21 Incredible Games That Stole The Spotlight At This Year’s Day Of The Devs Showcase
Day of the Devs returned for its 12th annual summer event with another Summer Game Fest post-show that gave the not-E3 microphone to the creators behind some of the most promising-looking upcoming games. Whether you like noir-influenced point-and-click adventures or nostalgia-fueled retro RPGs, the event once again proved indie gaming has something for everyone.
Day of the Devs’ 2024 showcase marks the group’s first summer event since becoming a full-fledged non-profit. Born of a collaboration between DoubleFine and iam8bit, Day of the Devs combs the world in search of unusual, bespoke, and imaginative passion projects to put in front of a larger audience. Unlike Summer Game Fest and other showcases, it doesn’t charge creators for the inclusion of their games, and is instead self-funded through charitable contributions from others.
Basically, it’s PBS for games, and is only possible with the support of viewers like you and the largess of some of the video game industry’s biggest companies. At the end of today’s livestream, Day of the Devs revealed its sponsors this year, which include Microsoft and Sony, among many others like Geoff Keighley’s own Summer Game Fest. Curiously, Nintendo was absent.
The Day of the Devs hosts wrapped up the event by asking people in leadership positions at studios, publishers, and platform holders with “budgets to tap into” to help the organization stay afloat. Here are all of the games that money went toward showcasing in this year’s summer Day of the Dev’s livestream:
Battle Vision Network
The makers of Grindstone are back with an online, fast-paced tactics puzzler. Players face off against one another in battles reminiscent of Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes against the backdrop of a fantasy sports league. Color-matched formations launch attacks and defenses with action that plays out in colorfully-animated battlefields. The style is inspired by Eurovision and the seasonal leagues will be full of outfits to collect. Maybe live-service games don’t have to suck? Jim Guthrie and Sam Webster are doing the music.
Developed by: Capybara Games
Release date: 2025
Platforms: Mobile (Netflix), PC
Simpler Times
Simpler Times is a first-person life sim where you experience the world by interacting with the objects around your house, activating memories that tap into your hopes, dreams, and regrets. Players follow Taina as she looks back on her life while packing up her childhood room ahead of leaving for college. Most games are about taking you outside of yourself, Simpler Times appears to be encouraging greater mindfulness by virtual clicking, like Gone Home but for existential meditation. We got a look at it at last year’s Day of the Devs event but now it’s finally here.
Developed by: stoneskip.
Platforms: PC
Release date: Today!
Cairn
Cairn is a cell-shaded climbing game, with shades of Jusant thrown into a Borderlands art blender. The final part of the freedom trilogy by The Game Bakers, players climb deadly rock faces until their legs tremble and their hands give out. Balancing balance, stamina, and progress will eventually allow those “obsessed by the assent” to from themselves from their own internal chains. The developers call it a climbing survivor.
Developed by: The Game Bakers
Platforms: Consoles, PC
Release date: 2025
Petal Runner
I’ve seen things you wouldn’t believe, like this incredible love letter to Pokémon on the Game Boy Color. A cyberpunk-spin on the RPG catch’em all, Petal Runner has you play a motorcycle carrier in training who uses the biological material from flowers to create “Hano pets.” Is there a deeper, more unsettling mystery perhaps haunting this adorable premise? You bet! A chiptune soundtrack makes for an irresistible retro pitch with plenty of new-age heart.
Developed by: Nano Park Studios
Platform: TBD
Release date: TBD
Karma: The Dark World
Karma: The Dark World is a horror exploration game split between two realities. One is an Orwellian dystopia ruled by surveillance, bureaucracy and spooky TV heads. The other is a Lynchian mindscape where players might be able to discover the truth about their dual dystopias and themselves. Developer Pollard Studio promises investigative twists and revelations that will gradually melt your cold heart.
