#Indie

Five New Xbox Games Close Out the Month, Including a Free-To-Play Shadow Drop (September 30)

Five new games arrived on the Xbox Store on September 30, led by Neighbors: Suburban Warfare, a free-to-play multiplayer party brawler announced as a shadow drop at the Big Break Showcase with PvE and PvP modes. The other releases are The Vorlec, Cat Lines, King's Blade and Mia's Journey, all for Series X|S. Balloon Bomber, part of the Arcade Archives 2 series, was pushed to "midnight tonight" and will be covered in the October 1st roundup.

Gcores' Seven-Day National Day Playlist: From Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous to Death Stranding 2: On the Beach

Gcores released a seven-day playlist for the National Day holiday, with one episode for each day covering a different theme. Episodes range from a Nuclear Market Odd Tales talk on works like Inside No. 9, Lord of the Flies, This Bed We Made and Unheard, to a game chat about companions and romance in Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous, a Soviet Aesthetics lecture on Tsiolkovsky and rocketry, a discussion of physical disc production ending, mushroom and fungi knowledge, a philosophical breakdown of Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, and a Gadio Story on Left 4 Dead's original four survivors centered on the official comic The Sacrifice.

Co-op Simulation Game Shark Supermarket Demo Launches Today

Shark Supermarket, a co-op simulation game co-developed by stre1itzia and Andryash and published by polden, launched its free demo today. Players are sharks in dolphin masks running an underwater shop on the reef, using the honest business as cover for a secret basement kitchen where lured fish customers are cooked, all while avoiding fish police. The demo is available to download on its Steam store page, where the game can also be wishlisted.

Oceanic Open-World Puzzle Adventure Isles of Sea & Sky Comes to Switch on October 8

Kyoto-based developer Cicada Games announced that Isles of Sea & Sky will launch for Switch via Nintendo eShop on October 8 for $19.99. The Kickstarter-funded oceanic open-world puzzle adventure first launched for PC via Steam on May 22, 2024. Players solve block puzzles, meet new friends that change the puzzle landscape, and unlock powers that open up new ways to progress.

Veteran Solo Dev Sparks Debate: "The Game Itself Is Now Secondary"

A developer who moved from AAA studios to solo projects posted in an overseas community that "the game itself is almost secondary," saying publishers want trailers, screenshots and key art validated and wishlists built before real production begins. Hundreds of replies split between those who call this the standard path to publisher funding over the past 10 years and those who insist the game itself still comes first. One commenter's breakdown of 7,000 wishlists leading to about $10,000 net showed that good data does not guarantee players stay.

Behind Steam's "Exposure Hunger": 470 Game Festivals in 6 Years, Yet Two-Thirds of Games Never Get In

An analysis by the game marketing blog How To Market A Game counts 470 third-party online game festivals around Steam, yet only about 31% of new games released since 2020 have appeared in one, leaving two-thirds with no access at all. The Wandering Village topped the list with 59 festivals, while Lost Twins 2 joined 35 festivals but drew only 53 reviews after launching last year. A YouTube channel was also reported to sell exposure, with a $2,228 package yielding just 1,622 impressions and zero wishlist growth.

Eternal Palace Sakura Launches November 5 for Switch, PC

Publisher Shochiku and developer Denneko Yuugi announced that the roguelite action game Eternal Palace Sakura will launch for Switch and PC via Steam on November 5, with the Switch version newly announced. Players control Retla, a brown-skinned, cat-eared, dual-wielding hooded heroine, fighting through a mystical dream dungeon and triggering Over-Tension to unleash the special move Over Arts.

Idea Factory Announces Visual Novel Brand IFChronicle and Crime Suspense Adventure Game ICONOLOGY for Switch, PC

Idea Factory has announced the new visual novel brand IFChronicle and its first title, ICONOLOGY, a crime suspense adventure game coming to Switch and PC via Steam with English, Japanese, Traditional Chinese, and Simplified Chinese support. No release date was announced. The scenario is written by Makoto Fukami, whose works include the PSYCHO-PASS anime series, and players use the Brain Wave Visualization Apparatus, the White Cube, to decode suspects' cognitive paintings, with choices determining the ending.

Beginner-Friendly Shoot 'Em Up Kaguya Launches on PC in 2027

Publisher AMATA Games and developer Flypot.LLC announced that Kaguya, a bullet hell shoot 'em up described as friendly for beginners, will launch for PC via Steam in 2027. The classic vertical-scrolling shooter is planned to feature six stages, bombs and power shots, and three difficulty modes: Normal, Hard, and Hell. It includes full voice acting and a Library Mode for replaying voiced lines at your own pace.

