So, I love looking through your game recs, and all of them look so interesting!
The only problem is that I have zero money at the moment, or at least zero that can be spent of games.
I don’t suppose you know any good/enjoyable games that are free or have a demo?
(There is only so much time you can spend doing housework or looking for work and I’ve replayed and replayed the games I’ve already got so many times)
It’s funny you should ask. Folks often ask me how the hell I have thousands of games in my Steam library, and the answer is, well, a substantial chunk of them are free to play. Many of them are very, very bad, but there are exceptions – I’ve placed links to the 120 or so that I’d actually recommend to other people under the cut.
A lot of these games are quite short (i.e., average playing time in the five to fifteen minute range), but they're free, so really that's good value for your money! Note: owing to the length of this list, I will not be including descriptions or content warnings – be sure to check the writeups and reviews.
I’ve marked my personal top dozen with asterisks (*). These aren’t necessarily the most approachable or well-constructed titles on this list, mind – just the ones I had the most fun with.
A few more that I've picked up in the months since I made the initial post, plus a number I overlooked the first time around. Again, I make no promises that any of these games are good – only that a. they're genuinely free to play at the time of posting, with no pay-to-win or DLC bullshit, and b. I enjoyed playing them.
A Game with a Kitty 1 & Darkside Adventures
Bass Monkey
Cave Crawler
Dagon: by H. P. Lovecraft
Daikaiju Daikessen: Versus (early access)
Fayburrow
Greed
Hero's Descent
Hex Rally Racers
Ibatic
Kulebra and the Souls of Limbo (demo)
Lawyer Guy: Defender of Justice (early access)
Pacifish
Penimorta
Quasimorphosis: Exordium
Shadow Burglar
Sword of Atlas
Syzygy
Time Thief
Wetware
(Note: a few of the preceding titles are demo or early access versions, so there's no guarantee that the eventual full versions will be free – I've marked which they are. If you're reading this post years after the fact and those ones are asking for money, it's not my fault!)
I've mostly been playing commercial titles these past few months, but I managed to squeak in about a dozen free-to-play ones as well. As always, see below!
The Dark Egg
Han'yo
Just a Humble Swordsmith
Mosaic Hearts (prototype demo)
Nohra
No More Future (early access)
Outcore: Desktop Adventure
Outnumbered
RavenWeald
Resonance of the Ocean
White Mirror
A small batch to kick off the year. I've included several pay-what-you-want titles published via itch.io in this set, which technically isn't free-as-in-free, but eh... close enough! Some of these are also game jam entries coded in just a few days, so set your expectations accordingly.
Agnolita
Bad Monday Simulator (play online)
Bloody Hell
Butterfly Soup (pay-what-you-want)
Decline (pay-what-you-want)
Delivery Quest (pay-what-you-want)
Dormiveglia (demo)
Face Love! (play online)
In The Rural Village of Nagoro
Legends of Astravia (demo, pay-what-you-want)
Mega Serval
Rescape (pay-what-you-want)
Super Beast Hunt
Super Drill Driver!
Utomah
Vermillion Descent (demo)
WooLoop
YuraYura!
A few more that I've enjoyed over the past couple of months for Easter weekend. It's a slow time of year for major releases, so this batch is mostly demos, game jam entries, and student projects, with a couple of significant exceptions. You'll know 'em when you see 'em!
The Coffin of Andy and Leyley (pay-what-you-want)
Don't Watch the Moon (play online)
Floe (pay-what-you-want)
Haunted Lands: Burial Grounds (pay-what-you-want)
HellFurnace (note: English not supported)
Junk Trash Hop (demo)
Lady Comet (play online)
Life After Magic (demo)
Light of Atlantis (demo)
Lovebirb
Melissa (play online)
The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog
Ogre Chambers DX
SkyIsland
Soul Void (demo)
Starburster (demo)
To Free and Love Myself
Weird and Unfortunate Things Are Happening
An even dozen this time around. The topic of janky indie horror RPGMaker games recently came up in another post, and there happen to be a couple of those in this batch – I've marked them with asterisks*.
Classmates*
Fragments of Euclid (pay-what-you-want)
Hellfire Pizza (play online)
How We Know We're Alive
Idol Showdown
Landfall Archives
lycoris;lastwords
Regenesis
Super Stoner Serenade
Sylvie wasn't feeling well today so she went on an adventure to meet different kittens. (play online)
There is Something in the Anderghast Mine*
Xenosis
This month's batch has a fair number of browser games and SAGE 2023 demos in it, but also a few downloadable full games. Owing to the number of game jams and fan expos clustered around this time of year, it's a bigger list than usual – fair warning!
Antigone Will Take The Stairs Today (play online)
Apoclueless
Beecarbonize
birdsong (play online)
Bonnie's Bakery (play online)
Bubblegum Bandit
B.U.D.D. (demo)
Custodian: Beginning of the End
Éclipse The Cat (demo)
game inside a game inside a game inside a game inside a game inside a game (play online)
Growmi (play online)
It gets so lonely here
Jimi can not read (play online)
Last Chance in Xollywood
MechaMagika (play online)
Moose Lost in the Woods
Project Sphinx
Revenge of the shadow ninja
The Secret of NecroNancy
SHIFT (pay-what-you-want)
South Scrimshaw, Part One
Space Expedition
Susan Taxpayer (demo)
Test Test Test (pay-what-you-want)
TRY AGAIN
Unsorted Horror
Weeping Rosemary (demo, pay-what-you-want)
Probably the last one of these I'm going to put together before the new year. If you're looking for something to occupy your time over the holidays, hopefully something on this list has six weeks worth of play in it for you.