Developed by: Pollard Studio
Platforms: PS5, Xbox, PC
Release date: TBD
UFO50
I can’t believe it’s finally happening. The 50-game anthology from the folks behind Spelunky is just around the corner. UF50 features dozens of retro-themed homages to your favorite 80s and 90s games with modern gameplay twists and a meta narrative about a fictional game company who created them. Mossmouth pitches it as like the experience of going over to a friend’s house and rummaging through their cartridge collection. A 32-color palette and audio restrictions make it feel authentic to the time while current design sensibilities and multiplayer options are sprinkled throughout.
Developed by: Mossmouth
Platform: PC
Release date: September 18
Cozy Grove: Camp Spirit
The 2021 breakout cozy sim is back with a sequel. If you’re not familiar with the original, think Animal Crossing with the look of Don’t Starve. Cozy Grove 2 has you gathering, crafting, and cooking to help your neighbors—ghostly bears—find peace. There’s beautiful watercolor art and tons of animals to adopt, play fetch with, and tell stories to around the campfire. It’s a mobile exclusive (Netflix purchased developer Spry Fox) but there are no ads (just an ever- increasing Netflix subscription price).
Developed by: Spry Fox
Platform: Mobile (Netflix exclusive)
Release date: June 25, 2024
Koira
Koira is a narrative-driven adventure game that takes place in a musical forest and winter wonderland. All the animals you encounter are voiced by different instruments, and creating different patterns from the sounds of the creatures you interact with helps you unlock the secrets of the world around you and solve its puzzles. There’s no text or dialogue. Just watch out for the hunters that want to capture and kill you.
Developed by: Studio Tolima
Platforms: PC
Release date: Demo 2024
Arranger: A Role-Puzzling Adventure
Do you remember those sliding puzzle games where you shifted tiles around with your fingers in order to get all the squares lined up in the right pattern? Arranger is that turned into an adventure game presented with the oil-painting look of Braid artist David Hellman. You play as small-town misfit Jemma on a journey of self-discovery and to “disrupt a culture of stagnation” by navigating a world dissected into sliding puzzles.
Developed by: Furniture & Mattress
Platforms: PS5, Switch, PC, Mobile (Netflix exclusive)
Release date: July 25, 2024
Fear The Spotlight
Fear The Spotlight is a lo-fi-looking horror game about exploring a high school with a candle and discovering hidden messages in its horror-filled corners. It looks like a stealth survival horror game in the style of a PS1 game reskinned as a analog VHS horror movie. Young TikTok fans of liminal spaces will probably go wild for this one. Horror weenie that I am, I can’t wait to watch someone else play it on stream.
Developed by: Blumhouse Games
Platforms: PS5, PS4, Xbox One, Series X/S, Switch, PC
Release Date: 2024
Screen Bound
Screen Bound is a first-person platformer where you navigate the world in 3D by looking through a Game Boy screen simultaneously. The throw-back quantum device links 3D and 2D side-scrolling exploration, scrambling your brain in the process. Both dimensions are equally important to progressing the game, with enemies only in 2D while you solve puzzles on the 3D side. The developers list Fez, Wreck-it Ralph, Viewfinder, Super Mario Bros., and
Tron among their inspirations, a lofty canon I hope they can contribute to.
Developed by: Crescent Moon Games / Those Dang Games
Platform: TBD
Release date: TBD
Zoochosis
Who’s ready for some terrifying animals? A thriller twist on the first person work sim where thinks quickly go side ways, Zoochosis has you take care of animals, monitor their health, and behold as they transform into Cronenbergian abominations. A giraffe starts acting like an anaconda. A hippo has a giant mouth in its stomach. You’ve seen body horror before but not like this. There are multiple endings based on your ability to save the animals and yourself. Good luck.
Developed by: Clapperheads
Platforms: PC
Release date: 2024
Tom the Postgirl
Silent film-style title cards narrate this morbid package delivery adventure. In Tom the Postgirl, you’ll discover the weird and twisted lives of locals as you hand them their mail and gawk at their creepy lives. Witness disturbing scenes in the shoes of Little Red Riding Hood by way of Edward Gorey. I love the hand-drawn style and post card aesthetic. I’m not sure I’m ready to know all of my neighbors’ deepest, darkest secrets.
