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Day of the Devs shows Grindstone follow-up, new Blumhouse Games, and more

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Summer Gaming Marathon
This story is part of our Summer Gaming Marathon series.

A screenshot of While Waiting
Optillusion Games / Optillusion Games

Day of the Devs, a nonprofit games showcase that highlights hidden gem indie games, returned as usual this year with a slew of games. This year’s show included new looks at games from indie developers you might already be familiar with, including Grindstone’s Capybara Games, Furi’s The Game Bakers, Spelunky’s Mossmouth, and Road 96’s DigixArt.

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Capybara Games’ latest title, Battle Vision Network, was the first world premiere of the show. It looks like a competitive sci-fi spiritual successor to Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes, and it will emphasize multiplayer and a live service component that will evolve the game’s story seasonally. It launches on PC, Netflix, and game consoles in October. Netflix will also launch a Cozy Grove sequel called Camp Spirit.

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If Jusant and Surmount got you hooked on climbing games, then The Game Bakers’ Cairn should appeal to you. it’s an intricate and more realistic take on the mountain-climbing game idea with some survival game elements that was revealed during the main Summer Game Fest show and spotlighted again here. DigixArt’s Tides of Tomorrow, which closed the show, looks like an ambitious narrative adventure game with multiplayer actions. The choices players make can impact what happens in their friend’s world.

Blumhouse even showed up and revealed the first game under its new game-publishing label: a retro-style survival horror game called Fear the Spotlight. Some other indies got release dates as well. Simpler Times, a cozy, yet emotional game about moving, got a surprise release today. Meanwhile, the sliding-tile puzzle-adventure game Arranger: A Role-Puzzling Adventure launches on July 25, and UFO 50, a collection of 50 smaller retro-style games from Spelunky developer Mossmouth, will finally arrive on September 18.

Games from less well-known developers are also worth mentioning. Highlights include the Game Boy-like pet-delivery game Petal Runner, the minimalist and intricately animated music adventure game Koira, a hilarious Untitled Goose Game-like title about waiting around called While Waiting, and Screenbound, a game where players move around a 3D environment and play a 2D game on a Game Boy-like device at the same time. Of course, that only scratches the surface of what showed up at Day of the Devs 2024.

Here’s a full list of the games that appeared and the developers that are making them.

  • A Little to the Left: Seeing Stars (Max Inferno)
  • After Love EP (Pikselnesia)
  • Arranger: A Role-Puzzling Adventure (Furniture & Mattress)
  • Battle Vision Network (Capybara Games)
  • Building Relationships (Tan Ant Games)
  • Cairn (The Game Bakers)
  • Cozy Grove 2 (Spry Fox)
  • Fear the Spotlight (Cozy Game Pals)
  • Hello Again (Soup Island)
  • Karma: The Dark World (Pollard Studio)
  • Koira (Studio Tolima)
  • Petal Runner (Nano Park)
  • Phoenix Springs (Calligram Studio)
  • Psychroma (Rocket Adrift)
  • Screenbound (Crescent Moon Games and Those Dang Games)
  • Simpler Times (Stoneskip)
  • Tides of Tomorrow (DigixArt)
  • Tom the Postgirl (Oopsie Daisies Studio)
  • UFO50 (Mossmouth)
  • While Waiting (Optillusion Games)
  • Zoochosis (Clapperheads)
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Tomas Franzese
Tomas Franzese
Former Digital Trends Contributor
A former Gaming Staff Writer at Digital Trends, Tomas Franzese now reports on and reviews the latest releases and exciting…
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