All articles tagged with #indie
More than 20 new Xbox titles are launching next week across Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC (March 31–April 3), including a day-one Game Pass addition: Super Meat Boy 3D. The lineup features platformers, puzzles, and co-op horror, with notable releases like Legacy of Kain: Ascendance and Content Warning.
Steam's Spring sale is slashing prices on 11 horror titles, ranging from Resident Evil 3 at 90% off to a mix of indie and retro-inspired games like Last Half of Darkness (40%), Silent Hill f (50%), Slitterhead (70%), Paranormasight (50%), Sylvio (70%), Crow Country (50%), The Excavation of Hob’s Barrow (55%), Little Goody Two Shoes (50%), Fledgling Manor (50%), and Vampire’s Best Friend (20%), offering plenty of spooky options at varied budgets.
Microsoft announces 43 new games arriving next week across Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC, including two Game Pass drops—Absolum and Nova Roma—along with a lineup of standalone releases such as RollerCoaster Tycoon Classic, ICARUS: Console Edition, Life is Strange: Reunion, Project Songbird, MARVEL MaXimum Collection, Mega Man Star Force Legacy Collection, Neopets - Mega Mini Games Collection, and more, with releases running from March 24–27.
AI dominated talks and demos at the GDC Festival—showcasing AI-driven NPCs, AI-generated spaces, and QA tools—yet most developers, especially independents, oppose using AI to make final games, valuing handcrafted craft and voicing concerns about legality, talent, and player connection; some see AI as a future development aid, but the current sentiment is that AI-made games lack humanity, with about half of attendees viewing generative AI negatively.
A roundup of the best strategy games under $10 in Steam's Spring Sale 2026, including 9 Kings (auto-battler/deck-builder), Thronefall (quick tower-defense-style missions), and Dorfromantik (tranquil tile-placement), aimed at helping players expand their library on a budget.
Devolver Digital is publishing Doinksoft’s Dark Scrolls, a retro-inspired dungeon-scroller for Nintendo Switch that blends roguelike and shmup action. Players choose from nine characters with unique skills, explore procedurally generated rooms with branching paths and bosses, and can play solo or in local/online co-op with shop upgrades and mid-level revives, all wrapped in authentic old-school visuals and music with modern controls; a release is planned for some point this year.
Pitchfork’s New Music Friday rounds up nine new albums across rock, rap, synth-pop, folk, ambient, and more, led by Kim Gordon’s politically charged Play Me and James Blake’s Trying Times. The slate also includes Elucid’s introspective I Guess U Had to Be There, Alexis Taylor’s Paris in the Spring with collaborative flair, Anjimile’s You’re Free to Go, Ora Cogan’s gothic folk Hard Hearted Woman, Cut Worms’ power-pop Transmitter, Laurel Halo’s ambient Midnight Zone soundtrack, and Noémi Büchi’s experimental Exuvie, showcasing a diverse week of releases available on major streaming platforms.
Minishoot’ Adventures on Nintendo Switch 2 fuses Zelda-inspired exploration with twin-stick shooting, offering a straightforward upgrade system where red crystals fuel ship upgrades like faster boosts and stronger firepower. It provides three difficulty options (Explorer, Advanced, Original) and multiple aiming modes for accessibility, all set to a bright overworld with solid visuals and music and smooth performance. The under-10-hour adventure delivers a tightly crafted core experience but could benefit from more NPCs, quests, and narrative depth, leaving potential for a sequel and further expansion.
Pitchfork highlights eight notable new releases this week, spanning Harry Styles’ Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally., the Help(2) compilation, Johnny Blue Skies & The Dark Clouds’ Mutiny After Midnight, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy’s We Are Together Again, Arima Ederra’s A Rush to Nowhere, Slayr’s Bloodluxe, Shabaka’s Of the Earth, and Ohyung’s Iowa, with streaming options and brief genre-context for fans of pop, jazz, indie, and experimental music.
Mouse: P.I. For Hire fuses a noir detective story with hand-drawn, rubber-hose 1930s animation and old-school shooter action. In previews you play as private mouse detective Jack Pepper, blasting through cultists with a varied weapon set, solving puzzles (including a tail-based lockpick), and exploring an open Mouseburg with upgrades at the B.A.N.G. workbench. It aims for a mature cartoon vibe and launches April 16, 2026 on Xbox Series X|S.
A curated list of 15 PC games that run well on the Steam Deck without requiring tweaks, mixing enduring favorites like Vampire Survivors, Stardew Valley, and Hades with newer hits such as Balatro, Dave the Diver, Blue Prince, Dredge, Deep Rock Galactic Survivor, Elden Ring, Resident Evil 2, Big Hops, Warframe, TMNT Shredder’s Revenge, and Megabonk—emphasizing portable, bite-size sessions and optional co-op where available.
This week’s PC game lineup runs from horror and occult-themed titles to puzzlers and roguelites, with a standout Star Trek: Voyager – Across the Unknown strategy port, plus a mix of indie experiments and whimsical titles across multiple genres.
New PS5 climbing game Cairn from The Game Bakers has sold over 200,000 copies in four days after its January 29 launch, marking a strong start to 2026. The game is praised as a tactile climbing simulator with freedom to explore a full mountain and a deliberately slow pace, though the PS5 version suffers frame-rate drops (PC is preferable until patches land).
Starsand Island, an anime-inspired cozy life sim from Seed Sparkle Lab, will launch on Steam Early Access and Xbox Preview in February, with a full 1.0 release planned for mid‑2026 on Steam, Xbox Series X/S, PS5, Nintendo Switch 2, and macOS; early access won’t include online multiplayer, but cooperative crafting and expansive DIY systems are slated for the full release, along with NPC relationships, animal companions, and vehicle-based exploration. The developers have been transparent about the process and the community currently maintains a stance against AI-generated content.
The Game Bakers’ climbing indie game Cairn sold over 200,000 copies on PC and PS5 in its first weekend, with peak concurrent players near 15,000 and a top-10 Steam ranking, signaling strong early demand for a niche title.