Developed by: Oopsie Daisey Studio
Platform: TBD
Release Date: 2025
Psychroma
Psychroma is giving me horror cyberpunk meets Maniac Mansion vibes in the best way. The narrative-driven side scroller explores “what it means to be who you are and the terror of having that stripped from you.” It mixes futuristic tech with the paranormal as you play a digital medium trying to exorcise ghosts by piecing together forgotten memories.
Developed by: Rocket Adrift
Platforms: PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Switch, PC
Release date: TBD
Building Relationships
Building Relationships is the “stupidest game you’ll see all day,” its creator said during the showcase. You play as a house rolling around lo-fi mountain paths and beach fronts Katamari-style trying to find connection. There are NPCs to meet, like Mint the apartment and Millie the windmill who might “step on you if you ask nicely.” Exploring unlocks new skills like jumping and wave dashing. You can even fish! The game takes the same amount of time as a short hike and while there’s no house sex, that might get added in future DLC.
Developed by: Tan Ant Games
Platforms: PC
Release date: TBD
A Little To The Left: Seeing Stars
Cozy organizer A Little To The Left brought order to the chaos back in 2022 and now it’s getting its second DLC. Seeing Stars adds 33 new levels and five additional bonus levels to the game about putting things in their right place, or coming up with your own pattern for brining meaning to their arrangements. There are 100 new stars to discover and also more cats. Lots more cats.
Developed by: Max Inferno
Platforms: PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Switch, PC
Release date: June 25, 2024
Hello Again
What if you were shipwrecked on a strange beach and stuck in a time loop? That’s Hello Again. You play a postal worker who explores an island solving puzzles and conversing with locals, learning more about them and seeing how they’ll react the more times you loop through the story. The developers describe it as a mix of Animal Crossing and The Outer Wilds with a sprinkle of Groundhog Day. Fill out a journal, unearth the past, and chill on a trippy, twisted vacation.
Developed by: Soup Island
Platforms: PC
Release date: 2025
While Waiting
Space is mostly empty, and life is mostly just the stuff between one thing ending and the next thing starting. While Waiting is an idle adventure game that puts you in the center of all those moments where life just won’ happen fast enough. The devs encourage players to find their own ways to kill time waiting for traffic to clear, the amusement park line to shorten, or the bathroom stall to be empty. The goal is to wait while you menace family and friends with your impatience.
Developed by: Optilusion Games
Platforms: PC
Release date: TBD
After Love EP
After Love EP follows a musician in Jakarta who hears the voice of his girlfriend after she’s dead. Its about finding your true self as you deal with the grief and was inspired by the creator’s own experience of loss. Outside of visual novel story beats, players juggle rhythm games to record music with their ban. There’s elements of a dating sim in there and multiple endings as well.
Developed by: Pikselsma
Platforms: PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch, PC
Release date: TBD
Phoenix Springs
Iris Doro is a reporter searching for her brother who finds an oasis in the desert. Neo noir things ensue, including a chilling soundtrack, a striking lithographic art-style, and a pervasive sense of menace. The modern point-and-click adventure game focuses on concepts instead of items, encouraging you to chain them together to make new discoveries instead of fumbling over your inventory in search of the one thing needed to progress. I don’t always get pulled in by the genre but Phoenix Springs has my number.
Developed by: Calligram Studio
Platforms: PC
Release date: September 16, 2024
Tides Of Tomorrow
The makers of the Road 96 are back with a water punk take on the time loop game. Parts of Tides of Tomorrow remind me of Deathloop while others feel like Water World by way of Jet Set Radio. Players have a sort of memory vision that lets them see alternate scenarios from past loops, with choices like fight or flight shaping the story in new directions. The art and presentation alone feel worth the trip.
Developed by: DigixArt
Platforms: PC
Release date: TBD
