[ ADVENTURE / PLATFORMER ]
Take on the Trial of Lizards by lighting all four beacons in the void.

[ ADVENTURE ]
A small Yume Nikki fan game in which you must find and serve drinks to customers by entering each of the surreal worlds they provide access to. This one is on the more humorous side of things, without forgoing that classic YNFG atmosphere.

[ ADVENTURE ]
Surrealist Yume Nikki fan game. Unfortunately, it wasn't translated yet when I tried to play it. This normally wouldn't matter for a YNFG, but it was very dialog and puzzle heavy. I understand that it has a translation now, and will have to check it out again soon.

[ ADVENTURE / HORROR ]
A Yume Nikki fan game with a somewhat darker presentation. It's fairly small, and development was abandoned in favor of new projects, but still worth looking into.

[ ADVENTURE ]
Walk along the beach as a fire-breathing seagull.

[ ADVENTURE ]
An in-development furry Yume Nikki fan game that includes significantly more linear adventure-style gameplay than its contemporaries, as well as charming character dialogue.

[ ADVENTURE ]
Brightly-colored exploration game about navigating trans spaces as a person going through their own transition. There are a few small areas to explore, and their inhabitants' reactions to your transition change depending on how you spend your skill points (hormones), which you also accrue through dialogue options.

[ CREATIVE / DRIVING ]
Drive through the HyperLight Void, an infinite pitch black field, with your motorcycle that leaves behind a trail of color you can use to decorate the plane. The game tunes you into a lo-fi beats station right away, though you have the option to enter an online radio station's address of your own choosing. And that's pretty much it—this game runs entirely on vibes.

[ ADVENTURE / HORROR ]
Yume Nikki fan game about Spencer, who begins to explore a long-abandoned MMO. No longer being developed, but still worthwhile.

[ ADVENTURE / VR ONLY ]
Exploration game set in a desolate but clean complex in a grayscale world. The building comes off as a sort of nearly-empty museum, with some rooms emptier than others. The setting seems to concern itself more with the rooms themselves than the objects within them—in a sense, it feels like a game about architecture. Hits a very specific vibe that I like, but one that some may find bland.

[ ADVENTURE ]
Explore a damaged, dead computer world as a virtual pet.

[ ACTION-ADVENTURE / HORROR ]
Surrealist undead action-adventure and horror game with some eerie vibes and interesting enemy designs.

[ ADVENTURE ]
A short exploration game developed for an rpgmaker.net challenge where developers kept their games' lengths over ten minutes and their file sizes under 1.44 MB. Excellent presentation with a lovely limited palette. World and character designs stand out. Peaceful, calm vibes all around.

[ ADVENTURE ]
Very abstract exploration game. Nice colors.

[ ADVENTURE / INT FIC ]
A short text adventure game in which you attempt to haggle a shopkeeper's food prices down. Or you could take a look around?

[ ADVENTURE ]
Explore a trippy and surreal procedurally-generated building full of TVs. No longer officially available, so you'll have to find a mirror.

[ MUSIC / SANDBOX / VR ONLY ]
Music-reactive particle physics sandbox. Great if you like looking at shiny things. My full review of this is on its page!

[ ADVENTURE ]
Players are provided with a couple televisions and a massive stack of VHS tapes, which they can play in any combination to receive a guest.

[ ADVENTURE ]
Short, linear exploration game.

[ ADVENTURE / CREATIVE / INT FIC ]
Explore an abstract, cartographic landscape, throughout which people have placed their short-form thoughts, feelings, and poetry. Players are no longer able to jot down their own works, but the library can still be explored.

[ ADVENTURE ]
A small, mostly lighthearted exploration game in a blobbish environment with a couple blobbish people in it. The motion blur is pretty intense (seemingly on purpose) but the sound design and overall aesthetic are really good.

[ ACTION ]
A typing game in which players must carry out the punishments dealt to various figures in ancient Greek mythology. There is no winning here.

[ SIMULATION ]
The always acid-frazzled Timothy Leary has a DOS "video game" that's actually more of a psychoanalysis tool and it's about as weird as you'd think. Probably the least accessible thing on this list.

[ ADVENTURE ]
Seizure-inducing exploration game with strange beings roaming around. Simple and short.

