Game Informer
The past seven days have been extremely exciting for all manner of gamers – regardless of where or how you play, there’s likely at least one announcement that occurred during the Summer Game Fest madness that got you amped. But, with so many showcases and so many reveals, it’s easy for smaller games to get lost in the shuffle alongside new God of War and Final Fantasy VII and Resident Evil and Fable announcements – doubly so for the indies highlighted in the week’s smaller showcases. Fortunately for you, Game Informer kept an eye on it all and today, we bring you a list of 10 of the best indies we saw during the 2026 Summer Game Fest week. There’s no significant order to these or strict rules – we here at Game Informer banded together to highlight 10 indie games you should keep an eye on. If there’s any indie game you’re stoked about that isn’t on this list, drop the name in the comments below – we’d love to see what you’re looking forward to! Signet City Citizen Sleeper and Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector are some of my all-time favorite games, so it’s a given that I’m going to play whatever developer Gareth Damian Martin, who develops games under the name Jump Over The Age, cooks up. It helps that their next project, Signet City , looks and sounds fantastic. Self-described as a “fungalpunk RPG,” Signal City takes place in the titular coastal city in sharp decline as a result of the biological computer (mushrooms) overtaking and outgrowing the silicon chip. Your job as a fungal parasite born into the city’s brackish waters is to inhabit the minds of remaining hosts and guide them into their “final season.” I’m presuming this means death, but that remains unclear for now. “From the stained wallpaper of the squats to the towering mountains that dot its skyline, grow through and into this strange city, changing it forever,” the game’s description reads. The game itself blends first-person exploration (Martin jokingly described it as Skyrim with mushrooms on social media) with tabletop-inspired narrative RPG design in a world inspired by post-punk 1980s Britain and “weird fiction.” The game’s black-and-white art style speaks to this, too, as does the use of brutalist architecture. It’s a big departure from the bright and hopeful Citizen Sleeper games but it sounds just as fascinating. Martin has earned my trust and I look forward to following these mushrooms wherever they take me when Signet City launches sometime in the future on PC. – Wesley LeBlanc Burn-9 There are a lot of Metal Gear Solid-inspired games – even director Hideo Kojima borrows heavily from it in his post-MGS projects like Death Stranding and Physint. But usually, these games put you in control of the Snake parallel. Burn-9 , however, has caught my interest by being a MGS-inspired game that doesn’t do that; instead, you play as the person in the chair, as it were. Described by developer 14 Hours Productions as a “Tactical Radio Action” game, another nod to MGS’s “Tactical Espionage Action” tag, in Burn-9, your job is to guide the last survivor of an elite black-ops team after a mission has gone terribly wrong. “When a top secret military research facility in the Antarctic goes dark, an elite strike force of cybernetically-enhanced black-ops super soldiers is dispatched to investigate and secure Burn-9 at all costs,” the game’s description reads. “Minutes into the mission, the helicopter is shot down. There is one survivor… and you’re her only lifeline.” As the team’s Operator, you will need to guide her to safety while navigating the tension and demands of the top brass and the harsh reality on the ground. What you share, what you hold back, and who you trust is up to you. Burn-9 is due out sometime this year on PC. – Wesley LeBlanc Slayblade It’s a Beyblade game, basically. Do I need to say more? Okay, probably, but if you’re like me, that’s enough. Revealed during SGF weekend madness as part of the Frosty Games Fest showcase, Slayblade comes from developer Henry’s House, the team behind 2022’s Kardboard Kings, and Oscar Brittain, and it sounds awesome. It’s a Y2K Beyblade-inspired roguelite with an emphasis on being “chill.” Its lo-fi city is inspired by PS1 aesthetics, and it features more than 60 blade parts to collect, unlock, and customize your Slayblades with, and if the music in the trailer is any indication, it’s going to be backed by an excellent score, too. Oh, and to get around the city, you skateboard – like c’mon, this is gonna rip (pun intended). There’s no word on when the game will launch, but you can play the Slayblade demo right now on Steam. – Wesley LeBlanc Threads of Time Threads of Time was not announced at this year’s post-SGF Day of the Devs live stream – it has been in development for some time – but the latest look dove into the style and story of the game deeper than we have to date. Turn-based games are experiencing a bit of a renaissance right now , so it’s not that Threads of Time is doing anything particularly new or unique. Rather, its selling point is that it is meant to recall those wonderful feelings we have been chasing of those experiences we had playing those 16- and 32-bit RPGs when we were young. And Threads of Time just happens to look like a really good one. The