Day of the Devs highlights: Celebrating indie games

We have been treated to an hour-long digital showcase from Day of the Devs, a non-profit organization that champions all kinds of indie games you might never have heard of otherwise. The presentation included twenty total trailers for upcoming indie games, seven of those were world premiere announcements, and two of them were shadow-dropped and are available now.

The toughest part of writing this article was narrowing it down to highlights rather than taking the next hour of your day to talk about all twenty cool indie games shown today. So thank you for reading this article and if you like the look of these games, I highly recommend watching the full presentation here.

Ultimate Sheep Raccoon

If you ever played Ultimate Chicken Horse, you’ll be excited to learn that there is now a spiritual successor on the way. Clever Endeavor Games is at it again, creating another chaotic, friendship-ending party, but this time it’s called Ultimate Sheep Raccoon. In the original game, players had to essentially build their own level out of various objects, with the goal being to give yourself a way to platform to the end but also prevent the other players from doing the same. In this new game, players hop on bikes and race along a track to reach the end. There will be jumps, ramps and other obstacles built into the base track, but players can also add more hazards to trip up their teammates.

The customization of each session made Ultimate Chicken Horse one of the most replayable and enjoyable party games of the last few years. It’s the kind of game I can see myself still booting up with friends next year. Ultimate Sheep Raccoon looks like it will maintain everything that made the original game a highlight, but with just enough of a twist to keep it fresh and entertaining for years to come. Ultimate Sheep Raccoon doesn’t have an exact release date yet, but it is planned to launch sometime next year.

Kingmakers

Kingmakers from developer Redemption Road (hopefully not mixed up with their previous game Road Redemption) is one of the few games I had heard about before watching this showcase, but the new trailer and information shared today helped me understand that while this is a chaotic sandbox, it’s also a lot more than that. On the surface, Kingmakers is a game about traveling back to medieval times and bringing modern weaponry and vehicles. It’s an open sandbox of large-scale battles where the player is the ultimate fighter. Firing a grenade launcher from castle walls into a swarm of oncoming knights sells itself.

But there does seem to be more to Kingmakers than chaotic violence and medieval mayhem. The developers explained that the game is expected to be running up to ten thousand NPC soldiers at the same time. Combine that with the entirely destructible environments, huge open world, and then drive a convertible through it all, and I will be amazed to see it run smoothly. Aside from the enormous scale of these real-time battles, players will be able to raise their own army, give commands in real-time, build fortresses, and of course, jump into a full co-op campaign with some friends. Kingmakers will launch in early access next year on Steam and the Epic Games Store.

Hyper Light Breaker

Heart Machine, the developers of the hugely popular Hyper Light Drifter, are finally ready to announce the release date for the long-awaited co-op rogue-lite, Hyper Light Breaker. Serving as a prequel to Drifter, Hyper Light Breaker tasks players with defeating various bosses, called Crowns, in the procedurally generated open-world known as the Overgrowth. Defeating enemies and exploring the world unlocks memories that will slowly reveal the truth about what happened to this world.

I had the opportunity to try a demo of this game at Summer Game Fest and it quickly became one of my most anticipated titles. Exploring the colorful Overgrowth, clashing with various enemies and bosses, and upgrading abilities and weaponry is just the basics of what makes Hyper Light Breaker a fun experience. The demo at Summer Game Fest did not show multiplayer, but when Hyper Light Breaker launches through Steam Early Access on January 14th, 2025, I will be jumping into the world with a few friends at my side.

Stop-Motion Games: Feltopia & PBJ – The Musical

It’s hard to believe that this showcase featured two stop-motion animated games, but here we are. Feltopia, from appropriately named developer Wooly Games, is a classic arcade side-scroller made entirely out of felt. The sheer dedication, time, and effort it must take to craft each individual “sprite,” let alone entire landscapes, blew my mind when I watched the trailer. The developers have already been working on Feltopia for a year, and are aiming for a release sometime in 2026. Even that seems ambitious.

Somehow, there is another stop-motion animated game. PBJ – The Musical is an artfully crafted stop-motion musical game from developer Kamibox. Comedy singer-songwriter Lorraine Bowen has written all the music for this odd game, which follows the tragic romance of a peanut and a strawberry. Leave it to indie teams to come up with such outrageous and exciting new ideas for video games.

Blue Prince

When I first heard the name Blue Prince during this showcase I wrote down “Blue Prints” in my notebook, but I have a feeling the similarity was intentional. Blue Prince is described as a mysterious, genre-defying, atmospheric architectural adventure. Enter a strange mansion and begin exploring the rooms. The mansion is five rooms wide and nine rooms deep, but the goal is to find Room 46. Developer Dogubomb has been designing this “puzzle box of a manor” for eight years, and it looks like it will be one of the most unique games of next year.

Rooms are ever-changing, ever-shifting, but there is also strategy to solving the mystery behind Blue Prince. It might take playing the game to truly get a grasp of it, but supposedly, the player is also building this house as they are exploring it. There is currently a free demo available on Steam that could give a better understanding of what to expect. Thankfully, Blue Prince is planned to launch in Spring of 2025 on Steam, so the mystery won’t have to wait too much longer.

Shadow Drops: LOK Digital & Tankhead

Two games from today’s Day of the Devs digital showcase were shadow drops, meaning both games are available to play today rather than announcing a release date for some time in the future. LOK Digital is a fascinating word-search puzzle game that has been adapted from a physical book. The word “lok” is one of many strangely powerful words in this fictional language, and uncovering its secrets will help the player progress. The cherry on top of this puzzle game is the small creatures that inhabit the puzzles. As progress is achieved, the small creatures’ civilization grows, from starting a fire, to farming, building skyscrapers, and eventually reaching outer space. LOK Digital looks like it has a lot to discover, and if it’s caught your interest, it’s available today on Steam (also releasing on mobile devices next year).

The showcase closed out with Tankhead, the debut game from developer Alpha Channel. In this sci-fi open world the player is a “sleepwalker,” someone who uploads their consciousness into a small floating drone. Embodying this drone allows the player to venture out into an irradiated wasteland to complete missions. Hover about to explore or lock into a vehicle to traverse and battle the various factions of machines that struggle for power in this brutal landscape. Players can customize their vehicle and scavenge for replacement parts as they take damage. Tankhead looks incredibly promising between its creative worldbuilding and the actual gameplay mechanics. Plus, if this looks interesting to you the good news is you can download Tankhead today on the Epic Games Store.

Conclusion

Today’s Day of the Devs presentation showcased twelve more fascinating indie games that I didn’t have the chance to talk about in this article. It’s already long enough. But if this is an area of gaming that fascinates you, take some time to watch the full presentation to see what you missed.

Finally, remember to put these games on your Steam or Epic Games Store wishlist. It’s an easy way to show that a small game has a lot of excitement and support from fans, especially in an industry that has had a very volatile year.