News ID@Xbox launches Spotlight! series to highlight Indies during pandemic | XSX launch lineup vid

[prudis]

Every year, starting at the Game Developers Conference and continuing through many other trade shows and cons throughout the year we’re excited to show off a ton of awesome games – some being announced for the first time on Xbox, and others that are just great games that we’re super stoked about and want to get on folks’ radar.

Given the global situation right now, of course, we’re not able to show off games to press and players in person, so we’re excited to announce a new series of videos on the ID@Xbox YouTube Channel that will highlight independent developers – ID@Xbox Spotlight.

With these videos, you’ll hear from the developers themselves as they walk you through some of the exciting titles coming to Xbox – including some brand new announcements like Mischief’s Adios, Strange Scaffold’s An Airport for Aliens Currently Run by Dogs, Goblinz Studio’s Legend of Keepers, Sector D2’s Project Wingman, Mighty Yell’s The Big Con and Vanimals’ Undying.

Of course, the games we’re showing this week are just a fraction of the more than 1,600 games in development by the more than 3,000 developers in 67 countries worldwide who are part of Xbox’s digital publishing program for independent developers. Whether developers are looking to ship on Xbox and Windows 10, or enable Xbox Live on devices such as Android and iOS, ID@Xbox is ready to help.

• Adios (Mischief) – Announced today for Xbox One & Windows 10, Xbox Play Anywhere, Xbox One X Enhanced
  Adios is an expansive new narrative experience about a pig farmer who decides he will no longer let the mob bury bodies on his farm, and his best friend, who will kill him at the end of the day.
• An Airport for Aliens Currently Run by Dogs (Strange Scaffold) – Announced today for Xbox One & Windows 10, Xbox Play Anywhere, Xbox One X Enhanced
  An Airport for Aliens Currently Run by Dogs is a first-person open world comedy adventure game about catching flights from stock photo canines, solving their problems in fully simulated airports, and maintaining a long-distance relationship with the only other human being left in the universe.
• Bonkies (Crunching Koalas/Studio Gauntlet) – Announced today for Xbox One
  Bonkies lets you take control over a monkey with a mission – using a jetpack and a mechanical arm you must build the wackiest of constructions on the distant-est of planets! Gather a team of up to 4 players and help tame the final frontier of monkey civilization – space!
• Haven (The Game Bakers) – Xbox Game Pass, Xbox Play Anywhere, Xbox One X Enhanced
  They escaped to a lost planet to be together. A RPG adventure about love and freedom. To play solo or co-op with a special someone.
• Spiritfarer (Thunder Lotus) – Xbox Game Pass, Xbox Play AnywhereSpiritfarer is a cozy management game about dying. As ferrymaster to the deceased, build a boat to explore the world, care for your spirit friends, and guide them across mystical seas to finally release them into the afterlife. What will you leave behind?
• West of Dead (Raw Fury/Upstream Arcade) – Xbox Game Pass, Xbox One X Enhanced
  Purgatory, Wyoming, 1888. A place of gun smoke and darkness, sin and damnation, wendigos and witches. Step into the boots of the dead man William Mason (voiced by Ron Perlman) in this fast-paced twin-stick shooter. Dodge behind cover as you try to outgun your enemies in the unknown procedurally generated hunting grounds. The Wild West has never been this dark.

• Atomicrops (Raw Fury/Bird Bath Games)
  Atomicrops is an action-packed roguelite farming simulator where you must cultivate and defend the last farm in the post-apocalypse wasteland. Farm mutated crops, marry townsfolk, and kill every mutant creature that tries to invade!
• Drake Hollow (Molasses Flood) – Xbox Game Pass, Xbox One X Enhanced
  Drake Hollow is a cooperative action village building game set in the Hollow – a blighted mirror of our world – in which you build and defend villages of Drakes, the local vegetable folk. Either solo or with friends, explore a procedurally generated world of islands trapped in poisonous aether.
• Edge of Eternity (Dear Villagers/Midgar Studio) – Xbox Game Pass
  Edge Of Eternity is a JRPG made by an indie team of 9 people in the south of France. Wage epic turn-based battles as you follow Daryon and Selene on their quest to find a cure to the all-consuming Corrosion in this grand tale of hope and sacrifice.
• Ghostrunner (All in! Games/One More Level)
  Ghostrunner is a fast-paced cyberpunk action game. Play as a high-tech combat cyborg and fight your way to the top of Dharma Tower. Cut down your enemies with a monomolecular sword, dodge bullets thanks to super-human senses and make use of devastating special moves. And remember – always keep running.
• King’s Bounty II (1C Publishing EU)
  The King’s Bounty turn-based tactics series returns with King’s Bounty 2! In addition to the tactical depth fans expect from its combat, immerse yourself in the fantasy world of Antara with a whole new, non-linear narrative and deep RPG mechanics that give weight to your every decision.
• Moving Out (Team17/SMG)
  Moving Out is a physics-based moving simulator that brings a whole new meaning to “couch co-op.” Solo or with friends, you must tackle the perils of moving furniture in a series of increasingly absurd situations.