First-time dev Yinengjie's Character House demo peaks near 30,000 concurrent players on Steam with almost 98% positive reviews

Yinengjie, a Chinese indie team from the OC fan community, released a free demo of Character House: Desktop Companion on Steam, peaking at nearly 30,000 concurrent players with almost 98% positive reviews across 258 user reviews. The game centers on creating original characters and having them live on the desktop, but the demo has limited customization assets and no custom drawing import yet. Players reported memory usage, rendering glitches and concerns over a typing-count feature, while the team said friend visits, asset import and Steam Workshop support may come in later updates.

Satisfactory announces first paid DLC Core Values, taking building underground

Coffee Stain studios announced Core Values, the first paid DLC and a major expansion for Satisfactory, which will take the construction sim underground for the first time with new resources, flora and fauna. It is coming "later," though a Steam page is already live.

Garry Newman adds necks to s&box characters after neck complaints in negative reviews

Garry Newman has added necks to s&box characters, which previously had none, and included a slider so players can remove them again. The Facepunch Studios founder said he personally liked the neckless look but that the lack of necks came up consistently in negative reviews. The update also adds sliders for chest, waist, nose size, and eye colour.

Big Stretch is a wonderfully ethereal physics platformer jam game where you're a little round guy with very stretchy arms

Big Stretch is a physics-based platformer made in 72 hours by three people for the most recent Down2Jam, and it's free to download on itch.io. You play as a spherical red creature with two stretchy arms, grabbing parts of the world to fling yourself up a tower. There's no saving system, so reaching the top has to be done in one go, though a glider pops out after a short fall to help you recover.

Satisfactory expansion Core Values announced

Coffee Stain Publishing and developer Coffee Stain Studios announced the Satisfactory expansion Core Values, with no release date given. The expansion will add a new narrative, new factory buildings, new creatures, new biomes and a friendly-looking feline, taking players underground for a new expedition. Satisfactory is available now on PS5, Xbox Series and PC via Steam, Epic Games Store and Humble Store.

Satisfactory's first expansion Core Values is set entirely in an underground biome

Coffee Stain has announced Core Values, the first expansion for factory automation game Satisfactory, set entirely in an underground biome where space and light are limited. Game director Emmet Burke said some base-game logistics and the same building ingredients remain, but enough Core Values-specific logistics are added that players will not be using belts. Art director Torsten Gunst said new resources are meant to bring new logistics rather than repeat the base game's tech tree.

Muri: WildWoods launches December 7

Developer Speldosa Interactive announced that Muri: WildWoods will launch for PC via Steam on December 7. The cozy cleaning adventure casts players as a muri who cleans corruption, solves puzzles with a water gun and paws, and chases a mischievous heron to find the island's source of corruption.

Strange Scaffold's Something is Wrong with the Library has you organising a haunted library

Strange Scaffold has revealed Something is Wrong with the Library, a game about organising a haunted library with the help of its former administrator, Phillip Shed, using the Dewey Decimal System. A modular chaos system gives each playthrough a different set of books to shelve, and the game also features a room called The Drowning Room. It is due out by the end of this year and can be wishlisted on Steam.

Nivalis Nights, a ramen bar management sim set in the Cloudpunk cyberpunk world, is out now

After a long wait and several delays, Nivalis Nights is out now, returning players to the cyberpunk world of Cloudpunk with a restaurant management twist. Developer ION LANDS describes it as a cyberpunk slice-of-life sim where you start by running a ramen shop you can design yourself, including seating, decorations and menu, in a city free to explore with NPCs to meet and romance, quests, a core narrative, fishing and homegrown produce. It is not a fully open world game, and over time you can work up to managing other restaurants or night clubs, and it is available on Steam now.

Hades 1 and 2 Orchestral Concert Ballads of the Underworld Is Now Free to Watch Online

Supergiant's Hades orchestral concert Ballads of the Underworld is now available to watch in full online for free, performed by the London Mozart Players and conducted by Hades co-composer Austin Wintory. Documentary maker Noclip has also released the first episode of a new series about the development of Hades 2, while Supergiant says nothing has been announced yet about what comes next after Hades 2.

How indie studios can survive industry volatility | Opinion

Unfrozen founder and Nova Assembly head Denis Fedorov lays out a six-part manifesto for indie survival, urging studios to abandon the single-project model and avoid relying on publishers. He recommends keeping a financial runway of at least 12–18 months and using multi-project development, peer collaboration, and early player feedback to reduce risk. The piece also notes that indie games accounted for around $4.5 billion of Steam's revenue in 2025, more than a quarter of the platform's revenue.

"Why should we just give up the entire month of November?" – The indie games going head to head with GTA 6

Grand Theft Auto 6 is set to launch on November 19, and while major publishers have moved their games away from that date, Fairy Mount's Flame, Forest and Flood and Devolver Digital's Volvy's Adventure: Reslimed are still launching the same day. Fairy Mount's CEO calls it a statement for the small gamedev scene, while Devolver points to GTA 6 not launching on Steam as a gap worth targeting.

