It’s a very international event too, so in addition to the Japan-based indies, there are plenty of devs who’ve travelled from far and wide to show off their games. This year I’ve decided to give you all an overview of the games that I enjoyed playing most, regardless of where they’re being developed. (Last year I focused on titles being developed in Japan.)
Also please bear in mind that this is by no means a definitive list of great games at BitSummit. Even over the course of two full days I simply wasn’t able to check out everything, so apologies to any devs working on awesome projects that I missed.
Here we go!
CrossCode
Developer: Radical Fish Games | Platforms: Linux, Mac, PC | More infoCrossCode has a pretty intriguing story set-up. As Lea, you wake up on a massive cargo ship that’s docked some distance from a futuristic city called The Playground, which plays host to an MMO called CrossWorlds. Everyone in The Playground is an avatar, in that they’re all being controlled from another location, but the city itself is a real city on a real planet. The staff Lea meets on the ship are flesh and blood humans – support staff for the game – and Lea herself seems to have an involved history with CrossWorlds, but is unable to remember. She’s the classic video game amnesiac protagonist and is (literally) mute, but I’m totally sold on that being used to drive the mystery behind her story and that of CrossWorlds itself.The broader game design is very much an action RPG, so you can expect quests, equipment, character progression, etc., all anchored by a characterful 16-bit presentation. Combat is built around melee attacks, dodges and “Balls” – projectiles you can aim and throw, and that can be given elemental properties. As the name suggests, they can also be bounced off walls to hit switches and the like, so balls very much factor into puzzle solving. There’s a solid foundation here – and the game is already feeling super polished – so after my initial introduction at BitSummit, I’m keen to play some more… which I can do because CrossCode is in early access. Woo!
Paper Garden
Developer: Vitei Backroom | Platforms: PC | More infoPaper Garden was one of the most soothing experiences at this year’s show. A VR prototype, it was created by the tiny Vitei Backroom team in five weeks and elegantly captures the simple joy of throwing paper aeroplanes. You simply pluck one of the planes flying around you out of the air, then toss it, using the relevant Oculus Touch controller to help guide its flight a little – diving, climbing or curving around to one side. It takes a few moments to get a feel for, but quickly becomes intuitive, allowing you to shoot for distant targets, curve toward a target behind a tree, or deliberately toss a plane high into the air before diving down onto a target.Paper Garden is more than just a simple target gallery, however. By hitting the eye-like golden targets you’re bringing life back to a grey world that’s been “overrun by an ancient blight”. Colour sweeps across the garden, activating other targets and making trees and shrubs spring up. I love this idea conceptually, and the natural beauty of the garden itself is neatly juxtaposed with the mechanical – yet also somewhat mystical – targets themselves, which build towards a final towering golden monolith to complete the demo. The world itself also responds to your actions in more subtle ways – miss a target and hit the ground or a wall and a bush will sprout at that point.
Paper Garden seems like exactly the sort of accessible and immersive experience the various VR platform holders would welcome, so here’s hoping we see this on a digital storefront sometime soon.
Earth Atlantis
Developer: Pixel Perfex | Platforms: PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One | More infoImagine taking the shooter gameplay of a classic series like R-Type and adding in a Monster Hunter twist – that’s Earth Atlantis. In it, you explore a sprawling underwater world where your only real targets are number of gigantic bosses, listed out on the hud and indicated by blips on the overworld map.Earth Atlantis sticks closely to its shooter roots, as opposed to fully embracing the Monster Hunter influence. It’s not like you kit out your ship for individual bosses before venturing forth, in other words, but you will want to upgrade your weapons and find the most effective sub-weapon for each boss. There are also a heap of different ships to unlock, each of which has its own style of weaponry.
Earth Atlantis is certainly intriguing from a gameplay perspective, but it also has quite a unique visual aesthetic, looking very much like an animated sketch on parchment. This, combined with its retro mechanical machines helps make its post-apocalyptic world feel ancient and steampunk-y. It’s being developed by a two person team in Thailand!
Heads Run
Developer: kass-stwa | Platforms: Mac, PC | More infoPerhaps best described as a frenetic retro platformer, in Heads Run you’re literally a disembodied head, but boy can you move. The sense of momentum here as you hop, leap and dash through a series of micro-gauntlets, while spikes pop up, lasers fire and rockets fly in your wake just feels great. Moving at speed is at the core of the gameplay here, and there’s definitely some techniques to learn in order to most efficiently wall jump and hit switches and the like.
