APB: All Points Bulletin20106 factsGame page →APB was conceived and led by David Jones, creator of the original Grand Theft Auto and Crackdown; it was described as the game he'd 'always wanted to make'.en.wikipedia.orgDevelopment reportedly cost over $100 million (Realtime Worlds raised ~$101M total), making APB one of the most expensive video games ever produced.en.wikipedia.orgIt was a commercial disaster: Realtime Worlds entered administration in August 2010, about six weeks after launch, and the servers were shut down that September — under three months on the market.venturebeat.comAPB let players import their own music: matching songs played on in-game car radios, and Last.fm integration substituted similar tracks; players could even set a short custom music sting to play when they killed an opponent.en.wikipedia.orgRealtime Worlds' technology enabled unusually deep character and vehicle customization — paint, decals and attachments — a signature selling point.mobygames.comAfter the shutdown, online-gaming company K2 Network bought APB for £1.5 million and its subsidiary Reloaded Productions relaunched it as free-to-play 'APB: Reloaded' in 2011.en.wikipedia.orgRead 4 more facts
As Dusk Falls20226 factsGame page →As Dusk Falls is the debut game of INT./NIGHT (Interior Night), a studio founded in 2017 by Caroline Marchal — formerly lead game designer on Heavy Rain and Beyond: Two Souls at Quantic Dream.en.wikipedia.orgIt uses a distinctive motion-comic art style — hand-painted still images rendered over motion-captured performances — rather than continuous 3D animation.en.wikipedia.orgThe branching story follows the Walker and Holt families across two "books" (six chapters), beginning in 1998 Arizona and continuing into 2012.en.wikipedia.orgUp to eight players can make group story decisions by voting with their phones through the free As Dusk Falls Companion App, in local or online co-op.store.steampowered.comIt won Games for Impact at The Game Awards 2022 and launched day one on Xbox Game Pass.en.wikipedia.orgIts acclaimed score is by Matthew Barnes (Forest Swords); Rolling Stone called it "one of the best musical scores we've ever heard."rollingstone.comRead 4 more facts
Astrolander20266 factsGame page →Astrolander was started by developer Max Trest when he was 13 years old (16 by the time of its PS5/PC reveal).gamerant.comMax Trest began coding at age 9 in Scratch, then moved to Blender and Unity (HDRP), with textures made in Adobe Substance Painter.superjumpmagazine.comThe game was originally conceived as a modern take on Atari's 1979 Lunar Lander before expanding into a full platformer.superjumpmagazine.comA prototype was exhibited at Seattle's Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP) and the Seattle Indies Expo, where Max Trest met PlayStation's Shuhei Yoshida — a meeting that led to the PS5 deal.gameravenreview.comA solo player controls both robots (Feedback and Haptic); in local co-op the two are split between two players.insider-gaming.comPlayers collect CDs to unlock 10 abilities such as CDjector, Wazer, Vizray and Wavo.store.steampowered.comRead 4 more facts
Beastro20266 factsGame page →Timberline's founders Lindsey Rostal and Nathan Fulton previously worked at The Odd Gentlemen on the 2015 episodic King's Quest.unrealengine.comCard battles use trick-taking rules inspired by Spades and Hearts instead of the energy-management model common to digital deckbuilders — and are staged as puppet-theatre sequences.store.steampowered.comCooking literally builds your deck: the meals chef Panko prepares for the village's monster-fighting "Caretakers" become the cards used in combat.beastro.gameThe game was built in Unreal Engine 5 by a team of just 13 people, and Epic featured the studio in its own developer-interview series.unrealengine.comIt is co-published by Kepler Ghost, the non-equity indie publishing label Kepler Interactive launched in 2023.kepler-interactive.comFirst revealed at Xbox @ gamescom 2025 (August 20, 2025), it later ran a Steam Next Fest demo that was updated mid-festival and kept live afterward.en.wikipedia.orgRead 4 more facts
Demeo20216 factsGame page →All five post-launch dungeon campaigns — Realm of the Rat King, Roots of Evil, Curse of the Serpent Lord and Reign of Madness after the launch adventure — were released as completely free updates.roadtovr.comThe Reign of Madness score (~30 minutes of orchestration) was recorded with the Czech National Symphony Orchestra in Prague, then fed into a dynamic in-game music system.resolutiongames.comDOOM and Commander Keen co-creator Tom Hall works at Resolution Games as Senior Creative Director and is credited as a designer on Demeo.en.wikipedia.orgCEO Tommy Palm was King's 'Games Guru' and public face of Candy Crush Saga before founding Resolution Games — his prior studio Fabrication Games was acquired by King in 2012, ahead of King's ~$7B IPO.crunchbase.comThe 'Mixed Reality 2.0' update added controller-free hand tracking on Quest — letting players physically pick up miniatures, cards and dice from the virtual tabletop.roadtovr.comDemeo grew into a series: the PvP spin-off Demeo Battles (Nov 9, 2023) and the official D&D crossover Demeo x Dungeons & Dragons: Battlemarked (Nov 20, 2025, with Wizards of the Coast) both build on its 'Demeo Action RPG System'.resolutiongames.comRead 4 more facts