36 apples
All Our Asias
Disfigure
Elephant Rave 2
Folder Dungeon (play online)
Franzen
Freja and the False Prophecy (pay-what-you-want, demo)
Head Over Heels
Keep the Lights On
Little Runmo - The Game
Moonring
The Nexatli Expedition (demo)
No Follow (play online)
Nymphiad
Pachinko Man (play online)
Pokini Kagura (pay-what-you-want, demo)
Potionforge (play online)
protoViolence
Southern Cross (play online)
Stares Back (pay-what-you-want)
StormEdge: Winds of Change (demo)
Tendril: Echo Received (demo)*
Tynk! and the Final Phonorecord (pay-what-you-want, demo)
Underlevel
Unnamed.
We're Tethered Together
* this one is a forum thread, and access to the files is... interestingly organised; at the time of this posting, the link to the latest demo is in post 233 (halfway down page 12 if you're using the default posts-per-page settings)
Happy belated New Year. My budget is still recovering from Christmas, so I've been playing a lot of bite-size free browser games these past couple of months, with some notable exceptions. Two of those exceptions are homebrew ROM images for classic consoles, one for the Super Nintendo and one for the Sega Genesis, so you'll need to supply your own emulator; I've marked which ones they are so you're not left wondering how to play a .BIN file.
Astra Hunter Zosma
Baby Time! (play online)
Carbon Steel (pay-what-you-want)
Closing at 2 (play online)
Dottie Flowers (demo, ROM)*
Galactic Foodtruck Simulator 2999 (play online)
Hamayumishi -Chochin Challenge- (play online)
Hunter Girls (demo, ROM)
Marta Explorer (play online)
Mimic Logic (demo)
Rising Up (play online)
Sealed Fortress (demo)
Snake on a Train (play online)
Swordbird Song: The Iron Owl Tower (play online)
* This one's an odd duck. It's a downloadable Super Nintendo ROM containing a demo version of the game, but the full version can't be purchased anywhere; if you want to get your hands on it, you have to follow secret instructions obtained by completing the demo, and the creator will mail you a physical Super Nintendo cartridge containing the full game. Figuring out how to play it is apparently a you problem!
I've been playing a bunch of homebrew titles for the Game Boy lately – yes, the original Game Boy – so that's a fair chunk of what you're getting this time. Most are playable in-browser as well; as in the previous batch, I'll specifically mark any for which you'll need to download a ROM image and provide your own Game Boy emulator.
Anguna: Warriors of Virtue (ROM)
Annihilator (play online)
Black Castle (play online)
Deadeus (pay-what-you-want, ROM)
Eldritchvania
Ex Vitro
Feud
Fractal Sailor (tech demo)
High Danger (play online)
The Melting Apartment (play online)
Nip for Speed (pay-what-you-want)
Nyghtmare: The Ninth King (play online)
The Penjikent Creature
Please, Touch The Artwork 2
Psycutlery
Sheepy: a Short Adventure
Skelethrone: The Prey
Traumatarium (play online)
I deliberately avoided updating this during Steam Next Fest because I didn't want to clog up the list with a bunch of games that were only free and/or had free demos for that one week. I'm also going to back-fill this update with a handful of old favourites which I just realised I'd never included in any previous instalment; a couple are old Flash games, so you may need a Flash emulator to play them – I've marked which ones those are.
16 Ways to Kill a Vampire at McDonalds (play online)
20 Small Mazes
Akatori: Chapter One (demo)
Cookard
Gnarled Hag
Indigo Park: Chapter 1 (demo)
Loved (play online)
Mad Science Interactive: Evil Embryology (play online)
Mighty Jill Off
Mystic Matrix (play online)
No-One Has to Die (Flash)
Prey at the Altar (pay-what-you-want)
Rabbit Hole
Rental
Rooms
Small Worlds (Flash)
I finally got around to trying (most of) the SAGE 2024 demos, so here are my top dozen picks, along with many other odds and ends I've come across in the last four months. Fair warning: this is a big one!
Adventure Kitty Drill Busters: Light's Out (demo, SAGE 2024)
Aurascope (demo, SAGE 2024)
The Big Catch: Tacklebox (demo)
Blobun (demo, SAGE 2024)
Brutalist Golf
Dinner With an Owl
Dungeon Gals (demo, SAGE 2024)
Eternal Daughter*
The Final Cat (play online)
Firedog: Swooce & Rescue (demo, SAGE 2024)
First Snow (demo)
Floodcore
Foxblade Fable (demo, SAGE 2024)
Funeralopolis
Garbage Girl Louise (demo, SAGE 2024)
Home World Run (demo, SAGE 2024)
I Cannot Drown (pay-what-you-want)
Illusion Carnival
LXD :: Red Honey
Lyrestruck (demo, SAGE 2024)
A Machine That Kills You (pay-what-you-want)
> meow
NEON STRUCT: Desperation Column
Nimble Ember
Paraedolon
Plasma
The Pocket Master
Porkbound (pay-what-you-want)
Prototype N (demo, SAGE 2024)
Psychopomp
Quiet is the Eyes
RoboGAL (demo, SAGE 2024)
Secrets Under Eco
Spatial Dip (tech demo, pay-what-you-want)
Storm of the Swan (pay-what-you-want)
Trigaea
Vessels (pay-what-you-want)
vivid/stasis (early access)
Voices of the Void (pre-alpha, pay-what-you-want)
Voir Dire
Witchfall: Secrets of Emotica (demo, SAGE 2024)
Wonder Wickets
Yes, And So Our Hollow Hearts Called For Love
* This one's a freeware title from way back in 2002, so no promises that it will work in your computer without significant tinkering, or at all.
























