I’ve spent a lot of time covering single-player games on The Nerdy Type, but what about games that let you bring your friends along for the ride? Playing together is sometimes more fun than diving in and pouring hours into a solo game, and there are a lot of multiplayer indie games out there to try.

Whether you’re looking for something to play while crammed onto the same sofa or you’re looking for something that can help bridge the gap between you and a geographically distant friend, there’s something on this list for everyone. There are even some games here that might end up testing your friendships, but it’s all in good fun, right? 

Cabbie!

Cabbie! can be played either solo or with up to three friends, and it’s all about picking up and dropping off based on the whims of customers who enter your cab or deliveries that need to be made. You play as an adorable car with eyeballs, and you have a small circuitous road to navigate in a world that’s a little too destructible. 

Every delivery you make will earn you coins, while everything you destroy will cost you coins. In multiplayer, it’s all about being the player who earns the most at the end of each stage. There’s even a boss to defeat as part of the demo, which is a far more challenging feat than it first appears, and gets harder as you add more players. 

Cabbie! is currently in development by Tea Stained Games and doesn’t have a definite release date yet, but the demo is available to try right now on Steam. 

Mailstrom

Mailstrom is a delightful multiplayer experience that may or may not have you rethinking your life choices and whether you’d perform well as a cosmic mailman. It’s all about delivering parcels across the galaxy, and you have to make sure that the right parcel gets to the right recipient. You can even sneak a peek inside the parcels if you’re feeling nosy. 

It’s not all straightforward, though. As you progress, you’ll encounter zombies, aliens, and aliens that might also be zombies. Regardless of their life status, all of the enemies you face off against are out for blood, and you need to deliver despite the odds. If you take too long, the ship will leave you behind, and you will earn nothing from your day of hard work. 

Developed by Advanced Faffery, Mailstrom is set to release in full at some point before the end of 2025. If you want to try it now, the Demo Day demo is available for a taster session and orientation day as a cosmic mailman. 

Windswept

If you’re hunting for those Saturday morning gaming session kind of vibes and have someone close by to game with, Windswept is an adorable and challenging 2D platformer about a duck and a turtle who work together to overcome any obstacles they may face. 

Between the two of them, there really isn’t anything they can’t tackle. The duck can glide, and the turtle makes an excellent projectile, so this couch co-op experience will get you thinking outside the box to come up with a solution. It’s adorable, addictive, and there’s an immense feeling of satisfaction that comes with getting through one of the 40 levels. 

Windswept is currently being developed by WeatherFell and is set to release before the end of 2025. The demo is currently available on Steam, and it’s well worth sitting down to play either solo or with a friend. 

Revenge of the Savage Planet

Created in reaction to the team from the original Savage Planet game getting fired by Google, Revenge of the Savage Planet is all about sticking up a middle finger to ‘the man’ and doing things your way. It’s chaotic, it’s insane, and it’s altogether a fun experience solo, but bringing a friend along just dials the madness up a notch or six. 

While playing multiplayer, you aren’t limited to sticking close to each other. In fact, as long as you’re on the same planet, one of you could be on one side while the other is off on their own adventure on the other. This does lead to some mad dashes across the terrain when your gaming buddy starts screaming, but it also means you can cover more ground and discover so much more. 

Revenge of the Savage Planet was developed by Raccoon Logic Studios and is out now. If you want something to play with a buddy, this is one that I will always recommend. 

Farm Together 2

Looking for something a little more cozy to play? If you’ve got a soft spot for farming sims, then Farm Together 2 is the perfect way to drag a friend along for the experience. You start out with a small plot of land and, together, build your way to a farming empire that stretches far beyond the horizon. 

With time advancing, whether you’re playing or not, there’s always something to do in Farm Together 2, and you can open up your farm just to your friends or make it public and allow anyone to come and lend a hand. There are villagers with requests for you to fulfill, and never a dull day when you’ve got a community farm to run. 