Dyson Sphere Program20216 factsGame page →Dyson Sphere Program was built by a five-person team in Chongqing, China — Youthcat Studio, founded by technical lead Mao Mao and industry veteran Zhou Xun.pandayoo.comIt was crowdfunded on Kickstarter, raising ¥1,434,062 (about 135% of its goal) from just 319 backers in late 2020.kickstarter.comIt sold 200,000 copies in about four days and topped Steam's global sales chart in its launch week, reaching 1.7 million copies by September 2021.techraptor.netThe dev-stated inspirations are Stellaris and the Chinese sci-fi film The Wandering Earth — development began in April 2019 after the film's release, and publisher Gamera Games even hired the film's voice actors for the game.en.wikipedia.orgYou play as Icarus, a silent, paintable tree-height mecha that progresses from walking a single planet to interplanetary and finally interstellar flight.dsp-wiki.comIt launched as a completely peaceful factory builder — combat only arrived three years later with the free 'Rise of the Dark Fog' update in December 2023, adding the game's first hostile faction.news.xbox.comRead 4 more facts
EA Sports College Football 2720266 factsGame page →The franchise was revived in July 2024 as "EA Sports College Football" after the NCAA Football series ended with NCAA Football 14 (2013) — an ~11-year hiatus tied to name-image-likeness (NIL) litigation.on3.comCollege athletes are now compensated for their name, image and likeness in-game (NIL) — the legal shift that enabled the revival; Dynasty Mode adds "playable NIL features."businesswire.comIt is the first game in the series on PC and mobile, and the PC build adds ray tracing (Frostbite engine) and cross-play.techtimes.comIt features all 138 FBS teams, over 1,500 new plays, thousands of current athletes and more than 300 real coaches.ea.comCommentary is led by Chris Fowler and new analyst Joel Klatt, with Holly Rowe debuting as sideline reporter.on3.comThe game drew a #CFBPlayDontPay backlash over real-money "College Football Points" that can buy skill-point levels in career modes.en.wikipedia.orgRead 4 more facts
Hatred20156 factsGame page →Hatred is the debut title of Destructive Creations, a Polish studio based in Gliwice, built on Unreal Engine 4 with Nvidia PhysX.en.wikipedia.orgIt is one of only a few games given an ESRB 'Adults Only' (AO) rating for extreme violence rather than sexual content, alongside the cancelled Thrill Kill and the original cut of Manhunt 2.esrb.orgThe game was pulled from Steam Greenlight in December 2014, then reinstated days later after Valve co-founder Gabe Newell personally apologised to the developers.en.wikipedia.orgIts art direction is almost entirely monochromatic, reserving colour mainly for fire and blood.en.wikipedia.orgThe antagonist's dialogue was written by 'Herr Warcrimer', vocalist of the Polish black-metal band Infernal War.en.wikipedia.orgShortly before release, Twitch announced a ban on streaming ESRB 'Adults Only' games, which applied to Hatred.en.wikipedia.orgRead 4 more facts
Hollow Knight Silksong20256 factsGame page →The six-year wait (announced Feb 2019, released Sept 4, 2025) spawned an entire meme culture: fans wore 'clown makeup' after every newsless showcase, and 'we got X before Silksong' became a running genre of its own.knowyourmeme.comSilksong began as a $56,000 Kickstarter stretch goal — a playable-Hornet DLC — that grew 'too large and too unique' to remain DLC and became a full sequel set in the new kingdom of Pharloom.svg.comLaunch demand simultaneously crashed Steam, the Nintendo eShop and the PlayStation Store — with a Steam concurrent peak around 587,000 players.gamespot.comAt $19.99, it sold 7M+ copies in three months (not counting Game Pass) and swept year-end honors: TGA Best Action/Adventure, the Steam Awards GOTY and the Golden Joystick for Best Indie.gamedeveloper.comTeam Cherry cited Zelda II's sense of secrets and mystery as a guiding star — they wanted a world explorable 'divorced from the internet', where discovery still feels personal.gonintendo.comComposer Christopher Larkin returned with a 53-track score expanded with live strings and woodwinds — released the same day as the game and nominated for Best Score & Music at TGA 2025.christopherlarkin.bandcamp.comRead 4 more facts
Little Nightmares II20216 factsGame page →The ending twist reveals Mono, corrupted by the Signal Tower and betrayed by Six, grows up to become the Thin Man — the game's own antagonist, trapped in a time loop.en.wikipedia.orgIt was Tarsier Studios' last Little Nightmares game: Embracer bought the studio in December 2019 but Bandai Namco kept the IP, later handing Little Nightmares III to Supermassive Games.playstationlifestyle.netThe Pale City is warped by a humming broadcast from the distant Signal Tower, with TV-obsessed 'Viewer' enemies — a media-transmission corruption theme running through the whole game.tobiaslilja.comThe next-gen Enhanced Edition (August 2021) was ported by Supermassive Games — foreshadowing their later takeover of the franchise.en.wikipedia.orgDespite the 'II', the story is generally read as a prequel to the original game, switching the playable protagonist from Six to Mono — and neither child ever speaks; the game has no dialogue at all.en.wikipedia.orgTarsier's dev-stated influences are Studio Ghibli (Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke) and the 1995 film The City of Lost Children — not Tim Burton, despite frequent reviewer comparisons.hollywoodreporter.comRead 4 more facts
Population: One20206 factsGame page →The signature Vertical Combat System lets players climb any surface with the grip buttons and glide by holding a T-pose — the developers deliberately simplified Fortnite-style building to a single brick type to keep the focus on verticality.venturebeat.comBigBox VR rewrote large parts of Unity — building their own multithreaded physics, particle, rendering and networking layers — because off-the-shelf engines didn't parallelize well enough for an 18-player VR battle royale.venturebeat.comFacebook acquired BigBox VR on 11 June 2021 as its fifth VR studio purchase, driven by Population: One's status as one of the Quest platform's top earners.techcrunch.comAfter about 2.5 years as a paid title, the game went free-to-play on 9 March 2023, with legacy perks for players who had bought it.gamespot.comMatches put 18 players in six teams of three inside a vertical arena where you can drop onto enemies from above or ambush mid-glide.populationonevr.comIts biggest update ever, 'Phoenix Royale', arrived in June 2024 — roughly 3.5 years after launch — and the game has remained live since.mixed-news.comRead 4 more facts
