6 Best Indie Horror Games We Saw At PAX East

Grave Seasons has been a known quantity for a while now, having been introduced with Blumhouse Games’ initial slate. In it, you play as a freed convict who has taken up the quiet life, farming and living off the grid, until mysterious and cultish murders start plaguing the once-quaint nearby town of Ashenridge.

My demo was roughly 30 minutes, but I learned the gist quickly; the core gameplay loop revolves around a day and night cycle, where you’ll gather resources, farm, fish, cook, and shop during the day, and break into homes and gather evidence at night to try to solve the next murder.

In chatting with developer Perfect Garbage co-founder Son. M about the game, I learned that every playthrough will be different, and the killers won’t always be the same, offering a seemingly endless amount of replayability should you want to try for different outcomes.

Grave Seasons launches August 14.

If you’ve played a Fatal Frame game before, you’ll feel right at home with DreadOut. DreadOut 3 is the latest installment in the series and follows series protagonist Linda Meilinda in her role as the Keeper of the Dark in a semi-open-world experience.

I hadn’t played a DreadOut title before, but I quickly got the hang of its controls and mechanics and was on my way to face some of the creepiest enemy designs I’ve seen in a game. DreadOut is heavily inspired by Southeast Asian folklore and takes place in Indonesia, which offers a terrific setting for a horror game.

My demo consisted of exploring the grounds of a solitary home to find my way in. The environments were dark and dreary, with good sound design befitting of any quality horror title. After foraging for the key, I entered the house and had to perform a ritual to summon the spirit haunting it.

It was absolutely horrifying. Using Linda’s phone to snap pictures and deal damage was easy enough, but the entities moved quickly and were hard to capture, adding yet another layer of tension to an already tense, claustrophobic experience.

DreadOut 3 is scheduled to launch in 2026.

Another entry into a popular ongoing horror franchise, Broken Lore: Follow is actually a prequel to Broken Lore: Unfollow. Like the previous entries, Follow is a first-person psychological horror game with plenty of dark themes and puzzles to solve. My hands-on demo was admittedly a bit short, clocking in at roughly 15 minutes, but what I experienced was a genuinely scary and tense vertical slice.

I was locked in a shifting hallway with multiple television sets that could be changed to one of three different disturbing images. Part of the puzzle was to flip the channel to the correct image, which would unlock the door to sweet freedom. Seems easy enough, right?

Now imagine you’re also being hunted by a monstrous anthropomorphic thing the whole time. From what I played, Broken Lore: Follow is light on gameplay mechanics but heavy on scares and atmosphere, which is the perfect indie horror game experience for me.

Broken Lore: Follow launches May 31.

Metroidvanias are a dime a dozen these days, but it’s not often you come across a title that could pass as a genuine Castlevania title, with a bit of a Roguelite twist. Bloodbreaker: Labyrinth of the Witch is just that, and one of my favorite games I went hands-on with over the entire weekend.

The game’s Gothic art style and horror setting feel right at home in Konami’s pioneering franchise, but Bloodbreaker does enough to set it apart from its mainstream cousins. Specifically, you’ll traverse through procedurally generated labyrinths using traditional 2D Metroidvania platforming and combat mechanics.

It’s also pretty difficult, so learning enemy attack patterns and understanding dodge timing is crucial to making it out alive. There are plenty of ways to customize your experience, with a wide variety of Charms, Subweapons, and items to augment yourself with each time you set out.

Bloodbreaker: Labyrinth of the Witch does not yet have a confirmed release window.

Dreadmoor is a Lovecraftian first-person fishing game set in a dark and dangerous bayou. It’s a typical post-apocalyptic survival adventure, and you’ll outfit your boat with various upgrades and equipment to take on many different horrors of the deep.

My hands-on time with the game was about 30 minutes, and I got a good idea of what to expect when the full game drops later this year. The gameplay loop involves starting out docked, with plenty of vendors and points of interest as players prepare to set sail.

Once you do (and provided you’ve fueled up your vessel sufficiently), you’ll voyage through the murky depths and catch fish to make your way deeper into the submerged environment.

While my time with the game wasn’t the most in-depth (get it?), I played enough to know that Dreadmoor is a game I am looking forward to at launch, thanks to its intuitive mechanics and satisfying gameplay loop.

Dreadmoor launches Q4 2026.

Trigger warning: self-harm.

I wouldn’t necessarily categorize Rain98 as full-on horror, but its emphasis on tense dialogue and heavy themes are enough to warrant its place on this list – and it’s also my top game of the show.

It’s a visual novel that follows the main character (little is known about them, it seems) as they’re mysteriously transported from the modern day to Tokyo in the late ‘90s. You’ll stay with a young woman named Reina in her apartment, helping her clean and do chores, but not everything is as it seems.

Something is very off with Reina, and she continuously alludes to death, destruction, and the end of the world, and very openly discusses suicide. While it deals with some pretty heavy themes, Rain98 also has plenty of beauty.

Its lo-fi 2D anime art style is one of the most beautiful I’ve seen in a while, and the accompanying soundtrack is exactly what you’d expect from a lo-fi playlist on YouTube. Keep your eye out for this one.

Rain98 is scheduled to launch in 2026.

For more, check out all the horror video games we can't wait to check out this year.