Heads Run has an energy all its own, and a vibe all its own, helped along by the monochromatic old-school CRT presentation and the absolutely perfect sound effects.
Iconoclasts
Developer: Joakim Sandberg | Platforms: PC, PS4, Vita | More infoBehind the colourful, charming sci-fi world of Iconoclasts’ early going lies a story dealing with themes of religion and self-determination. Lead character Robin – one of the iconoclasts of the title – simply wants to be a mechanic and to help people, but the society she lives in is controlled by One Concern, a sinister religious authority that has deemed such a profession sacred; out of reach to anyone other than those anointed. Iconoclasts, then, has a story to tell, delivered through its layered world and distinctly individual characters.It feels fantastic too, with responsive controls and a great flow to the gameplay. Robin is a capable protagonist – agile, powerful and with a wrench that factors into puzzle solving right from the get-go. In fact, even from the limited amount I’ve played, making progress is immensely satisfying thanks to the cleverly designed environmental puzzles. And beyond that are a host of places, people and bosses - a veritable mountain of gameplay.
I'm greatly looking forward to playing the full game, and the good news is that Iconoclasts is basically done. That’s likely good news for Swedish solo developer Joakim Sandberg too, as he’s been working on Iconoclasts for seven years, carefully crafting absolutely everything you see and hear in the game.
Cerulean Moon
Developer: Nachobeard | Platforms: Android, iOS, PC | More infoIn Cerulean Moon you don’t control your character so much as you control the world around that character. By swiping left and right you move the world left and right and the avatar with it. It’s a cool central idea that’s then built upon in a number of inventive ways. For one, the level design in this platformer is largely built around verticality. You can’t jump, after all, so a lot of the time you’re actually falling, shifting the world back and forth to avoid obstacles and hit the right platforms. Unlike many platformers, however, where falling is subject to inertia, in Cerulean Moon you have a hell of a lot of in-air control, which makes any movement feel super snappy and responsive. Once you’ve got the hang of it, in other words, you can be really precise in your swipes.The control scheme also gives Cerulean Moon an interesting sense of instant momentum that I really like, allowing you to whip across to a platform while falling, or rapidly propel the protagonist down corridors if you want to. There’s one sequence I played where this massive spiked roller comes crashing down through the roof and you have to outrun it along one corridor after another.
The feel of the controls effectively makes traditional platforming challenges new again – you might be weaving your way between lava waterfalls or spike traps, or using water jets to boost you into the air, but doing this stuff isn’t in your muscle memory in the same way it is with regular platform controls.
While the main game itself will likely be short, there’s a lot here. Orbs collected can be spent on challenge levels separate to the main missions, and later in the game players unlock the ability to bounce off enemies, which means playing through again will feel quite different. Levels also have hidden challenge rooms, while even trying to collect everything in a level will require quite a few runs at it – it’s really easy to miss things as you fall.
Cerulean Moon is being developed by a three person team led out of Spain, and while it’s been in production for two years, the first prototypes date back three years. The game is currently built for mobile and tablets, but the plan is to also bring the game to PS4 and utilise the Dual Shock’s touch panel.
GORSD
Developer: Springloaded | Platforms: Switch | More infoGORSD, or Grid of Ridiculous Sudden Death, is a party game that riffs on some familiar ideas but does so in a fresh new way. The play fields are a network of paths viewed from top down, and as you run along you paint the path you’re on in your colour: the basic goal being to paint the entire map.
Complicating things, obviously, are the (up to) three other players, also running around. Each player has a single bullet which, once fired, moves back and forth along the path it’s on. Hit another player and they blow up – coating the area with your colour – and then have to respawn, with longer and longer respawns the more times they’ve been hit. You can also kill yourself with your own bullet, unless you’re holding down the right shoulder button, in which case you can gather it back up, but that’s a trade-off, as you won’t paint the grid while in that state.
On top of this, if you hold in a direction when you fire your bullet, you can make it go around the next corner and potentially loop all the way back around. The ability to shoot around corners adds a whole lot to the core gameplay.It’s all a little confusing at first, but quickly makes sense, and is a heap of fun with four people. The game has a bunch of maps, with different patterns of paths and a variety of other elements, such as paths you can’t travel down, but you can fire your bullet along. There are also a number of ways to modify the rules. Oh, and there’s single player content... which I haven’t tried yet, but am quite curious about.