Super Mario and the Sacred Bells20106 factsGame page →The kindly Toadsworth who sends Mario on his quest is a disguise — the true villain is Dimentio, the jester antagonist of Super Paper Mario (2007), tying the fan game's story directly to that Nintendo game.wiki.mfgg.netThe game lets players switch between three playable heroes — Mario, Luigi and Peach — which reviewers singled out as a rarity for a Mario platformer.wiki.mfgg.netSeven of the game's nine bosses are the Koopalings, and each is fought with its own unique mechanic instead of a shared pattern.wiki.mfgg.netIt was downloaded more than 28,500 times on Mario Fan Games Galaxy and holds an average community rating of about 8/10.mfgg.netThe whole game — 8 worlds and 27 levels — was built by a single creator, Firestyle, in GameMaker and distributed free as a 7.84 MB download.mfgg.netIt is included on MFGG's curated '30 Games on MFGG Worth Playing' list highlighting standout community fan games.wiki.mfgg.netRead 4 more facts
Tekken 720156 factsGame page →Tekken 7 is the first entry in the series built on Unreal Engine 4.en.wikipedia.orgIts story mode concludes the decades-long Mishima family blood feud between Heihachi and Kazuya Mishima.en.wikipedia.orgIt debuted in Japanese arcades on 18 March 2015, more than two years before its PS4, Xbox One and PC console release on 2 June 2017 — the first Tekken on PC.en.wikipedia.orgThe roster features guest fighters from other franchises: Akuma (Street Fighter), Geese Howard (Fatal Fury), Noctis Lucis Caelum (Final Fantasy XV) and Negan (The Walking Dead).en.wikipedia.orgIt introduced the comeback 'Rage Art' super-move mechanic to the series.en.wikipedia.orgTekken 7 passed 10 million copies sold by December 2022, becoming the best-selling game in the franchise.gameworldobserver.comRead 4 more facts
The Witcher IV6 factsGame page →The Witcher IV was revealed with the 'No Gods, Only Monsters' cinematic trailer at The Game Awards on 12 December 2024, recasting Ciri as the protagonist — a professional witcher on a monster hunt.press.cdprojektred.comIt is the first Witcher game built on Unreal Engine 5 instead of CDPR's in-house REDengine, under a multi-year strategic partnership with Epic Games announced in 2022.cdprojektred.comOn 3 June 2025 CDPR and Epic showed a Witcher IV UE5 tech demo running on a PlayStation 5 at 60fps — following Ciri and her horse Kelpie into the new region of Kovir and the port town of Valdrest, showcasing Nanite Foliage and MetaHuman crowds.cdprojekt.comCiri's English voice was recast: Ciara Berkeley voices her in The Witcher IV, replacing The Witcher 3's Jo Wyatt.redanianintelligence.comThe Witcher IV opens a planned new trilogy — CDPR aims to ship all three entries of the new saga within roughly six years, a cadence it says Unreal Engine 5 makes possible.en.wikipedia.orgAn analyst estimate puts its combined development and marketing budget near $779 million — which would make it one of the most expensive games ever made, roughly ten times The Witcher 3's ~$81M cost.80.lvRead 4 more facts
Transport Fever 320266 factsGame page →Transport Fever 3 is the first game in the series to launch on consoles (PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S); every prior entry was PC/Mac/Linux only.paradoxinteractive.comThe game was revealed in May 2025 as a self-published title, then in May 2026 Urban Games signed Paradox Interactive as publisher — while keeping 100% of the Transport Fever IP.transportfever3.comIt adds the day/night cycle that fans had requested since Transport Fever 2, but the developers made it purely cosmetic (a slider) rather than gameplay-affecting.en.wikipedia.orgHelicopters appear in the Transport Fever series for the first time in Transport Fever 3.paradoxinteractive.comThe fully-simulated world runs on Urban Games' own bespoke in-house engine, built up over roughly 15 years rather than a commercial engine like Unreal or Unity.gamesmarket.globalUrban Games' CEO said the project has a budget of nearly US$25 million and is largely self-financed by reinvesting earnings from the studio's earlier games.gamesmarket.globalRead 4 more facts
Wildermyth20216 factsGame page →Heroes are permanent people, not builds: they age across multi-generational campaigns, retire or die for good — and 'legacy' heroes can be recruited into future campaigns, keeping their scars, maimings and transformations.wildermyth.comStory events play out as illustrated comic-strip panels — the game keeps a 'Library of Plays' of every tale your party generated.en.wikipedia.orgCharacters can permanently transform — gaining a crow's head, crystalline gem limbs, wings or a fire arm — and those mutations carry into their legacy versions forever.fanbyte.comIt runs on a custom Java engine — Nate Austin: 'We did build our own engine, and it was a pretty questionable decision, but it made me a much better game programmer.'thousandscarsblog.wordpress.comThe tiny ~6-person studio beat the year's big RPGs to PC Gamer's Best RPG 2021 — 'I don't think any videogame has ever more successfully evoked the feel of a tabletop RPG.'pcgamer.comThe papercraft look is literal: 2D cut-out 'paper doll' characters posed inside 3D dioramas — even the ESRB rating text describes combat between 'paper-like figures'.esrb.orgRead 4 more facts
