10 more indie horror games worth playing this spooky season (2026)

As the nights draw in (thankfully) and the temperature drops (again, hoorah), the imminent arrival of October can mean only one thing: spooky season is finally here, and with it comes a whole host of new horror games. This time of year is my favorite in both reality and gaming, and there are so many incredible horror games just waiting to be discovered. 

It’s been more than a year since I last dived into my endless list of indie horror demos and compiled a list of games worth watching, and it’s high time I made that standalone list into a little yearly tradition.  So on that note, here are 10 more indie horror games that you should definitely be checking out this spooky season (or whenever you happen to stumble across this!)

Family Business

In Family Business, you start work at a burger and hot dog joint, working the night shift and serving customers their food. You have to cook everything from scratch, memorise orders, and otherwise just keep on top of things. 

However, what starts out as a lovely burger and hot dog grilling simulator quickly gets unsettling thanks to a creepy boss and some very disturbing stories about an ex-employee. Things just keep getting stranger and darker as the nights go on. With new items in stock every night, the orders get increasingly harder to remember, all while you learn more about the strange history of where you now work. 

Family Business is currently in development by Rage, but the demo is on Steam and well worth playing if you like your cooking games with a generous helping of deeply unsettling horror. Let me know if you’re as suspicious of the uncle as I am!

Tuned In

Tuned In is the kind of horror game that reshapes how you think about horror games. Everything is controlled using the dials on a TV, which correspond to the analog sticks on a controller.  There is no simple forward or back, left or right; everything is circular, and once you’ve adapted your mind to understand the concept, it’s an addictive experience that will leave you wanting more games like it. 

Playing Tuned In feels like stepping straight into the horror movies you watched as a kid when you definitely shouldn’t have, while simultaneously putting you in the driving seat as the main character. By exploring the channels on a cursed TV, you have to try to break free from the trauma it holds over you by confronting the past. Lines between reality and trauma-based misperception blur, and it’s an experience that sticks with you after you stop playing. 

Tuned In is still in development by Vercors Games and doesn’t have a set release date yet, but there is a demo available to play on Steam that’s absolutely worth checking out at least once.

The Apartment

You know that feeling you get when you cross the top of the stairs in the middle of the night and your subconscious whispers that there could be someone at the bottom watching you, no matter how unlikely that scenario is? That’s the general vibe in The Apartment, a deeply unsettling horror game that puts you in the middle of an apartment as it transforms into the very thing trying to take you out. 

Creepy neighbors who get a little bit too friendly, mysterious substances in the fridge that may or may not be milk, strange occurrences that only get more bizarre as time wears on, and multiple endings to discover with very different outcomes; The Apartment is one of those horror games that’s sure to get under your skin in a way that’s hard to shake off.

The Apartment is still in development by Ultima Thule Labs and doesn’t have a demo to try as of yet, but the developers have said that one is coming soon, so hopefully we don’t have to wait long to lock ourselves in this nightmare. And no, that’s not a sentence I ever thought I’d be typing. 

The Zibbo Show

Realistically speaking, The Zibbo Show is more of a deckbuilder and dice game than it is a horror game, but if the Saw franchise is considered a staple of the horror genre, then I can include The Zibbo Show on this list. I mean, just the knowledge that you’re being held hostage by a psychotic, sentient CRT TV game show host and you could literally lose your head if you don’t win the round is more than enough to leave you feeling a little on edge. 

Nine dice and some good upgrade choices are all that stand between you and your untimely, gory demise. With Zibbo himself offering words of wisdom and support, albeit the twisted kind, you will quickly find yourself happily defeating your opponents, who happen to be bound, gagged, and probably want to be there less than you do. 

The Zibbo Show is in development by Tessera Studios and is set to release at some point in 2026, but the demo is addictive enough to keep you going back for more multiple times before the full game drops. 

Pinnacle Point

Pinnacle Point is a survival horror game reminiscent of the Alan Wake games, including the familiar “light defeats the dark creatures” mechanic, which is absolutely one of my favorite mechanics of all time. Everything from the 90s vibes to the puzzles makes Pinnacle Point one of those demos that I have played and never forgotten, and now I’m patiently waiting for the full release.

You play as Aron, stranded on a desolate island and fending for yourself against an army of shadow creatures that want you dead, but thankfully you have your Resonator to break through their defences and take them out. The atmosphere is oppressive and eerie, with every sound making you flinch and turn around to see if you’re being followed, or more appropriately, hunted from behind.

Pinnacle Point is being developed by Ready2Run and doesn’t have a release date yet, but there is an amazing demo available to play on Steam if you want to soak in the atmosphere and get hooked on the story the game delivers so well. 