[ ACTION / HORROR / SHOOT 'EM UP ]
Somewhat short horror-themed multi-directional shooter about an old village that threw everything it didn't want down into a pit. Tanky controls makes this feel like 2D Resident Evil. Blood is your health in this game, but also the currency you'll use to get bullets. Not as weird as many other games on this list, but it has the right "vibe" and needs more love and attention.

[ ADVENTURE / HORROR ]
Yume Nikki fan game in which a lost pistol must be returned. Still very early in development, but certainly worth keeping an eye out for—with a completely unique, grain-heavy, color-blasted aesthetic that sears the back of the brain and overwhelms the senses. A revitalizing experience for those looking for something fresh in their YNFGs.

[ ADVENTURE / HORROR ]
A fan recreation of the titular video game of the web series Petscop. Very well-made and convincing, despite the "Recreation" text always on the upper-right.

[ ADVENTURE ]
Binky stuck in Labyrinthe.

[ ADVENTURE ]
A collection of ambient exploration games by colorfiction, all of which are at least lightly recommended, though æ stands out as my favorite.

[ ADVENTURE / INT FIC ]
Super-short visual novel in which players interact with long-forgotten entities within a very old and corrupted game. Presentation is perfect and evocative.

[ ACTION / HORROR / PLATFORMER ]
Surrealist horror run and gun.

[ ACTION / HORROR / PLATFORMER ]
Surreal horror run and gun.

[ ADVENTURE ]
A pleasant exploration-adventure game.

[ ADVENTURE ]
Strange little dialogue puzzle-adventure game in which you have to uncover the lies of the Sacred Order, four individuals in charge of the Ossuary who are all competing for control. The puzzling involves some fetch-questing, but more interestingly the game asks players to spread sins to NPCs to bend their behaviors and attitudes.

[ ADVENTURE ]
The thrilling sequel to Will You Ever Return? and the best in the series. Sent to Hell immediately after killing the person from the first game, a man must defeat his inner sins.

[ SANDBOX / SIMULATION ]
A simple game in which the player is tasked with cross-breeding plants on an alien world. There's no goal, so it's really up to the player to make their own fun, trying to get interesting new plants to sprout from their little experiments. It strikes a chill, cozy vibe without being twee about it.

[ ADVENTURE ]
Absurd and crude adventure game with occasional fist-fighting segments. Feels like it was written by the coolest seven-year-old.

[ ADVENTURE ]
Small exploration game in which various procedurally-generated art galleries can be perused.

[ ADVENTURE ]
An AI named Bit needs help from the player to create the perfect procedurally-generated world. Using your feedback, Bit will create semi-random low-poly environments for you to explore as they move closer to their goal. Short and sweet.

[ ADVENTURE / PUZZLE ]
An adventure game requiring players to morph into objects and creatures that they've come across and observed in order to solve puzzles and progress further.

[ ADVENTURE ]
Help a troop of mice scout out the surrounding area as they seem to dwindle in number each day. From the person that brought you Space Funeral! Not an RPG, though.

[ ADVENTURE / HORROR ]
Go deeper and deeper into an underground facility in this brightly-colored neon adventure. Non-binary protagonist! Horror stuff becomes more and more apparent as the game progresses, so warning for that.

[ ADVENTURE / HORROR ]
Game Boy homebrew. Dark fantasy adventure about a girl who has become trapped in a land of lost souls, between dark and light. Some really fantastic character art, as expected from Kadabura. Some neat body horror in here.

[ ADVENTURE / VR ONLY ]
An online virtual reality museum that hosts the works of various visual artists and game developers. I highly recommend experiencing this with a friend or two, if possible. Note that some of the DLC costs additional money and can only be accessed for a limited time.

[ ADVENTURE ]
A man dies, his only regret not being able to say goodbye to his love. Having been sent to Hell, he is promised the ability to speak with her once more by completing a Halloween ritual.

[ ADVENTURE / PLATFORMER ]
Human corporations cultivate worlds to assess their lifeforms for useful applications. As a camera-equipped scout working for one of these corporations, track down strange alien creatures so your bosses can determine their fate. Lovely low-poly PS1-esque open world exploration mixed with a bit of low-key monster hunting. Really enjoyed the environment in this one, and it's fairly short, so it doesn't outstay its welcome.

[ ADVENTURE / INT FIC / SPORTS ]
An individual goes fishing for their grandmother's bones, ruminating on the end of her life.

[ ADVENTURE / HORROR ]
Very short, jarring game about the fairness of being born at the expense of another. Use Flashpoint to play it. Full review on its page!