Witch It20206 factsGame page →Witch It was developed under the working title 'Witch Hunt' from September 2016 and renamed on 25 February 2017 to avoid confusion with other titles on the market.de.wikipedia.orgThe game spent about 3.5 years in Steam Early Access (May 2017 to October 2020), with its 1.0 launch timed to Halloween and adding remastered stages, new maps, music and cosmetics.savingcontent.comUnlike mod-based prop hunt, Witch It was built from scratch around the concept, with account progression, unlockable skills, 500+ props and over 1,000 cosmetics.keengamer.comA roughly 7-person indie team from Eilenstedt, Germany beat AAA competition to win Best German Game at the 2018 German Computer Game Awards — taking three awards and about EUR 185,000 in prize money that night.heise.deAfter Among Us blew up, the developers added an 'Imposturous' mode inspired by it, plus a Creative level-editor mode with Steam Workshop support.de.wikipedia.orgWitch It sold about 100,000 copies while still self-published in Early Access, which led Daedalic Entertainment to sign it in February 2018 as the publisher's first multiplayer games-as-a-service title.daedalic.prezly.comRead 4 more facts
Yet Another Zombie Defense20106 factsGame page →Built with Microsoft's XNA framework; after Microsoft abandoned XNA, the studio later rebuilt the game from scratch in Unity for its HD remaster.pcgamingwiki.comIt was the breakout hit for Poland's Awesome Games Studio (founded 2009 by Marcin Draszczuk) and its success helped fund the studio for years.awesomegamesstudio.comIt debuted on Xbox Live Indie Games in 2010, was later ported to iOS and the Kongregate browser platform in 2013, then arrived on Steam in 2014 as a free-to-play title.store.steampowered.comThe game blends two genres at once — a twin-stick zombie shooter with tower-defense base-building, where players fortify by day and survive undead waves by night, with up to 4-player co-op.store.steampowered.comThe soundtrack is by Kevin MacLeod, the royalty-free composer whose music appears in thousands of games and videos — the menu uses his 'Darkness Is Coming' and the wave theme is 'What You Want'.mobygames.comOn Xbox Live Indie Games the title was also known as 'Amazing Zombie Defense'; the original Steam version became permanently free around the 2017 launch of the paid HD remaster.mobygames.comRead 4 more facts
A-Train 9 Evolution20265 factsGame page →It is the 40th-anniversary title of the A-Train series, which began on Japanese PCs in December 1985.gematsu.comArtdink calls it "not a mere port" of 2010's A-Train 9 — the Switch 2 exclusive got a complete UI and rendering overhaul, with enhanced lighting, reflections and water.automaton-media.comA returning quarter-view mode with camera angles adjustable in 15° increments deliberately recreates the look of classic entries A-Train 3, 4 and 7.nintendoeverything.comThe 40th Anniversary Memorial Box includes a 56-page LOGiN & Weekly Famitsu commemorative magazine reprinting period coverage, a pin badge and two themed train tickets.famitsu.comThe series reached the West when Maxis published Take the A-Train III in the US simply as "A-Train" in 1992.en.wikipedia.orgRead 3 more facts
ABZU20165 factsGame page →ABZÛ was created by Matt Nava, the art director of Journey and Flower, who began pitching it before leaving thatgamecompany to found developer Giant Squid; development took three years with a team of thirteen.en.wikipedia.orgThe wordless underwater score was composed by Austin Wintory, the Grammy-nominated composer of Journey, and won the 2017 G.A.N.G. Best Original Soundtrack Album.en.wikipedia.orgTo render huge schools of fish, the team invented a procedural animation technique driven from the tail — far cheaper than skeletal rigs — letting thousands of fish swim on screen where earlier games managed only about a hundred.en.wikipedia.orgThe title comes from Sumerian myth — 'ab' (water) + 'zu' (to know) — meaning the primordial ocean of wisdom.en.wikipedia.orgBuilt in Unreal Engine 4, ABZÛ is a serene, dialogue-free diving experience widely seen as a spiritual kin to thatgamecompany's work.en.wikipedia.orgRead 3 more facts
Across the Obelisk20215 factsGame page →Across the Obelisk is a rarity in the deckbuilder genre: full 4-player online co-op, born from the Madrid team's 2019 wish for 'a deckbuilding-roguelite game where you could play co-op with your friends'.paradoxinteractive.comIt launched Paradox's entire 'Paradox Arc' indie-publishing initiative as its very first title (August 2022), and Paradox liked it enough to fully acquire the game a year later.venturebeat.comEach hero can equip a pet that auto-casts a card most turns — and obtaining the same pet twice upgrades it into a stronger 'Corrupted' version.ato.fandom.comRuns traverse a branching node map across four acts with distinct bosses, with towns hosting shops like the armory and pet shop between fights.store.steampowered.comThe content scale is unusually large for the genre: over 500 cards, 300+ items and 16 unlockable heroes across four classes.store.steampowered.comRead 3 more facts
Being a DIK20205 factsGame page →Although called a 'visual novel,' all characters and environments are 3D-rendered in DAZ Studio rather than hand-drawn, then assembled in the Ren'Py engine.beingadik.miraheze.orgIt is released episodically across 3 seasons / 12 episodes (2019–2026); on Steam and GOG it is sold as per-season DLC packs.being-a-dik.netIt is Dr PinkCake's second visual novel after Acting Lessons; the two share a loose universe through the Delta Iota Kappa fraternity.steamcommunity.comThe stylized title 'Being a ΔΙΚ' uses the Greek letters Delta-Iota-Kappa, naming the in-game fraternity.tvtropes.orgA fully Patreon-funded solo project, it became one of the platform's top adult creators, reportedly peaking around 19,900 patrons in March 2025.graphtreon.comRead 3 more facts
