IGF 2027 Games I Want to Talk About

It's that time of year again! Like the last few years, I've been a judge in this year's edition of the Independent Games Festival, and just like last year, I've brought you a set of the most interesting games I played this year. It's been a rough year for the game industry, so it's been refreshing to be able to take so much time surrounded by the work of amazing teams doing incrdible things despite it all.

This year's slate has an especially strong showing from student games compared to previous years, and I've made sure to highlight several of them - Doo-Daa, Horse Magnifier, and GAME.

This is not, as a reminder, my prediction of what games I think will win any awards. I'm one judge of hundreds, and this is just my personal opinion. Rather, this is a set of games I personally found fascinating and would love to see get more attention.

Walk

(bilge, Windows, available now - Steam)

If there were an award for "Most CD-ROM Game 2027", this might be the winner. Somewhere between a click-around multimedia toy and WarioWare, Walk tells the story of the game maker's daily walks in the form of tiny vignette minigames representing all the different moments. It's got a delightful kinetic feel to it, with a wonderful sense of discovery for each new minigame that settles into a comfortable sort of routine as each of the minigames becomes familiar over time.

Danchi Days

(gingham games, Mac/Windows, available now - Steam)

12-year-old Hoshino Hanaoka just wants to make her grandmother feel better, and so she sets out to hold a giant festival for the danchi (public housing complex) she lives in. Accost your neighbours, invite them to the festival, solve their problems, then visit their homepages on the little in-game Y2K-era internet.

An "open world game" where that entire open world is the housing complex you live in an honestly brilliant idea - it gives the world an authentic sense of connectedness, both socially and geographically. This really feels like a place all these people live in and rub shoulders in.

The bittersweet plot treads a very careful line around Hoshino's bubbly 12-year-old enthusiasm and the reality of her grandmother's condition and the social situation of some of the other danchi residents. It makes especially good use of that contrast via the children's game framing - it's fully aware that its audience is primarily adults who understand more of what's going on than Hoshino does.

Velvet Shedding

(Xiri, Windows, upcoming - Steam)

A fascinatingly underexplained fusion of walking simulator and Time Crisis-esque light gun game. Wander through your main character's memories, experience his most tender moments, and then shoot those scenes until they're gone forever. Absolutely fascinating visual design which goes far beyond the recent "PS1 horror" aesthetic, built around layering countless levels of textures and 3D models over each other in a way that really needs to be seen in motion to be appreciated. In some ways, this is the most "video game"-like video game I played all competition, but it's in the service of a very non-gamey story and presentation.

Doo-Daa

(Bernadine Mattson, Mac/Windows, available now - itch.io, Steam)

Arguably the world's first dada-themed RPG Maker comedy game. Dispatched to the planet of dada to interview its citizens, your protagonist finds himself wandering from place to place trying to make sense of anything at all that's happening around him. It all makes for a fantastic excuse to drink in the mixed media art styles, a mixture of everything from puppets to paper cut-outs to paintings to clippings of magazines literally scavenged from the trash.

I've seen games invoke the spirit of dada before but this is I think the first time I've seen a game really engage with dada this deeply and this sincerely.

A Real Life Party

(Anton Pätsi/Silakka Entertainment, Windows, upcoming - Steam)

Essentially a live-action interactive comedy skit, A Real Life Party uses the movement mechanics of classical Myst to have you awkwardly wander around the party you were invited to as you struggle to connect with the housemates or get tormented by their bizarre interpersonal dynamic. It's laugh-out-loud funny, especially for people who enjoy New Zealand/Australia-style skit comedy.

Horse Magnifier

(sketbordcat, Mac/Windows, available now - itch.io, Steam)

The concept is simple: you have a set of photos of horses, and some magnifiers. Just put the magnifiers in the right place and recreate the distorted photos. This could have been a one-note gimmick game, and yet every time I think I've seen everything it introduces new ideas, new gags. It's that sense of timing and ability to constantly one-up itself that helps Horse Magnifier truly stand out.

GAME

(Joshua Roland, Mac/Windows, available now - itch.io, Steam)

It's a sports story I've seen time and time again: the controlling parent, denied the success they thought they were owed in their prime, devotes their life to moulding their only child into greatness from the day they were born. Except that sport involves... chess? Gunplay? A lifetime locked in your metallic helmet?

GAME's biggest strength is that it's clearly aware of the stark contrast between it's surreal aesthetics and the extreme familiarity of its sports drama plot, and also that it never once winks and nuges to the player. It knows very well how to let the two halves of itself clash to interesting effect and with a remarkably developed sense of restraint.

BIRDCAGE

(Polygon Bird Games, Windows/Switch/PS4/PS5/Xbox One/Xbox Series, available now - Steam)

Simply one of the best 2D scrolling shooters I've played in a very long time. But is it a shooter if your main weapon isn't even a gun...? See, BIRDCAGE features a sword inspired by Radiant Silvergun's: swing your sword around yourself at close range to chop down enemies or absorb bullets, then let go to let your sword fly off in any direction you choose. The best shmups have always been an elaborate dance where the player weaves in and out of danger, and BIRDCAGE's sword enforces a very satisfying kind of spacing.

Am I Nima

(HO! Games/Outersloth, Mac/Windows, releases November 27 - Steam)

The concept is simple: Nima needs to convince her mother she's really herself. Drink in the world around you to fill your head with words and concepts, and figure out exactly what things to say to Nima's mother to convince her you are who you want to say you are. The sense of lurking horror from your struggle to figure out what this relationship is even supposed to be at the same moment you're desperately trying to sell someone on it is very effective, as is the understated sense of storytelling that comes just from throwing concepts at each other in your mind to see what feelings Nima associates the different things that have happened around her.

Cinderline

(Luke Kim/Zenon Ortiz, Windows, upcoming - Steam)

There's something interesting about seeing the first wave of ENA: Dream BBQ-inspired games popping up before that game is even fully released. Cinderline too is a dreamy exploration game where the player wanders through weird environments meeting weird people for vaguely-defined reasons, but it has a very pleasing aimlessness to it that distinguishes it from its inspiration. A lot of games are described as "dreamlike" but this is one of the most authentically dreamlike games I've played in quite some time - the oddly disjointed scenery, the mismatched aesthetics as you move from area to area, the characters who say odd things to you and leave without any explicit gameplay purpose. Some of the most charming gameplay environment wandering I've had in awhile. The version I played is a single-chapter demo; I'm looking forward to seeing where the full game goes when it's released.

There are far more interesting games this year than I'm able to highlight alone; if you're interested in reading about even more, I'd recommend taking a look at Aura Triolo's and Brendan McLeod's retrospective blog posts as well.