[ HORROR / PUZZLE ]
A mind-bending puzzle game with abstract solutions. It's also about cancer. Compare and contrast to Antichamber.

[ CREATIVE / MMO / SANDBOX / SIMULATION ]
Social MMO in which players build museums wall by wall, floor by floor, art by art. As curators, players will receive art recommendations based on their apparent preferences.

[ ADVENTURE / HORROR ]
A fan-made PC version of LSD, currently in-development. Impressive so far.

[ SANDBOX / SIMULATION ]
A sandbox that lets you do exactly what it says in the title. You also have dynamite, can change the structural makeup of the towers you spawn, and can control wind and gravity strengths.

[ ADVENTURE ]
Explore procedurally generated worlds as a bird that can take on the forms of other animals you touch. Pretty chill, with some interesting customization options and multiple biomes to choose from.

[ ADVENTURE / HORROR ]
A '90s point-and-click cult classic, translated and remastered for mobile devices. Take the role of a robot fished up from the sewage of a rickety town full of other robots, and discover the dark secrets behind the world of Garage. Very captivating, tackling lots of deep topics while managing to frame them in an easy to understand and very literal way. Navigating the world is a dizzying experience at first, but the game as a whole is surprisingly accessible for being both a surrealist art piece and a '90s adventure game.

[ ADVENTURE / HORROR ]
A surrealist graphic adventure in which a girl named Bree tries to find her sister, Sarah, who has become lost within the pillars of static that have cropped up in their small town—one that's becoming increasingly harder to live in due to the local mill shutting down. A bit clunky, with some odd bugs and unfriendly camera angles, but compelling and aesthetically powerful nonetheless.

[ ADVENTURE ]
Hyper-surreal graphic adventure game tackling strange philosophies and... frankly, I couldn't really tell you anything much more specific than that.

[ ADVENTURE / HORROR ]
Occult horror adventure game about feeding It—a pulsating mass that seems to grow with every beating organ you give it. About 45 minutes long, fifth-generation-style graphics.

[ ADVENTURE ]
Science fiction exploration game with abstract, philosophical themes.

[ ACTION / ACTION-ADVENTURE / SHOOT 'EM UP / SPORTS ]
The first half of this is a tennis and bullet hell fusion—hard to describe, but easy enough to understand when seen or played. Gets difficult, but can be cheesed a bit. The second half is more in-line with some of the other games listed here, but I won't spoil it.

[ ADVENTURE / INT FIC ]
Absurdist visual novel with plastic-y 3D graphics about an elf princess named Dam telling a fellow elf about her attempts to find an elftopia. In her adventures, she's aided by Roland the BraveCat, who seems half-intent on confessing his love to her and half-intent on eating her. It's got a weird logic-based "battle" system of sorts and the writing is chock-full of 2010s-era Internet-isms, but the charm is undeniable. Brimming with creativity and actually has a couple heartfelt moments towards the back half.

[ ADVENTURE / DRIVING / SIMULATION / VR ONLY ]
Flying car simulator in which you explore a rainy cyberpunk city. Very chill experience with some nice tunes. Looks beautiful, though the setting is admittedly a bit small. Requires a high nausea tolerance but well worth checking out.

[ ADVENTURE / INT FIC ]
As a soothsayer capable of imparting wisdom gifted from the constellations, players must help guide troubled individuals from a nearby tribe. However, they may not always interpret the stars' meanings in the same way players do, and stakes begin to rise as the tribe does what it can to survive through increasingly troubling times.

[ ADVENTURE / HORROR ]
When all of the children in town receive visions of an oncoming apocalypse, it becomes the player's duty to prevent it any way they can. A dark, occult-themed Game Boy homebrew game that works well on the system.

[ ADVENTURE ]
Small exploration game taking place in a club. Very bright, epilepsy warning indeed in effect.

[ ADVENTURE ]
Exploration game with progression through themed levels and some interactivity.

[ ADVENTURE / VR OPTIONAL ]
Abstract and colorful exploration game. A lot of variations on just a few environments, but the visuals are brilliant. Compatible with Oculus Rift and, when beta is enabled, SteamVR and Vive.

[ ADVENTURE / HORROR ]
Body horror-themed Yume Nikki fan game. One of the more visceral, gory ones. Recommended, though development on the game has been finished.

[ ADVENTURE / HORROR ]
Surreal adventure game starring Isabelline Fallow, the memories she holds, and the dying world she wanders through.