Spooky Tales

My love of all things dark and horror-related stems from watching horror anthology shows as a kid, like Tales from the Crypt and Are You Afraid of the Dark, so when I first saw Spooky Tales, I just knew that it had found its intended audience in me. I know I’m not alone; those shows shaped the childhoods of an entire generation, so if you haven’t heard of Spooky Tales, let this be your introduction. 

Spooky Tales puts you in the middle of the anthology, making you a pivotal part of four very different but equally terrifying tales of the paranormal, the unexplained, and the outright horrifying. From a Lovecraftian tale of the sea at its most horrifying to an 80s-inspired home-invasion nightmare brought to life, each tale is narrated by a Cryptkeeper-esque skeleton with a delightfully dark sense of humor.

If this anthology of horror tales sounds like something you’d enjoy, then welcome to the club; we don’t have cookies, but we do still have nightmares caused by things we weren’t rightfully old enough to be watching. Spooky Tales is being developed by Liminal Road and sadly doesn’t have a full release date just yet, but you can play the demo right now on Steam.

Iron Blight

Iron Blight is a survival game set in a post-apocalyptic Eastern Bloc town that skips straight over unsettling and directly into terrifying. With limited ammo and food, you’ve got to escape a zombie-infested town and make your way home to your wife, who may or may not have survived this extremely fresh outbreak, without falling victim to the infected yourself. 

In Iron Blight, one of the major enemies is your own complacency. It’s very easy to get used to things being a certain way, only for them to suddenly change, pulling the rug out from under you and forcing you to adapt to something new. Take the zombies, for instance: they switch between shambling and sprinting seemingly at random, are incredibly adept at sneaking up behind you, and they work together to break down doors. 

If you’re a fan of post-apocalyptic stories and PSX graphics, Iron Blight is one indie horror game you should definitely check out. It was developed by Ronesans Interactive and is out now, so you have no excuses not to give it a try.

Pepper the Giant Purple Dog

Pepper the Giant Purple Dog is what I imagine would happen if a game designer from the early 90s dropped some acid and had a bad trip while on the clock at the studio. It's a horror game that's initially disguised as something far more innocent, but it quickly descends into complete chaos and creepy absurdity.

This game-within-a-game has you playing as the unnamed owner of a giant purple dog named Pepper. Everything seems fine; you explore, you feed the dog, you pick up its poop with your bare hands... Except, when you start talking to your neighbors, they begin to say progressively stranger things, and then Pepper starts to make murderous requests.

Pepper the Giant Purple Dog is a wild ride into the kind of horror that has you questioning what you're seeing and struggling to explain it to anyone who has never played it before. Developed by Silvercity Sharks, there's no fixed release date just yet, but the demo is there if you want to experience the madness for yourself.

Enjoy Your Stay

If there’s one genre of games that is guaranteed to have me feeling on edge and jumpy, it’s anomaly games. There’s something about being told that I have to carefully monitor my surroundings for things that change while knowing I have all the observational powers of a blind raccoon that leaves me feeling at a disadvantage, which makes me uneasy. 

So when I first played Enjoy Your Stay and a note told me to “proceed slowly” because “no corner is safe”, it immediately had me on the edge of my seat. This anomaly game puts you on the ninth floor of an abandoned hotel and challenges you to make your way down. I have no idea why the elevator doesn’t seem to work, why the corridors are so dark, or why the hell my footsteps are so loud, but nothing in Enjoy Your Stay feels comfortable in the slightest (and I do mean that in the best way possible). 

Enjoy Your Stay has been developed by SuavePuppy Studios and is set for release on November 30, 2026. If you’re up for exploring this creepy and inexplicable hotel and can’t wait until then, you can go and play the demo right now. 

The Well Is Not Empty

Listen, as much as I love horror games, I’m also a massive wuss when it comes to jump scares. I’m the first person to frantically slam down on the pause button while yelling, “Oh hell no!”, and that’s exactly what The Well Is Not Empty has forced me to do multiple times already. This PSX-style indie horror is dark, gritty, and absolutely bloody horrifying. 

In The Well Is Not Empty, you’re sent (more like thrown) into an apparently empty well to investigate why there is no water. The clue is in the title here; the well is indeed NOT empty. Instead of water, though, there are a lot of terrifying, skittish monsters, deeply unsettling confined places, and a key to find. All of this is navigated while you desperately cling to your only weapon and hope of survival: a spoon. 

The Well Is Not Empty is a horror game that will leave you thinking two juxtaposed thoughts: “I desperately do not want to be here” and “I wonder what’s around that corner”. It was developed by TweakEra and released on September 7, 2026. There’s also a demo available if you want to get a taste before buying.