GORSD is being developed by Springloaded in Singapore, a small studio run by James Barnard, an ex-LucasArts industry veteran. The studio is currently working on six, count ‘em – SIX – Switch games.
Unsouled
Developer: Megusta Game | Platforms: PC | More infoUnsouled is a pretty accomplished title given that it’s the work of a solo South Korean developer – Jung JinSub – a former banker who gave up that career in 2013 to start making games. His first title was a Picross clone called Pixelo, which was successful enough to fund this game, which is much more expansive in scope.
Unsouled is a pixel-art hack’n’slash game with light RPG elements and a focus on skill-driven combat. Its main source of inspiration, according to JinSub, is Onimusha 2, so you’re able to absorb the souls of downed foes to restore health and stamina, and spend accumulated points on upgrading your character. Combat is built on simple systems – dash, attack, defend, specials – with complexity arising through timing. With the right timing you can chain attacks together to produce a number of different combos, and dashes can also be chained.
One thing I particularly liked while playing Unsouled was how interactive the environments are. There’s some serious destructibility on offer here, from expected stuff like barrels or the pews in a church through to smashing up chunks of stone balustrades or slashing through trees. There are gameplay ramifications too – cut down a tree and it can actually do damage if it falls on you, or on enemies. You can potentially factor that into combat. Those fallen trees are then obstacles – an archer standing behind a fallen tree can’t shoot through it.It’s cool to see that level of destruction in a retro game like this, and it’s part of an impressive overall attention to detail. Unsouled has a day/night cycle, for instance, so the feel of combat changes as the visibility does.
It’s also worth noting that JinSub actually had no real experience with complex pixel graphics before this game, so he studied Hyper Light Drifter intensively to discover the techniques used within that game. Colour palette aside you can really see the similarities. When he told me that, I asked why he didn’t just bring an artist on board. His response? Because he was so new to creating games, he didn’t have any connections or friends within the indie scene, so he just decided to do it all himself. Woah.
Brigador
Developer: Stellar Jockeys | Platforms: Linux, Mac, PC | More infoBrigador has actually been out for a while now, but it’s about to relaunch on June 2 with a massive update, and man, does this game take me back. Playing this, I’m instantly whisked back to the early-mid 90s, to one of the golden eras of PC gaming. A time of Syndicate, Crusader, X-COM, Command & Conquer and the Strike series. The isometric perspective is obviously a huge part of that, but it’s the broader presentation and themes too, not to mention the controls. This is very much a sleek, modern throwback to that time.Set in a dystopian future, Brigador is all shades of grey. The game takes place across Solo Nobre, a colony that had once been under the power of an unknown megacorp, but became isolationist and anti-corporate under the rule of the “Great Leader”. Now that he has died, however, the SNC (Solo Nobre Concern) wants to take control in the ensuing chaos and “liberate” the oppressed citizens. You are a Brigador – a mercenary taking on missions for them.
What does that mean? It means piloting a crazy array of mechs that can be kitted out with a heap of different primary and secondary weapons, in addition to special abilities, like smoke bombs, EMPs etc. Each mission sees you charged with taking down key targets and structures in completely destructible environments. Different mech types – such as bi-pedal, tank-based or anti-grav - feel radically different to control and there’s quite a lot of strategy in how they can be used. There’s definitely a learning curve here, but fans of the aforementioned era of PC gaming will be particularly at home, and appreciate the sheer amount of choice you’re presented with. The destruction is hugely satisfying too.
What has changed for the relaunch? The biggest thing is probably that the difficulty has been completely rebalanced and a new intro campaign has been added to help ease new players in. In addition there are new pilots and playable vehicles, plus achievements. Check it out!
Rising-Arch
Developer: CarasOhmi | Platforms: PC | More infoA true doujin developer, CarasOhmi creates and sells games at Japanese fan conventions like Comiket. (For more on the distinction between indie and doujin, you might want to read my feature on the Japanese indie scene.) Rising-Arch is a pretty cool take on a 2D action game, thanks to innovative controls and what I can imagine would be a pretty high skill ceiling. The protagonist can basically teleport to any position on the screen that she has a line of sight to and can hover indefinitely in the air. Dragging from that position draws her bow which can then be aimed and fired in any direction.It sounds powerful, and in the hands of a good player it certainly looks powerful too as she teleports about destroying lines of enemies and moving from one side of a map to the other in the blink of an eye, but it’s not so simple in practice, as you’re avoiding enemy projectiles, spiked floors and getting your head around the rules and timing for movement. Try it out for yourself here.
