Triple-i Initiative Showcase Recap: 11 Games You Need to Know & All the Announcements

Last week, we got a great look at 40 indie games from around the world during the third instalment of the triple-i initiative game showcase. It was a fun livestream fully dedicated to independent games, featuring no hosts, breaks, or brands, and just pure indie goodness, essentially. I had fun watching the stream, and was more than just excited for some of the announcements made.

The triple-i initiative is an annual showcase put together by Evil Empire (the developers behind Dead Cells and the upcoming Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse) in an attempt to spotlight indie game releases. It was created three years ago and has already featured many exciting news items, including the official reveal of Slay the Spire 2.

This year’s showcase proved similarly exciting with various brand new announcements, including a new DLC coming to Risk of Rain 2, various sequels getting announced (like Graveyard Keeper 2 and Don’t Starve Elsewhere), as well as brand-new looks at the latest game by the 1000xResist developer!

Here are my highlights.

Don’t Starve Elsewhere

Klei Entertainment revealed their latest entry into the Don’t Starve series, featuring a completely new, uncompromised survival experience that doesn’t just build upon the prior games but instead really elevates the gameplay. Just like its predecessors, it’s a survival-crafting game where you navigate a treacherous world full of darkness, ravenous beasts, and other dangers… and you’ll do your outmust to not starve.

It’s a great series of games, and I never would have thought that I’d be this excited to just see a new dimension added to Don’t Starve Elsewhere. Sadly, Klei Entertainment hasn’t shared a release window just yet but the trailer looks so good.

Graveyard Keeper 2

Published by tinyBuild and developed by Lazy Bear Games comes a sequel to Graveyard Keeper, one of my favourite farming sims of all time. More graves, a bigger city, and the same questionable morals await you as you dig graves, bury bodies, renovate a church, and slowly try to find a foothold in a dark, medieval setting. This time, however, the game also features even more automation as well as city defence mechanics, as you have to deal with the surge in zombies roaming the area. I wonder where those might have come from?

I really enjoyed the grimmer tone of Graveyard Keeper 1, and as a fan of Lazy Bear Games, I’m excited to see what they’re cooking up over here.

Neverway

Neverway has been on my radar for quite some time now and is finally getting released in October this year. It’s a game co-created by Pedro Medeiros, the pixel artist of Celeste and Towerfall, with music by the phenomenal artist behind FEZ’ and Hyper Light Drifter’s soundtracks, Disasterpeace. After quitting your job, you start over on a farm and become the immortal herald of a dead god.

It’s a very eclectic mixture of horror elements and farming sim gameplay that comes together in this weird and rather unique experience, judging by the trailer, and I can’t wait to get my hands on it.

Prove You’re Human

This game is an upcoming first-person narrative adventure, coming from the 1000xResist developers over at sunset visitor 斜陽過客. Prove You’re Human tasks you with convincing an AI that it isn’t human. Inside of the story, the main character has been split in two, with you playing as a digital copy of a person paid to test a corporate product… but the product itself, Mesa, is convinced that it is as human as you are, if not even more.

Honestly, the trailer looked wild, and the idea of roaming a virtual world to CAPTCHA the environment seems kinda fun and unnaturally comfortable. The whole premise reminded me a lot of Dick’s “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?”, so I’m pretty stoked about this. I’m especially excited about the prospect of the Slay the Princess developers over at Black Tabby Games publishing this new release by the very talented collective of artists, filmmakers, musicians, and more at sunset visitor 斜陽過客. It sounds like a match made in heaven, honestly.

Away Team: Oxygen Not Included

Klei Entertainment didn’t only work on a new Don’t Starve game in the past years, it seems, but instead also are releasing a new Oxygen Not Included game, titled “Away Team“, where you’re directly in control of a duplicant that’s been shipped off to a lone asteroid. Away Team is obviously a very different experience from ONI since you have direct control of a singular dupe and have to do everything yourself, from generating power to exploring, digging, and ranching… or with a friend!

I’m very excited about how this is looking, and I can’t wait to give it a try. While there isn’t a release date for this one either, a single-player closed beta has been announced!

Far Far West

Suit up as a lone sharpshooter or lasso up to three friends to take on hordes of undead nightmares in Evil Raptor’s and Fireshine Games’ PVE Looter Shooter Far Far West. The new trailer showed a whole slew of cool new enemies, insane fights, and I just fell in love with the aesthetic. I mean, robot cowboys against hordes of undead enemies? Hell yeah.

The game is set to release in Early Access on April 28th this year, so less than two weeks from now, and I’m so stoked to give this a try.

Risk of Rain 2: Hallowed Concepts

It feels like Risk of Rain 2’s last DLC, Alloyed Collective, only released recently, but somehow, a whole half year has passed in the blink of an eye and Gearbox is announcing a new DLC for one of my favourite roguelikes of all time! Hallowed Concepts is the name of this whole new expansion to the world of Petrichor V which adds ghastly new regions, various enemies, items and bosses, as well as a very welcome addition to the lore of N’Kuhana and two more characters!

As a lore nerd and as a huge fan of the prior DLCs and the game as a whole, I’m so stoked for this release. While Gearbox said that it will release “soon”, they didn’t mention an exact date just yet.

