Ten years ago, I helped my good friends at Double Fine and iam8bit, as well as the co-founder of Devs. The goal was to create a festival for games that put developers in front, highlighting the most unique, creative and artistic indie games we can find anywhere in the world. It’s a celebration of what games can be and the creators behind them.
Since then, we’ve helped promote more than 500 titles through our tent-free public event in San Francisco, as well as our digital showcase, including last year’s standouts such as Death’s Door, Tom and Axiom Verge 2. Today we are back. Day of the Davis: With our latest crop games for the Summer Game Fest version. This is another incredible lineup of games of all shapes and sizes. Here are some highlights from the PlayStation.
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Time flies
This wacky game is part of the open world and part of the flight simulator – and you play it as a fly! You are given a bucket list that you can complete before you die. But the life of a fly is short – and the list is long! Go ahead and learn an instrument, get rich, read a book, go on a trip, find yourself, get drunk, make someone laugh or enter the art world! And if you don’t want to pursue your life goals, just hang on, clean your wings, and watch television. Make the most of your time! Because we are all going to die.
– Michael Frey and Rafael Munoz, playable
Release date: 2023 | Developer: Playable | PS4, PS5
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Nayad
Immerse yourself in a relaxed, minimal and colorful exploration adventure. Fly along the Naiad across a mysterious river and interact with its fauna and flora to discover little secrets. Enjoy a healthy experience with a dreamy and original visual style. Learn to swim like a duck, dive like a fish, dash like a frog and meet other adorable friends like butterflies, rabbits, turtles, snakes and crocodiles! Help them find their way and avoid obstacles. A journey of 16 episodes that will take you through beautiful and strange places like a deep forest, a dark cave, a colorful creek, a calm lake and much more… until you reach the sea.
A very personal and unique game made with love by a single dev.
– Elwin, Highwarp
Release date: October 1, 2022 | Developer: High Warp | PS4, PS5
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Animal Well
It can be hard to talk about a game full of privacy without revealing some surprises. Animal Well, on its surface, is a game of exploration of a puzzle platform, but that description denies the deeper mysteries inside. Some puzzles will be straightforward. Others are a little harder to find. And yet others may not even seem puzzled at first glance – or take a community of players to solve.
– Billy Baso, single developer, shared memory
Release date: Towards the end of 2022 or early 2023 Publisher: Shared memory | PS5
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Escape Academy
Congratulations! You have been accepted at Escape Academy, an educational institution dedicated to the art of escape. As a promising new student at the academy, you will train under our enthusiastic faculty to become the ultimate escapist. Start your lesson on a single player Or Bring a friend! Escape Academy is fully playable by playing two-player co-op on local or online splitscreen. In the lessons, be sure to visit the Escape Academy campus and meet the colorful cast of characters, everyone specializes in the art of escape, and some secrets that have yet to be revealed … Do you have what it takes to complete one? A series of wonderful, delightful and often deadly feverishly designed challenges? There is only one way to find out! Play more than a dozen hand-crafted escape rooms Real life Escape Room Designers at the Coin Crew Games as the July 14 semester begins on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5.
– White Bushnell, co-founder, Coin Crew Games
Release date: July 14, 2022 | Publisher: iam8bit | PS4, PS5