ID@Xbox Spotlight 3

• Bartlow’s Dread Machine (Beep Games, Inc./Tribetoy) – Xbox Play Anywhere, Xbox One X Enhanced
  Your mission: rescue Teddy Roosevelt from his abductors! An artifact from the past returns in Bartlow’s Dread Machine, a game from the dawn of the Electric Age, featuring dual stick arcade action with single player and couch co-op modes, six game worlds and a cast of improbable tin characters.
• Ikenfell (Humble Bundle/Happy Ray Games) – Xbox Game Pass
  A turn based-tactical RPG about a group of troublesome magic students. Use timing mechanics to power your spells and block attacks, explore the twisted halls of a vast magic school, fight challenging monsters and bosses, find tons of hidden treasure, and uncover dark secrets never meant to be found.
• Lake (Whitethorn Digital/Gamious) – Xbox One X Enhanced
  It’s 1986 – Meredith Weiss takes a break from her career in the big city to deliver mail in her hometown. How will she experience two weeks in beautiful Providence Oaks, with its iconic lake and quirky community? And what will she do next? It’s up to you.
• Legend of Keepers (Goblinz Studio) – Announced today for Xbox One & Windows 10
  Legend of Keepers is the perfect mix between Dungeon Management and Roguelite. You have been hired as a dungeon master by the Dungeons Company. Your job is simple: protect their dungeons!
• The Red Lantern (Tiberline Studio) – Xbox Game Pass
  The Red Lantern is a story-driven, rogue-lite game where you and your team of 5 sled dogs, lost in the wilderness, must navigate the ever-changing encounters of the Alaskan bush to find your way home.
• The Second Chance Project (Cosmonaught Studios)
  The Second Chance Project is a single-player, first-person narrative game with a focus on time travel, choice and consequence. With a unique sandbox time-changing mechanic, the entire story is open from the start and features multi-layered, non-linear gameplay with trillions of permutations and hundreds of outcomes.

• Minute of Islands (Mixtvision/Studio Fizbin)
  Explore a strange and wonderful archipelago in this classic comic-style adventure. Guide young mechanic Mo on a journey to find the strength to let go in a world about to collapse. The powerful Omni Switch at your disposal may not be enough to fix all that is broken…
• Project Wingman (Humble Bundle/Sector D2) – Announced today for Xbox One
  Project Wingman is a flight action game that lets you take the seat of advanced fighter jets and become a true ace. Fight in various missions and gamemodes ranging from intense aerial dogfights to large scale ground assault in an alternate scorched earth setting.
• Revenant’s Reach (Homonkulus) – Announced today for Xbox One & Windows 10
  You are the Revenant. Having escaped a sunken prison with your grappling hook, you find yourself in an ailing natural world. In this technical 2.5D platformer, you must cross treacherous landscapes, solve hazardous puzzles and battle twisted monstrosities, all to recover lost memories and confront the demons of your past.
• Skater XL (Easy Day Studios) – Xbox One X Enhanced
  Skater XL is an evolution in skateboarding games. Experience unparalleled board control and responsiveness while you skate legendary real-world skate spots. Style your tricks the way you want, from the way you flip the board to the way you move your feet. Feel connected to your board like never before.
• Undying (Vanimals) – Announced today for Xbox One & Windows 10, Xbox Play Anywhere
  Infected by a zombie bite, Anling’s days are numbered. She must now fight to survive, only for her son, Cody. Ensure Cody’s survival in this zombie world by protecting him and teaching him valuable skills, at any cost. Even if it means giving in to her new zombie urges.
• Unto the End (Big Sugar/2 Ton Studios) – Xbox Game Pass, Xbox Play Anywhere
  Unto the End is a handcrafted combat-adventure about a father’s struggle to get back to his family. Trek through unforgiving landscapes in a player-skill focused journey, where every opponent is unique, and 20 years of side-scroller convention is set aside to deliver a HUDless, one-of-a-kind combat experience.

