Best Day of the Devs game announcements at Summer Game Fest 2026

Although many of those AAA games look great, the quieter, more innovative indies should not be discounted. Day of the Devs, an indie game nonprofit, aired its own showcase immediately after Friday’s Summer Game Fest showcase. A slew of those games were playable on the SGF show floor to boot. Below, based on the demos I played, are 8 under-the-radar games that could potentially become the next big thing.

1 Blood Dungeon

Image: Messhof

Vampire Survivors has inspired so many clones that it can be hard for any one of its successors to stand out. Some try to do so by adding in a recognizable IP (see the recently announced Jujutsu Kaisen Rumble: Survivaton). Others lean on inventive mechanics. Blood Dungeon is the latter, attempting to distinguish itself by applying the bullet-heaven formula to a 2D platformer. In Blood Dungeon, you have to try to survive in the titular Blood Dungeon for ten minutes, automatically attacking waves of enemies as they come toward you. If you survive the full 10 minutes, a boss will appear, and you have to defeat it to win.

Like many games in its genre, Blood Dungeon is fairly simple, but also a joy to quickly pick up and play. Hilarious run animations for all of its different characters — each of which offer different gameplay buffs and weapons to kick off a run with — had me cracking up as I did my best to dodge the enemies endlessly floating towards me. I downloaded the free Steam demo for the game as soon as I got home, so I can tell it has already gotten its hooks in me.

Blood Dungeon will be released on PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X sometime in summer 2026. Hopefully not September.

2 Bub

Image: Paperfrog

In the middle of Summer Game Fest’s loud show floor, the quieter and introspective demo of Bub cut through the noise with how personal it felt. Pitched by developer Paperfrog as “the story of an artist turning his memories into art while he still can,” what I played was an introspective adventure about life, death, and what influences the art we create. As someone with an oft-running internal monologue, I got a kick out of the titular character having the same, musing to himself as he walked around and interacted with his world.

Bub’s visuals are also particularly eye-catching, leaning into a paper-craft style that looks unlike any other game I’ve ever played. Add a meditative soundtrack composed by a member of Japanese Breakfast, and you have the makings of an outstanding audiovisual experience. While Bub’s developer told me the final game will only last around two hours. Those two hours are ones I’m looking forward to experiencing when Bub launches on Windows PC in 2027.

3 Ithaca

Image: The Pixel Hunt

Recent games like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 really tapped into the frustrating feeling of helplessness that arises when you see the world getting worse around you and can do little to stop it. Ithaca taps into similar anxieties in a choice-driven RPG adventure that’s much more personal than Sandfall Interactive’s sweeping epic. The entire game takes place in a car as you drive to Ithaca, New York, having kidnapped an oil conglomerate executive before the events of the game.

You don’t actually control the vehicle you’re driving. Instead, gameplay comes from the narrative choices that you make as you text and call friends and family as you drive. There are underlying RPG systems that influence the dialogue options at your disposal, although I couldn’t get a great feeling for these in my brief 15-minute demo. Still, Ithaca’s themes certainly resonate with me, so I’ll be keeping an eye on this one.

Ithaca is currently running a Kickstarter campaign and is aiming to launch on Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X in Q4 2027.

4 Lazy River

Image: Mike Boxleiter

If I had to guess which Day of the Devs game I played that will be most popular at release, I’d pick Lazy River. It’s riding the current wave of friendslop hits, offering a wacky co-op game that I already felt was entertaining to play with a developer I had never met before. As its title suggests, the whole game takes place as you’re drifting down a lazy river that your squad builds. It’s not a normal lazy river, though; it’s one in space where people turned into zombies because someone peed in the pool.

Along the way, you gather materials to build up your raft, scavenge the areas around the lazy river for weapons and other materials, and fight the waves of space zombies and robots trying to exterminate all lifeforms at this space water park. Its tongue-in-cheek look and vibe all have the makings of a co-op hit that a group of friends can boot up when they’re looking for something novel to play. I have high hopes for Lazy River as it approaches a Steam Early Access release in summer 2027.

5 N Plus Infinity Times Two

Image: Metanet Software

N is a series of momentum-based platformers with roots going back to the days of browser Flash games N Plus Infinity Times Two is the latest release in the series, and puts the focus on multiplayer more than its predecessors. But don’t worry, developer Metanet Software isn’t going full live service with this one. It’s just focusing on offering entertaining multiplayer modes that a group of friends can boot up on game night and have a great time with.

I played two different modes during my demo. One was a race to the goal, while the other was a 2v2 team battle mode where one team had to collect as many coins as possible before the other team caught them. I was pretty terrible at both modes, but playing it was still a riot as there were many close calls, shocking comebacks, and dominant victories to keep each match entertaining. It’ll be released on Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X sometime in 2027.

6 Screenbound

Image: Digital Pajamas/Crescent Moon Games

Screenbound has gone viral on various social media platforms several times, so you may have seen it before. It’s a platformer that simultaneously plays out in 2D and 3D. The 2D part of the game appears on a fictional QBoy handheld that rests in your hands as you move through a 3D world. The novelty of Screenbound comes from the fact that both the 2D and 3D parts of it obscure information from each other.

Sometimes, gaps that seem insurmountable in 2D are easy to circumvent when you can move in 3D. Other times, a balloon that can let you glide across a wide distance will only appear to you on the QBoy. I recommend checking out this game’s Steam demo when you have the chance, as there’s really not much else like it.

Screenbound will be released for PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X on Sept. 10.

7 Shot One Fighters

Image: Red Moon Workshop

Pretty much every genre is getting the roguelike treatment these days, and Shot One Fighters explores what a fighting game roguelike would be. While most fighting games give you a lengthy move list to learn and master from the start, Shot One Fighters slowly doles it out to players after they successfully clear each fighting game match encounter. The moves, buffs, and debuffs you have differ every run, and it taps into a similar sense of satisfaction as last year’s TGA-nominated roguelike Absolum.

I wasn’t very good at Shot One Fighters as this was my first time playing a new fighting game, but when I watched the developer play, I saw that its combo potential is just as deep as any mainstream fighting game. As someone who likes single-player content in my fighting games, I can definitely see myself playing more of this when it launches. A competitive versus mode is also being planned for the game, although developer Red Moon Workshop told Polygon it’s only planned to be local only for now, with no online component. Shot One Fighters doesn’t have a release window at this time.

8 Super Yooka-Laylee Kart

Image: Playtonic

Playtonic has a reputation for using the Yooka-Laylee franchise to revisit genres from Rare’s glory days, and as you can probably tell from its name, Super Yooka-Laylee Kart is a kart racer. That said, Super Yooka-Laylee Kart looks and plays less like Rare’s Diddy Kong Racing or R.C. Pro-Am and more like Mario Kart: Super Circuit for the Game Boy Advance. Like most kart racers, I was having lots of fun within moments of picking up the game.

This is a drift-heavy kart racer with tracks built around tight corners and filled with obstacles for players to dodge. Items keep things lively, with each item actually having three distinct uses depending on which buttons you press to activate it. With lots of custom game options and tailor-made single-player content also being played, I’m expecting Super Yooka-Laylee Kart to become just as much of a timesink for me as Mario Kart World was when it launches on Windows PC at an undisclosed date in the future.

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September is looking rather busy