10 best indie games showcased at Summer Game Fest 2024

The very best indie games that got showcased at Summer Game Fest 2024

Windblown / Motion Twin

While there are plenty of streams that showcase the biggest games this industry has to offer, like the Summer Game Fest main stream, and the Xbox Games Showcase, there are also plenty of places where smaller developers can showcase their work. The Wholesome Direct, PC Gaming Show, Day of the Devs, and more were stuffed with an incredible range of genres, styles, and concepts for games coming in the next year or so.

With so much to sift through, we’ve picked out the ten games that stood out to us the most, so you can fill up your wishlist.

Sumerian Six

With colorful characters and a fun heist vibe, Sumerian Six will test your isometric tactical prowess, as you have to stealthily infiltrate a variety of maps in real-time. The world has some intriguing elements too, with supernatural, technological, and even magical elements all coexisting side by side. Sumerian Six is set for a 2024 release.

Star Birds

You may know Kurzgesagt as an educational YouTube channel, and it’s a long-running joke/wish among their fanbase that they should make a game, and now they finally have. Using their unique visual style, Star Birds is a factory management game where you farm resources across asteroids out in space, and will no doubt have some lessons to teach us along the way about the nature of the universe. It’s planned to be released in 2025.

Fumes

Some indie games are a mad ball of chaos and carnage, and if that’s what you like, Fumes looks like the perfect game for you. Get a scrappy car, attach a load of guns to it, and send it out into a battlefield full of mayhem and destruction. The racing engine looks to be light and arcadey, so you can expect the action to feel great. Fumes does not currently have an announced release date, but you can download a demo right now.

Star Trucker

Star Trucker is the kind of game that will sound like the best thing ever to a very specific kind of person, and it just so happens that I’m exactly that kind of person. This game takes the trucking sim genre and puts it among the stars, giving you a galaxy to explore, and a space-age truck to maintain, with all the complexities that come with it. Star Trucker releases on September 3, 2024.

Screenbound

This title is slowly gathering a large amount of hype and it’s easy to see why. This is a 3D and 2D platformer at the same time, where you must use the screen of your off-brand Game Boy to navigate a world, while simultaneously navigating it in 3D, but the majority of your screen is covered by the Game Boy. It does not yet have an announced release date.

Dungeons of Hinterberg

In the picturesque alpine village of Hinterberg, there lies dungeons full of monsters, and it’s your job to dive down there and destroy them all. This game’s art style is immediately gripping, and it looks so good in action, as you play with fast-paced melee combat and magical elements. The game is set for release on July 18, 2024, and you can download a demo now.

Crescent County

This game’s pastel pallet may make you think it’s a cozy game, and in some ways it is, but there’s plenty of action to be had as well. You have a suped-up flying broom that can go at incredible speeds, and it’s your job to help people out with things like courier services and sheep herding. Yet, if you want to go off the rails, you can become a speed demon and race other…drivers? flyers? broomers? Point is, you can race. Crescent County currently has no release date announced.

Copa City

Copa City is a weird concept that immediately grabbed me. It’s a city planning/management game, but it specifically focuses on building infrastructure and managing the flow of people as they all make their way to a football match for the ages. You have to ensure that the tens of thousands of people traveling to the stadium can get there and get home safely, as well as manage the arrival of the teams and the staff needed on the day. It’s set for a 2025 release.

Windblown

Hearing that this is the next game by the Dead Cells team is all you need to know to get hype about this one. Stepping into 3D for the first time, Windblown looks to have pulse-pounding combat, clever precision platforming, and a great visual style to hook you in for countless hours. It’s set to release in early access later this year.

Tactical Breach Wizards

While this game was announced a long time ago, we’re finally getting signs of life from it as Tom Francis, developer of Heat Signature and Gunpoint works his magic once more. This is a turn-based tactics game where you play as a wizard SWAT team. Need we say more? The game is set for release on August 22, 2024, and you download a demo right now.