Devour20215 factsGame page →DEVOUR was built by just two developers — Joe Fender and Luke Fanning of British studio Straight Back Games (founded 2019) — as the studio's second game.en.wikipedia.orgIt's set in the same universe as the studio's earlier 2020 game The Watchers: the cult players fight is 'The Watchers of Azazel', and some databases even index it as 'The Watchers: DEVOUR'.en.wikipedia.orgThe premise: in June 2006 California, cult leader Anna Puerta performs a forbidden ritual to control the goat-demon Azazel but is possessed — her four trusted cultists must burn sacrificial goats to stop her.devour.fandom.comAll post-launch maps have been free: The Asylum, The Inn, The Town, The Slaughterhouse, The Manor and The Carnival joined the launch map The Farmhouse, each a ~30-60 minute co-op run.devour.fandom.comFor a ~$5 game it ships unusually deep features: full VR support, positional voice chat, randomized layouts, Nightmare mode, a Cult Rank progression system and 131 Steam achievements — and it became a streamer staple.store.steampowered.comRead 3 more facts
EA Sports UFC 620265 factsGame page →EA Sports UFC 6 is the sixth mainline entry in the UFC series, released June 19, 2026 on PS5 and Xbox Series, built on the Frostbite engine.en.wikipedia.orgIt debuts "Real-Time Contact" — the franchise's first use of Frostbite-driven ragdoll physics, replacing pre-authored knockdown animations so finishes animate uniquely each time.techtimes.comIt adds crossplay for the first time in franchise history, letting PS5 and Xbox Series players compete online.news.ea.comAlex Pereira is on the Standard Edition cover and Max Holloway on the Ultimate Edition cover; the UFC broadcast trio Jon Anik, Daniel Cormier and Joe Rogan provide commentary.ir.ea.comNew content includes "Flow State" (30 fighter-specific systems), "Markerless Capture" animation tech, a story prologue ("The Legacy"), and "Hall of Legends" mode; it launched to positive reviews (Metacritic ~83).news.ea.comRead 3 more facts
Emily is Away <320215 factsGame page →The entire game is framed inside 'Facenook', a pixel-perfect parody of 2008-era Facebook — you build a profile, get wall posts and tagged photos, and live out senior year through the feed.en.wikipedia.orgIts fake video site 'YouToob' embeds real 2008 music — developer Kyle Seeley actually hosts working period-authentic video pages on the game's own domain, like 3OH!3's 'Don't Trust Me'.dualshockers.comUnlike earlier entries (and Telltale-style games), <3 deliberately removes explicit '...will remember that' choice indicators — you never know which chat choices mattered.dualshockers.comThe whole series began as Seeley's 'love letter to AOL Instant Messenger' — the first Emily is Away (2015) was released completely free, and he has remained a one-person studio across all three games.itch.ioThe Steam page features endorsement quotes from Jacksepticeye and Markiplier, two of YouTube's biggest gaming creators.store.steampowered.comRead 3 more facts
Empulse20265 factsGame page →Empulse is a brand-new IP from 1047 Games (the Splitgate studio) — NOT Splitgate 2; the studio discontinued Splitgate 2 (relaunched as "Splitgate: Arena Reloaded" in December 2025) and pivoted to Empulse.x.comIt is a paid ($19.99) 6v6 first-person "movement shooter" and a spiritual homage to Titanfall 2, set in the vertical city of Freehold with wall-running, grapples and Holojump pads.store.steampowered.comTwo pilotable mechs 3D-print at mid-map as contested objectives (one per team) — an objective-based twist on Titanfall's earned Titans, rather than kill-streak rewards.gamesbeat.com"P.A.I.N.T." bombs come in variants (Jump, Speed, Explosive, Heal, Sticky) that alter surfaces and movement — a Portal-flavored traversal twist echoing the studio's Splitgate roots.store.steampowered.comIt launched into Early Access on June 24, 2026 with deliberately NO in-game store, battle pass or microtransactions — cosmetics are earned through play, a trust-building move after Splitgate 2's monetization backlash.gamesbeat.comRead 3 more facts
Fears to Fathom: Scratch Creek20265 factsGame page →Scratch Creek is the first co-op entry in the Fears to Fathom series — an exclusively online 2-player experience billed as the "Fears to Fathom [Together]" branch, effectively opening the series' second season after Woodbury Getaway closed season one.store.steampowered.comSeries creator Rayll (Mukul Negi, born in Delhi in 2001) built the early episodes entirely solo from his bedroom as a teenager — design, programming and art.inverse.comThe franchise dramatizes allegedly real survival stories submitted by players, rendered in a deliberate VHS/liminal aesthetic — the horror comes from people's traumatic experiences, not monsters.sportskeeda.comCo-op couple Tessa Langley and Marcus Reed text NPCs, message each other in-game and talk over proximity voice chat — the series' signature phone mechanics rebuilt for two players.store.steampowered.comThe series' first episode, Home Alone (2021), is permanently free — the on-ramp that seeded the franchise's audience.store.steampowered.comRead 3 more facts
FIFA World Cup: Launch Edition20265 factsGame page →FIFA World Cup: Launch Edition is a Netflix-exclusive casual football game — the first FIFA-series game since FIFA split from EA Sports — released June 11, 2026 to coincide with the opening day of the 2026 FIFA World Cup.en.wikipedia.orgIt features all 48 national teams of the 2026 World Cup, all 16 host stadiums and 1,200+ licensed players, with single-player and local multiplayer for up to four.en.wikipedia.orgPlayers control matches using a mobile phone connected to a TV via QR-code pairing; the game is bundled free with a Netflix subscription.en.wikipedia.orgIt was developed by Refactor Games and published by Delphi Interactive under license from FIFA — part of FIFA's post-EA strategy of licensing its brand across many separate games rather than one exclusive publisher.en.wikipedia.orgIt was poorly received (VGC scored it 1/5), with reviewers comparing its visuals and controls unfavorably to PS1/PS2-era football games — the licensed soundtrack being the main bright spot.videogameschronicle.comRead 3 more facts