[ ADVENTURE / RPG ]
Strange little adventure game made in RPG Maker 2000. A young one-eyed boy named Pigula wants to open a general store and happens to score a ¥50,000 property in a place called Farethere. The local inhabitants are colorful and kind, but something about the town is off and Pigula starts having strange dreams. The game goes into surreal horror territory without ever staying there for an extended period of time, which gives it a nice balance.

[ ADVENTURE ]
Party with some rats in a sewer, take a few drinks, see their dialogue, stumble upon some minigames, and do some other stuff that shouldn't be spoiled.

[ ADVENTURE / PUZZLE / VR OPTIONAL ]
Surrealist puzzle-adventure game in which you help out animal-like creatures made of paper by manipulating the environment. Short and sweet, and has a sandbox mode after you've beat the game. It's a VR game, but has a "Folded Edition" for desktop (which I can't personally vouch for).

[ ADVENTURE / HORROR / PLATFORMER ]
Created for LSDJAM 2020, Hypnagogia 催眠術 is a PS1-styled adventure game with light platforming in which one must journey through a series of dreams, performing quests and finding the dream crystal in each of them.

[ ADVENTURE / MINIGAMES ]
An abstract and surreal game flickering between small interactive segments with an eerie atmosphere.

[ ADVENTURE / SIMULATION / VR OPTIONAL ]
Powerful and fairly accurate outer space exploration simulator developed by an astronomer. Get far away enough from Earth and it will procedurally generate new planets and stars and stuff. Steam version costs money but is VR compatible. Not a particularly strange game, so it's a bit of an odd pick for the list, but I think it works well enough given it's an exploration-based game.

[ ADVENTURE ]
Short absurdist point-and-click adventure game with multiple endings and thecatamites's wild writing and signature sense of humor.

[ ADVENTURE ]
Explore a vibrant space colony. Has an upcoming sequel of the same name.

[ ADVENTURE ]
A series of interactive set-pieces, several of which have a science fiction bend.

[ ADVENTURE / INT FIC / MINIGAMES ]
An interactive zine in the form of an operating system containing several interactive programs. Touches on themes of mental illness, trauma, and the effects of the Internet on the individual. An abrasive experience in every regard. My (almost) full thoughts on this can be found on its page.

[ PLATFORMER ]
Atmospheric 2D platformer about a crash-landed alien getting their spaceship parts back.

[ SIMULATION ]
Japanese PS1 hot air balloon flying simulator. It has goals, but they're not particularly doable since your hot air balloon is mostly at the mercy of the winds, so it's mostly just a pleasant little exploration game. Customizable balloon colors!

[ ACTION / BEAT 'EM UP ]
Surrealist daymare of a 2D beat 'em up.

[ PLATFORMER ]
Auto runner with strange dialogue and a vaporwave/synthwave aesthetic.

[ ADVENTURE / HORROR ]
Dark and very short adventure game about an oceanographer that becomes obsessed with finding Eden. If you have thalassophobia, this will be especially effective on you. Flawless art direction and presentation.

[ ACTION / FIGHTING / STRATEGY ]
Phantom Dust is one of my favorite games, but nothing about it is easy to summarize or describe. Here goes anyway: An entirely amnesiac society has moved underground after a dust from space falls onto Earth that makes people lose their memories and eventually turn into violent monsters after enough exposure. A select few people dubbed Espers, though, can bend the dust to their will, weaponizing it while they scour the surface for fragments of their former society. When two Espers in storage pods are discovered and broken out of stasis, a conspiracy unravels regarding a shared memory everyone still has—a location known only as the Ruins. Gameplay-wise, players spend time between real-time battles with monsters and other Espers building their deck of attacks, defenses, and other miscellaneous abilities, which all end up shuffled and doled out at random mid-match. It's a one-of-a-kind mix of arena fighting and deck-building strategy that really does require players to consider what the best arsenal will be for each mission, as going in with the wrong skill set can certainly lead to absolute destruction. Despite bombing on its initial release on the Xbox (not my fault—I bought one!), it had a dedicated following on Xbox Live during its heyday and is now available on PC for free via the Microsoft Store.

[ Adventure / RPG ]
A remake of an earlier game named Kinder. Shunsuke comes home from his grandparents' to find that the adults in his town have been slaughtered by a child with strange powers named Yuuichi, who forces the remaining children to play the "Friends Game." Kill the three Mistresses, and they will be freed. A strange RPG Maker game, with some frustrating sections, but ultimately quite good and worthwhile—at the very least for the incredibly funny sections and great music.

