Grab major savings and enjoy huge updates to indie.io's top survival simulators

Sifting through the Steam Summer Sale is never easy; there's too much choice. For indie developers, that means poor discoverability, with multi-million dollar projects overshadowing their years-long labor of love that just needs a good weekend to break even. That's just one area where indie.io can help, and we're highlighting just a tiny selection of the collection currently enjoying big content updates on top of massive discounts during this year's red-hot Steam Summer Sale.

Whether you're looking for something new or vowed to pick up an early access release with a few patches under its belt, this wave of content drops should give you something to sing about this summer. From the addition of hulking armored vehicles in a tense zombie survival game to stacks of new substance for the husband and wife team working on their dream swashbuckling simulator, there's loads to get stuck into.

Siren an old sea shanty, and get back on board your ship in a bottle: there's new adventures to be had and dubloons to be made in Forgotten Seas' Crew Haven update. Build up your newfound pirate paradise with Crew Buildings. Ranging from coffee farms and breweries all the way to a working tiki bar, Work Orders mean your band of not-so-merry guys and gals can try their hand at crafting consumables for the rest of your squad to squander their hard-earned coin on. Capitalism, ho!

Piecing together this quiet spot for your crew of swashbucklers and deckhands also unlocks the means to take on repeatable Trading and Delivery missions, earning you stacks of cash by delivering the day's desired Trade Crates. Check what's in demand, hit up the workbench, and chart a course to the trade ports to replenish those dusty coffers with a bit of coin.

With the right gear on deck, you'll be making bank in no time. Why bother scavenging for buried treasure when there's money to be earned with good old-fashioned hard graft? You can even display your spoils in the new Treasury Building to earn Treasury Bills over time. We hear Captain Nyx has taken a liking to those.

Wondering why you took on the pirate life just to ferry Schrödinger's contraband? With new Seek and Destroy missions added, there's plenty of work for an old sea dog like yourself. Even the Haven isn't as safe as you might think.

Like a dragon soaring at one sniff of a gold pile, Krakens can emerge from the waters around your abode, lured in by your many treasures and trades.

Take on the challenge and you might just find some precarious loot in the belly of the beast. Speaking of battle, should Commander Half Life and his band of Cargo Stealers get a hand on your goods, you'll need to put your seafaring skills on the line to defeat him in a Dangerous Delivery.

Prefer tackling the undead over some pesky pirates? Head back into the apocalypse with another major update from HumanitZ and the Armored Frontier update.

On top of properly supporting Brazil with Bisect Hosting private servers in Sao Paulo, the game's tiny team has responded to player feedback and introduced heavily armoured vehicles. Push through the hordes as you make a daring drive to a new location or hatch one desperate attempt to escape your fate. On top of ways to boost the range and mask the sound of your rides, you can now kit out your cars with three tiers of armor: a potential lifesaver now that tires degrade with use. At least the tire iron doubles as a killer melee weapon.

But despite being the namesake of the summer update, it isn't just vehicles stepping up to the plate. Three new firearms have been rediscovered, too.

So, whether you're checking out new locations like the Shipping Dockyard and Mining Site or re-discovering the freshly updated Airport, you'll want to reconsider your usual loadout when you set off to hunt for Bandit Lockers and the secret bunker we've been hearing campfire rumblings about. Just be warned: you might need to take on a certain new skill to reap the rewards.

Already counting down the days until halloween? If you're pulling a summer hibernation and banking on the arrival of fall, get out of bed and break out the pumpkin spice: there's a massive Hauntsville update ready to ring in the spooky season well ahead of schedule.

Take advantage of the Steam Summer Sale discount on Hauntsville, and you can ride into halloween with its new Railroad expansion update.

Lay the tracks and fire up your locomotive to expedite your journey through the Cursed West. This ambitious new update brings the industrial revolution to your ghastly corner of the States. So long as you have the coal to power you through the road ahead, you can use your freight train to take on frights like never before or haul rare and powerful items from one corner of the dusty plains to the other.

Forgotten Seas, HumanitZ, and Hauntsvile are all on sale, up to 35% off,  until the end of the indie.io Steam Summer Sale on July 24. After that, you can still grab all three for the price of the average triple-A game. With stacks of creatives onboard with the indie.io summer sale, it's a great time to champion independent studios and small-time developers making gems across every genre under the summer sun.

Got a game you're dying to bring to market? Even if it's still just a glint in your eye, the indie.io team can point you in the right direction. They use their expertise in distribution, marketing, and management to help dozens of small-scale developers release their dreams to the public every year.

So, whatever stage of the development cycle you're in, check out the indie.io page for helpful hints and wise words of advice. You could very well be their next success story.