Frog Sqwad20265 factsGame page →Frog Sqwad is an up-to-8-player co-op "extraction" puzzle-platformer where frogs storm the Sewers, gather food and extract back to the Swamp to feed the ravenous Swamp King under daily food quotas.store.steampowered.comThe signature mechanic is a sticky tongue used to swing from pipes, drag oversized food, solve physics puzzles and catapult teammates.panicstations.comEating enough food grows you into a "Megafrog"; taking damage makes you vomit food, and being hit empty-stomached reduces you to helpless "frogspawn" that needs a teammate rescue.panicstations.comIt has built-in proximity voice chat, with each frog's mouth animating in sync with the player's real speech.store.steampowered.comIt is the debut game of Panic Stations, a UK studio of ex-Fall Guys developers under the Skeleton Crew umbrella; revealed December 10, 2025 at Day of the Devs and released June 11, 2026 (day one on Xbox Game Pass).news.xbox.comRead 3 more facts
Garbage20215 factsGame page →The loop is a darkly comic management sim: dumpster-dive for hundreds of craftable items, build up a camp, feed, shower and train your homeless fighters, then win auto-battler brawls across 5 city districts and 30+ areas.nanogamingnews.comThe soundtrack is a deliberate 90s boom-bap / lo-fi hip-hop 'beat-tape' (32 tracks), played diegetically through the boombox at your in-game camp — conceived early in development.store.steampowered.comA free full-featured prologue, 'Garbage: Hobo Prophecy', launched four months before the paid game — containing every core mechanic up to the first boss fight.store.steampowered.comIt comes from a three-person Lithuanian team in Vilnius, who later gave a game-dev meetup talk about it titled 'Garbage Game Development: Making it without Faking it'.youtube.comReviewers couldn't resist the pun: New Game Network's 61/100 verdict read 'Garbage is not garbage, but it also has a way to go'.opencritic.comRead 3 more facts
H1Z120155 factsGame page →H1Z1 launched into Steam Early Access on 15 January 2015 and sold over a million copies within two months.pcgamer.comAn early proto-battle-royale, H1Z1 helped popularize the genre; Brendan 'PlayerUnknown' Greene — later the creator of PUBG — was recruited to help build its battle-royale mode, and developers said 'there wouldn't be PUBG without H1Z1.'en.wikipedia.orgIn February 2016 Daybreak split H1Z1 into two standalone games: H1Z1: Just Survive (co-op survival) and H1Z1: King of the Kill (battle royale).en.wikipedia.orgThe battle-royale line went free-to-play in 2018 and was renamed Z1 Battle Royale in March 2019; Just Survive was shut down on 24 October 2018.en.wikipedia.orgIt was built on Daybreak's proprietary ForgeLight engine, also used in PlanetSide 2.en.wikipedia.orgRead 3 more facts
Heroes of the Storm20155 factsGame page →A Blizzard crossover MOBA: heroes are drawn from Warcraft, StarCraft, Diablo, Overwatch and even The Lost Vikings, battling across a shared universe called the Nexus.en.wikipedia.orgIt evolved from a StarCraft II custom map called 'Blizzard DOTA' shown at BlizzCon 2010, was rebooted as 'Blizzard All-Stars', then renamed Heroes of the Storm in 2013 and launched standalone on 2 June 2015.en.wikipedia.orgIts design breaks from genre norms: shared team experience (no individual last-hitting), no item shop, and a rotating roster of themed 'battleground' maps with map-specific objectives.en.wikipedia.orgIn December 2018 Blizzard moved developers off the game and cancelled its esports leagues (the Heroes Global Championship), shifting it to long-term support.en.wikipedia.orgA 2012 trademark agreement with Valve over the 'DotA' name pushed Blizzard to drop the 'Blizzard DOTA' title.en.wikipedia.orgRead 3 more facts
Holdfast: Nations At War20205 factsGame page →Holdfast: Nations At War supports over 150 players on a single server (roughly 75 vs 75) with positional proximity voice chat.store.playstation.comIt was developed by Anvil Game Studios, founded by former developers of the Mount & Blade: Warband – Napoleonic Wars mod/DLC.gamepressure.comThe game spans two historical eras — the Napoleonic era and World War I (the latter added via the Frontlines WW1 content).store.steampowered.comIt launched in Steam Early Access in 2017, reached full release on 5 March 2020, and came to PS5 and Xbox Series on 9 July 2025 with crossplay.gamerant.comIt features multiple historical factions across dozens of classes and 70+ land and naval maps.store.playstation.comRead 3 more facts
Hydroneer20205 factsGame page →Hydroneer was built almost single-handedly by solo developer Max Hayon under the studio Foulball Hangover.foulballhangover.comEpic Games featured Max Hayon in an official 'Inside Unreal: Creating Hydroneer' developer livestream.forums.unrealengine.comIt launched on 8 May 2020, then was overhauled into 'Hydroneer 2.0' on its two-year anniversary (8 May 2022), adding multiplayer, vehicles and a full code rework.pcgamer.comA sleeper hit, it has sold over 1 million copies on Steam.gematsu.comIts console versions (PS5 and Xbox Series X|S) arrived exactly six years after the original launch, on 8 May 2026.gematsu.comRead 3 more facts
Iron Danger20205 factsGame page →The game is built on the Kalevala, Finland's 19th-century national epic: heroine Kipuna and the antagonist Louhi are drawn directly from Kalevala mythology.en.wikipedia.orgIts signature 'trance mode' time-rewind mechanic lets you rewind along a heartbeat timeline and retry any moment, deliberately turning save-scumming into a core puzzle-combat mechanic.en.wikipedia.orgYou control a two-character party — Kipuna, granted time powers after dying, paired with a Kalevala warrior — a 'time-twin' design that pairs a rewinder with a fighter.en.wikipedia.orgIt won Creative Achievement of the Year at the Finnish Game Awards 2021.neogames.fiIt was developed by Helsinki-based Action Squad Studios, growing from director Jussi-Petteri Kemppainen's concept 'Shard of Time.'jkemppainen.comRead 3 more facts
