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Rankings

The best horror games of 2026, ranked

Resident Evil Requiem is the best-reviewed horror game of 2026 so far (OpenCritic 89). Reanimal and Silent Hill: Townfall follow among the big releases, and indies like Tormentum II and Project Songbird scored just as well.

Imersa Studios · Nov 03, 2026

Rankings

The best horror games of 2025

Fangoria's 2025 horror list, updated in December 2025, puts Silent Hill f first, Doom: The Dark Ages second and Cronos: The New Dawn third. Here is the full top 10 with trailers.

Imersa Studios · Nov 03, 2026

Horror game dev

How to make a PSX-style horror game in Godot 4

Render the game at a low resolution (320x240) with nearest filtering, snap vertices in a spatial shader, add thick fog, and keep the player's light small. Then add one threat that hunts the player with a NavigationAgent3D. That is a complete PSX horror loop in Godot 4.

Imersa Studios · Nov 03, 2026

Unity systems

How to make a first-person inventory system in Godot 4

Describe items as a Resource, keep the slots in an autoload so every scene can reach them, pick items up with a RayCast3D on the camera, and switch the selected slot with the mouse wheel. Save the item ids to JSON.

Imersa Studios · Nov 03, 2026

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The best Godot game templates, free and paid

For menus, options and scene loading, start with Maaack's free MIT template. For a first-person horror game, start with Horror Essentials, which has a free edition. For gameplay such as inventory and saving, add 10 Game Systems for Godot 4.

Imersa Studios · Nov 03, 2026

Game dev basics

Which game engine should you use in 2026?

Pick Godot for 2D and small 3D games you want to own end to end, Unity for the widest range of tutorials, assets and platforms, Unreal for high-end 3D, and GameMaker for fast 2D. If you cannot decide, choose the engine whose beginner tutorial you will finish this week.

Imersa Studios · Oct 14, 2026

Dream games

How to make a game like GTA 6: a realistic roadmap for indie developers

You cannot recreate GTA 6 alone, but you can build a small GTA-style game: a compact city, one drivable car, a few pedestrians and one mission. Build it system by system: open world, driving, traffic and pedestrians, police and missions, in that order.

Imersa Studios · Oct 14, 2026

Horror game dev

How to make a horror game: a step-by-step guide

Pick one fear, build a small space with one threat, and control what the player can see and hear. Horror comes from limits: little light, little ammo, little information. Ship a 20-minute game first.

Imersa Studios · Oct 14, 2026

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Best 2D crafting survival games in 2026

Terraria and Don't Starve are the classics. Core Keeper and Forager are newer favourites. Survive It is our small 2D survival game where you can pick up and combine everything around you.

Imersa Studios · Oct 14, 2026

Game dev basics

How to publish a game on itch.io, step by step

Create an account, make a new project, set the kind of project and price, upload a build for each platform, add a cover image and screenshots, write a clear description and publish. Use tags, devlogs and a good cover to be found.

Imersa Studios · Oct 14, 2026

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Best tower defense games with MOBA elements in 2026

If you like building defenses and fighting next to them, play Orcs Must Die!, Dungeon Defenders or Sanctum. Mutagen is our own small take: a 3D tower defense with MOBA-style lanes, still in development.

Imersa Studios · Oct 14, 2026

PSX & low poly art

How to Make a PSX-Style Horror Game

The PSX look comes from hardware limits: low poly models, small textures with no filtering, vertices that snap to whole pixels (the wobble), textures that warp because they aren't perspective-corrected, a low render resolution and heavy fog. Recreate those limits and keep the game short.

Imersa Studios · Oct 14, 2026

Dream games

How to make an open world game: from small map to streaming world

Start with a small map you can cross in minutes, build terrain and landmarks, place content by density rules and add streaming only when the map needs it. Open worlds fail on content, not code, so keep the map small and the points of interest meaningful.

Imersa Studios · Oct 14, 2026

Dream games

How to make your own Hollow Knight: a metroidvania roadmap for small teams

A metroidvania is tight movement, an interconnected map locked by abilities, and a few memorable bosses. Prototype the movement first, design a small map on paper, add one ability that opens new routes, and expand. Scope the map to five or six areas, not forty.

Imersa Studios · Oct 14, 2026

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Kenney vs Quaternius vs KayKit in 2026: which free assets win

Pick Kenney for the widest free library, Quaternius for rigged and animated characters, and KayKit for themed packs that share one look. When you need a PSX or horror style, add a dedicated pack.

Imersa Studios · Oct 14, 2026

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Best PSX assets for horror games in 2026: the buyer's shortlist

A PSX horror game needs a believable place, scarce weapons and locked doors. Start with the free Small Town Buildings kit, add the Survival weapons and the Door System, and read Low Poly Dread for the PS1 look.

