Wardogs, Valheim 1.0 and a Packed Week of Indie Games to Watch

Indie games are covering an enormous range of ideas this week, from a 100-player tactical shooter built around territorial control to a survival phenomenon finally reaching version 1.0 after five years in Early Access. There are also cat-breeding tactics, mushroom-stained deckbuilding, an RPG rendered with ASCII art, a capybara puzzle hero and a Scotland-set shooter led by an undead William Wallace.

The biggest immediate stories belong to Wardogs-turns-100-player-warfare-into-a-tense-economy-driven-battlefield/">Wardogs and Valheim, two very different games with large communities and ambitious multiplayer foundations. But the rest of the lineup makes a persuasive argument for looking beyond the major releases. Several smaller projects are taking familiar genres in unusual directions, whether that means pairing exploration cards with combat cards, turning defeated enemies into crafting material, or making cooking co-op into an FPS battlefield.

Wardogs opens with enormous Steam numbers

Bulkhead's Wardogs, published by Team17, has entered Steam Early Access for Windows at $40. It is already off to an exceptionally strong start, having sold more than one million copies and reached a first-day concurrent-player peak of 340,171 on Steam.

Rather than following the battle royale or extraction-shooter formulas that dominate much of the modern multiplayer FPS space, Wardogs is structured around a king-of-the-hill objective. Matches support up to 100 players, divided into three squads, with each side competing to control a two-kilometer-square zone. That zone can appear anywhere across one of the game's three maps.

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Holding the zone is the route to victory, but numbers matter: the more teammates a squad has inside the target area, the faster it earns points. The first team to reach 100 points wins. The setup should create a different rhythm from games where survival alone is the priority, rewarding transportation, reinforcement and coordinated pushes toward a shared destination.

Wardogs also includes local voice chat, allowing players to communicate with opponents as well as allies, plus base construction and destruction. Its economy may prove to be one of its defining systems. Players purchase a loadout each time they spawn, then gain more cash through actions such as defending the control zone, carrying teammates to it, reviving allies and eliminating enemies.

Unused money persists into the following match. That makes spending decisions meaningful: investing in a vehicle or a powerful kit may help secure the current game, but it could leave a player with limited equipment when the next round begins. Wardogs is planned for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S in 2028.

Valheim leaves Early Access at last

Valheim has formally launched its 1.0 version after five years in Early Access. Iron Gate's Norse mythology-inspired survival game is available for $30 on Steam for Windows, Mac and SteamOS/Linux, as well as Humble, the Mac App Store, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox for PC, PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch 2. It is Steam Deck Verified.

The full release arrives alongside PlayStation 5 and Switch 2 versions, and it supports cross-platform play for up to 10 people. That broad compatibility is especially valuable for a co-op survival game, where gathering a regular group can be more difficult than surviving its monsters and harsh biomes.

Version 1.0 adds the Deep North biome and a substantial selection of new content. Players can expect further weapons, armor sets, tools, creatures, materials, locations, events and building options, among other additions. A new animated introduction also accompanies the update.

Valheim became an Early Access success almost immediately when it arrived in 2021, and it has now exceeded 17 million copies sold. The game's procedurally generated world, base-building systems and Viking-themed progression have clearly sustained a devoted audience over the years. For players who stepped away after its initial wave of popularity, the 1.0 release offers a natural reason to revisit the world and see how much larger it has become.

Mewgenics brings its cat strategy to consoles

Mewgenics, the long-in-development strategy RPG from Edmund McMillen and Tyler Glaiel, is now available on Switch 2, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S for $40. It had previously launched on Steam and sold one million copies during its first week earlier this year.

The game revolves around breeding cats to combine traits and abilities, then taking a chosen group into turn-based runs. Cats that complete a successful run are no longer used as active party members; instead, they enter the breeding side of the game. That structure places long-term planning at the center of its roguelike-style battles.

Players can experiment with powers, mutations, classes, items and other traits, aiming to develop increasingly unusual feline lineups. The scale is intentionally absurd. McMillen previously said the game contains 74 sextillion basic cats, with the figure growing even further once mutations, classes, abilities and voices are considered. It is a systems-heavy concept, but the console launch gives more players a chance to discover whether they can build the ideal battle-ready cat family.

