Some cool indies from Summer Game Fest 2026
Rhianne Ward
So Summer Game Fest has come and gone, and every game company has staked their claim upon the next year of the industry. Or rather, every company has confirmed without a shadow of a doubt that they are deathly afraid of GTA VI in November and given it the widest possible berth within reason. There is a truly staggering number of games releasing in September and October, which has made my future wallet wince in pain. In saying that, it's also an incredibly exciting time to be a fan of video games! So much cool stuff got announced at this year’s events, and I wanted to highlight the stuff that stood out to me, having watched most of the presentations and ingested more trailers than would likely be the medically recommended dosage. I'm high as a kite on the promise of a brighter future and I'm riding that wave into the sunset baby!!
In the interest of making this selection a bit more unique, I'm mainly going to talk about smaller, indie-scale games here. That isn't to say there aren't blockbuster features I'm excited for, of course! The primary fighter for me is currently Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave, but to reiterate that would be awfully “water is wet” of me, so let that be the end of it. I was also blindsided by the reveal of Dragon’s Dogma 2: Dark Arisen, an expansion for one of 2024’s most overlooked games. Dragon's Dogma fans rejoice! Our continued commitment to one of the generation’s greats is being rewarded. There are dozens of us! Dozens!!
What else, what else… oh, of course Final Fantasy VII Revelation is exciting! As lukewarm as I was on Rebirth, I did come back to it last year and actually enjoyed it a lot more once I cut my self-imposed mandate to do everything and just finished the stuff I liked. It also goes without saying, but I adore these characters and this world, and to see it through to its conclusion is a real treat. I can't wait! Another one I'm deeply stoked for is Onimusha: Way of the Sword, Capcom’s return to their demon-slaying swordfighting series. I played the first Onimusha at the start of last year and, to my genuine surprise, loved it, and the demo for this new entry has inspired a lot of confidence. It feels SO GOOD to play! I'm chomping at the bit for more.
Okay, lightning round so we can get to the meat of this post. Control Resonant: Remedy’s next game looks esoteric and awesome, what a shocker. Silent Hill: Townfall: a new SH game from the Observation developer? We've never been more back! The more I hear about The Blood of Dawnwalker, the more intrigued I become, and that modern day trailer thing they did was so odd that I can't help but buy in totally. Obviously I'm stoked about The Duskbloods and Persona 4 Revival, and oh my god, that Monster Hunter Wilds expansion looks absolutely stunning. It's cool to be in on the ground floor for one of these! Resident Evil: Veronica is very exciting too, proving as usual that Capcom can do no wrong in my heart. Exodus looks really cool, as does that new Metro game, and I was delighted seeing a third Hellblade game muscle its way into existence in the form of Senua.
Finally, there were some indie games mentioned that I've already talked about before, and since that's the case, there's n need to rehash my anticipation. Check out this post if you wanna read about Big Walk, Virtue and a Sledgehammer, End of Abyss, and Grave Seasons, all of which showed up last week and continued looking amazing.
Okay, I think that about wraps up the big boys. Now's the time for the smaller picks you might have missed, but will undoubtedly end up being worth your time. Let's get into it.
About Fishing
Two years ago, developer The Water Museum released a strange wee game called Arctic Eggs. It told the tale of a dystopian world wherein you inhabit the role of a Poultry Peddler, a being with a pan for a hand whose only purpose is frying up stuff for the locals. It could be bacon, eggs, cigarettes, bullets, they name it, you can fry it. It's a distinctive experience with a very unique control scheme, and it left a real impact on me. There's a palpable sense of aimlessness to the whole journey, punctuated by your cyclical pan-frying duty. The denizens of the concrete jungle you navigate are a colourful bunch. Sometimes they've given up, other times they dare to dream of a better world. In either case, they're just as fucked as you. Even the god of this world yearns for impossible dreams. At the end of the day, we all desire things, and we all need to eat, so a fry up isn't the worst place to start.
It's a very short, but very poignant experience, which is why I'm very excited for their newest game, About Fishing, which, unsurprisingly, looks to be about much more than casting lines. The way the fishing works reminds me a lot of a little game I played last year called Mysteries Under Lake Ophelia, which I very much recommend if you don't mind getting a little spooked. This also appears to be implementing a Resident Evil 4 style inventory management system, and a detective mystery plot as a narrative throughline. Not to mention, the visual style of this game is striking. It harkens back to the days of Max Payne or Siren, when developers had to get experimental to replicate human faces before technology made that unnecessary. Here, though, it works to create a sense of uneasiness. Seeing photorealistic faces on pixelated bodies certainly gets under my skin. I'm sure that's very much part of the developer’s intent.
With the cryptic trailers, it's hard to say how this one is going to turn out, but given their past success in Arctic Eggs, and the heavy atmosphere they're able to build with just 90 seconds of footage, I have faith that The Water Museum are cooking up something really special here. About Fishing doesn't have a release date at the moment, but there is a demo available on Steam right now if you'd like to have a gander, and it'll most likely be available on PS5 upon release as well.