Imersa Studios · Oct 14, 2026

AI & game dev

AI-generated art in games: store rules, copyright and risks

Before you ship AI-generated art, check the store's disclosure rules, read the AI tool's licence terms, expect copyright to be uncertain, and consider how your audience will react. Be honest on your store page. Rules change, so read the current policy on each store.

Imersa Studios · Oct 14, 2026

Start here

How to make your first game: a 7-step plan for beginners

Pick a tiny idea with one mechanic, choose one engine, build the core loop with grey boxes, add art and sound, test with real people and publish it on itch.io. Finish something small in weeks before you attempt anything big.

Imersa Studios · Oct 14, 2026

Success & money

How to make money making games: eight paths for indie developers

Indie developers earn by selling games, selling assets or tools to other developers, working at studios, freelancing, teaching, running ads or in-app purchases, selling merch and joining bundles. Selling assets and tools is often the fastest path to first income, because the work is smaller and the audience already exists.

Imersa Studios · Oct 14, 2026

Events

Game dev events calendar for 2026 and 2027: festivals, jams and Steam events

The next big dates are Steam Next Fest from October 19 to 26, 2026, The Game Awards on December 10, 2026, the Steam Winter Sale from December 17, GDC from March 1 to 5, 2027, Steam Next Fest from February 22 to March 1, 2027 and gamescom from August 23 to 29, 2027. Confirm dates on the official sites.

Imersa Studios · Oct 14, 2026

Game dev basics

How to market an indie game with no budget

Start before launch. Define who the game is for, show real gameplay in short clips, post devlogs, join communities honestly, and collect wishlists and emails. Marketing is repeated, visible progress, not a single launch day.

Imersa Studios · Oct 14, 2026

Horror game dev

Horror lighting in Unity: flickering lights and fog

Turn ambient light almost off, add short exponential fog, and put a flicker script on your few lights. Noise-based flicker feels more organic than random values. The script below is a drop-in component.

Imersa Studios · Oct 14, 2026

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Best PSX asset packs on itch.io in 2026: the buyer's shortlist

A PSX game needs a place, characters and things to hold. Pizza Doggy covers nature, Ink Ribbon covers rigged characters, and our town kit and four weapon packs cover buildings, interiors and weapons.

Imersa Studios · Oct 14, 2026

Game dev basics

How to make textures for games: pixel art, PBR and hand-painted

Choose the style first. Pixel textures are small images drawn by hand and shown without filtering. PBR textures are a set of maps (base colour, normal, roughness) made in a painting tool. Hand-painted textures are painted colour on a simple map. Keep one texel density across the whole scene.

Imersa Studios · Oct 14, 2026

Game dev basics

Low poly modeling in Blender for games: a beginner workflow

Start from a primitive, block out the shape with extrude and loop cuts, keep clean quads, apply scale, unwrap the UVs and export FBX or glTF. Low poly is about readable silhouettes, not removing detail at random.

Imersa Studios · Oct 14, 2026

Events

Game of the Year 2025: who won at The Game Awards, GDC, BAFTA, Golden Joysticks and Steam

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 won Game of the Year at The Game Awards, the GDC Awards, the BAFTA Games Awards and the Golden Joystick Awards. Hollow Knight: Silksong won the community-voted Steam Awards. At the IGF, Titanium Court took the Seumas McNally Grand Prize.

Imersa Studios · Oct 14, 2026

Indie business

How to Price Your Indie Game

Price from a shelf of comparable games, not from the hours you worked. Then remember a $10 sale doesn't pay $10: tax included in the price, the store's cut (30% on Steam, a share you choose on itch.io) and refunds all come out first.

Imersa Studios · Oct 14, 2026

PSX & low poly art

Low Poly PSX Weapon Packs Compared

Pick by the fantasy of your game: Survival for zombies and scavenging, Hunting for rural horror, Police for urban crime and SWAT, Military for war, and the Blocky Arsenal for arcade shooters and roguelites. No model repeats across packs, so combining them never gets you duplicates.

Imersa Studios · Oct 14, 2026

Unity systems

How to Make a Save System in Unity with JSON

Put everything you want to keep in one [Serializable] class, turn it into JSON with JsonUtility.ToJson, and write it to Application.persistentDataPath. To load, read the file and call JsonUtility.FromJson. That's the whole core; the rest is deciding what to save and when.

Imersa Studios · Oct 14, 2026

PSX & low poly art

How to import .blend files into Unity, Godot and Unreal

Unity and Godot 4 can open a .blend file directly when Blender is installed on the same machine. Unreal can't, so export FBX from Blender. In every engine, set pixel textures to nearest-neighbour filtering or they turn blurry.

