Free Co-Op Indie Games On Steam You Need To Try

Indie games never feel hard to come by, and co-op games aren’t either, but where are the games that are free-to-play and made by indie developers that you can enjoy with a close group of friends? Steam itself has no end to countless games made by AAA companies and indie developers. Still, after cruising through the filter system to narrow down indie games that are multiplayer through any means and are free, the pool gets to be a little small. This could be how some games won’t hit the spotlight as quickly as other games, but it does make it hard to find something cozy, sweet and enjoyable amongst a close group of friends. Thankfully, we have some adorable selections for you.

Trash Patrol

Any game that promotes the absolute chaos that raccoons are able to harbor within their tiny fluffy bodies and their grubby little hands is a game that we must promote and support. Team up with your friends to break into houses, collect treasures that are collected around the building and don’t forget to wash them up. We don’t want to bring dirty collectibles back to our hidey-hole — we’re not heathens. A tiny trashcan will float around the area that awaits the rewards you find for yourself after washing and drying them. How then that still labels them as clean when they go into a trashcan is knowledge that far surpasses our human understanding. 

Trash Patrol supports 2-4 players with customizable raccoons that can be recognized by the stark Sorry! colors from games of our youth. You break into houses and collect treasures that need to be washed and dried before you can bring them back and have officially collected them. Some may be more difficult to reach, which is where the co-op element comes in. Toss your friends to reach those higher places and watch out for the owner of the home who will come back to take your treasure. Guess they don’t appreciate us cleaning up their house.

Prison Life

Welcome back to Cops and Robbers in a game called Prison Life. We return to an age-old classic as this game separates prisoners vs guards where the guard tries to keep the prisoners under wraps and make sure they aren’t stepping one toe out of line. Meanwhile, the prisoners have quite a few options for getting out of their prisoner, either looting, crafting, or conniving their way out of the prison and securing an escape that’ll leave the guard in the dust. With quite a few maps in their first game, you can have 3-11 players join you making for a chaotic adventure to escape the authorities. 

And if this wasn’t enough content for you, then never fear. The game devs, AO Games, have started working on Prison Life 2, with playtests available for access through request. They are planning to release the game in full sometime in 2023, but follow their Steam page and add the game to your wishlist if you’d like to be kept in the loop and get the notification when the game is available for official download.

Come With Me

Perhaps the sweetest of the three, Come With Me is a co-op game for two people where you venture through a magical world as two very different little creatures and have to bypass numerous puzzles together. Because there is a tiny round ball character and a tall square one, you’re going to need to use the advantage of each in order to solve puzzles that are hard to reach, wadding through water or crawling through tiny places. This game, while free and made by an indie company, is so well-built and beautiful with loving craftsmanship in the characters and the world they are exploring.

Its ancient runes patterns and designs on the characters and world alike give nostalgia to certain cultures while the world going from a snowy landscape to warm farmland really paves the way to give off the feeling of traveling far and wide. What for? You’ll have to find out by downloading the game and discovering the trust yourself.