Mina the Hollower, a Sims alternative and other new indie games worth checking out

Gaming Mina the Hollower, a Sims alternative and other new indie games worth checking out Plus, a whole bunch of games that'll give your brain a workout. By Kris Holt May 30, 2026 7:30 am EST Paralives Studio Welcome to our latest roundup of what's going on in the indie game space. We're here to tell you about a bunch of new games you can dive into this weekend. Plus, we've got some announcements and updates for other games that are coming your way. Before we get started, a quick reminder that Summer Game Fest is next week. I'm absolutely certain that will include announcements for a ton of neat indie games, especially from side events like Day of the Devs and Wholesome Direct . Perhaps we'll also see some cool indies at larger showcases from PlayStation and Xbox , as well as the main Summer Game Fest stream. As ever, we'll be bringing you all the major SGF news here on Engadget. We got warmed up for those festivities with a couple of showcases that aired on Thursday, including the latest edition of Thinky Direct. The folks at Thinky Games brought us announcements for more than 40 puzzle games during this stream. There were a lot of neat-looking games that I'm sure I'd quickly find frustrating if I ever actually played any of them. Escape Academy 2: Back 2 School is a follow-up to one of our favorite puzzle games . An updated Steam demo now features the entire first chapter of the sequel, which has splitscreen couch co-op support. Escape Academy 2: Back 2 School , from Coin Crew Games and publisher iam8bit Presents, will hit PC and Xbox later this year. I really dug the trailer for Hello Again , which has a pretty great title for a time-loop game. I love the art style and, let's face it, I'm going to be into any game with a character named DJ Cool Bass. There's a demo available on Steam and the full game — from Soup Island and publisher Tiny Dragon — is expected to arrive in 2027. A few other games caught my eye during the showcase. In Rita , which I covered in a pr