We’d all love to have ample time to play every game in our library. But, true to this site’s name, sometimes it just doesn’t work out that way. With today’s AAA titles favoring massive open worlds with dozens of hours of gameplay, some players may never see the end of games they’ve become invested in.
The same can’t be said for the following 10 story-driven indie games. Developed as compact, one-sitting experiences, these games provide busy gamers with the opportunity to enjoy a self-contained story from beginning to end without even having to take a break.
Each of the following narrative adventures can be played straight through in one sitting, even if you’re a completionist. To narrow down the shortest games, we used HowLongToBeat.com to gauge the length to complete the story and to find all collectables, if applicable.
Ready? Let’s dive in.
Inside
- Story Length: 3 ½ hours
- Completionist Length: 4 ½ hours
There’s nothing quite like the feel-good story of a young boy trying to escape a dystopia to start the day.
Inside comes from the creators of Limbo, and it’s a marked improvement all around. Swapping out the dreary black and white art of its predecessor for a surprisingly more somber, gloomy palette, Inside follows the exploits of a young boy on the run from a mysterious project that’s so important, it’s guarded by vicious dogs and persistent sentries.
Like Limbo, Inside is a platformer, challenging players with puzzles and tense chase sequences that highlight just how defenseless the young boy is. Make it to the end, and you may just find out what the project is and how you fall into the grand scheme of things.
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
- Story Length: 3 hours
- Completionist Length: 4 hours
Brothers poses what’s bound to be a difficult challenge for some players. The game follows two siblings on an epic journey to cure their dying father. The catch? The player controls both brothers at once.
Assigned to each joystick, the brothers move independently, forcing players to carefully work them through puzzles and boss battles. It’s co-op gameplay without the benefit of someone else controlling the second character.
Players that learn to control the two brothers are treated to a visually stunning experience across a fantastical world filled with mythical beasts and harrowing perils.
ABZÛ
- Story Length: 2 hours
- Completionist Length: 4 hours
Thalasophobes may want to skip this underwater thrill ride from the director of Journey. This isn’t your typical dip in the pool, as you’ll be surrounded by thousands of stunning aquatic creatures.
As you explore, schools of fish and gliding behemoths respond to you procedurally, so you never get the same experience twice. Guided by a great white shark, players navigate through a wordless narrative in search of the answers to the diver’s existence and strange pyramids found on the ocean floor.
ABZÛ is short enough and so visually stunning you’re likely to want to explore its cobalt blue depths a few times over. And at a two-hour completion time, it’s hard to justify not revisiting the experience.
Her Story
- Story Length: 2 ½ hours
- Completionist Length: 4 hours
Have you ever wanted to sit in the shoes of a homicide detective, charged with piecing together the holes in a suspect’s story? Her Story revisits the fictional 1994 disappearance of a husband through a series of interviews with the prime suspect—his wife.
Crafted by the creator of Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, Her Story tests just how clever you are with a database full of interview clips. Search for specific terms to pull up those clips and cleverly uncover the truth of what really happened to her husband. Your intuition as a detective is what ultimately unravels this clever, well-acted, and twisting narrative.
Among the Sleep
- Story Length: 2 ½ hours
- Completionist Length: 3 ½ hours
In Among the Sleep, you crawl through a world of whimsy and wonder as a mischievous toddler and his teddy bear friend. Sounds delightful and adorable, right? Well, don’t get too excited, because hot on your tail is a horrifying monster with unknown intent.
Among the Sleep follows the young boy as he explores a fantastical world shaped by his volatile surroundings. The story is less about his journey from point A to point B and more about why he’s on this journey and who’s influencing the fiends in hot pursuit.
This game is sure to haunt and terrify players, as they find themselves once again a toddler hiding from the things that go bump in the night.
Tacoma
- Story Length: 2 ½ hours
- Completionist Length: 3 ½ hours
Don’t worry; this isn’t a game about traveling to Tacoma, WA. Instead, it’s a futuristic adventure set aboard the Tacoma space station in the year 2088. Players control a digital surveillance system overseeing life aboard the station.
Utilizing time-altering controls, players can rewind or fast-forward while examining the lives of the six crewmembers aboard Tacoma. As you explore Tacoma as the digital interface, you’ll follow branching storylines by interacting with the environment, unlocking drawers to uncover objects and notes, and scrolling through extensive communications logs.
If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to be an entity akin to Mother aboard the Nostromo, Tacoma is your opportunity.
What Remains of Edith Finch
- Story Length: 2 hours
- Completionist Length: 3 hours
Looking to hit your “ugly cry” quota for the month? In What Remains of Edith Finch, you’ll uncover the mystery behind a lineage of untimely deaths. Relive the final day of each member of the Finch family through varied gameplay and narrative elements that all culminate in that individual’s death.
As the last living Finch, Edith is pressed to unravel the truth behind her family and understand how she fits into the grand scheme of the vast world around her. Players know nothing of the Finch family upon starting What Remains of Edith Finch, but they’ll grow anxious to uncover every secret the deeper they get into the family tree.
What Remains of Edith Finch is surprisingly unique in how it unfolds its winding narratives, ensuring each family member’s story is a wholly unique experience.
Gone Home
- Story Length: 2 hours
- Completionist Length: 3 hours
What mysteries would you uncover scattered about your family home? Gone Home poses the question as Katie Greenbriar returns home after a year abroad to find her family gone. Where they are isn’t really the big question, but instead what happened in Katie’s year-long absence.
The answers lie scattered about the home, tucked away in drawers and diary entries. As Katie explores her family home, she discovers that everyone has their own demons to face, leading to the discourse that threatened to tear the family apart.
Gone Home is a profoundly engaging experience that’ll stick with you long after the credits roll.
A Short Hike
- Story Length: 1 hour
- Completionist Length: 4 ½ hours
Enjoy the fun of hiking up a cliffside without having to deal with things like weather and, erm, actually moving.
A Short Hike sends players to a quaint island to hike to the summit of Hawk Peak Provincial Park. How you get to the top is ultimately up to you, as paths diverge, treasures offer shortcuts, and more. Stop to chat with other hikers or beeline it to the very top—this is your adventure to navigate. Enjoy it as you see fit.
A Short Hike is a simple concept with a lot to offer, from stunning visuals to a rich, dynamic score that changes the further you get into the wilds of Hawk Peek.
Donut County
- Story Length: 2 hours
- Completionist Length: 2 ½ hours
Some games really leave you questioning how the developer could have crafted the idea. Take Donut County, which follows a world full of anthropomorphic raccoons that control trash-stealing holes.
Players take control of one of these holes when one raccoon, BK, accidentally gets sucked into one of his own holes. In a similar vein to Katamari Damacy, players move about the world sucking up objects and growing bigger. What does the hole ultimately want? To devour the entire county.
Donut County is a quirky adventure that tasks players with finding out how to grow the hole to ample size, catapulting objects to solve puzzles and combining others for strange effects. Don’t think too much about it. Just dive right in and have fun.
You can get Donut County on your mobile device(s); just grab some Google Play gift cards from OffGamers here and get it on the Google Play Store today!
What Short Indie Games Do You Enjoy?
With this list, you should have no trouble building a catalogue of games that caters to your busy schedule. Keep our picks in mind the next time you’re frustrated by the newest massive time sink, and get your fix of games that favor brevity, without sacrificing quality.
Have a game that we missed? Share your own picks in the comments below.
