Best Experimental Games on Steam
Games that test unusual mechanics, structures, interfaces, narratives, or presentation.
Browse all Experimental →
1Inscryption
- Players say: Build a deck of creatures, sacrifice cards to summon stronger beasts, and solve cabin puzzles during a sinister card game. Players like: Surprising Story Turns · Eerie Cabin Atmosphere · Creative Card Combos
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Inscryption is an inky black card-based odyssey that blends the deckbuilding roguelike, escape-room style puzzles, and psychological horror into a blood-laced smoothie. Darker still are the secrets inscrybed upon the cards...
Oct 19, 2021
In this game, you can…
- have the game reach outside itself to use your actual files and even turn your Steam friends into cards.
- watch the whole game abruptly switch from a 3D tabletop in a cabin to a Game Boy-style pixel world mid-story.
- pull a dagger at the table, then fight the moon as a final boss when the rules say that should be impossible.
- get trapped in a remote cabin, play cards for your life, then stand up and solve the room's secrets between rounds.
- sacrifice squirrels and other creatures to summon bigger beasts, making each turn about timing, placement, and painful choices.
- finish the story and still keep discovering secret rooms, hidden dialogue paths, and new interactions by poking around.
- unlock a replayable roguelite mode with endless runs, new challenges, and modifiers that change how every run plays.
- accidentally build a combo deck that suddenly becomes absurdly overpowered and snowballs into a runaway win condition.
2Buckshot Roulette
- Players say: In a grim nightclub, wager your life against a Dealer in shotgun roulette, tracking shells and using items to tilt the odds. Players like: Tense Risk Decisions · Clever Item Tactics · Funny With Friends
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Play Russian roulette with a 12-gauge shotgun. Four enter. One leaves. Roll the dice with your life. Good luck!
Apr 4, 2024
In this game, you can…
- saw off the shotgun mid-match to double the damage on the next blast.
- shoot yourself on purpose to try to earn an extra turn if it's a blank.
- steal an item from the dealer with an adrenaline shot and immediately use their own tool against them.
- handcuff the other player so they have to sit there and take it.
- reveal the next shell with a magnifying glass, then still have to gamble on the rest of the hidden order.
- chain cuffs, beer, and shell checks to steal turns and force a clean kill or a fatal self-shot.
- win a round, then choose to cash out or keep risking everything for double-or-nothing again and again.
- play at a 4-player table where everyone drinks, smokes, bluffs, and betrays each other while the shotgun keeps coming back around.
3Milk inside a bag of milk inside a bag of milk
- Players say: Act as a young woman's inner voice as she navigates a milk run transformed by anxious thoughts, choices, and warped perceptions. Players like: Anxiety-Focused Writing · Unsettling Atmosphere · Distinctive Pixel Art
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A short story about what sort of challenges everyday little things can be. Help the girl buy milk, be the first not to disappoint her.
Aug 26, 2020
In this game, you can…
- be the voice in a girl's head, choosing whether to reassure her or tear her down.
- get addressed directly as if you're a new medication, and have to type "No" with the exact capitalization the game demands.
- walk to a store by counting steps and obsessing over where each foot lands so the "predestined coordinates" stay correct.
- talk her through buying milk when she blanks on what to do and the cashier looks like a monster to her.
- meet a warped, inhuman presence that just repeats "O" over and over while she tries to function.
- sit with her on a bench while she asks you to pick a name for yourself, like you're a real companion.
- rehearse a conversation, endure the walk, buy the milk, then make it home for a calmer, reflective walk back that only happens if you hold it together.
4Tiny Glade
- Players say: Build a grid-free medieval diorama, shaping cottages, castles and paths as the game adapts their details—without goals or combat. Players like: Calming Creative Play · Charming Visuals · Responsive Building Details
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Tiny Glade is a small diorama builder where you doodle whimsical castles, cozy cottages & romantic ruins. Explore gridless building chemistry as the game adorns your glades with procedural detail. No management, combat or goals: just kick back and turn forgotten meadows into lovable dioramas.
Sep 23, 2024
In this game, you can…
- draw a path through a building and a door appears automatically.
- run paths under layered foundations to force arches and doorway cutouts like a little architectural puzzle.
- make a pond high up and watch it carve a deep pit into the terrain.
- raise a building and the columns and beams line themselves up to support it.
- let the game assemble every brick, pebble, and plank so even rough shapes turn into cozy, detailed buildings.
- watch ivy spread over walls while sheep wander your paths and fireflies come out at night.
- pet sheep and ducks while you stroll around the town you built.
- build a detailed overhead D&D map, then walk through it in camera mode to check roofs, streets, and sightlines.
5The Plan
- Players say: Guide a fly upward through wind and falling leaves in a brief, atmospheric journey about purpose and a short life. Players like: Moving Soundtrack · Atmospheric Visuals · Reflective Journey
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A fly ascends to the skies, pondering the pointlessness of its brief existence.
Feb 14, 2014
In this game, you can…
- reach the "sun," discover it's a red-hot light bulb, and fly into it
- hit a point where control fades and an unseen force pulls you upward in a straight climb along rays of light
- rise so high the trees fall away and you're a dot against star clouds and galaxies
- start as a tiny fly in the dirt and climb straight up
- get buffeted by wind, smacked by falling leaves, and stuck in spider webs you can struggle free from
- climb into the finale while classical music surges to match the ascent
6Townscaper
- Players say: Place colored blocks on an irregular sea grid and watch them form houses, bridges, arches, and other parts of a coastal town. Players like: Relaxing Atmosphere · Easy Creative Building · Generated Architectural Details
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Instant town building toy. Place housing blocks and watch them transform, piece by piece, into idyllic ocean-side towns, pastoral gardens, or sweeping cities on the sea.