Eden Obscura
Developer: Q-Games | Platforms: Android, iOS | More infoObscura sees Q-Games, one of the oldest Japanese indie studios, return to its much-loved classic, Pixeljunk Eden, revamping it for Android and iOS, with Japanese “multimedia auteur” Baiyon once again taking the reins to oversee the melding of music and art that drives the gameplay. If you never played the original, each level is a surreal garden that you help bloom by flinging yourself about and interacting with pollen, as well as collecting a variety of other things. As you explore, new elements are layered onto the soundtrack, making the soundscape grow along with the garden.I only had a brief hands-on with this at the show, but it’s already feeling great, with a new double jump that gives you a bit more latitude to change course as you explore. The two things I’m most excited about, however, are Baiyon’s soundtrack, which is already shaping up to be a superb slice of minimal techno, and his new concept for altering the backdrop based on your mobile device’s camera. You use the real world, in other words, to impact the game world and change the tone and atmosphere. Very cool.
Dandara
Developer: Long Hat House | Platforms: PC, Mobile, Switch | More infoThis title is in development by an indie team in Brazil, and has a cool movement system designed for both touch and traditional controls that really separates it from the many other Metroidvania games out there. Protagonist Dandara (who is actually based on a real-life heroine in Brazil’s colonial past) can’t walk or run, she can only leap from point to point. This simple idea has been translated into environments littered with jump points – on the ground, walls and ceilings. In fact, in Dandara gravity is meaningless as you bounce rapidly between surfaces to get around. It’s quite thrilling once you get the hang of it, and factored into environmental hazards that force you to move quickly.It also makes combat a whole other thing. That part of the game actually feels the weakest at the moment, but I can see the potential – some enemies shoot fireballs at you, forcing you to relocate to shoot them, others will charge if you land on the same surface, so again, you need to relocate and shoot from a different wall. The gun in the demo takes a second to charge up, thus reinforcing the importance of positioning, but it also means the combat feels a little sluggish. There’s also a sentinel enemy that pursues you, but can’t change direction quickly once it builds up speed, so you have to dash out of the way at the last second and let it crash into the scenery.
Dandara’s world is comprised of a network of interconnected rooms, some tiny, some large enough that you can peer through a telescope to see the whole area at once. Hatches act as the conduits between rooms, triggering a stylish animation of Dandara arcing up into the air, then diving through the open hatch. Entering new areas often sees the camera reorient, which helps sell the idea of no direction being up, but also doesn’t help you build a mental map of how everything connects together.
I played Dandara on Switch, but it’s also being developed for a number of other platforms, and I’m really curious to see how it all comes together.
Million Onion Hotel
Developer: Onion Games | Platforms: iOS | More info“A long, long time ago, there was a tiny country between that country over there and this country over here. In this country was a strange hotel. This hotel’s specialty was ‘magical onion soup’. They say many famous and great people came to taste this soup, though apparently not one of them thought to describe the flavor to anyone else. Maybe it’s because the soup had a hidden power. Yes ... a secret power. One night, some esteemed guests find themselves suddenly sucked into a far-off galaxy! Maybe this is because they ... drank too much of the magical onion soup?”Awesome synopsis eh? Million Onion Hotel was actually first shown at BitSummit in 2014, so it seems crazy to think that it’s only on the verge of coming out now (in the next month or two, at least), but such is the life of an indie dev, I guess. (Last year, developer Onion Games was showing off Black Bird, which you can read about here.) The base game is basically whack-a-mole, but tapping onions soon gives way to tapping asparaguses out of the ground which take off like rocket ships, and it only gets weirder from there. If you like your games surreal, this is one to keep an eye out for.
Stifled
Developer: Gattai Games | Platforms: Mac, PC, PS4, Xbox One | More infoThe world around you in this horror VR experience is only revealed through echolocation – from your footsteps as you walk on a metal railing, from your own intake of breath or voice via the mic, or from the otherworldly shrieks of the unknowable fiends that lurk in the darkness. It’s a cool central conceit, and while the demo at the show was only short - and raised a lot of questions, there’s certainly potential here.Stifled’s gameplay is very much an exercise in stealth. You’re not a fighter, and must instead simply avoid the threats – try to be as quiet as possible, and when necessary, pick up a nearby rock and toss it to divert attention. The demo has no direct confrontation with an enemy – it’s moving in parallel to you, but the way it’s represented in this world of echolocation is pretty cool – an angry, pulsing, spasmodic red thing. I also like the central tension of needing to make noise to see the world, but not wanting to make noise because it gives your position away. It’ll be interesting to see how Stifled will work in longer sessions.
