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Wardogs, Valheim 1.0 and other new indie games worth checking out
Engadget's latest indie games roundup highlights a busy week for the genre, headlined by the release of tactical shooter Wardogs and the full 1.0 launch of long-running survival hit Valheim. The piece also covers a workplace comedy sim, with further titles including a deckbuilder, a capybara puzzle game and one featuring an undead William Wallace mentioned in passing.
Wardogs, from developer Iron Gate and publisher Coffee Stain Publishing, has already sold over a million copies and peaked at 340,171 concurrent Steam players, offering 100-player "king of the hill" matches with a persistent cash economy. Valheim, meanwhile, has surpassed 17 million copies sold since its 2021 early access debut and has now launched on PS5 and Nintendo Switch 2 alongside its 1.0 update, which adds a new Deep North biome, crossplay for up to 10 players, and a range of new weapons, creatures and content. The roundup also features Worming From Home, a $6-$8 office-worker simulator from Bulkhead and Team17 in which players secretly play as a worm trying to climb the corporate ladder.
In short
- Wardogs shooter tops a million sales, peaks near 340,000 concurrent players
- Valheim exits early access with 1.0 update, launches on PS5 and Switch 2
- Worming From Home is a quirky office sim starring a secret worm employee
Explained simply
Indie games are made by smaller studios, although a successful release can reach a large audience. Many launch in “early access”, letting players buy and play an unfinished version while developers continue adding features and fixing problems.
Iron Gate and Coffee Stain Publishing are behind Valheim, a survival game that first arrived in early access in 2021. Its players gather resources, build shelters and explore a world inspired by Norse myths; its move to version 1.0 marks the release of the completed game.
Wardogs is a tactical shooter built around large, 100-player matches, while Worming From Home is a workplace comedy game in which players control a worm posing as an office worker. Together, these releases show the range of smaller-studio games, from competitive online action to comic simulations.