Am I Nima
Out of all the games I'm going to talk about here, HO! Games's Am I Nima is definitely the most unique. A pseudo-detective game where you learn as much as possible about a girl, so that you can convince her mother that you are her? It's really compelling. What helps it stand out even more is the arresting artstyle. This game, unsurprising given the premise, leans heavily into psychological horror. The mother character is a haunting presence, trapping your avatar in the basement, and interrogating your every thought. You need her to believe that you are who you say. But are you? It's unclear. Maybe she's locked you up for a reason.
That mystery is what has me hooked on this game. I am desperate to pick it apart, navigating its intricacies, until it all becomes clear. The question I have is this: if you know every little thing about a person, and inhabit their very being, then at what point are you just that person? I hope Am I Nima is able to live up to its tremendous potential when it releases on October 8th for PC. There's a demo available on Steam, but personally I'm going to wait for the full release.
Bad Magpie
There's a moment in the Bad Magpie reveal trailer where he shouts into the sky as his fellow birds fly away, while he is left grounded and unable to join them. It was at this moment, when my heart began to fracture, that no matter what carnage this magpie inflicts upon the local populace, it is justified, and I will go to the ends of the Earth to see his will satisfied.
Bad Magpie exists in the same subgenre as Untitled Goose Game or Thank Goodness You're Here!, that being adventure games where you go around a little town enacting nonsense and being a general menace to everyone around you. It's a niche that I would argue is not nearly fulfilled enough, so a new crack at that will always be compelling to me. Bad Magpie is slated to release sometime in 2027 for XBOX and PC.
Bub
I'm a simple woman. If you show me a trailer where the developers narrate it, going into depth on their process and reasons for making it, I'm going to be there day one. Bub looks to be a deeply emotional and beautifully handcrafted experience, recounting the author's life as an artist in New York. The visual style is really distinct, and also varied, not comfortable settling on a single uniform look. It's a game that looks to be made with a lot of love and hard work. This project is the thing the indie gaming scene was built for. Pure artistic expression, built in the pursuit of love for the craft and not just profit margins.
This might seem quite presumptuous given that this game is not actually out and I haven't played it, but games like Bub are what make me love this medium so much. Nothing else quite feels the way video games do. Filmmakers have tried for over a century to build immersive experiences, but that effort, more often than not, pales in comparison to the simple magic of interactivity. To inhabit a person, fully and truly, to the extent that you control where they go and what they say, is an experience unmatched by other mediums. Video games are a wonderful tool for building empathy, and games like Bub are pioneers of that strength. Bub is expected to release in late 2027 for PC.
Carcass Clad
Something that trailers often like to weaponise for generating hype is a name drop. We are all susceptible to this. The reveal trailer for gen Atlas was pretty cool already, then “Ico, Shadow of the Colossus and The Last Guardian” appeared and we all locked in real quick. Sometimes a name is enough. “From Hideo Kojima” usually does the job quite nicely. All this is to say: let me tell you, as soon as “From the creators of Mouthwashing” appeared in the trailer for Carcass Clad, I bolted upright in my chair.
If you have any familiarity with the indie horror scene, that reference alone should be enough to get you hooked. However, if you're needing any more convincing, the rest of the trailer ought to do the job just fine. It's unclear what the game is about, but this team has nailed the claustrophobic panic of tank warfare. It's in the little details. The tactility of each movement, the way aiming down the sights is accompanied by a reverse shot of the nervous gunner, the constant close-ups. Mouthwashing is often complimented for its effortless marriage of filmic techniques alongside game mechanics to tell the most affecting story they can, and that approach is present and accounted for here as well.
To me, Carcass Clad showcases a Wrong Organ going from strength to strength, and I cannot wait to see what they've been cooking up with this one. Their newest game has no release date currently, but it will be on PC.
El Paso, Elsewhere 2
In a place as busy as the indie scene, it takes a special something to stand out, and Strange Scaffold has succeeded in that regard. They're the team behind a couple titles you might be familiar with: I Am Your Beast, a frenetic speedrunning action game, and Clickolding, a short, bizarre experience that does exactly what it says on the tin. One more title, their breakout hit from 2023, was El Paso, Elsewhere, a Max Payne-inspired vampire shooter that tasks you, John El Paso, with hunting down the villainous Draculae, who also happens to be your ex. It's awesome, and really unique.
So, naturally, a sequel is very intriguing to me. The first game has a great story that wraps up quite nicely, so I'd be very curious what a new entry would bring. From what I can tell, this new installment moves away Draculae and into a whole new dilemma. I have no doubt, given this studio's track record, that the writing will not disappoint, the gameplay will be incredibly fun, and the music, presumably put together by the wonderful RJ Lake, will keep my Spotify account warm for years to come. El Paso, Elsewhere 2 doesn't have a release date yet, but it's set to launch on XBOX and PC.