Arena Gods
Developer: Supertype | Platforms: Mac, PC | More infoA super-violent party game, Arena Gods is basically gladiatorial combat from a top-down perspective. Weapons can be wielded or thrown – the latter being particularly hilarious because the play area is infinite, so a weapon that sails off the screen comes back on the other side. Pretty much every game has freaky thrown weapon kills, or someone killing themselves with their own sword or trident. Shields can also be thrown and will knock other gladiators down, while hand to hand combat allows for strikes or grapples if unarmed and rapid dismemberment if wielding something sharp. The arena changes with every round. Will be out this year.
Green
Developer: Aoyama Masaya | Platforms: Android, iOS, PC | More infoThe mechanics in this 2D platformer are simple but clever. As the titular Green you create your own platforms to navigate through the world, and you’re able to throw them out at whatever distance you choose based on how long you hold down the ‘throw block’ button. Thus, if you need to climb a cliff, you create a sequence of blocks to jump onto. If you need to cross a body of water you might throw one out at a distance, then throw one close and jump from one to the other. Blocks you’ve created can be destroyed by throwing another block at it. Timing is everything here, and the simple early levels soon qive way to trickier areas with enemies, lava and other challenges.
Sundered
Developer: Thunder Lotus Games | Platforms: Linux, Mac, PC, PS4 | More infoThis stylish 2D action game is being developed by the team behind Jotun, so it comes as no surprise that it features gorgeous hand-drawn art and absolutely massive bosses. The perspective here, however, is strictly side-on and combines the core Metroidvania design with a procedurally-generated world comprised of interconnected rooms. Enemy spawns are also dynamic, and in the area I played, they took the form of grotesque, Lovecraftian bats, and shape-shifting black beasts with gaping maws, and quickly threatened to overwhelm me.At a basic level, you have a good range of attacks and rolls, not to mention an absolutely massive gun that sends you flying back with its recoil, but this isn’t a game that’s designed to be beaten at the first attempt. Instead, it’s more of a Roguelike. Each time you die you’re kicked back to a central hub where you can spend any Shards you collected in the game’s skill tree to permanently upgrade your stats in a number of areas. On top of this are Perks – modifiers that have both an upside and downside – and Abilities, which are new moves that – in keeping with Sundered’s theme of either resisting or embracing eldritch powers - can also be corrupted, giving you a much more powerful version of the move, but having ramifications in other ways.
There’s a lot going on here, and I’ve only just scratched the surface, but Sundered’s inherent quality is clear.
Brave Earth: Prologue
Developer: Kayinworks | Platforms: PC | More infoBrave Earth: Prologue may be from the creator of I Wanna Be The Guy, but this isn’t a game about trolling the audience with ridiculous challenges, or incorporating a grab-bag of classic gaming references. Instead, Brave Earth is very much a straight homage to classic 8-bit games, chief among which is the Castlevania series. It’s meticulous in its approach, with tight controls and very deliberate challenges, and just the right balance between old school elements and more modern design.I’ve only played the opening level at this point, but developer Kayin was telling me about the overarching game structure, which actually includes three playable characters – each of which is designed to feel quite different and demand different tactics. Naomi, for instance, wields a sword and a kite shield, and is a little less mobile than the other characters, but is quite robust.
Each character has a power meter that can be used to activate special moves. For Naomi, these include a fireball-like projectile called Radiant Wave, which can even be used in the air to fire diagonally down, lifting her to ledges she otherwise couldn’t jump to. She also has a ground slide – Dust Striker, and an uppercut – Arc Divider. Each of these can be powered up using specific orbs found in the world. She can even power up her shield so that it can used to parry.
Prologue is obviously designed to be challenging, but will ship with four difficulty settings to cater for more players, so this is really a game for anyone that remembers Castlevania fondly. It's feeling great, too. Cam Shea is senior editor in IGN's Sydney office and tries to spend as much time as possible in Japan. He's also reluctantly on Twitter.