Imersa Studios · Oct 14, 2026

Horror game dev

How to make jump scares that work

A jump scare works when it follows quiet and breaks a pattern the player learned. Build tension, cut the sound, then hit once. Use it rarely, because repeated scares stop working.

Imersa Studios · Oct 14, 2026

Dream games

How to make NPC pedestrians and traffic AI for a city game

Use waypoints: draw a graph of lanes and sidewalks, let cars and pedestrians pick the next waypoint, and add rules for junctions. Add a heat counter for police and spawn chasers when it rises. Spawn only near the player and recycle NPCs to save performance.

Imersa Studios · Oct 14, 2026

Dream games

How to make a 2D platformer character controller in Unity

Move a Rigidbody2D horizontally, check the ground with an overlap circle, and add three feel features: variable jump height (release to jump lower), coyote time (jump just after leaving a ledge) and jump buffering (jump just before landing). The script below does all of it.

Imersa Studios · Oct 14, 2026

Horror game dev

Free PSX characters, weapons and horror audio packs

For a horror prototype you can get characters, first-person arms, weapons, cars, sound effects and music for free on itch.io. Here are 10 packs to try first. Read each licence before you ship.

Imersa Studios · Oct 14, 2026

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Best Unity systems with source code in 2026: the buyer's shortlist

The 10 Game Systems collection has the Door System free, five core systems (Door, Inventory, Save & Load, Shop, Character Customizer) for $7.99 and all ten for $14.99, each with commented C# source and a demo scene for Unity 6. Making horror? Horror Essentials bundles the horror-specific systems for Unity 6 and Godot 4.

Imersa Studios · Oct 14, 2026

Unity systems

How to Make Breakable Objects in Unity

Prepare a broken version of the object ahead of time (pieces with Rigidbodies), and when the intact object is hit hard enough, replace it with the broken one and push the pieces with AddExplosionForce. Cutting meshes at runtime looks cool but costs far more.

Imersa Studios · Oct 14, 2026

Horror game dev

Free alternatives to Photoshop, Substance Painter and Aseprite

Krita, GIMP and Photopea replace Photoshop for most game art. ArmorPaint and Material Maker cover much of what Substance Painter does. LibreSprite and Piskel stand in for Aseprite. All have a free option; check current terms.

Imersa Studios · Oct 14, 2026

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Best low poly weapon packs in 2026: the buyer's shortlist

For retro and horror games, pick a PSX weapon pack that matches your setting: Police, Military, Hunting or Survival. For arcade shooters, the 44-weapon Original Arsenal is the biggest single pack. For quick FPS prototypes, FPS Guns is the cheapest start.

Imersa Studios · Oct 14, 2026

Unity systems

How to Make a First-Person Inventory System in Unity

Raycast from the camera to find an item, pick it up on a key press by storing it in a list and parenting it to the player's hand, switch the held item with the mouse wheel, and drop it by unparenting it and turning its Rigidbody back on.

Imersa Studios · Oct 14, 2026

Game dev basics

How to scope your first indie game so you actually finish it

Write the core loop in one sentence, build only that until it is fun, then add features from a ranked cut list. Size the game to the hours you really have each week, not the hours you wish you had. A finished small game beats an abandoned big one.

Imersa Studios · Oct 14, 2026

Start here

How long does it take to make a game? Realistic ranges by game size

A game jam game takes a weekend. A small first game usually takes a few months of part-time work. A mid-size indie game takes one to several years. These are planning ranges, not statistics, and games almost always take longer than the first estimate.

Imersa Studios · Oct 14, 2026

Success & money

How to make a successful indie game: what the hits have in common

Successful indie games usually have a clear hook that fits in one sentence, a scope the team can finish, an audience built before launch, a store page that sells in five seconds and enough polish where players spend time. None of it guarantees success, but missing it makes failure likely.

Imersa Studios · Oct 14, 2026

Game dev basics

How to animate a character in Blender for a game

Give the model an armature, bind the mesh to the bones with automatic weights, pose the bones and set keyframes, loop the clip, then export FBX or glTF with animation baked. Start with a walk cycle and an idle, because almost every game needs those two.

Imersa Studios · Oct 14, 2026

Game dev basics

How to join a game jam and finish a game in a weekend

Find a jam on itch.io, join it, pick one small idea, plan your hours, build only the core loop and submit before the deadline with a clear page. Finishing a tiny game teaches more than starting a huge one.

Imersa Studios · Oct 14, 2026

Game dev basics

How to optimize low poly games for mobile and web

Profile on the slowest target device first. Then reduce draw calls with shared materials and batching, bake lighting instead of using many real-time lights, keep textures small and compressed, and set a triangle budget. Draw calls and overdraw usually cost frames before triangles do.