Dear Passengers Tops 2.5 Million Steam Wishlists and Ranks Third Globally, But What Kind of Game Is It?

GameLook reports that Dear Passengers, a friendslop game with no demo released, has reached nearly 2.5 million Steam wishlists and climbed to third place globally, ahead of Phantom Blade Zero and behind Deadlock and Light No Fire. The article attributes the attention to a controversial easter egg in its trailer, crossovers with five hit friendslop titles including R.E.P.O., Peak and Chained Together, and its low-poly art style. Developer FLEXUS Games, founded in Kyiv in 2020 with a team of over 70, previously made only mobile games with more than 300 million downloads; Dear Passengers is its first PC title, started in November 2025, and has no fixed release date.

Forest of Deceit Localisation Update Adds Six New Languages, Including Simplified Chinese

Forest of Deceit, the social deduction party game from Ghost Camp and Thomas Mackinnon and narrated by Sylvester McCoy, has received a localisation update adding German, French, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Simplified Chinese and Italian. The 4-to-8-player game is out now on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One and Windows PC, and supports Xbox Play Anywhere.

Toem 2 is as pleasant as the original game. https://www.siliconera.com/review-toem-2-lets-us-capture-more-memories/

Suri: The Seventh Note launches Oct 30 on PS5

Suri: The Seventh Note, in development for four years, launches on PS5 on October 30, 2026, with pre-orders now open. The game draws on Indian art and architecture, records 80 percent of its music with original analogue instruments, and sets a 480-millisecond gap between main beats to balance player input response with rhythm. A Standard Edition and a Digital Deluxe Edition are available, the latter including an exclusive Chandini Skin DLC and 3-day early access, with a 20 percent pre-order discount for PlayStation Plus members. The game is part of the PlayStation India Hero Project.

RuneScape: Dragonwilds (Switch 2) Review: A Slow-Burn Survival-Crafting RPG That Underwhelms Visually

RuneScape: Dragonwilds has launched on Switch 2, and after nearly 55 hours with the main questline the reviewer calls it a mechanically rich survival-crafting RPG whose combat is often overwhelmed by groups of enemies and whose mid-to-late resource chains drag. The Switch 2 version holds a fairly consistent 30fps cap, but resolution looks blurry in both handheld and docked modes and the lighting is overexposed. Developer Jagex has released an open letter acknowledging the Switch 2 build is not where it wants to be visually and promising future improvements.

This week in PC games: new Ace Combat, Transport Fever 3, and a System Shock-alike set on a disco space station

This week's PC releases include Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve from Bandai Namco, Paradox's Transport Fever 3, and RetroSpace, an immersive sim set on a space station pulled into a black hole. Nivalis Nights, a cyberpunk restaurant management life sim from the makers of Cloudpunk, arrives September 29th, while Crusader Kings 3: By God Alone lets players run the Vatican.

New Action RPG DAWNGAZER Suddenly Adds Xbox Version After Fan Requests

Action RPG DAWNGAZER was originally announced only for PS5, Switch 2 and PC, but an Xbox version has suddenly been added "thanks to your many requests." The game is led by Takafumi Noma, best known for directing Unicorn Overlord, and is pencilled in for a 2028 launch window.

Graveyard Keeper 2 Launches on Steam With 54,969 Peak Concurrent Players and 86% Positive Reviews

Graveyard Keeper 2, developed by Lazy Bear Games and published by Solo Game, has launched on Steam at 68 yuan in China, reaching a peak of 54,969 concurrent players and an 86% positive review rate. The sequel removes tool durability, adds an inspiration point system, and reworks zombies so red skulls determine their assignable perk points, enabling automated production lines and zombie squad combat. The developer says the game passed 1 million wishlists with 10% pre-orders, while player feedback praises the visual and gameplay improvements but criticizes the dialogue writing and grind.

30-Year Veteran: AI Makes Development 5x Faster, But Leaves No Sense of Achievement and a Junior Talent Gap

A studio owner with 30 years of software development experience, 10 of them using Unity, posted that AI has caught up with Unity development, boosting speed 5x without quality loss, but listed eight downsides including no sense of achievement, a cliff-like revenue drop, and shutting down within a month if AI use stopped. Other developers replied that coding is no longer tiring, yet people are left with the most mentally draining top-level design and architecture decisions all day. Some also questioned the 5x claim, noting that study after study has failed to reproduce results close to that number.

miHoYo's Liu Wei at SJTU: AI model in China's top tier within 2-3 years, Varsapura testing by year end

At miHoYo's 2027 campus recruitment talk at Shanghai Jiao Tong University on September 23, 2026, co-founder Liu Wei said miHoYo would be a significant player among Chinese large-model teams within 2 to 3 years, reiterating a plan to invest up to 100 billion yuan in AI over three years. He said the flagship new title Varsapura will have a test by the end of this year, with Cai Haoyu as producer and Unreal Engine 5, and that its main story introduces the world while side stories carry the weight. On Genshin Impact he only said something big is coming, without details, and said older titles like Honkai Gakuen 2 and Honkai Impact 3rd will gradually be sidelined while Genshin Impact, Honkai: Star Rail and Zenless Zone Zero can sustain ongoing operation.

