Every indie game shown at Day of the Devs Game Awards Edition 2023
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Nirvana Noir
Release date:TBCPlatform(s):PC, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox Game Pass
The first world premiere reveal came with Nirvana Noir, a new adventure game from Genesis Noir developer, Feral Cat Den. Oozing the same jazzy vibes and distinctive style as Genesis, Nirvana takes place in a cosmic city where you play as a Watchmaker called No Man. Said to lead a double life in the city, No Man’s choices catch up with him and he gets caught up in a conspiracy. You’ll have to learn to speak other people’s languages as you do dialogue detective work, follow leads, and hunt for clues. London-based Skillbard are back to deliver the jazz noir soundtrack which draws inspiration from The Velvet Underground, The Doors, and Pink Floyd. With no release date just yet, Feral Cat Den are running a crowdfunding campaign for the game.
Release date:TBCPlatform(s):PC
Release date:TBCPlatform(s):PC
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Boyfriend Dungeon developer Kitfox Games is bringing us a new tea witch simulator that sees you manage a tea room. Promising to be the most “in-depth” tea simulator, you’ll be able to control the temperature and timing, pick ingredients, and decide on the serving to make just the right cup of tea for your troubled quests. It’s up to you to experiment and get playful to unlock new recipes to complete your tea master journal. With a social aspect to it, you can also do tarot card readings as a witch and try to help your guests make sense of their problems or worries.
Release date:TBCPlatform(s):PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, SwitchCalling all retro fans! LlamaSoft: The Jeff Minter Story is a newly announced an interactive documentary from developer Digital Eclipse. Coming as part of their Gold Master series, it’s designed to help you understand the man behind a variety of various psychedelic arcade games, with interactive timelines that tell the story of Jeff Minter - it really is a celebration of Llamasoft that lets you explore this slice of British video game history. Best known for creating one of the key titles – Tempest 2000 – for the Atari Jaguar, among others, it features video interviews and 42 Llamasoft games from 8 different platforms, including Grid Runner remastered – a digital homage to Gridrunner.
Release date:TBAPlatform(s):PC
Militsonier from developer Tallboys is described as a surrealist first-person runaway simulator. In it, you play as someone who is wrongfully accused and arrested by a giant policeman. After packing up your stuff, you set out on the run, but every move you make is being watched by the massive giant who looms over the town. Intriguingly, all of the characters in the game, including the policeman, have a “tamagotchi-style” mood system, and you try to befriend the giant.
We got to take another look at the upcoming “slap-former”, Thank Goodness You’re Here, from developer Coal Supper. Set in Barnsworth as a more bizarre take on the developers' home town in Northern England, you play as a traveling salesman who finds himself helping out the locals by doing a series of odd jobs in all manner of comedic ways.
Release date:TBCPlatform(s):PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5
Flock is a delightful new co-op game from developersI Am Deaddeveloper Ricky Haggot (Hollow Ponds) and Richard Hogg that can also be played solo. Taking on the role of a naturalist, you set out to explore a landscape teeming with wildlife on the back of a giant bird. With the ability to sing to the wild creatures to charm them, you have to try and figure out what they are in order to categorize them in your trusty creature guide. As a kind of creature-collector experience with puzzle-like elements, most of the wildlife can only be found in particular habitats, and it’s up to you to identify them and to add them to your flock.
Release date:TBCPlatform(s):PC
Developer Heavy Lunch Studio are bringing us a “mushroom-infused RPG” that follows the adventures of a reclusive old man and his faithful truffle pig. All they like to do in life is hangout, herd mushrooms, and avoid talking to people, but when their solitude is disrupted by a hungry villager, they set out to find a legendary mushroom. Combat is inspired by the likes of Earthbound, Pokemon, Paper Mario, and even Street Fighter, with different, unique attacks,effects, and combos to play around with and learn. Even talking to people as a hermit is a battle of its own kind.
Release date:TBCPlatform(s):PC
Dome King Cabbage from solo developer Cobysoft Joe is a short visual novel set in the world of a monster-collecting RPG. Born from an idea Cobysoft had during the stresses of a teaching job, what we saw during the showcase looks like an intriguing mash up of ideas, with an eye-catching style. According to the Steam page, Dome King Cabbage is said to follow the story of a cloud-person named Mush who sets out to make their way to a job interview. Color us intrigued.