developers are specifically citing Chrono Trigger (an undeniable classic) and the HD-2D visuals just look fantastic. We can’t wait to get lost in its world when it comes out… eventually. Developer Riyo Games is also promising the involvement of noteworthy developers in the game’s creation, but says it will share more details in the future. – Kyle Hilliard Mr. Records Developer Glee-Cheese Studio is practiced at making rhythm games, having released Headbangers: Rhythm Royale and Musical Story, and Mr. Records looks to continue its musical track record. The game is full of original music as the developers are also the composers, and it’s got an enticing and unique premise, even though it is a style of game we’ve played before (which isn’t a complaint – I’ll take as many of these as game makers are willing to make). Mr. Records is an old man who owns a record shop and can walk through and experience the music he has for sale. This manifests as gameplay reminiscent of games like Bit.Trip Runner or HarmoKnight, where you 2D-platform through a level to the beat of the music. The visual style is also very charming and silly, and I want to see all the different types of levels and songs the game offers. It is, however, another one that does not yet have a release date. – Kyle Hilliard Gemini X Seemingly announced outside of Summer Game Fest or a Summer Game Fest-adjacent showcase, Gemini X has a very straightforward pitch: Mega Man X meets Metroidvania. It turns out that for me, those words are my Manchurian Candidate-style phrase to perk me up and make me mad that I can’t play the whole game right now. I love Mega Man X (not Mega Man, to be clear), and I love exploring and building out a map. Other attempts at combining Mega Man X mechanics with other genres, like 20XX or even Capcom’s own Mega Man ZX games, haven’t quite worked for me. And this could be the case here, but the footage looks promising. I also just appreciate how unabashedly Mega Man X-ish it all is stylistically, even making sure the bosses seem inspired by animals. We have no release date on this one, but I will be keeping a close eye on it. – Kyle Hilliard Vivarium Vivarium's art is nothing short of breathtaking. Perfectly emulating the texture of 90s anime, it's a game you could see screenshots of, admire, and leave without even realizing they were stills from a video game. The accompanying gameplay is appropriately cozy, with a timer synced to the real-world passage of time to help you play slowly, grow closer to your neighbors, garden, cook, craft, and apparently uncover a "hidden truth" about the town. I hope it's fun, but even if it isn't, I'll still probably play just to walk around its gorgeous world. You can wishlist it on Steam , but it's also coming to Xbox and the Epic Games Store. – Charles Harte Bad Magpie It has been almost seven years since the release of Untitled Goose Game, and with developer House House busy making Big Walk, fans of mischievous bird games will have to look elsewhere. Luckily, Bad Magpie is one of the most exciting games to follow in that legacy that we've seen so far. Instead of Goose Game's checklist of pranks, Bad Magpie takes place in a non-linear open world. Your only task is to mess with your surroundings, find secrets, and look for shiny trinkets as you hunt for the meaning behind your mysterious visions. Bad Magpie also seems to have a more heartfelt story – the titular bird only has one wing and has to hop to move around, and a shot in the reveal trailer during the Xbox Games Showcase shows its fellow Magpies flying off and leaving it behind. I'm looking forward to playing the game myself (and hopefully not crying during the cutscenes) when it comes out sometime next year on Xbox and Steam ( where you can wishlist it now ). – Charles Harte Into the Wind I generally think people throw around comparisons to Studio Ghibli and Miyazaki a little too liberally, but Into the Wind is a game that's actually deserving of the association. Its Italian-inspired city and dogfighting gameplay are straight out of Porco Rosso, but its package-delivery mechanics (also reminiscent of Death Stranding) are closer to Kiki's Delivery Service. It also has a generally whimsical tone that I'm excited to experience for myself: your vehicle is neither motorcycle nor plane, but a sentient motorcycle-plane; townsfolk ask for packages, but also live swordfish; and hitting an obstacle causes you to ragdoll off your vehicle and onto the ground. It's coming soon to early access, but for today, it's coming to my Steam wishlist . – Charles Harte 2 Fights 2 Tight Spaces Fights In Tight Spaces was a slick card battle with a unique premise, enough so that it got a spin-off called Knights in Tights Spaces. But the original game is now getting a true sequel in the form of 2 Fights 2 Tight Spaces. The new game features online cooperative multiplayer for 1-3 players, alongside an attractive new visual style. The first trailer for the game looks great, featuring some exciting melees that see lots of environmental hazard attacks. But today didn't just bring news of the new game – it has also shadow dropped into early access, so you can give the game a try right now if you like . – Matt Miller
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