• Calico (Whitethorn Digital/Peachy Keen Games) – Xbox One X Enhanced
  Calico is a day-in-the-life community sim game where you are given an important and adorable task: rebuild the town’s cat café and fill it with cute and cuddly creatures! Build up your café by filling it with cute furniture, fun decorations, yummy pastries, and get it bustling with animals again!
• Drink More Glurp (Yogscast Games/Catastrophic_Overload) – Announced today for Xbox One
  Drink More Glurp is a wacky physics sports(ish) pass-the-pad party game set on a distant world where aliens have copied Earth’s summer games and got everything slightly wrong. Run, jump, throw and compete in crazy contests with up to 20 local players or challenge the world on the global leaderboards.
• She Dreams Elsewhere (Studio Zevere) – Xbox Game Pass, Xbox Play Anywhere
  She Dreams Elsewhere is a surreal adventure RPG about dreams, nightmares and mental health. You play as Thalia, an anxiety-ridden, comatose woman who delve into her dreams and confront her inner nightmares in order to finally wake up. Unfortunately, some nightmares are harder to confront than others…
• Star Renegades (Raw Fury/Massive Damage) – Xbox Game Pass
  Star Renegades is a strategy RPG about outsmarting AI-driven adversaries, forging friendships, and toppling galactic empires spanning over multiple dimensions.
• SuperMash (Digital Continue)
  SuperMash is a game that makes games! Mash together two game genres to get a completely unique new game each time, then challenge your friends to see how they do!
• The Vale (Falling Squirrel)
  The Vale is a story driven, action-adventure that utilizes the full potential of spatial audio to deliver visceral gameplay. The Vale sets out to breathe new life into medieval combat and provide a novel experience for visually impaired and sighted gamers alike.

• The Big Con (Mighty Yell) – Announced today for Xbox One & Windows 10, Xbox Play Anywhere
  The Big Con is a 90s-themed adventure game about a young woman con artist hustling her way across the country to save her family video store.
• Hazel Sky (Another Indie/Coffee Addict Studio) – Xbox One X Enhanced
  Sent to an island far from home in the flying city of Gideon, Shane must pass the trials and return as an Engineer or face banishment. Connected via radio, Shane and fellow trainee engineer, Erin strike up an illicit friendship that will change the way Shane sees the world.
• KungFu Kickball (Blowfish Studios/Whalefood Games) – Xbox One X Enhanced
  KungFu Kickball is a fighting-sports game where the best ball kicker wins! Compete against your friends in a fantasy sport that mixes soccer with kung fu action movies. Fly through the air and unleash a flurry of punches, kicks, and mystical arts to overpower the other team.
• Levelhead (Butterscotch Shenanigans) – Xbox Game Pass, Xbox Play Anywhere
  Build, play, share and compete in Levelhead, the platformer maker. Create challenging levels with the deep, intuitive systems of the level editor, then share those levels with the world and gain a following!
• Maid of Sker (Wales Interactive) – Xbox One X Enhanced
  Maid of Sker is a first-person horror game set in a remote hotel with a macabre history from Welsh folklore. Brave the nightmares of the Quiet Ones. When they arrive, do not panic — don’t even breathe.
• Mayhem in Single Valley (tinyBuild/Fluxscopic) – Announced today for Xbox One
  Mayhem in Single Valleyis an action-adventure mixing a Zelda-like world with the supernatural feel of Stranger Things. Local boy Jack was to leave home for a new life in the city, but the plans changed as the radioactive spillage finds its way into the river and starts the apocalypse.

Introducing ID@Xbox Spotlight! Shining a Light on Games From Independent Developers - Xbox Wire

Every year, starting at the Game Developers Conference and continuing through many other trade shows and cons throughout the year we’re excited to show off a ton of awesome games – some being announced for the first time on Xbox, and others that are just great games that we’re super stoked about...

news.xbox.com

EDIT: added PC storepages , or in 2 cases that dont have that, , link to website

 

[Alexandros]

Lots of good stuff in there. I am so confused by King's Bounty 2 though, as a big fan of the previous games this turn towards a more realistic look feels kind of jarring. I guess we'll see.

 

[fantomena]

Thank you for adding Steam links to each game on the list!

 

[prudis]

fantomena took a while
2 of them dont have storepage yet (Drake Hollow by devs of Flame in the Flood and Reveant's Reach by Homunculus which has TBD platforms as of now) + 3 of them are :egg:scloosies

 

[Daoko64]

This is awesome. hope they continue doing these.

 

[Durante]

Thanks for the thread, great overview and nice to have the links.

I didn't even know Spiritfarer would be on gamepass -- will probably buy it on Steam anyway.

 

[gabbo]

Now i feel like I should have kickstarted calico when I had the chance... dammit
Aside from that, The Vale, Red Lantern, Maid of Sker, Ghostrunner, Lake, and SkaterXL, all looking forward to their non XBGP pc versions

 

[prudis]

second batch

Xbox just released a bunch of indie spotlight videos with interviews with the devs. Will try to add some Steam links. (done, went faster that expected so I did them all because why not).









Spellbreak is EGSxclusive.






No Straight Roads is EGSxclusive.



(currently EGSxclusive)









(EGSxclusive)

 

[prudis]

The ID@Xbox team is ecstatic about these 15 breathtaking new independent games coming first to console on Xbox, and all coming to Xbox Series X! ICYMI, earlier we highlighted innovative new games such as Shredders, whose high end graphics lets you make rad slopes your playground, a musical journey that allows you to rock out as you find your persona in The Artful Escape, worlds built for exploration such as Exo One and Tunic, and story-driven experiences that are sure to draw you in like 12 Minutes, Lake, or Last Stop, plus a lot more.