Just Cause Collection Bundle20205 factsGame page →The Just Cause Collection bundles multiple entries of the Just Cause franchise by Swedish studio Avalanche Studios; the series debuted in 2006.en.wikipedia.orgThe games were built on Avalanche's proprietary technology — the Avalanche Engine (Just Cause 1 and 2) and its successor, the Apex Engine (Just Cause 3 and 4).justcause.fandom.comThe series stars agent Rico Rodriguez, who topples dictatorships across huge open worlds using a signature grappling hook and parachute/wingsuit.en.wikipedia.orgJust Cause 2's open world spans roughly 1,000 square kilometres (about 400 square miles).en.wikipedia.orgThe franchise moved from original publisher Eidos Interactive to Square Enix after Square Enix's 2009 acquisition of Eidos.en.wikipedia.orgRead 3 more facts
Lemon Cake20215 factsGame page →The premise is restoring an abandoned, haunted bakery with the help of a friendly resident ghost who assists with repairs and service.store.steampowered.comIt runs a full farm-to-table loop: a greenhouse for growing fruit plus a cow and chickens feed the grow-harvest-bake-serve cycle.eloisegames.itch.ioLemon Cake was made entirely by one person — Canadian solo developer Éloïse Laroche of Cozy Bee Games, who shipped four cozy titles in about three years and treats game development 'with a very business-like approach' as her full-time job.soedesco.comOriginally PC-only (February 2021), it was announced for consoles at Wholesome Direct 2022 and reached PlayStation, Xbox and Switch via publisher SOEDESCO in September 2022, including a physical edition.soedesco.comPlayers can build an in-game cat cafe as part of the bakery — one of the game's most-loved cozy features.store.steampowered.comRead 3 more facts
Maseylia: Echoes of the Past20265 factsGame page →Maseylia: Echoes of the Past is a "true 3D Metroidvania" — a full 3D reimagining of the exploration-platformer formula — released June 19, 2026 on PC/Linux (console versions to follow).store.steampowered.comIt is the debut game of Sol Brothers, an independent French studio, developed over 4+ years as a passion project by a small family-based team led by Victor Abresol.en.wikipedia.orgDirector Victor Abresol cited Metroid Prime and Hollow Knight as key influences, with art inspiration from the comic artist Moebius (Jean Giraud).actugaming.netTraversal is built around abilities like a double jump, a 360-degree air dash, a grapple and underwater movement, unlocking new paths across roughly six biomes.store.steampowered.comThe demo earned 90%+ positive Steam reviews and the game gathered 15,000+ wishlists before launch.actugaming.netRead 3 more facts
Meccha Chameleon: The Amazing Digital Circus20265 factsGame page →Despite the name, Meccha Chameleon has no connection to The Amazing Digital Circus — it is an original 2026 Japanese indie 'camouflage-painting' hide-and-seek party game that became a viral hit. This map is a fan mashup of two separate 2026 phenomena.en.wikipedia.orgIt is one of at least two Amazing Digital Circus 'Tent' maps on Meccha Chameleon's Steam Workshop; a rival version by juunohs has over 560,000 subscribers.steamcommunity.comThe Tent is The Amazing Digital Circus's central hub — one of three locations Caine showed Pomni — housing the cast's living quarters and 'The Stage.'glitchproductions.fandom.comCreator RT built the map from a Sketchfab environment model (credited to Jacxx2) plus community-made character models rather than original assets.steamcommunity.comThe Amazing Digital Circus is an animated web series by Glitch Productions; its second episode, 'Candy Carrier Chaos!', is set aboard a candy ship — there is no in-show 'Meccha Chameleon' arcade.tadc.fandom.comRead 3 more facts
Minecraft: Java Edition20115 factsGame page →Minecraft was created by Swedish programmer Markus 'Notch' Persson, who first released a public version in May 2009; Jens 'Jeb' Bergensten took over as lead designer around the 1.0 release.en.wikipedia.orgThe full 1.0 version launched on 18 November 2011 at MineCon, for Windows, macOS and Linux.en.wikipedia.orgIt is the best-selling video game of all time, having sold over 300 million copies across all editions.en.wikipedia.orgMicrosoft acquired Mojang for US$2.5 billion in a deal completed in November 2014.en.wikipedia.orgThe original soundtrack was composed by German musician Daniel Rosenfeld, known as C418.en.wikipedia.orgRead 3 more facts
Monopoly: Star Wars Heroes vs. Villains20265 factsGame page →Monopoly: Star Wars Heroes vs. Villains is a team-based reimagining of Monopoly where players build a roster of Star Wars heroes or villains, each with distinct abilities — e.g. Dedra Meero buys properties at half price.starwars.comIt features 28 characters and 22 Star Wars locations, with competitive 2v2 and 3v3 modes plus online and local couch co-op for 1–6 players.en.wikipedia.orgThe Monopoly IP is owned by Hasbro and Star Wars by Lucasfilm; the game is published by Ubisoft and released June 30, 2026.news.ubisoft.comThe voice cast includes several long-running Star Wars performers, such as Anthony Daniels (C-3PO), Sam Witwer (Palpatine/Darth Maul) and Ashley Eckstein (Ahsoka Tano).en.wikipedia.orgIt launched to a mixed reception (Metacritic ~70) and is available across PS5, Xbox Series, Switch 1/2 and PC with cross-platform multiplayer.metacritic.comRead 3 more facts
Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord20205 factsGame page →Its development ran roughly eight years — announced in September 2012, with the 1.0 full release on 25 October 2022.en.wikipedia.orgIts Early Access launch on 30 March 2020 was one of the biggest Steam launches of that year, peaking near 250,000 concurrent players.en.wikipedia.orgIt is set roughly 200 years before Mount & Blade: Warband, in the same world of Calradia.en.wikipedia.orgIt sold 3 million copies by June 2022 while still in Early Access, and surpassed 5 million units by March 2025.gematsu.comIt continues the series' extensive first-party mod support, building on Warband's large modding legacy.en.wikipedia.orgRead 3 more facts
