The Cool Free Games Thread

[Komma Chameleon]

In this thread, share links to cool, free games you've played. Help other people find neat stuff!

Suggested rules:

• One game per post. Start with its title and a link (using the [ url ] tag), then explain what's neat about it. Include a screenshot if you can.
• Include content warnings in a spoiler tag, especially for horror games.
• Only post games that you've actually played a good bit and recommend! We're looking for quality over quantity here, not just things you've heard might be good.
• Not allowed: games that are only temporarily free. Freemium games (gacha, battle pass, etc).
• OK: pay-what-you-want games. Games with minor ads. Demos, so long as they will probably still be playable a year from now. Mostly-free games with a one-time "bonus" DLC.

The Game List

Moonring (below)
Yume Nikki
Murder Dog IV: Trial of the Murderdog
Meritous
Dominoid
A Dark Room
Motel Snooze: Suite Dreams

If this thread picks up momentum, I'll try to keep this first post updated with an index of games in the thread. Until then, I'll start with...

Moonring
Fluttermind, 2023
Steam, itch



Moonring is a turn-based, bump combat dungeon crawler that takes some cues from the old Ultima games. There's a storyline with a fixed overworld, but the dungeon layouts are random. It's pretty juicy for a free game, and I think its fantasy pantheon (which forms the basis of your skill tree) is pretty awesome. Forge your own path, Dreamless, and challenge the five gods of Caldera!

[ElTipejoLoco]

Yume Nikki
KIKIYAMA, 2004-2012
Steam, Yume.Wiki, Yume Nikki Online, REM-9: The Yume Nikki Randomizer



An RPG Maker 2003 game that tossed away the turn-based random encounter parts of the engine it was built on in favor of exploration of surreal environs and some light puzzle elements based on said environs reacting to collectible transformation items known as Effects, and essentially inspired a whole slew of fan games and imitation.

The game has been translated to English twice officially and twice unofficially, as well as a slew of other languages by fans. I recommend playing it via the browser in Yume Nikki Online as that's the route of least resistance if you're not on an operating system that can run RPG Maker 2k3 titles comfortably- it's running via Easy RPG Player's emscripten web assembly implementation and has some quality of life features that might be interesting to people who like things like Achievements/Trophies (if they make an account), or who like having easy access to maps and stuff on the wiki on the fly. If you want to not play while seeing or being seen by other random people in-game, you can toggle on Private mode to stop anyone not on your Friends list from rendering, or Singleplayer mode to stop even Friends list peeps.

I've yet to give the REM-9 rando a try, but it's there: It runs its own executable that I think essentially spits out a Yume Nikki version (one of the two fan translations of Yume Nikki, this time by vgperson) that you can then play either via Easy RPG Player's desktop release or the actual RM2k3 executable generated. Adds some replayability and optionally some additional conditions to running through Yume Nikki's effect collection requirement for seeing its credits sequence, though the game's evergreen even if you just opt to wander around and seeing what may or may not happen while you play it instead.

[Beancatte]

I dont really have the energy to do the fancy formatting everyone else is doing here, but:

Murder Dog IV: Trial of the Murderdog

From the same mind that brought you Space Funeral comes a court drama you're not likely to soon forget. If you know what you're doing you CAN actually defend yourself... or go for the more viseral routes you'd expect from a character named "Murderdog"

Usage of clay models really sets this apart from this devs other work.



https://thecatamites.itch.io/murder-dog ... murder-dog

[Trysdyn]

Meritous is an old, old school open source PC roguelite that was developed by a solo dev as a sort of learning project for C and SDL.

It shows its age a bit in 2025: you're constrained to 800x600 resolution, gamepad support is questionable, and so on, but it's still one of my favorite little free curiosities.

You're a psyker dropped into a 3000 room randomly generated dungeon with little direction aside from "finding the three keys and get the cursed seal". The three keys are spread throughout the dungeon in boss rooms you can identify from their general room shape. Once you have them, you can place them on special pedestals in three other special rooms to find the cursed seal; then exit the dungeon to win.

Your only method of attack and defense is danmaku bombs you charge up by holding the attack button. The more you charge, the stronger the blast, and the longer it takes to cool down. You level up by collecting experience from defeated foes and finding a place to spend that experience on stat upgrades.

What makes it cool is despite being a huge random dungeon, you can sort of read the runes on the dungeon layout and find your way to special rooms if you get a feel for how the generator works.

I wrote way too much about the game, exploring it, and routing it for a speedrun at one point.

There's also Archipelago Randomizer Support for it.

Grabbing the first youtube video without commentary or end-game spoilers...

[SlushieCat]

I'm a huge fan of falling block puzzle games (there's gotta be a good name for that genre, right?). A game came out recently that does some interesting stuff called DOMINOID. You drop dominoes into groups of 4 or more to clear. Lots of combo potential here, especially with the ring mechanic. The trailer explains it all really well.



Should totally cost money. It's really well made with fantastic art and music. Check it out!

[Cayman]

A Dark Room
Doublespeak Games



A minimalist, browser-based text adventure. What starts as a very simple idle clicker game slowly grows into something much greater. I can't speak much more on it without spoiling anything, but it's surprisingly engrossing and pulls off some interesting CSS wizardry. A little hidden gem that can be fully completed in just an hour or two.

[DizzyCrisis]

Motel Snooze: Suite Dreams by PixelRye



A furry Yume Nikki-like about exploring the dreams of the people staying at a mysterious hotel to try and soothe your nightmares. Fantastic art, cute characters, and a great soundtrack!

Content warning for some suggestive/fetish themes (though for some, that might be an upside), but nothing explicit.

[Beancatte]

Ultra Fight Da ! Kyanta 2

A fighter that mostly uses a simple input layer to crank up the pace of the game to absurd levels. Genuienly really well put together despite obvious shitpost vibes. Rollback patch has been in development for a long ass time but I hope we'll see it someday.