Hello everyone,

I’m new to the itch.io community and super excited to be here! I’ve always been a big fan of indie games because of their creativity and unique storytelling. I recently discovered itch.io, and it feels like I’ve stepped into a whole new world of games I never knew existed.

I’m currently looking for some game recommendations to get started. I love anything with a strong narrative, creative puzzles, or even something a bit weird and experimental! I’m particularly drawn to games that make me think or have a really atmospheric vibe.

If anyone has favorites they think I should try, please let me know! I’m excited to dive into what itch.io has to offer and support some awesome indie developers.

Thanks in advance, and I’m looking forward to exploring more with all of you!

Welcome in!

Strong narrative and creative puzzles? We have those! :D

https://krunchyfriedgames.itch.io/five-day-detective

Hi! I created The Forest of Endings. It is a puzzle game about trying to find all the different endings in a cheerful forest.

It doesn’t have the strongest narrative, but there is a bit of lore that I don’t think anyone’s found? Plus, it is completely based upon the story with micro-interactions with the characters.

The Game

Try this: The War of the Worlds Multiplayer by Team Green (itch.io)

Welcome to Itch.io!

If you enjoy horror survival games, check out Phantom's Estate. It's just been updated to —v0.3: "The Sanity Shift." This new update adds a Sanity System that affects how the ghosts behave. The lower your sanity, the more aggressive they get, and the less evidence they leave behind.

Give it a try, and I’d love to hear your thoughts if you play!

Welcome to Itch.io!

If you're into Horror Survival games then give this a try!

It's just been updated to v0.3 called "The Sanity Shift" where sanity has been brought into the game and depending no your sanity the ghosts will be stronger. Let me know what you think if you play it!

https://realmadchicken.itch.io/phantoms-estate

Hello andileluthuli, do you like jumpscare ? Try my game Pikabuu: Antar, a horror game with story

https://joykeratif.itch.io/pikabuu-antar

Welcome aboard andileluthuli.

I love anything with a strong narrative, creative puzzles, or even something a bit weird and experimental! I’m particularly drawn to games that make me think or have a really atmospheric vibe.

I rarely play such games so it's hard to find something to recommend. However, I did find something quite close to your description: Lost in Lampyrid Fog. It has unique atmosphere which part of its lore and you really have to think to solve puzzles and win the game.

Hi,

How about a quirky and experimental platforming game?

https://themetalcarrotdev.itch.io/steppingstonejack

Me and my team (Millisecond Studios) made Dishes n' Dragons. It has a fun story and intricate strategic gameplay. Hope it's enjoyable!

Hello, and welcome!

Typically everyone here recommends their own games, but I'll try to refrain from that... Are you looking for free or paid games?

If you look at my creator page, I share a couple of collections: the arcade games collection contains free, short and fun browser games. The bundle collections contain some of my favorite paid games on here.

Considering your preferences, if you're looking for paid games: I can really recommend Hypagogia Boundless Dreams (weird, atmospheric), Pikuniku (narrative, simple puzzles, very funny) and Micro Dash (exploration, puzzles, retro) - you can find the links in my collections.

We just released a puzzle horror game that takes place in an abstract environment. It has a few hours of content and a unique story that actually happened to one of our team members. It is a commercial game though, currently on sale. https://thehemohscinproject.itch.io/another-nightmare

my rpg maker game, The Greatest Story Ever Told 3 goes FAR into weird/experimental territory with tons of beavis and butthead / early southpark -esque humor, give it a shot of that sounds interesting to you! also feel free to tell me what you thought of the game if you do play it, i always love to hear feedback on my projects!
https://vetticon.itch.io/the-greatest-story-ever-told-3

Welcome to itch! If you're a fan of old-school ARPGs, you'll like this one. This is Tower of the Immortals, which draws a ton of inspiration from Diablo, A Link to the Past, and Baldur's Gate (both from PC and console). The current build already has hours of content if you decide to play all of it! You can find it here: https://bynary-fission.itch.io/tower-of-the-immortals

if you like puzzle adventure games where you can approach it in a variety of different ways check my game Crown Jewelz. I have a free demo also to entice peopel to try it. Hope you can check it out and support me :)

Crown Jewelz by fun games for all

Heyope, welcome to itch. There's all kinds of games here.

My first recommendation would be to try check out anyone you see. Be it the comments on this post, the comments on other posts or the comments on games. Many people on here are developers so it is easy to find games by just clicking on someones profile.
And of course you can search via Tags on itchio. If you use RSS feeds you can even subscribe to them and get all the games of a specific genre.

Some stuff I can recommend specifically based on your current interests (they are either atmospheric, Puzzle games, or have some unique/experimental mechanics):
Context Catacombs - A really fantastic Puzzle game. It got a fantastic atmosphere and really unique mechanic. The Puzzles are also some great stuff.
Miss Paint - A simple Puzzle Platformer with a very unique mechanic
Drone delivery Despair - A dreadfully dark atmospheric game... Though it kinda made me wanna speedrun it
Yuuma Game - Really Unique Bullet Hell game
HEDGEWIZARDS - Unique jumping Mechanic
Birdsong - Very Unique short Metroidvania
A time Travellers Guide to past Delicacies - WEEEEEEEEEEEIIIIIIIIIIRRRRD (seriously I have no clue what this is meant to be about)
Dire Decks - Classic Unique Itchio
We Become What we Behold - Thoughtprovoking small game about news
let there be Knight - Puzzle Game
Fragments of Euclid - really atmospheric Puzzle Game
(Do check out all their Developer pages too)

And for any further recommendations I am sadly too lazy.
I do have a list of all the games I played last year. It is in my 2023 Lookback. There's quite a bunch of games there which are really cool.

If you're interested in my games, I usually try to make smallish games with maybe a little interesting thing, but nothing too special. Currently I don't have many projects on here because I've been polishing a single project for A LONG time now. Though that'll be finished soon

Welcome to Itch! It's full of all kinds of games of all levels of polish, genres, etc. so you're bound to find something you like.

But, since your preferences aren't exactly aligned with mine, I can't give you anything that's that up your alley. But, as others are sharing their own games, perhaps you'd enjoy strategizing and putting together the most optimal defenses to survive an onslaught of pirates in my game Recolonizer (https://forloopcowboy.itch.io/recolonizer). It's quite the opposite of experimental, and not exactly a puzzle game, but it will definitely make you think about how you go about defending your island. 

As a developer, I enjoy selecting the same tags as my own game, and going on the Most Recent tab and seeing what other people are making. It's fun to engage with other people's creations, and see at what stages of development they are. I will warn you to avoid downloading executables. Unless I'm feeling adventurous, if the game is not browser playable, I avoid it.

https://sleepyhollow-games.itch.io/beyond is my game

I just developed my "Sun Tzu makes game". It is a simple tactical game that you can calculate your force deployment to win the game. You can give it a try and if you win, you can collect our travel voucher for your trip to Vietnam. I would love to hear your feedback. TIA

https://tonquin-travel.itch.io/coloa-siege-battle

Hello,

Not sure if you're looking for more video game type stuff, or just games in general, but I wanted to mention mine.  It's called 4 Stories and it's a story continuation game.   There's 4 story prompts available, as well as starter items.  The idea is to pick one of the prompts, choose 2 of the starter items (that fit with the story), and continue things until a positive outcome is reached.

https://danielles-games.itch.io/4-stories