Roblox launches Roblox Everywhere, letting developers ship platform games to Steam and mobile stores

At RDC 2026 Roblox announced Roblox Everywhere, a plan that lets developers package games made on the platform as standalone apps and publish them to Steam, the App Store, Google Play and even console stores, with Roblox still providing the underlying technology and operations. Roblox shares rose about 13% to close at $51.29 on the following trading day. A Roblox spokesperson told Game Developer that the first creators selected to publish games externally will benefit from the same revenue share economics as the Roblox app, including the higher DevEx rate for verified users aged 18 and over in the US.

Lilith's Cat Paw Latte Studio unveils urban life sim Qi Yu Dong Wu Cheng

Lilith's newly incubated Cat Paw Latte Studio released the first PV for Qi Yu Dong Wu Cheng, an animal-city life simulation game. Players live with animal roommates that have their own schedules and needs, take on jobs such as idol, milk tea shop owner or mayor, and can transform into an animal to rent a friend's home. The studio has about 100 staff and posted a recruitment notice last week.

TALON TOWERS is a Fumito Ueda-coded parkour platformer about hopping around massive structures while avoiding falling to your foggy doom

Jan Malitschek, the developer behind BETON BRUTAL, has announced TALON TOWERS, a parkour platformer made with Blanksword's Quinn K. and If Found's Hyphinett. Set on dilapidated towers above an endless fog, it offers running, climbing, monkeybar swinging, wallrunning and wall-kicking, tightrope walking, crouching and crawling, plus chase sequences and moments where you play as a bird. It can be wishlisted on Steam, with no release date given.

Psychological horror beat 'em up Brokensides announced: play a violent sea bunny fresh out of prison

juicce has announced Brokensides, a psychological horror beat 'em up in which you play a violent sea bunny recently freed from imprisonment after committing a Cardinal Crime. You can dropkick and suplex glass-bodied enemies, and the game's visuals mix oldschool wireframe 3D, oddly rendered models and ASCII art. There is no release date or window yet, but it can be wishlisted on Steam.

Video Game Menu: The Game is all about pressing buttons in menus and seeing what they change

Video Game Menu: The Game is out now on Steam, and its gameplay consists entirely of moving through menu screens and pressing buttons to see what happens. Options range from standard graphics quality, v-sync, FPS targets and brightness to absurd ones like buttons that flee your cursor, screen rotation, an airplane mode cockpit PNG overlay, and text and buttons that shrink as your cursor approaches. Actual video games appear to lurk inside as minigames.

Transport Fever 3 developer interview: 13 years of transport games

Chuapp interviewed Urban Games senior 3D artist Manu Oehler at Tokyo Game Show 2026 about Transport Fever 3. Oehler said the game leans further into tycoon management, with cargo now routed by the player and storable in warehouses, and that map terrain shapes how each map plays; he said playability wins over realism when the two conflict, and that Paradox handles publishing, marketing, translation and testing. The game launches September 29 on PC, Mac, Linux, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, with development spending of about 24 million.

Podcast: We're Digging Wardogs

This week on The Game Informer Show, Alex and Eric share their impressions of Wardogs, the new breakout FPS on Steam that has surprising lineage and refreshing ideas. Marcus also discusses his review of Control Resonant and whether its day-one patch will affect early impressions. The episode ends with the crew opening Collector's Boosters from Magic: The Gathering's latest set, Reality Fracture.

Five Ways to Build a Better Used-Car Business in Used Cars Simulator

Used Cars Simulator is out now on Xbox Series X|S for $19.99, currently $15.99. The game's five tips cover inspecting before repairing, keeping money moving, leaving the shed to explore, treating cars as physics toys, and deciding how much chaos your business can handle. Published by PlayWay S.A., it has players inspect, negotiate, repair, customize, and resell cars.

What developers need to know about funding a game with Kickstarter in 2026

Games companies raised $26 million on Kickstarter in 2025, level with 2024, with 443 video game projects successfully funded, including 55 over $100,000 and 11 over $500,000, according to Ico Partners' Thomas Bidaux. Bidaux says early indicators suggest 2026 will be in line with 2025's pace, but projects now need release-quality footage, ideally a demo, and an already engaged audience, since crowdfunding is fundamentally a marketing and community exercise. Skyhook Games' David Harper says Lawn Mowing Simulator 2's campaign fell below its target in the final 24 hours after a large pledge was removed, and only completed after Kickstarter extended it by a week.