As soon as once more, non-revenue Day of the Devs formally returned Wednesday with an indie showcase that includes practically 20 unbiased video games throughout a number of genres, platforms, studios, and types as half of the run-as much as The Game Awards. The present featured every little thing from a cease-movement sport that’s solely made of felt, a sport the place you have interaction in medieval warfare with trendy weapons, the return of an unreleased puzzle sport first introduced over a decade in the past, and one thing to do with altering channels on a one-bit TV.
It is best to actually return and watch the entire factor, however for those who’re skimming the highlights, right here’s a rundown of every little thing we simply noticed at Day of the Devs:
Faraway
The presentation opened with Faraway – a single-participant, one-button, procedurally generated arcade sport about drawing constellations in the evening sky. Faraway has been a scorching rumor for a very long time, having been proven round at indie showcases all the method again in 2011 and initially billed as an iPad sport. Nevertheless it missed its deliberate launch date then, and disappeared for years. Faraway is developed by Steph Thirion of Little Eyes studio, and is being printed by Annapurna on PC in 2025.
Final Sheep Raccoon
Final Sheep Raccoon is strictly what it says on the tin. A non secular successor to Final Rooster Horse from the similar staff, Intelligent Endeavor Video games, it’s a multiplayer aggressive platformer the place gamers construct wild platforming programs and race via them with pals. This time, everybody’s on bikes. No launch date but, however it’s deliberate for Steam.
Sleight of Hand
We’ve seen Sleight of Hand, from Riffraff Video games, at an Xbox Accomplice Preview occasion earlier this yr. In it, you play as Girl Luck, a witch detective working to take down her former coven utilizing darkish magic through a cursed deck of playing cards. In Day of the Devs at this time, we watched a pattern of how a gameplay state of affairs may go, with Girl Luck utilizing a drawn hand of playing cards to cover, lure her enemies, and in the end lure them so she will be able to go by unseen. Sleight of Hand is coming to PC and Xbox at a later date.
Demon Tides
By studio Fabraz, Demon Tides is an open world 3D platformer that provides off “Wind Waker however hip and trendy” vibes. We obtained a glance at this time at some of the platforming and the participant’s capacity to customise not simply their character’s look, but in addition their talents, giving them a quantity of completely different choices for how you can cross the similar gaps. Demon Tides is deliberate for launch in 2025 on Steam.
Kingmakers
Builders Redemption Highway, makers of, uh, Highway Redemption, appeared in Day of the Devs to indicate off Kingmakers, a sport we’re already fairly stoked about right here at IGN. It’s a sport with an idea that’s…sort of pleasant? You play as half of a staff of fighters with trendy weapons – weapons, bombs, tanks, and so forth – who return to medieval England to vary the course of historical past. So that you’re preventing in medieval instances…however with weapons. Kingmakers mixes metropolis simulator parts with first and third-individual shooter mechanics and big, destructible environments. You may blow up something you may see, or stage a struggle on high of it, or drive a automotive via it. The entire factor appears sort of nuts, and you may play the whole marketing campaign solo or with as much as three pals. Kingmakers is coming to early entry on Steam and the Epic Video games Retailer subsequent yr.
Recur
Recur is a puzzle sport from developer kaleidoscube the place you play as an unassuming postman who immediately finds himself with the capacity to pause, rewind, and quick ahead time itself. From what we noticed, it appears such as you’ll be working your method via ranges the place the postman has to make use of his time powers to keep away from obstacles and hazard, resembling collapsing platforms, a transferring prepare, attacking canine, or perhaps a entire automotive practically smashing into him. Recur is deliberate for launch on Steam.
Blue Prince
Blue Prince (Get it, like Blueprints?) appears beautiful and mysterious, an atmospheric “architectural journey” the place you’re exploring an “ever-altering home of shifting rooms.” There appears to be some sort of thriller to unravel, the place you’re trying to find “Room 46” in a forty five-room home, and also you’re utilizing the home’s blueprints to form your exploration and construct the construction as you go, daily. The vibes are sort of like Edith Finch meets Mist, and the entire factor is popping out on PC in spring of 2025 from developer Dogubomb.
Incolatus: Don’t Cease, Girlypop!
It’s proper there in the title: don’t cease. Incolatus is a Y2K-fashion girly-pop motion shooter the place you actually can not cease transferring. The extra you progress and the sooner you go, the extra harm you do and the extra you heal your self, so that you simply should preserve going. It’s a primary-individual area shooter, the place you’re capturing elaborate, colourful, and typically large weapons that blast cutesy girly hearts and stars at enemies (an evil mining company destroying the atmosphere) to a boppin’ soundtrack. The weapons get larger the sooner you go. Extra scope. Extra harm. Extra motion. Oh, and there’s a costume-up megagame the place you may costume up your arms and customise your weapons. Incolatus: Don’t Cease, Girlypop! is coming to Steam “quickly”.
