Hosted by the creator-led organization Glitch (and its android VTuber host Melios), Future of Play Direct highlights upcoming indie games every year. This year’s showcase featured updates and galaxy premieres of nearly 40 titles, with games ranging from 3D sci-fi base builders to side-scrolling pixel horror games and nearly everything in between. Here are 10 of our favorite games featured in this year’s Future of Play Direct.
Hermit and Pig
Featuring an adorable pixel art style, Hermit and Pig follows two unlikely heroes — a reclusive hermit and his truffle-hunting pig — on a mission to fight an evil corporate plot while dealing with social anxiety. Its action-packed first trailer shows off traditional turn-based combat, foraging, and exploration, all guided by over 100 types of mushrooms that can be used for health and bartering. Hermit and Pig was officially announced during today’s Future of Play Direct and doesn’t yet have a release date, though it’s headed to Steam in 2024.
Psychroma
Shown off with a terrifyingly ominous trailer, narrative-focused side-scroller Psychroma is officially headed to Steam and consoles in February 2024. In Psychroma, players take on the role of a digital medium who experiences nonlinear time. Within the game’s cybernetic house (depicted with stunning stylized pixel art), players work to ultimately regain the protagonist’s memory and piece together the story of a psychological experiment gone wrong.
Ritual Night
The team behind Ritual Night, a new Among Us-esque social deduction game, revealed that its demo is out now on Steam and that the full game will be out in the fall during today’s Future of Play Direct. In Ritual Night, monsters gather for a ritual to summon Cthulhu but must find the humans who have crashed the party in an attempt to sabotage it. It features no player elimination — meaning no being forced to spectate — and has quite a few bells and whistles, including proximity chat, stealing, and intercoms.
YASUKE: A Lost Descendant
YASUKE: A Lost Descendant is a 3D anime hack and slash with a diverse cast. In the game’s new trailer, main character Tanaka Yasuke is shown traversing the game’s neon-filled world through stylish parkour and fighting enemies with flashy swords. Amid anime-style cinematics, the game’s Future of Play Direct trailer also revealed a new character, Yuuki Yoshihara, who will join Yasuke’s side when the game launches on Steam.
Videoverse
Shown off during the Direct’s rapidfire finale, Videoverse is a short narrative adventure that calls back to the message boards of the early internet and Miiverse (rest in peace). As the game-loving Emmett, players can share artwork, make friends, and report trolls, although these choices matter — the posts that players make as Emmett affect the story and the state of in-game social network Videoverse as a whole. Videoverse is headed to Steam in Q3 2023 with quite a few accessibility options in tow.
Arctic Awakening
Episodic narrative adventure game Arctic Awakening follows the pilot Kai, who is stranded alone in the frozen wilderness with his therapy robot, Alfie, after a plane crash. Players search for Kai’s lost companion and a way home, all while discovering the outdoors through Firewatch-like gameplay. The game’s new trailer revealed during today’s Future of Play Direct shows off new facilities and ends on an unnerving note, hinting at some of the mysteries bound to unfold during this chilly journey. Arctic Awakening is headed to Steam later this year.
Techtonica
Techtonica, the upcoming first-person factory automation game, is now headed to Steam on July 18. Techtonica sees players occupying areas beneath the surface of the bioluminescence-filled alien planet Calyx. In the game’s exclusive Future of Play Direct trailer, developer Fire Hose Games showed off the game’s rewarding progression from simple resource collection to managing complex underground factories, all working toward the goal of digging deeper.
Wildmender
Wildmender is a gardening survival game about reclaiming the desert, and it’s finally getting a demo during the upcoming Steam Next Fest. Its newest trailer shows off open-ended features like garden customization, gliding, surfing through sand, and traversing some perilous-looking areas in its procedurally generated world, although the goal seems to be to ultimately uncover the mystery of the desert’s past. Wildmender is headed to Steam, Xbox Series X|S, and PS5 in 2023 with 4-player co-op.
REKA
As an apprentice witch to the iconic Baba Jaga in REKA, players will get to master the art of witchcraft by brewing medicines and wielding magic. They’ll also get to construct a witch home atop a chicken-legged (controllable) traveling base through open-ended customization, which was shown off in depth during today’s Future of Play Direct. The exploration and base building-focused game is headed to Steam in 2024.
In Stars and Time
In Stars and Time is a turn-based RPG about being trapped in a time loop. Featuring a quirky cast of main characters, rock paper scissors-inspired gameplay, and black and white graphics that combine pixels with hand-drawn art, In Stars and Time follows Siffrin as they try to break the cycle while also using it as a way to gain a new perspective on puzzles and choices. In the words of the game’s Steam page (where it’s set to arrive, alongside Nintendo Switch and now PlayStation, later in 2023), you’ll need to “pray to the stars and free yourself from time.” In Stars and Time is a turn-based RPG about being trapped in a… oh… wait.
Find more details about these games, and everything else announced during today’s Future of Play Direct, on the Future of Play Direct page of Glitch’s website. The Future of Play Direct is also part of IGN’s Summer of Gaming, which features plenty more showcases spanning from indie games like these to massive AAA titles throughout June. Keep up with the latest Summer of Gaming news and find out how to tune in here.
Amelia Zollner is a freelance writer at IGN who loves all things indie and Nintendo. Outside of IGN, they’ve contributed to sites like Polygon and Rock Paper Shotgun. Find them on Twitter: @ameliazollner.