For most gamers of a certain age (ie, my age), creature collector games and anime were at the heart of our childhoods. Pokémon, Digimon, and Yu-Gi-Oh became obsessions for many kids back then. Now, those kids are adults, and they’re putting their time into making their own indie games; I’ll give you one guess as to the genre they’ve focused on. 

If you said anything other than creature collectors… I don’t know what to say. I mean, you’re probably right to some degree, but this would be a very long list if I included everything made by someone who may or may not have watched an episode of Pokémon at some point. 

Focusing solely on creature collector games, many indie developers have now made their own games that have you rounding up wild critters to battle, breed, or train in some way or another. If you want to hoard cute creatures, here are five epic indie creature collector games to try right now. 

D.A.M. Champion

D.A.M. Champion is a creature collector created by solo developer Ikari Creative, featuring adorable creatures designed by artist Hikoku. It’s clear to see the Pokémon influence in terms of both the creatures and the gameplay loop, but some standout features make D.A.M. Champions worth playing. 

The biggest of these is the level of humor that’s added into the dialogue, but there are also at least three distinct art styles at play that shouldn’t work together but somehow work to complement each other. The pixel art style of the main game makes the monsters stand out more than they regularly would, and the hand-drawn style of the NPC close-ups adds a touch a whimsy. 

D.A.M. Champion was released in November 2024, so you can go and play the full game right now through Steam. 

Insectile

Insectile is part creature collector, part puzzle game, and a tale of exploration all rolled into one lovable experience. You travel through maze-like areas, collect insects, and then use those insects to defeat other insects in a grid-based puzzle battle.

Each insect has a certain shape, and each square of the grid that it covers counts as one damage to enemy insects already on the grid. It makes a nice change from the turn-based battle of other creature collector games, and it’s weirdly addictive to boot. 

Insectile is currently under development by Narwhalnut LLC, and is set to be released at some point in 2026. However, there is a demo available to download and play if you want to fully understand the joy of this little indie gem. 

Kabuto Park

Staying on the theme of insects, Kabuto Park is a game in which you collect insects, level them up, and then pit them against other insects in sumo wrestling-style battles. You have cards that can be used to boost your insects in the arena, and new insects are discovered in different locations on the map. 

What stands out about Kabuto Park is the art style. Developer Zoot, also responsible for Minami Lane and Froggy’s Battle, has a very distinct style, and it’s on full display in this glorious little indie bug battler. It’s adorable, and you’ll always be striving to improve your bugs and their stats. 

Kabuto Park was released in full on May 28, 2025, so you can go and start gathering up the bugs right now. There’s also a demo available to play, if you want to get a feel for the mechanics and style before making the purchase. 

Whimside

Whimside differs from the other games on this list because it’s an idler that runs at the bottom of your screen, allowing you to multitask while collecting cute creatures. There is no battling in Whimside; instead, you need to breed your creatures to create specific combinations of features to unlock new areas. 

Each creature is made up of a head, face, body, and tail, which change from creature to creature. Your job is to breed out (or in) specific features until you arrive at the right combination, as requested as part of quests or for unlocking a new area with the altar. It’s surprisingly difficult to get the right combinations, but you’ll be too distracted by how adorable the creatures are to care too much. 

Whimside is developed by Toadzillart and set to release at some point in Q3 2025 (Fall). However, if you want to get to grips with the breeding mechanic and fall in love with these strange critters, you can go and download the demo now. 

Pipkin

Pipkin is a pastel goth dream of a creature collector, and everything is themed around Halloween in some way. You throw Pumpkin Balls to capture wild Pipkins, you meet Dr. Frankenstein and his ‘zombie’ child, and you get to venture around an area that seems to be stuck in perpetual fall, which honestly seems like my dream come true. 

As a fan of fall, Halloween, and all things on the gothic side, it goes without saying that I’d recommend Pipkin, but even without my heavy bias, there’s a lot to love. The designs of the Pipkin themselves are unique and adorable, the NPCs are all strangely lovable even when they’re trying to knock you out in battle, and there’s a sassy narrator on top of everything else. 

If you want to play Pipkin, it’s being developed by Gregdude and will be released in October 2025, just in time for some spooky Halloween playtime. In the meantime, there’s a demo available to download and try. 

Clawsome

Admittedly, Clawsome barely fits into the genre of creature collector because you’re not collecting creatures at all, but figurines. However, this is my list and I will include it, because it’s cute and I like cute things. But also it’s supremely fun to play and relaxing in a really weird way, so there’s that. 

Clawsome is a grabber game in which you pick up small figurines that then get added to your collection to be inspected or displayed in dioramas. That’s it; there are no battles to get through, no pressure to level up your collected items, and no stress. All you do is grab and appreciate the moment. 

Clawsome is currently in development by Cometa Games and is set to release at some point before the end of 2025. There’s currently no demo, sadly, but you’ll be the first to know when one arrives if you keep an eye on the TNT indie release schedule!