Imersa Studios · Oct 14, 2026

Start here

Why is making a game so hard? Nine reasons and what to do about each

A game combines programming, design, art, sound, testing and marketing, and each is a profession of its own. Most projects stall on scope, motivation or a missing skill. The fix is a smaller game, shorter milestones and borrowing what you cannot yet make.

Imersa Studios · Oct 14, 2026

Horror game dev

Horror game sound design for indie developers

Build a quiet low drone as a bed, add sparse sounds from far away, and keep silence as a tool. Players fear what they cannot place. Save loud stingers for rare moments.

Imersa Studios · Oct 14, 2026

Unity systems

How to make a first-person survival game in Unity

A survival game is a loop: stats drain over time, the player gathers items to refill them, and progress is saved. Build that loop with three scripts (stats, pickup, save) before you add crafting or enemies.

Imersa Studios · Oct 14, 2026

AI & game dev

How to use AI coding assistants for game development

Use an AI assistant for boilerplate, explaining code, shader and editor-tool drafts, and refactors, and review everything it writes. Keep your project in version control, test each change, and state the engine version in your prompt, because assistants can invent APIs that do not exist in your version.

Imersa Studios · Oct 14, 2026

Dream games

How to make a driving game in Unity: an arcade car controller

For an arcade feel, drive a Rigidbody with forces: accelerate along the car's forward direction, turn based on speed and cancel sideways velocity for grip. Use WheelColliders only when you need realistic suspension. The script below is a working starting point.

Imersa Studios · Oct 14, 2026

Horror game dev

Top 10 free tools to make a game

A full game can be made with free tools: Godot for the engine, Blender for 3D, Krita for 2D, Audacity for sound and Tiled or LDtk for levels. Here are our top 10 with what each is best for.

Imersa Studios · Oct 14, 2026

Start here

How to make a game without coding (and what you can really build)

Use a visual scripting or no-code tool such as Unreal Blueprints, Unity Visual Scripting, GDevelop, Construct or Bitsy, and lean on ready-made assets and systems. You can finish real games this way, but expect to learn logic thinking, because that is what code is.

Imersa Studios · Oct 14, 2026

Game dev basics

How to organize your game project with a kanban board

Use four columns (Backlog, Doing, Testing, Done), keep at most three cards in Doing, break tasks into pieces of a few hours and review the board once a week. Finishing cards, not starting them, is what ships a game. A free board that saves in your browser is linked below.

Imersa Studios · Oct 14, 2026

Game dev basics

Game store image sizes: Steam capsules, itch.io cover and social previews

The itch.io cover image is 630 × 500 pixels (315 × 250 minimum), the Steam header capsule is 920 × 430, the small capsule 462 × 174, and link previews and YouTube thumbnails are 1200 × 630 and 1280 × 720. Design at the largest size and scale down.

Imersa Studios · Oct 14, 2026

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Best low poly environment packs in 2026: the buyer's shortlist

For a horror or retro game, start with the Small Town Buildings kit, which has a free edition. For a fantasy RPG, get Dungeon Rooms and Dungeon Props together. For outdoor maps, pair the Nature and Rocks packs.

Imersa Studios · Oct 14, 2026

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Best Synty alternatives in 2026: the buyer's shortlist

If Synty is over budget, Kenney and Quaternius give you free CC0 low poly assets, KayKit sells a consistent style with free starter packs, and Imersa Studios packs start at $1.99 with a free PSX town kit.

Imersa Studios · Oct 14, 2026

Resources

The best game development YouTube channels in English, Portuguese and Spanish

60 game dev YouTube channels sorted by subscribers: Unity, Godot, Unreal, Blender, pixel art and devlogs in English, Brazilian Portuguese and Spanish.

Resources

Game development news sites, newsletters and communities

Where to follow indie and game industry news: Game Developer, GamesIndustry.biz, 80 Level, newsletters, official blogs and Brazilian and Spanish sources.

Resources

The best AI tools for game development, by task

AI tools for game developers by task: coding, 3D models, images, pixel art, voice, music and animation. With the rules you should check before shipping.

Resources

The best free and paid tools for making games

30+ game development tools by task: engines, 3D, 2D and pixel art, textures, audio, level editors and workflow. Each is marked free, freemium or paid.

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Unity vs Godot for horror games: which engine to pick

Pick Godot 4 for a free, light engine and a small PSX-style horror game; pick Unity 6 for the biggest asset store, more tutorials and easier console ports. Both handle fog, flashlights and chaser AI well, so your game's scope matters more than the engine.