Aug 26, 2021
In this game, you can…
- design a whole town and export it as a .OBJ for 3D printing or use as a map reference.
- drop a single block and watch it turn into houses, arches, stairways, bridges, or rooftop roads.
- delete blocks under a building and it reshapes into stilts or opens into arches.
- keep clicking the water to grow an island into towers, castles, and sprawling fortresses.
- close off an area with buildings and it automatically becomes a garden courtyard.
- build towers close together and the game connects them with laundry lines, ropes, or flags.
- spook birds by changing the town near them, and watch them scatter and resettle.
- shift the time of day to night and see the whole town glow with tiny lit windows.
7Gorogoa
- Players say: Guide a boy’s search for a mysterious creature by rearranging, zooming, and joining hand-drawn scenes to solve visual puzzles. Players like: Hand-Drawn Artwork · Inventive Panel Puzzles · Visual Storytelling
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Gorogoa is an elegant evolution of the puzzle genre, told through a beautifully hand-drawn story designed and illustrated by Jason Roberts. Winner of Debut Game at the 2018 BAFTA Games Awards, as well as Best Mobile Game and the Innovation Award at the GDC 2018 Choice Awards.
Dec 14, 2017
In this game, you can…
- look through one picture into a distant place, then zoom through the border and land in that other scene like it's a doorway.
- shine a lamp in one panel so its light spills into another panel and reveals objects and paths that were invisible a moment ago.
- rearrange a four-panel screen, zoom in and out, and stack images until separate scenes suddenly interlock into one space.
- line up mismatched illustration edges so a tree branch connects, then watch an apple drop in the other panel for the boy to grab.
- mask parts of one picture with another, pull layers away, and uncover a hidden route that turns into a completely different place.
- match patterns across unrelated scenes so stars, doors, gears, and tilework suddenly count as the same thing and the puzzle clicks.
- guide a little boy to collect five pieces of fruit by leaving him behind, rearranging the world across panels, then coming back so he can continue.
8Pony Island
- Players say: Trapped in a devil-made arcade machine, you jump through pony levels and alter broken code to solve puzzles and find a way out. Players like: Fourth-Wall Tricks · Clever Logic Puzzles · Unexpected Rule Changes
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Pony Island is a suspense puzzle game in disguise. You are in limbo, trapped in a malevolent and malfunctioning arcade machine devised by the devil himself. It is not a game about ponies.
Jan 4, 2016
In this game, you can…
- repair a broken, glitchy title screen and menus just to start playing.
- solve logic puzzles by rearranging arrow paths and inserting commands into empty slots to unlock the game.
- glimpse the real person outside the screen as hands appear and interact with the arcade-machine world.
- start as a simple jumping pony runner, then gain hovering and mouth lasers to fight demons.
- dig under the arcade facade to alter corrupted menus and code-like systems so new paths open.
- have the game talk back to you in an interactive text chat while it mocks and reacts to your progress.
- find hidden collectibles that print out real tickets your character grabs, then replay acts and bosses from act select to hunt more.
- trigger secret boss fights that appear as sudden reveals after you think you understand the game's structure.
- break the game on purpose as part of progression, including pushing it into a blue-screen state.
9Wobbledogs
- Players say: Raise a group of dogs, breed them into odd new forms, and shape their mutations by managing what they eat and where they live. Players like: Cute, Silly Dogs · Unexpected Mutations · Breeding Experiments
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A 3D pet simulation where you raise your own personal hive of mutating dogs, physically simulated all the way down to their guts! Wobbledogs is a casual and chill sandbox for players of all ages who want to care for their very own virtual pets in a surprising, unique, and stress-free environment.
Mar 15, 2022
In this game, you can…
- build a memorial for a dead dog, then still pet and feed its ghost afterward.
- breed dogs into impossible body plans, including three-headed, one-wing, no-leg mutants.
- come back to a death and watch the surviving dogs immediately eat the body.
- raise a dog from an egg, feed it weird stuff, then watch it pupate into a cocoon and hatch back out mutated in a puddle of goo.
- push genetics so far you can end up with an 18+ legged monster that tanks your framerate.
- keep a dog alive by feeding it life-extending cores harvested from other dogs when they die.
- make a dog so huge and legless it gets around by spinning and launching itself between rooms.
- dig holes, bury items on command, and watch dogs randomly fling themselves across the room or glide on their backs.
10Scritchy Scratchy
- Players say: Earn cash washing dishes, scratch risky lottery tickets, upgrade your odds, and automate a jackpot-chasing incremental run. Players like: Satisfying Scratch Loop · Addictive Incremental Progression · Wrist-Friendly Controls
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Scritchy Scratchy is a super-satisfying scratch card incremental game. Buy stacks of scratch-offs, unlock auto-scratching, and chase massive jackpots. Will you play it safe or go all-in?
Mar 18, 2026
In this game, you can…
- go from millions to deep debt in one disastrous ticket, then take brutal high-interest loans to claw your way back.
- partially scratch a spot to peek at a modifier before deciding whether to finish the whole ticket.
- unlock gadgets and a Scratch Bot that scratches and reveals ticket rewards for you.
- wash dishes at a day job, then buy scratch cards and climb from tiny tickets to bigger, riskier ones.
- hit jackpots, super jackpots, and mega jackpots that can land on the very first scratch of a new ticket.
- reset your run for permanent upgrades, then rocket through the early game faster on the next loop.
- trigger a hidden bad ending by remaining perfectly still.
- throw losing tickets in the trash so you don't have to finish scratching them.
- upgrade luck, scratch strength, scratch area, ticket speed, and payout boosts until your whole setup becomes a tuned luck engine.