Lok Digital
Lok Digital was born of an enchanting collaboration between a puzzle designer who made a intelligent bodily puzzle guide, and a sport developer who needed to digitize it in online game type. The end result, Lok Digital, is a puzzle sport the place you slowly remedy world puzzles in the fictional language of Lok, which you study as you’re employed your method via the puzzles. You begin with the phrase “Lok”, and from there’ll uncover different phrases, different puzzle guidelines, and the language of the little Lok creatures the sport is known as after. If that sounds intriguing, nice information, you don’t have to attend. Lok Digital is out at this time on PC, and it’s coming to cell subsequent yr.
Neon Abyss 2
We didn’t get a ton of data at this time about Neon Abyss 2, however it’s secure to say it’s a sequel to Neon Abyss from Veoowo Video games. A 2D, pixelated, run-and-gun roguelike, Neon Abyss 2 appears to carry again the vivid colours, flashy lasers, and bullet hell depth of the first sport for one more spherical. It’s coming in 2025 to Steam, and appears like it can incorporate multiplayer, too.
Crescent County
A sci-fi fantasy bike sport, Crescent County types itself as “curler derby however with homosexual witches” or “Studio Ghibli however with significantly extra crop jackets”. You’re a witch, you journey a brush bike, and thru the day you make deliveries and do different necessary witch duties in your broom, incomes components that may make your broom sooner, cooler, and extra highly effective. Then, at evening, you exit for broom races. In between all of it, there’s lots of flirting and smooching, as witches do. Crescent County continues to be pretty early in growth, however there’s an early playtest occurring now on Steam and itch.io.
PBJ – The Musical
I briefly thought I used to be taking a look at a Marcel the Shell quick once I glanced at my display and noticed this one, however possibly that was simply the googly eye. PBJ – The Musical is…nicely, a musical, telling a romance story of a berry and a peanut, candy and salty, and their final creation of the peanut butter and jelly sandwich. By means of the musical acts, you’ll be guiding these two characters via paper cease movement lower out from classic cookbooks and retelling the story of Romeo and Juliet…in sandwich type. All the music is written by Britain’s Acquired Expertise’s Lorraine Bowen. Sadly, no phrase on when or the place this hungry journey is dropping for now.
Curiosmos
Curiosmos is a cute little area sport the place you slowly create a photo voltaic system, at first by bashing asteroids into each other to create a planet. As soon as the planet’s created, you may experiment with daylight, terrain, water, climate, and different parts to see what occurs…together with whether or not or not life blossoms and evolves. It looks like a reasonably peaceable expertise…till a large black gap begins flying at you and your planets, probably inflicting a disaster you’ll should attempt to avert earlier than it arrives. Curiosmos doesn’t have a launch date but.
Bionic Bay
In the platformer Bionic Bay, you’ll be considering rather a lot about gravity, pace, and momentum. You’re a scientist with unusual powers over time and area, permitting you to teleport, manipulate time, and flip the atmosphere on its head. Utilizing these talents, you’ll flip and launch your self throughout sci-fi themed environments with lifelike physics. Bionic Bay is deliberate for launch on Steam and PS5 in 2025.
inKonbini
I wrote about inKonbini earlier this yr after taking part in it at an Xbox showcase adjoining to the Game Builders Convention. It’s a soothing organizational sport about working in a comfort retailer, stocking the cabinets, and interacting with prospects who are available in and share tidbits from their lives. I discovered the idea interesting and the execution extremely enjoyable, particularly the sound results of baggage and packing containers hitting the cabinets and the satisfying method every little thing fell neatly into place on the show. InKonbini is deliberate for launch on Xbox, PS5, Swap, and Steam someday in the future.
Feltopia
Feltopia is a cease-movement sport that’s solely hand-felted. Every bit of the atmosphere, character, enemy, every little thing is made by hand, out of felt, recorded, and animated. And the impact is cute, with fuzzy unicorns, sheep, butterflies, clouds, and extra all puffing up out of the world tender as could be. The sport itself is a sidescrolling shmup the place you journey a unicorn and shoot rainbow beams at shadowy creatures that may rework them again into their true varieties. Feltopia is deliberate for launch on Steam in 2026.
Blippo+
I’m unsure what I simply watched, however I assume it’s Blippo+. This appears like some kind of sport round altering the channel on a one-bit TV and watching all the completely different, bizarre packages? No matter it’s, Panic (the Untitled Goose Game and Thank Goodness You’re Right here) writer, so that may convey the vibe. No thought when that is popping out, the place, or how. Keep tuned for extra Blippo?
Hyper Mild Breaker
We’ve already seen rather a lot of Hyper Mild Breaker from Coronary heart Machine, so I received’t belabor it (you may learn my preview from earlier this yr right here), however at this time the staff confirmed up at Day of the Devs to announce an early entry launch on Steam on January 14, 2025.
Tankhead
Lastly, Day of the Devs closed with Tankhead from Alpha Channel. It’s a sci-fi vehicular journey the place you play as a “sleepwalker” or an individual who uploads their consciousness right into a machine to discover a harmful world. Mainly, you’re a literal tank (or typically a smaller robotic) exploring a ruined world, capable of journey over robust terrain, shoot stuff, and transfer quick when it is advisable. The tank’s customizable, and sure, you drive utilizing tank controls. Tankhead, delightfully, is out at this time on the Epic Video games Retailer.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You’ll find her posting on Bluesky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Acquired a narrative tip? Ship it to rvalentine@ign.com.