Apple is giving indie developers the spotlight this week. The company kicked off its first-ever App Store Indie Games Week on October 12, a week-long celebration that brings seven acclaimed independent games to iPhone and iPad, with daily features and curated collections highlighting each one.
The lineup is genuinely impressive. Headlining it is Sifu, Sloclap’s stylish kung fu brawler about a young martial arts student on a path of revenge. It is available now on the App Store for $7.99, fully rebuilt for mobile with custom-tuned touch controls, a reworked camera, and full controller support — a notable feat for a game built around simultaneous multi-enemy combat and precise parries.
Also available now is Vampire Crawlers, the spin-off of the hit Vampire Survivors. Where the original is all about dodging waves of bullets, Vampire Crawlers trades that for tactical deck building, sending players through gothic dungeon runs full of skeletons, bats, and secret relics. It costs $9.99 and requires iOS 18.6 or later.
The big pre-order, though, is No Man’s Sky. Hello Games’ space odyssey makes its long-awaited mobile debut on October 28, and it arrives complete: every major content expansion to date is included, up to the recent Cosmos update that lets players command their own space stations. The infinite procedurally generated universe — explore, trade, fight, survive — will fit entirely in the palm of your hand.
Rounding out the seven are Little Kitty, Big City, an open-world adventure starring a curious cat; 9 Kings, a strategic kingdom builder powered by card armies; Dome Keeper, an alien mining simulator that mixes digging with tower defense; and Yes, Your Grace 2: Snowfall, a narrative game about agonizing moral choices while trying to save a crumbling empire. Six of the seven are available to download or pre-order right now.
Apple’s Carson Oliver, head of App Store Worldwide, framed the week as a stage for smaller teams taking creative risks. And the timing says something about where mobile gaming is headed: these are not bite-sized time killers, but full console-grade experiences — from a hardcore brawler to a decade-spanning space epic — now playable on a phone. If you have been sleeping on the App Store’s indie catalog, this is the week to fix that.
Sources: Apple Newsroom, 9to5Mac, iClarified
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