[ ADVENTURE / HORROR ]
Point-and-click adventure game in which an old lady must prepare her clients' final dishes. Incredibly dark and pretty funny.

[ ADVENTURE ]
Collect likes and go viral in this adventure game about exploring a set of vaporwavesque virtual worlds.

[ HORROR / RPG ]
An RPG about a 14-year-old mass-murderer on death row named Russell, who is incapable of feeling guilt. He ends up in an institution that makes him take Happy Dream, an experimental drug that causes him to dream about a small town inhabited by the people he's killed. If the dreams rehabilitate him, he might be spared. The plot itself is interesting, but this really makes the list for its often psychedelic and surreal approach to psychological horror. The colorful enemy designs and strange locations bring Yume Nikki to mind, and of course it gets bonus points for being an indie RPG Maker game with traditional combat that isn't actually tedious as hell. Check the site's content warnings on this one.

[ ADVENTURE / HORROR ]
After attempting to drive through a snowstorm, a woman finds a strange apartment building full of twisted versions of her cherished memories, and the only other person in the building appears to be a strange but kind child that keeps following her around.

[ ADVENTURE ]
Ori wakes up in a hotel bathtub, unsure of where he is. He soon meets the frightened and mistrustful Rem, and together, they travel through the corridors and rooms of the hotel and make their way through veils that only allow entry once certain conditions are met. Combines the surreal leanings of walkabout-type RPG Maker games with religious imagery and cryptic lore regarding beings called Celestials.

[ ADVENTURE / MINIGAMES ]
What's billed as a collection of long-lost and unreleased Sonic the Hedgehog games proves to be much more... cursed. For Sonic fans, Sonic newcomers, and Sonic haters alike. Best suited for adults, though.

[ ADVENTURE / INCREMENTAL ]
Instructed by its father, the king, to stay in the cavernous kingdom and wait for 400 days, a shade begins its long and lonesome biding of the time. The 400 days clock runs down in real time, including when you aren't playing, but can be made to go faster by improving the shade's living conditions and participating in activities.

[ ADVENTURE / HORROR ]
Bizarre point-and-click adventure game about an amnesiac waking up in the warped town of Harvest in the 1950s. Extremely violent, at times perverse, and full of nonsensical '90s adventure game logic.

[ ACTION-ADVENTURE / PLATFORMER ]
As Nova, clean up the Dust that has settled in sick people's bodies while tackling the meaning of the work you do as well as life itself. Not particularly abstract, and only surreal in certain sections, but fits well in this collection regardless. You can play this without playing the first one—you will only miss a few references.

[ ADVENTURE ]
A florist ends up in Dr. Habit's "Habitat," where unhappy people go to cure their sadness. Dr. Habitat doesn't appreciate it, however, when the florist starts cheering people up—claiming that they're spoiling the smiles meant to be reserved for the "Big Event." An offbeat first-person adventure game in which players must react to people's "yes" or "no" questions by physically moving the florist's head with their mouse.

[ HORROR / PUZZLE ]
Stuck in a looping corridor, players must find Exit 8 by turning back around every time they come across an "anomaly."

[ ADVENTURE ]
Slightly off-beat exploration game with light platforming elements about leaving the sparse and brutalist environment of BABBDI.

[ ADVENTURE ]
A short game about crowds and their behaviors.

[ ADVENTURE / HORROR ]
Well-known Yume Nikki fan game about Sabitsuki, a girl who uses her computer to explore a world within her mind. It has dark medical themes and is more overtly horror-themed than Yume Nikki.

[ ADVENTURE / INT FIC ]
In GNOSIA, the titular infection takes over people's minds, making them turn on their fellow humans. Detecting the presence of GNOSIA, the spaceship's AI has now prioritized its destruction over the survival of the crew. As a compromise, the crew are allowed to play a game in which they determine who is or is not GNOSIA, putting one suspect to cold sleep before every warp. Every warp in which a GNOSIA infectee has survived, however, is a chance for another uninfected human to fall victim. It's a single-player social deduction (vs AI) game presented like a visual novel, in which each subsequent "loop" gives players the chance to learn more about the characters they're up against—as well as the experience points necessary to level up various performance-enhancing stats and ability unlocks. The strong mechanics make this fairly similar to tabletop hidden role games.