Farm Together 2 was developed by Milkstone Studios and released in full on May 30, 2025. There’s no limit to what you can do in this online farming sim, and you might even make some friends along the way. 

Paddle Paddle Paddle

Diving into the games that may test even the strongest of relationships now, starting with the infuriating yet lovable Paddle Paddle Paddle. Have you got what it takes to make it to the end of this rowing obstacle course? Do you have a friend that you trust enough not to purposefully send you careening off the edge and into the lava? 

You can play Paddle Paddle Paddle solo if you want, it’s arguably a lot easier to complete that way, but the true joy of this foddian masterpiece comes when you drag a friend or loved one into it. Each of you controls one oar, and you need to work together to avoid the obstacles or otherwise maintain course. It’s harder than it looks, and well worth testing friendships over. 

Paddle Paddle Paddle was developed by Zoroarts and released in full on July 25, 2025. If you think you’ve got what it takes, this is a hilarious experience that comes at a small cost.

PEAK

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, PEAK will either test your friendships or reaffirm them, depending on the friends you choose to play with. If they’re nice, they’ll offer a helping hand on the way up the mountain. If not… Well, you’ll probably find yourself separated and hoping they run out of stamina. 

PEAK is all about climbing and surviving for as long as it takes to reach the top of the mountain on an island in the middle of the sea. It’s all a little bit LOST, except there’s no smoke monster, but there is a horrifying scout master who can be summoned using a bugle. There’s also the game mascot, Bing Bong, who can either be carried to the top in your backpack or sacrificed in favor of something more useful. 

PEAK was developed by Landfall Games and Aggro Crab. The now viral indie was released in full on June 16, 2025, and is an absolute blast regardless of how your climb ends up. 

Gnaughty Gnomes

Gnaughty Gnomes is, for lack of a better way to describe it, a game about beating your friends up with random objects. You and up to three friends can dive in, pick up the various items in an arena, and throw them at each other or turn them into melee weapons used to smack each other around the head. The last gnome standing is the winner. 

After each round, each player has the opportunity to select a perk. This perk can then be used in the next round to help the player or hinder the others. Gnaughty Gnomes is complete and utter chaos that will have you yelling at your friends to leave you alone, all while plotting to sneak up behind them and bash them over the head with a traffic cone. 

Gnaughty Gnomes is in development by SandCastles Studio and doesn’t have a full release date just yet. However, there is a demo that you can dive into with friends, allowing you to get just a taster of what’s to come when the game comes out fully. 

Toodee and Topdee

Toodee and Topdee is perhaps the most challenging game on this list when it comes to playing it solo, because you have to not only control both characters, but also navigate shifting perspectives between 2D and top-down… Hence the name, which I’m willing to admit took me far too long to notice. 

At its heart, Toodee and Topdee is an absolutely thrilling old-school 2D platformer, challenging you to restore order to the universe by defeating a series of bosses. The difficulty increase in this indie gem is sudden and sharp, but there is the ability to give yourself unlimited lives which admittedly feels like cheating somewhat, but sometimes we all need a little helping hand. 

Toodee and Topdee was developed by Dietzribi (the same  Dietzribi who is currently working on UVSU) and was released in full back in 2021. It’s couch co-op or online remote-play, so a good multiplayer option wherever your friend happens to be.

Pico Park 2

Pico Park 2 is an unfathomably infuriating game that also manages to just about be lovable enough to keep you coming back for more. It’s the video game depiction of the love a parent has for a particularly troublesome toddler; the type of game that would look cute while it was sleeping, but cause panic within the house as soon as it woke up. 

You can play with two to eight players, and it’s utter chaos even with two. By the time you’ve got eight people together long enough to begin one of the puzzling levels, things quickly descend into total madness. Sometimes you’re invisible, sometimes you can’t move while the lights are on, sometimes the game feels impossible. It’s not, but it feels like it is. It’s maddening, but so much fun. 

Pico Park 2 was developed by Tecopark and fully released in September 2024. If you have some friends who possess God-level patience, then you’ll have a lot of fun playing through the insanely challenging levels.