Ultros is a psychedelic metroidvania with “tight combat” from developer Hadoque and musician and artist El Huervo, who’s most known for his work on Hotline Miami. Complete with a vibrantly eccentric art style, Ultros takes place in The Sarcophagus, a cosmic uterus you awaken in without having an idea of how you got there. With different tools for exploring with your surroundings, you’ll garden to unearth the secrets of the Sarcophagus and plants seeds to unlock new paths and skills, and tending to the environment will change how you can interact with the world.
Release date:TBCPlatform(s):PC
Holstin is a psychological survival horror game set in ’90s Poland from developer Sonka. With a hand-drawn pixel art style, Holsin is all about changing perspective, both in terms of a metaphorical sense by bringing you to Poland during a specific time period, and in the points of view you have in the game. With an isometric view as you explore, solve puzzles, and navigate mazes, your perspective will shift in combat to over the shoulder to bring you closer to the action. With a “down-to-earth story” about corruption, health care, and more, a demo will be coming soon.
Oddada is a creative, music-making roguelite game from two-person development team Sven Ahlgrimm and Mathilde Hoffman. Allowing you to craft and build your own machines to create music tracks, every new playthrough presents you with a randomized setting and instruments to use, with more levels, instruments, and machines to unlock as you go. You can also collect and combine music snippets and save them on cassette tapes, that can then be shared with others.
Cryptmaster is a word-based, dungeon crawling, puzzle-solving RPG. In the world, your words control everything as you try to solve word-based riddles. As the Cryptmaster told us during the showcase, you’ll help them guess the names of items found in chests, then use the letters from the words to regain the skills you had in life, and use those skills to defeat various enemies. There are also lots of “weird and wonderful characters” to have conversations with as you venture through experience.
Release date:TBCPlatform(s):PC
Drag Her is the debut title from developer Fighting Chance Games. As a “high-drama” 2D fighting game, Drag Her features real-life drag performers including Kim Chi, Laganja Estranja, and many more. With some seriously fabulous moves, this is one stylish fighter with cinematic specials, combos, and more. Complete with different modes including a single-player arcade mode, it draws heavily from the classic fighters that’s also designed to showcase the best queer talent. As they said during the showcase, it’s true “camp kickassery”.
Keri Russel talked us through a fresh look at Open Roads, an upcoming mystery adventure that explores the bond between mother and daughter. Russel plays the role of the mother Opal, with Booksmart’s Kaitlyn Dever as the daughter Tess. You’ll have mysteries to solve and emotions to navigate as you try to uncover family secrets.
Release date:TBCPlatform(s):PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch
Resistor is the new turbo-charged, narrative-driven Car-RPG from developer Long Way Home that sees you take on the role of Aster, a customizable character, who’s the child of a legendary racer. After an accident kills your father, you swear off racing, and are exiled away from the corporate city to the wastes. But when your ailing mother’s condition worsens, you set out to save her by winning races to secure a way back into the city. But as we discoveredearlier this year in Resistor, races aren’t just about winning, they’re about putting on a show for your audience.
From developer Night Signal Entertainment comes a text-based horror game that sees you work at a ’90s call center. You have to take calls and find out what hazards, pests, or “cryptic terrors” have taken residence in the homes of the callers. Everything you do is done through a 1996 desktop computer, with a database full of common and less common dangers, and you have to listen carefully to what the caller says and try and diagnose their problem. Happily, it also includes accessible toggles to address common phobias players might have.
Janet Demornay is a Slumlord (and a Witch) is a new horror game that comes from duo developers, Fuzzy Ghost. And it explores a truly terrifying subject: renting. Your landlord just so happens to be a witch who believes in doing all of the maintenance herself, and that’s an issue when there’s a lot of problems to deal with. Set in the house the developers used to live in, there’s plenty to deal with, including faulty ovens, black mold, flooding, and more. You’ll have to work out how to get around the house as Janet insists on keeping it together with her magic. Exploring themes such as queer found family, it’s a horror experience with a side of comedy.
See what indie games we’ve been enjoying this year with ourIndie Spotlightseries.
I started out writing for the games section of a student-run website as an undergrad, and continued to write about games in my free time during retail and temp jobs for a number of years. Eventually, I earned an MA in magazine journalism at Cardiff University, and soon after got my first official role in the industry as a content editor for Stuff magazine. After writing about all things tech and games-related, I then did a brief stint as a freelancer before I landed my role as a staff writer here at GamesRadar+. Now I get to write features, previews, and reviews, and when I’m not doing that, you can usually find me lost in any one of the Dragon Age or Mass Effect games, tucking into another delightful indie, or drinking far too much tea for my own good.
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