Skip the Poppadoms: Ten British Indies Under £15 for Your Next Friday Night In

Look, we all love a Friday curry. The ritual is solid: menu open, poppadoms ordered, someone insists they'll only have a bit of rice and then demolishes half the table. But as we head deeper into late 2026, the takeaway maths is getting silly. Two mains, a side, a couple of breads and you're looking at the kind of number that used to buy a whole game.

So here's a better Friday rule: before you tap 'order again', check whether a British indie can do the job for less. Not as a guilt trip. Not as homework. Just as a genuinely good night in, made by studios who are often a short train ride from the exact high street where your curry shop sits.

Prices move around, especially with sales, so treat the numbers below as a rough guide. The point is the ceiling: all ten should land under or around £15 if you shop sensibly.

The Curry Benchmark

A decent UK takeaway for two is, conservatively, £25–£35. That's the bar. A game under £15 is not competing with a blockbuster; it's competing with one night's dinner and the vague regret of ordering extra naan. And unlike the naan, you can play it again on Sunday.

Ten UK Indies Worth Your Friday Money

1. Stories Untold — No Code (Glasgow)

A four-part anthology that starts as a text adventure in a dusty room and gets stranger from there. Glasgow-made, properly creepy, and short enough to finish before the rice goes cold. It's a puzzler with atmosphere you can practically smell — dusty carpet, old CRT, rain on the window.

Where to buy: Steam, GOG, Epic Games Store. Usually well under a tenner. Sofa co-op? No. This is a headphones-on, lights-low solo job.

2. Strange Horticulture — Bad Viking (UK)

You run a plant shop in a rain-soaked town, identifying suspicious foliage and occasionally making decisions that feel far too consequential for a game about potting. It's cosy in the way a Victoriana detective story is cosy: mug of tea in one hand, mild dread in the other.

Where to buy: Steam, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, Xbox. Typically around £12, often less in a sale. Sofa co-op? Not officially, but it's brilliant for passing the pad around and arguing about which plant is the murdery one.

3. Overcooked! 2 — Ghost Town Games (Cambridge)

Still the gold standard for turning friends into shouting vegetables. You chop, you cook, you fail to communicate, you blame the person on washing-up duty. It's a Cambridge-made chaos engine and it costs less than a starter and a Coke in some places.

Where to buy: Steam, Switch, PlayStation, Xbox. Frequently under £15 on sale, sometimes hilariously cheap. Sofa co-op? Absolutely. This is the co-op night. Clear the floor.

4. The Room Two — Fireproof Games (Guildford)

A gorgeous little box of puzzles from a Guildford studio that has quietly been brilliant at this for years. You poke at intricate mechanisms, slide hidden panels and feel like a genius for approximately four seconds before the next lock humbles you.

Where to buy: Steam, Switch, mobile stores. Usually £3–£7 depending on platform and sale. Sofa co-op? No, but it's a lovely one to play while someone else makes the brew.

5. Dear Esther: Landmark Edition — The Chinese Room (Brighton)

The Brighton-developed narrative short that helped make 'walking simulator' a phrase people said without smirking. It's bleak, beautiful and about the length of a decent telly episode. If you want a Friday night that feels like reading a ghost story in a damp cottage, this is it.

Where to buy: Steam, GOG, console stores. Often around £7 or less. Sofa co-op? No. It's a solo mood piece. Let it breathe.

6. 80 Days — inkle (Cambridge)

A steampunk travel odyssey where the map is the puzzle and the clock is the villain. Cambridge studio inkle made something endlessly replayable here: routes, choices, companions, disasters. It's also perfect for the sort of person who says 'I'll just do one more journey' at 11:58pm.

Where to buy: Steam, Switch, mobile. Usually under a tenner. Sofa co-op? Not really, but great for reading bits aloud in a bad accent.

7. Worms W.M.D — Team17 (Wakefield)

The UK's own turn-based artillery comfort food. Team17 has been doing this since before most of us had decent broadband, and W.M.D is a silly, hand-drawn slab of it. It's the gaming equivalent of a bag of chips after the pub: not sophisticated, deeply satisfying.

Where to buy: Steam, Switch, PlayStation, Xbox. Often under £15 in sales; check before you order that korma. Sofa co-op? Yes. Local multiplayer, pass-the-pad nonsense, exactly the right energy.

8. Tangle Tower — SFB Games (London)

A detective mystery with a talking clock, a suspicious family and animation that makes everyone look like they're about to confess to something. London-made, sharp and very funny. It's the kind of game you finish in a weekend and immediately wish you could wipe from your memory.

Where to buy: Steam, Switch, PlayStation, Xbox, Apple Arcade. Usually around £15, often discounted. Sofa co-op? No, but it's a great one to play together on the sofa, shouting theories at the screen.

9. The Escapists 2 — Mouldy Toof / Team17 (UK)

Prison break puzzles with a daft streak and a proper UK indie lineage. You craft, you plot, you get caught, you try again. It's less 'gritty drama' and more 'what if Porridge was a spreadsheet with sock-based weapons'.

Where to buy: Steam, Switch, PlayStation, Xbox. Regularly under £15 on sale. Sofa co-op? Yes — local and online co-op, and it's much funnier with someone else making the bad decisions.

10. Alba: A Wildlife Adventure — ustwo games (London)

A sunny little adventure about saving a nature reserve, made by the London studio behind Monument Valley. It's gentle, generous and the sort of game you can finish in an evening without feeling like you've been beaten up by a battle pass. Ideal for a Friday when the weather is doing its November thing.

Where to buy: Steam, Switch, PlayStation, Xbox, Apple Arcade. Usually around £12 or less. Sofa co-op? Not co-op, but lovely for younger players or a low-stress shared playthrough.

The No-Guilt UK Studio Sidebar

Supporting UK studios doesn't have to mean buying everything full price and writing a thank-you letter. Small stuff counts:

• Wishlist the next one. It genuinely helps with store visibility.
• Buy direct where you can. itch.io and studio stores often give a better cut.
• Leave a short review. Two lines and a thumbs-up is not cringe; it's fuel.
• Gift a copy. One mate who bounces off a game is one less person saying 'never heard of it'.
• Follow the studio. Not in a creepy way. Just so you know when the next thing lands.

The Friday Verdict

If you're ordering a curry anyway, fine. No one at G4DZ is coming round to confiscate your bhajis. But if you fancy a Friday night that costs less than the delivery minimum and supports someone who made a game in a spare room in Glasgow, Brighton or Wakefield, this list is a decent place to start.

Pick one. Stick it on. Maybe order the poppadoms anyway. We're not monsters.