4 – They Are Billions
They Are Billions is another gem of an indie. The kind of formula that could only arise from an independent studio making its own design decisions. A challenging, post-apocalyptic steampunk real-time strategy (RTS) game with strong elements of survival and tower defense. Set on a zombie-ravaged planet, the player’s primary goal is to build, manage, and defend a human colony against colossal waves of the infected, which can number in the tens of thousands on screen at once. The game’s brutal difficulty stems from a core mechanic: if even a single infected manages to breach defenses and infect just one building, the dwellers will come out infected, and spread to other buildings, and soon, the entire colony can rapidly fall in an irreversible, chain-reaction outbreak. This also forces you to think about segmenting your city’s defenses and plan around that very real possibility.
3 – FTL: Faster Than Light
FTL: Faster Than Light is a lot of things: A seminal roguelike-like (or roguelite) strategy and spaceship simulation game, an indie breakout hit, but most importantly, one of my favorite games of all time. The core of the game involves commanding a lone, small starship and its crew as they race across a randomly generated galaxy, hopping from system to system to deliver vital data to the Galactic Federation while being relentlessly pursued by a massive Rebel Fleet. The gameplay is a tense, top-down tactical experience where you, the player, must constantly manage the ship’s individual systems, juggle your limited crew around to prioritize specific tasks, and target the enemy’s ship. It’s a tough game, a very difficult roguelike, but one of the best ever made. Even over a decade after it came out, it’s still ranking high amongst the best indie strategy games you can buy on the Steam Autumn Sale 2025. A true testament to its amazing design.
2 – Into The Breach
If FTL: Faster than Light proved that the developer behind it had some great ideas, then their second game, Into The Breach, just cleared any doubts that what happened was lightning in a bottle. Instead, Into The Breach quickly became recognized as a masterful turn-based tactical strategy game with roguelite elements. The player commands a squad of three time-traveling mechs to defend humanity’s power grid from a relentless, giant insectoid alien race called the Vek across procedurally generated islands. Yes, it’s basically time-travelling Pacific Rim with pixel art. What more do you need?
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