Alabaster Dawn

Over at Radical Fish Games, the developers presented us not just with a new look at their new action-adventure, but also their plans for the Early Access phase that the game is entering on May 7th. Alabaster Dawn builds upon the best aspects of CrossCode and expands it with an evolving world, even prettier art, more involved combat, and just all the things I’d expect from a modern RPG.

The demo was amongst my highlights during Steam Next Fest earlier this year, and I frankly can’t wait to dive into it myself on May 7th.

Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse

Developed by the Dead Cells developers Evil Empire alongside KONAMI, Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse is an all-new entry into the well-loved Castlevania series that has inspired so, so, so many games out there. The new trailer shows all-new and very excited gameplay with dev commentary. It feels very much like Dead Cells but placed into a more traditional 2D metroidvania format, and I’m honestly just so hyped for this release.

The game is still set for a 2026 release.

Crop

Carbonara Games and 11bit studios come together for this new and very grim farming sim. Crop is described as a dark farming-thriller where your life depends on your harvest. Kidnapped to a dying farmstead, you have to dig, plant and water crops while persevering against the decay… while also revealing the secrets of your kidnappers and finding a way out of his dreaded cycle.

I mentioned it before but I like farming sims with darker settings. Alongside Graveyard Keeper and the more comfortable-looking Grimshire, I reckon that Crop could very much be up right up my alley!

Long Gone

Hillfort Games’ Long Gone is an upcoming post-apocalyptic platformer where you, together with your feline companion, explore abandoned suburbs decades after the outbreak of a virus of sorts, piecing together the stories of the people who once lived there by scavenging for clues in their possessions and the environment. It’s an interesting take on 3D-ish platformers, and I dig this approach to environment storytelling.

The game is set to release in 2027.

Everything Else

Beyond this, there have been way too many other announcements, ranging from new DLCs for some games, whole new games coming out, and sequels being released. It’s too much to cover in-depth in one article, so I’ll just list all the big news over here. The titles up there are just the ones I was most excited about.

Developer Crema announces their new game, Temtem: Pioneers, which ditches turn-based battles for real-time combat and introduces survival crafting elements. They also opened a Kickstarter campaign.
Developer Push On and publisher HypeTrain Digital are excited to announce their Dark Messiah-inspired and goblin-infested dark fantasy title Alkahest.
Brotato is getting a new “Primal Dread” DLC, releasing in Summer 2026.
The Game Bakers are releasing a free “On The Trail” DLC for Cairn in Summer 2026.
The viral gambling-roguelike CloverPit shadowdropped a free update as well as their new “Unholy Fusion” DLC available on Steam now.
Brain Jar Games’ stylish rhythm-brawler “Dead as Disco” is releasing into Early Access on May 5th.
Bohemia Interactive and Enjoy Studio S.A. are releasing a free update to their sandbox-survival experience, Everwind, arriving in May this year.
Button Mash’s and Polden’s Battle Royale typing game, Final Sentence, is now available on Steam.
Fakefish announces their first playtest for their upcoming train-based survival-FPS game, Frostrail, releasing today.
Hunter Studio’s 2D-Beat-Em-Up-Roguelite Lost Castle 2 is fully releasing on June 11th.
Crossbridge Game Studios announced their upcoming quota horror game, Lost Railway, featuring the REPO-esque gameplay loop but set in a 2D environment.
The Buckshot Roulette developer, Mike Klubnika, announced their next game, Machine Party, for summer 2026, featuring brutal party games, much in the vein of Fusion Frenzy.
Strelka Games announces their playtest (April 24th) for their upcoming off-road exploration game, Over the Hill, showcasing the brand-new Algeria biome and more.
Rift of the Necrodancer is getting an Undertale DLC.
Beartwigs and Three Friends are releasing their upcoming survival-citybuilder Romestead into Early Access on May 26th.
Bun Muen and Kwalee’s online co-op detective horror experience, Shift At Midnight, is coming out on May 28th.
The Sledding Corporation announced their multiplay hangout title, Sledding Game, releasing on April 30th into Early Access.
Cyberwave’s cozy survival title, Solarpunk, is releasing on June 8th.
Shiro Games announced their new Space-Sim, SpaceCraft, releasing into Early Access on May 20th.
System Era Softworks and Devolver Digital are coming together to release STARSEEKER: Astroneer Expeditions with an open beta coming out in April.
Brimstone and Oro Interactive announced Super Battle Golf coming to consoles in summer 2026 with a new update releasing now.
Fantastic Signals showed off a new trailer for The Lift, furthermore announcing the console release for their handyman-escape-sim.
OtherSide Entertainment is releasing their heist action game, Thick as Thieves, on May 20th.
Demon Max announced their their own co-op stealth game, Too Deep To Quit, though no release date was unveiled.
Valor Mortis, One More Level’s upcoming Soulslike, releases in Autumn this year.
Auroch Digital announced their upcoming bullet heaven game, Warhammer Survivors.
Total Mayhem Games just dropped a new demo for We Were Here Together.
The Survival-Adventure game, Windrose, is now setting sail into Early Access.

This post was originally written by Dan Dicere from Indiecator.

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