We Behold
Developer: Nicky Case
In We Become What We Behold, your one job is to take pictures. You’re tasked with trying to capture things that seem out of the ordinary as countless little people run around the blank screen. If you see someone wearing something that looks unusual, or acting in a noticeable way, you take a picture of them and then watch as that picture is displayed on a screen for them to see.
What the game is trying to convey becomes clear when you see the little peoples’ reaction to the photo you took. Sometimes they merely imitate it, sometimes it causes a visible response among them and you wish that you could take it back. We Become What We Behold makes a bold statement about the influence that images we see have on our behavior.
7. You Are Jeff Bezos
Developer: Kris Lorischild
As you might have guessed, this is a real-life-inspired, choose-your-own-adventure game you play as Jeff Bezos and your goal is to try to spend all of his money. Sounds easy enough, right? But this game isn’t about successfully zeroing out your bank account, it’s meant to give us some perspective on just how much money billionaires have and the various ways it could be spent to improve society.
Starting out with a sharp-witted Kafka reference, You Are Jeff Bezos holds nothing back in roasting the Amazon billionaire. The game takes an absurd turn toward the end, and if you get the ending that the developers intended, your billionaire nightmare has only just begun.
6. Baldi’s Basics in Education and Learning
Developer: mystman12
Okay, is Baldi’s Basics in Education and Learning a masterpiece in video game development? Not exactly. But it is an absolute must-play in the world of itch.io games because it’s crazy difficult, hilarious, and downright disturbing. Without giving too much away, Baldi’s Basics is a cult classic game that parodies those terrible educational PC games from the 90s, with a survival horror spin, of all things.
When you’re given the simple task of collecting a friend’s forgotten notebooks from school, there is absolutely no predicting what will happen when you anger the teacher who insists on giving you math problems in exchange for the notebooks. Baldi’s Basics became popular with streamers who tried to beat it at all costs and is so beloved that it had a Kickstarter campaign for Baldi’s Basics Plus.
5. Faith
Developer: Airdorf
Among itch.io’s most famous and highly-regarded horror games, Faith uses Atari-era graphics to tell a legitimately terrifying story about how demonic possession destroyed a family. You play as a priest who’s returning to the home of the Martin family just a year after you performed an exorcism that left only two people alive.
The game’s storyline is surprisingly complex for what you’d expect from such simple graphics, and the atmosphere is tense from the very start. As you explore the woods and the Martin house, you can never let your guard down because demonic forces lurk around every corner. Although Faith has five different endings, you really only need to finish one to see why it’s one of itch.io’s best free games you can play if you don’t plan on sleeping tonight.
4. Coming Out Simulator 2014
Developer: Nicky Case
Another free game hit from Nicky Case, the developer behind We Become What We Behold, Coming Out Simulator 2014 tells an equally meaningful but far more personal real-life story. And although itch.io has a wide variety of games about the LGBTQ+ experience, Coming Out Simulator 2014 sets itself apart as a “conversation simulator” which the developer says is based on real feelings but not real events.
You play as the game’s creator on the night he decides to come out to his parents. The short but effective story that ensues is made real by the fact that you, as the player, are trying to tread as lightly as possible so as not to upset anyone with your news. Coming Out Simulator represents how video games can mean so much more in the right context, and the fact that it’s free makes it that much more influential.
3. Friday Night Funkin’
Developer: ninjamuffin99
Belonging to the most popular indie rhythm games of all time, Friday Night Funkin’ also happens to be free to play. Unlike some other music games, Friday Night Funkin’ has surprisingly intuitive controls and an ideal difficulty curve to let you pick up the game pretty quickly. Its soundtrack, art style, and wacky sense of humor are just a few of the things that make it among the best free games on itch.io.
Friday Night Funkin’ is a series of singing battles against various bosses who stand in the way of you enjoying a nice night out with your girlfriend. Some of these bosses are hiding third-stage secrets that you only find out if you beat their first two stages. So if you’re into rhythm games and you’ve never played this one, stop what you’re doing and go play Friday Night Funkin’ right now.
2. Doki Doki Literature Club!
Developer: Team Salvato
At first glance, the visual novel Doki Doki Literature Club! doesn’t seem much like a horror game at all. In fact, if it wasn’t such a popular horror game, it might still have a chance to fool players. It starts out as a very typical visual novel set in a high school, but soon reveals itself to be more chaotic.
When you’re coerced by a close friend and neighbor to join a literature club with her and three other girls, everything seems to be going great in your life as a teenage boy. But then, things take a turn for the disturbing. Doki Doki Literature Club! has one of the wildest, most unique endings of a video game ever. It manages to pull off a twist and break the fourth wall in a way that will leave you utterly stunned.
1. Deltarune
Developer: Tobyfox
As the follow-up to one of the greatest indie games of all time, Toby Fox’s Deltarune takes the top spot here because, even though it’s not finished yet, it’s an instant classic. Deltarune is set in a parallel universe to Undertale and it’s similar in the sense that it’s a top-down RPG with bullet hell sections and puzzles, but it also does a few things differently like a multi-party combat system.
Currently on the second of five planned episodes, Deltarune’s story revolves around a teenager named Kris who lives in a world full of monsters and finds himself pulled into the “Dark World” with his classmate. If you like the soundtrack, character development, and humor of Undertale, it’s easy to see why Deltarune is the best free game on itch.io if you’re looking for an unforgettable indie game experience.
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