Museum of Other Realities20205 factsGame page →Museum of Other Realities launched into paid Early Access on 28 June 2019 at around US$20 and exited Early Access with its 1.0 release on 26 February 2020.roadtovr.comFormerly a $20 paid app, it was made free-to-keep-forever on Steam and Viveport in June 2021 and is now free-to-play.roadtovr.comIt is built in Unity and sustained by Patreon patronage that covers multiplayer servers, engine updates, hosting and archiving after its paywall was removed.museumor.comIt served as an official virtual VR venue and partner for major festivals including Cannes XR (Marche du Film), Tribeca and Kaleidoscope.marchedufilm.comIt curates works from VR artists such as Isaac 'Cabbibo' Cohen, Sutu, Dani Bittman, Kris Pilcher, Ana Duncan and Sean Tann rather than featuring a traditional cast.museumor.comRead 3 more facts
Pavlov VR20175 factsGame page →Pavlov is universally known as 'Counter-Strike in VR' — its flagship Search & Destroy mode directly mirrors CS bomb-defusal, and it's frequently described as the most popular multiplayer PC VR shooter.tvtropes.orgIt was a PlayStation VR2 launch title (February 2023) and topped Sony's official PSVR2 download charts for all of 2023 in both Europe and North America.uploadvr.comThe free Quest version 'Pavlov Shack' lived on App Lab from March 2021 — hitting ~3,000 concurrent players at launch — before becoming a paid Meta Quest Store release in November 2023.uploadvr.comIts deep modding scene runs on Steam Workshop and mod.io, with community maps adding whole modes — the fan-favourite TTT map 'Village' is modeled on Kakariko Village from The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.uploadvr.comAfter nearly eight years in Early Access (from February 2017), it quietly hit 1.0 on 4 December 2024 with no official announcement post.vrnewstoday.comRead 3 more facts
Picontier20205 factsGame page →Picontier is part of a shared 'Skipmore multiverse': story writer KIMURA says all Skipmore games (Fairune, Kamiko, Transiruby, Picontier) take place in one universe at different periods, with recurring characters like Aila and the Dramos creatures.steamcommunity.comThe game spent roughly six years in development, from its ~2016 announcement through Early Access (November 2020) to full release in 2022.kan-kikuchi.hatenablog.comThe official soundtrack includes a bonus track titled 'Otherworld Kamiko', an explicit musical nod to Skipmore's earlier game Kamiko.youtube.comProgrammer Kan Kikuchi describes himself pre-Picontier as a developer with 'no technical skill, no hit game' who had written over 1,000 Unity blog articles; Picontier became his breakout collaboration with Skipmore.note.comPS4 and Nintendo 3DS versions were originally hoped for, but the game ultimately shipped only on PC and Switch (June 2023).mypotatogames.comRead 3 more facts
Pictonico!20265 factsGame page →Pictonico! turns your photos into WarioWare-style microgames — snap a picture and the app builds ~80 touchscreen games around faces and objects in it.macrumors.comIt is co-developed by Intelligent Systems, the WarioWare studio — the microgame DNA is literal.en.wikipedia.orgIt is reportedly Nintendo's first original, non-franchise mobile game since Dragalia Lost in 2018.nintendoeverything.comPhotos never leave the device — the app needs internet only for first launch, language changes and volume purchases.macrumors.comNintendo revealed it through its own Nintendo Today! app rather than a Nintendo Direct; Nintendo Life called it "an effective translation of the WarioWare series onto a platform it was born to be on."nintendolife.comRead 3 more facts
Rhythm Heaven Groove20265 factsGame page →Rhythm Heaven Groove is the first mainline entry in the series in over a decade, following Rhythm Heaven Megamix (2015).en.wikipedia.orgSeries creator Tsunku♂ composed the soundtrack without his singing voice, having had his larynx removed following laryngeal cancer treatment in 2015.nintendoinquirer.comIt was co-developed by Nintendo EPD and TNX — Tsunku♂'s own music/entertainment company.en.wikipedia.orgIt includes 80+ single-player rhythm minigames and 30+ multiplayer minigames, plus an unlockable RPG-style "Beatspell" mode.nintendo.comReleased July 2, 2026 as a Switch title (fully playable on Switch 2 via backward compatibility), Wikipedia flags it as presumed to be the last Nintendo-created game published on the original Switch.en.wikipedia.orgRead 3 more facts
Siege Survival: Gloria Victis20215 factsGame page →You never swing a sword: by day you craft and manage supplies for the last defenders on the walls; by night you send an unarmed civilian scavenging through the enemy-occupied city — the whole siege is fought from the supply line.store.steampowered.comThe This War of Mine influence is officially acknowledged — a developer wrote on the Steam forums that it 'was an inspiration to make Siege Survival', with the team adding new layers to the formula.steamcommunity.comThe soundtrack is by Marcin Przybyłowicz — The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077's composer — together with Magdalena Urbańska.store.steampowered.comThe spin-off outlived its parent: the Gloria Victis MMO and studio Black Eye Games shut down on Halloween 2023 after barely a year of full release, but Siege Survival remains on sale — and Gamigo has since picked up the MMO license for a relaunch.pcgamer.comIt ships with a built-in level editor and Steam Workshop support — unusual for a narrative survival-management game — plus a free standalone Prologue released nine months before launch.store.steampowered.comRead 3 more facts
