Upcoming Indie Games to Wishlist on Steam (January 2026)

This is our first Wishlist Wednesday of the year, and we’re starting strong.

This week, we’re highlighting a lineup of indie games that span reflective storytelling, strategic experimentation, co-op spectacle, and high-intensity survival. Whether you’re looking for something emotional, tactical, or chaotic, these titles are all worth keeping on your radar.

If any of them catch your eye, now is the perfect time to wishlist them on Steam and support the developers behind them.

🌿 Kinsfolk

Developer: Vinko Kodzoman

Kinsfolk is a quiet, heartfelt narrative experience that lasts around 40 minutes. Despite its short length, it delivers a deeply meaningful story about memory, reflection, and the complex bonds between parents and children.

In Kinsfolk, you step into the role of a new father. Through his eyes, the game revisits pivotal moments from his past—his childhood struggles, his relationship with his own father, and how those experiences shape the parent he is becoming.

Rather than telling one continuous story, Kinsfolk unfolds through short, self-contained vignettes set across different times and places. As a result, exploration plays a key role. Some memories surface naturally, while others remain hidden, encouraging players to slow down, observe, and reflect.

According to early impressions from LadiesGamers, the game’s greatest strength is its restraint. Instead of relying on heavy exposition, Kinsfolk uses environments, symbolism, and small interactions to carry its emotional weight. Because of this, the experience feels personal and intimate rather than instructional.

Additionally, the LadiesGamers impressions highlight that Kinsfolk is best experienced in a single sitting. It isn’t about mechanical mastery. Instead, it’s about absorbing the story and letting its themes settle.

Kinsfolk launches on Thursday, January 8th — the day after this post goes live — which makes now the perfect moment to wishlist it ahead of release.

🔗 Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2876610/Kinsfolk/
📝 LadiesGamers Impressions: https://ladiesgamers.com/kinsfolk-demo-impressions/

🐲 Catch & Defense

Developer: Betaking Studios

Catch & Defense blends tower defense, roguelike progression, and monster collection into a strategy-focused experience built around experimentation.

At the start of each run, players face waves of monsters attacking their base across hostile biomes. While turrets form the foundation of your defenses, the game introduces a key twist: every enemy can be captured.

Once captured, monsters become part of your defensive card deck. From there, you can deploy their abilities, combine them with turrets, and experiment with powerful synergies. As a result, survival becomes just as much about creativity as it is about planning.

Before each wave, you also expand the terrain itself. These randomly generated expansions create longer and more complex enemy paths. Consequently, enemies face tougher routes, and no two runs ever feel the same.

The game includes:

70 unique monsters
10 turret types
A detailed Monster Book that tracks encounters, captures, and stats

Catch & Defense launches on January 22nd, so now is an excellent time to wishlist it and follow its release.

🔗 Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3930410/Catch__Defense/

🔮 Cast Outs

Developer: Twisted Works

Cast Outs is a modern-fantasy co-op action game set in a reimagined London infused with myth and magic. Designed from the ground up for shared play, it blends the immediacy of a shooter with the physical impact of a brawler—where every spell feels powerful, deliberate, and satisfying.

According to the official Twisted Works announcement, Cast Outs focuses on visceral magical combat and emergent co-op combos, encouraging players to chain abilities together and actively bend the battlefield to their will. Rather than treating co-op as a supporting feature, the game builds its core systems around true synergy, where teamwork amplifies individual power and creates memorable, player-driven moments.

The game places you and your crew in the middle of a city under siege. Orcs, ogres, cyclops, wraiths, dragons, and other mythic invaders pour into the streets, turning London into a fast-paced urban battleground. Throughout each session, players tackle a variety of modes—including combat runs, escort missions, horde encounters, speed runs, and challenges—designed for both quick play sessions and longer co-op nights.

Twisted Works describes its design philosophy as taking familiar genre foundations and twisting them into bold new realities. Their goal is to deliver experiences that feel immediately approachable while still surprising players with discovery, spectacle, and emotional connection. This philosophy carries through Cast Outs, which emphasizes instant fun, emergent gameplay, and shared stories—whether you’re playing with close friends or jumping in with randoms.

Behind the game is a studio formed by industry veterans from PlayStation London Studio, Disney Interactive, Square Enix, Guerrilla Cambridge, Creative Assembly, Blur, and more. The leadership team’s experience spans major action and character-focused titles such as Horizon Forbidden West, Blood & Truth, Resident Evil 7, Killzone, Total War, and Middle-earth: Shadow of War. That pedigree shows in the game’s focus on tight combat, readable action, and character-driven design.

Built for 2–4 players, Cast Outs aims to deliver blockbuster-style action without grind—prioritizing accessibility, replayability, and unforgettable co-op moments.

🔗 Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3307340/Cast_Outs/

🚀 Shape Swarm

Developer: Digital Sagas LLC

Shape Swarm is a fast-paced bullet heaven set in the emptiness of space, where evolving geometric enemies converge from every direction. You are the last pilot holding the line, buying the colony fleet precious time to escape.

From the start, the odds are against you. With every passing minute, the swarm grows stronger, faster, and smarter. Rather than simply scaling numbers, enemies adapt to your tactics, forcing you to evolve just as quickly.

Adapt or Be Overwhelmed

This isn’t a fight you’re meant to win.

Enemies introduce new behaviors, formations, and pressures as your run progresses. As a result, what works early may fail minutes later. Every upgrade buys you time. The swarm decides how much.

Build Destructive Synergies

Throughout each run, you collect upgrades that transform your ship into a moving storm of destruction:

Orbiters slice through nearby threats
Rapid-fire barrages clear distant enemies
Explosive chain reactions tear through clustered formations

However, no build stays dominant for long.

Multiple Modes, Endless Pressure

Across multiple modes, Shape Swarm challenges you to hold the line under escalating pressure. Whether you’re racing the clock or pushing survival time, each mode offers a new way to test your build.

You won’t survive the swarm.
But the colony fleet might—if you can hold out just a little longer.

🔗 Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4252070/Shape_Swarm/

⭐ Wishlist & Support Indie Games

Ultimately, wishlisting a game on Steam is one of the simplest and most effective ways to support indie developers—especially near launch windows.

So if any of these games stood out, wishlist them today.
We’ll see you next Wednesday.

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