In The Drift
Time to slow things down. In The Drift is a new game from one of the creators of Sable, which I've been meaning to play for years but never gotten around to it. It's always been a very compelling game to me though. It looks like a quiet, meditative adventure game, which is sometimes exactly what I'm looking for. Plus, it's absolutely gorgeous.
In The Drift hits many of those same beats. It’s a narrative platformer about fixing the internet in space. You are, presumably, a repair technician, and your job is to travel across this alien planet and sort out the mess. It looks like a slow, cosy experience, a vibe enhanced by a beautiful original track that gives me goosebumps every time I hear it. I'm really liking what this game is putting down, and I can't wait to get my hands on it. Sadly, there's no release date for this one either, but it's expected to launch on PC.
Penguin Colony
Now for a weird one. Developer ORIGAME DIGITAL is not a new face on the scene, having already found modest success in their previous game, Umurangi Generation. It's another one I've been meaning to get around to, sitting in my Steam library staring at me like I owe it something, the bastard. I only heard good things though, and their next game Penguin Colony looks like quite a departure from their prior work.
Described by the devs themselves as a faithful re-imagining of some of HP Lovecraft's works, including In the Mountains of Madness and others, told from the perspective of a penguin. As strange as that might sound, this is Lovecraft we're talking about, so it might just be weird enough to work. What makes it stand out to me is that I don't think I've ever played as a penguin in a video game before, much less in a Lovecraftian setting. Further, this team clearly has a strong handle on atmosphere and intrigue, as evidenced by the ominous and darkly beautiful environments. I'm looking forward to how this one unfolds when it releases in 2026 on PC, and there's a demo!
Prove You're Human
1000xRESIST is one of the most affecting works of fiction I have ever experienced. It's such a dense text, almost overwhelmingly, but by its end somehow pulls everything together. It's the kind of experience you have where you know it's good, but when tasked with explaining why, words fail it. It's a masterpiece, plain and simple, and an extraordinary debut for developer Sunset Visitor.
Prove You're Human is their next project. If you've played 1000xRESIST then you'll no doubt be seated for this one. If you haven't played 1000xRESIST, then consider that your homework between now and this next game's release. It's a staggering work, and Prove You're Human will undoubtedly be no different. This is the most “trust me bro” I will be in this post, because you simply should. It's amazing. Prove You're Human probably will be too. No release window yet, but it's coming to PC.
Red Kiss
I loooooove vampires. If your thing has a vampire, I'm more likely to be interested than if it didn't. I'm so keen on the hidden society angle, and the creative ways stories choose to express vampirism. I love everything I've touched of Vampire: The Masquerade, and I'm running Curse of Strahd in my current DnD campaign. Vampires are awesome, so of course I'd be down for a vampire RPG, especially one where you're coordinating a team of vampire spies in cold-war Berlin. Such a novel idea, and one I could not be more bought into.
I considered mentioning that new V:TM CRPG which seems to be rifling around an awful lot in Disco Elysium’s cookie jar. Admittedly, that also looks great, but I figured Red Kiss probably needs the spotlight a bit more. Not to mention, its artstyle stands out a bit more, and the music rocks. Regardless, it's a very good time to be a vampire RPG enjoyer. Red Kiss also doesn't have a release date, but it's set for PC.
Signet City
Finally, we arrive at the end of the alphabetical order, but make no mistake: I'm probably more excited for this one than any other. I love the Citizen Sleeper games. Both of them are among my favourites ever. Nothing hits quite like them. The quality of the prose within, exploring a future universe where humanity is abandoned in a far-off galaxy and forced to make do regardless, did a lot to my brain chemistry last year. I played Citizen Sleeper 2 in January, and here I am, 17 months later, STILL talking about that shit. I adore it.
The trailer for Jump Over The Age’s next game, Signet City, reveals very little. It's a mood builder, with elements of the story suggested but their meaning obscured. It appears to be the tale of a city forced into ruin following a fungal outbreak. What that means in a broader sense is unclear, but man, the seatbelt is on and I'm ready to drive. It's not clear when this game will grace our computer screens, but I will be there day one, make no mistake. I just recommend watching the trailer, getting a feel for it yourself, and coming back here to tell me how right I am. Play Citizen Sleeper also.
And that's it! Some games from SGF I'm looking forward to that you might not have haven't heard of until now. If you liked the sound of any of these, I've put together a YouTube playlist detailing every game I talked about today, with the exception of Bub, which for reasons that escape me, does not have a YouTube trailer that I could find. The trailer is on Steam though if you want to watch it there instead. I also threw in a few (actually almost 100 extra) trailers of stuff I didn't talk about here but I'm looking forward to anyway!
HERE’S THE PLAYLIST
I'm sure a couple of these titles will be making appearances on this blog – hopefully sooner rather than later! – so look forward to that when the time comes. For now though, I've been Rhianne, and this has been video games. Go play some! They're good for you!