Here’s the full list below of the games that will definitely catch your eye!

12 Minutes (Luis Antonio / Annapurna, 2020): A romantic evening with your wife turns into a violent invasion, as a man breaks into your home, accuses your wife of murder and beats you to death. Only for you to wake up and find yourself stuck in a twelve-minute time loop, doomed to relive the same terror again and again.

Dead Static Drive (Team Fanclub, 2021): Dead Static Drive is about a nightmare roadtrip but it’s also about the extremes of personal circumstance the characters are put in and their emotional reaction to that circumstance. You have to choose who you can trust as you fight the horrors barely concealed underneath everyday domestic life.

Exo One (Future Friends Games, 2020): A strange signal… an alien craft… Exo One is a gravity-defying, interplanetary journey through space and time. Master a truly alien traversal system and move through enigmatic and desolate alien landscapes in ways you’ve never experienced. Use gravity and momentum to reach colossal speeds and exhilarating heights.

Lake (Whitethorn, 2021): It’s 1986 – Meredith Weiss takes a break from her career in the big city to deliver mail in her hometown. How will she experience two weeks in beautiful Providence Oaks, with its iconic lake and quirky community? And what will she do next? It’s up to you.

Last Stop (Annapurna, 2021): A game about secret lives, the ties that bind and how magic can be found in the mundane, Last Stop is a third-person adventure set in present day London, where you play as three separate characters whose worlds collide in the midst of a supernatural crisis.

Mad Streets (Craftshop Arts, 2020): Mad Streets is a quirky, physics based, multiplayer game which focuses on brutal hand to hand combat mixed with comedy and a vibrant art style but more importantly brings something satisfying and brand new to the table, in terms of how character’s physically interact with each other, in ways players haven’t felt before.

Sable (Shedwords / Raw Fury): Join Sable on her gliding, a rite of passage that will take her across vast deserts, through landscapes littered with fallen spaceships. Explore the desert at your own pace on your hoverbike, scale monumental ruins and encounter other nomads in the wilds whilst unearthing mysteries long forgotten.

Shredders (FoamPunch BV / I-Illusions, 2021): Shredders puts you on top of the coolest slopes, freeride spots and snowparks. It aims to recreate the sheer joy of riding down a mountain. Shredders will bring you high-end graphics, next-gen physics and a perfect blend between fun and realism, all in a social context. See you on the slopes in 2021!

Song of Iron (Escape, 2021): Song of Iron is a moody and provoking action adventure. A dive into a dark Nordic world full of mystery and danger. Your journey will take you far across the land of myths toward the home of the gods. Fight your way through man, monster and nature itself to reach the end.

The Artful Escape (Beethoven and Dinosaur / Annapurna, 2020): On the eve of his first performance, Francis Vendetti battles with the legacy of a dead folk legend and the cosmic wanderings of his own imagination. Francis, a teenage guitar prodigy, sets out on a psychedelic, multidimensional journey to inspire his stage persona.

The Ascent (Curve Digital/Neon Giant, 2021): The Ascent is a solo and co-op action RPG set in a cyberpunk world. The mega corporation that owns you and everyone, The Ascent Group, has just collapsed. Can you survive without it? Stop gangs and hostile corporations from taking over and discover what really happened.

The Big Con (Mighty Yell Studios, 2021): Flex your inner teenager in The Big Con, an adventure game where you hustle across the country as a teen trying to save your family video store. In classic 90s con movie style, you’ll get to persuade and pilfer your way to greatness using a whack of potential grifts.

The Falconeer (Wired Productions/Tomas Sala, 2020): The Falconeer is an open-world air combat game, featuring frenetic aerial dogfights and deep exploration of the mysterious open-world of The Great Ursee. Generations of poisonous decisions and treason swirl in the deep, as factions clash in a fight to preserve the past or flee its terrible consequences.

Tunic (Finji/Andrew Shouldice): Tunic is an action adventure game about a small fox in a big world, who must explore the countryside, fight monsters, and discover secrets. Crafted to evoke feelings of classic action adventure games, Tunic will challenge the player with unique items, skillful combat techniques, and arcane mysteries as our hero forges their way through an intriguing new world.

Unexplored 2: The Wayfarer’s Legacy (Big Sugar, 2021): Unexplored 2 is an action-RPG that aims to capture the same sense of adventure and wonder as a tabletop RPG. Full of beautiful landscapes and hidden marvels, magical creatures and dangerous foes, mythical weapons, and historic items, Unexplored 2 uses advanced content generation to give every player their own world, story, and challenges to discover.