Two striking new releases for Steam players

Shroom and Gloom from Team Lazerbeam and Devolver Digital is available in Steam Early Access for Windows and Mac at $15. At first glance it fits comfortably into dungeon-crawling deckbuilder territory, with turn-based fights and a distinctly grimy, stylized presentation. Its major twist is that it is a double deckbuilder.

One collection of cards is used in combat, while another is dedicated to exploration. Exploration cards can be spent on resting, adjusting cards and unlocking abilities, tying the game's route through a dungeon to its evolving combat options. There are also unusual interactions between its systems. An enemy killed with fire can become food, and consuming that food can turn another card into a weapon without a casting cost.

Shroom and Gloom has not yet received Steam Deck Verified status, although it is currently playable on the handheld. Its early mechanics suggest a deckbuilder designed around experimentation rather than merely assembling a bigger pile of cards.

Effulgence RPG, developed and published by Andrei Fomin, has meanwhile left Early Access on Steam for Windows. It normally costs $20 and has a 25 percent discount through September 24. The game is playable on Steam Deck.

Its immediate visual hook is hard to miss: three-dimensional characters and environments are made from ASCII symbols. The striking art is paired with an equally unconventional party-RPG progression system. Defeated enemies break apart into particles that can be gathered and fed into a matter printer, which can create weapons and equipment even while a battle is in progress.

Fomin estimates a playthrough will take around five to seven hours, making Effulgence RPG a potentially appealing option for players seeking a compact RPG with a very distinct look and a clever resource loop.

2027 puzzle games, culinary chaos and magical mice

Several announced games are also worth keeping on the radar. Puzzlez - A Shapez Game is a 2027 Steam project from Tobspr Games and Doyoyo Games. It spins the automation ideas of the Shapez series into compact, puzzle-first levels. Players will build automated solutions in limited spaces across more than 75 handcrafted stages, while also gaining the ability to create and share their own challenges.

Yuzutsu, due on Steam in 2027 from solo developer Jinjja, stars a capybara monk named Taomaru who simply wants to enjoy a hot spring. Enemies complicate the plan, but Taomaru does not need to confront them directly. He can exchange positions with opponents and objects, potentially redirecting an enemy's own attack back at them. Handcrafted puzzles gradually introduce more mechanics, and stages can be restarted instantly to encourage alternate solutions.

Mayhem à la Carte is expected to enter Steam Early Access in 2027. Developed by Ingame Studios and published by 505 Games, it combines cooperative cooking with first-person shooting. Players must prepare and serve food with friends while fighting invaders using conventional weapons and stranger tools, including thrown knives, toast, lobsters, freezing effects and shrinking abilities. It sounds purpose-built for groups that find ordinary kitchen coordination insufficiently chaotic.

For a more gentle-looking co-op adventure, Hela: of Mice & Magic launches December 1 on Steam, Switch 2, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox for PC and PlayStation 5. It will be available through Game Pass. Windup's game allows up to four players to control mice trying to restore a world after a kind witch falls ill. The group will collect ingredients, make potions and help the places they visit. Solo players can create copies of their mouse to aid with puzzles and traversal, while a magical backpack provides another useful tool.

Graveheart's very strange historical premise

Finally, 9000 Legends is preparing Graveheart, an 1980s-set boomer shooter with a premise that is difficult to confuse with anything else. Players are tasked with stopping an undead army commanded by a zombie William Wallace as it marches south to liberate Scotland from the rest of Great Britain.

The FPS will feature a curse system that randomly changes a player's weapons, along with reactive enemies. Setting one foe on fire, for example, may cause nearby enemies to panic. A demo is expected to appear during Steam Next Fest in October.

Whether players want massive objective warfare, Viking survival, deeply layered cat breeding, tiny automation puzzles or a capybara equipped to outwit gunfire, this week's indie slate has no shortage of personality. Valheim's finished version and Wardogs' explosive opening will command the most attention, but the smaller games may be where the most surprising ideas are waiting.