"The witchfire in my blood had cooled, with most of it having already evaporated. Were the last drop to have gone, so would I be too, awakening in Hell. The rescue, unlikely as it was, came thanks to human greed and stupidity." This line—taken from a short story called The Preyer written by The Astronauts' Creative Director Adrian Chmielarz—sets up the world of Witchfire, releases today (September 20) in Early Access on the Epic Games Store. Just before launch, we interviewed Chmielarz and The Astronauts Game Designer Karol Krok and asked them what to expect from Witchfire, how it came to be, and what the development process was like. Read on for more details...

Swapping sci-fi for fantasy
If you haven't heard much about Witchfire, it's because The Astronauts is a small studio and unwilling to share spoilers—and every reveal they make feels like it could be a spoiler. Not too much is known about Witchfire, as a result. "We want the players to have that beautiful experience of discovering things on their own, to be surprised," Chmielarz said. "We promise to show more near the Early Access release day, so everyone can make an informed decision." The Astronauts released a trailer during Summer Game Fest back in June that demonstrated how Witchfire will have an element of exploration and discovery, of planning and thinking. At the same time, it offers plenty of action as well. It's a dark fantasy with spells—and it's also a first-person shooter with guns, as you can see from the trailers. It's technically a roguelite, or similar to a dungeon crawler, with harsh death conditions for the player. And The Astronauts also advertise Witchfire as having multiple ways to win.

The Drop Bear Bytes team is excited to announce that Broken Roads is coming to PC, Xbox One & Series X/S on November 14, 2023! Embark on an unforgettable journey across a post-apocalyptic Australia full of danger and tough decisions. Stay tuned for release date information on other platforms coming soon! Broken Roads is a narrative-driven RPG that brings exploration, strategic turn-based combat and meaningful philosophical choices to an all-new Australian post-apocalyptic setting.

BROKEN ROADS IS A NARRATIVE-DRIVEN RPG FOR PC AND CONSOLE COMING 14 NOVEMBER 2023
Bringing exploration, strategic turn-based combat and meaningful philosophical choices to an all-new Australian post-apocalyptic setting.
Broken Roads was born of a love for traditional isometric computer role-playing, and will provide a rich, engaging narrative in which players make their way across a desolated Australia. Blending together traditional and all-new role-playing elements on top of a classless system offering near-unlimited character development options, Broken Roads presents players with an original morality system: the Moral Compass. This novel design sees dialogue options and questing decisions influence, and be influenced by, a character's philosophical leaning.

Blasphemous set itself apart in 2019's crowded indie scene thanks to a firm belief in its roots. Developed in Spain, it was clear from the beginning that The Game Kitchen would have to adapt itself to an international audience—but even if the game released with an English demographic in mind, the art direction and overall tone were uniquely Spanish.

With the sequel, the team was adamant that they preserve that identity in the writing as well, regardless of which language you choose to play in. For Enrique Cabeza, Creative Director at The Game Kitchen, the development of Blasphemous 2 felt sentient. It continued to shift and morph of its own volition, almost as if providing guidance to the team about where to go next. "You have to make mistakes and realize when it's time to change course to avoid paths you shouldn't take," he said.

Long presumed dead, Anton Sabbados, a veteran returns from a 10-year-long Ottoman slavery. His Carpathian homeland is feebly reigned by the demented prophet-king, its lands ruined by raiders and cursed with a hellish plague. Everything he loved and cherished is either gone or has changed beyond recognition. All he has left is his soldiers' loyalty - and a holy quest to end the plague. Facing hordes of enemies as well as his inner demons, you must help him see it through no matter the cost!

BEAST is a dynamic and brutal gridless tactical turn-based RPG where moral choices during battle influence the gameplay. In a grimdark medieval world, torn by plague and military conflicts, you decide if you should exercise or exorcise your inner beast with dire consequences for you and your allies!

Greetings readers. I'm Mårten, the Game Design Director at Hadoque, a collective of creatives in Sweden. I co-created the core concept of the game and oversee the game design. We've been working on Ultros - our first game together - for the past few years, and today, we're thrilled to show you the core gameplay and a new boss.

To recap from our reveal at the PlayStation Showcase earlier in the year, Ultros is a mystical and poetic adventure where you fight dangerous space insects and plant seeds to create an alien garden. Our protagonist, Ouji, wakes up stranded on an overgrown sarcophagus in space. She has no memory of who she is and how she got here. But the world feels familiar, and it seems to react to her - like she has some sort of connection to it. Naturally, this is when you start to explore the depths of the sarcophagus.

We, Envision Entertainment, are thrilled to announce that Pioneers of Pagonia will launch into Steam Early Access for PC December 13, 2023 and our first Closed Alpha will take place in September! You can soon get your hands on the game by signing up for the newsletter for a chance to participate in the first closed alpha test due next month. The first public demo will release in early October shortly before Steam Next Fest. Wishlist the game on Steam to get notified! We are super excited to hear what you think and hope you will love Pagonia as much as we do!

About Pioneers of Pagonia
In a world of countless islands populated with scattered villages, you travel and lead your people as a visionary to forge alliances with the inhabitants, after helping each other and gaining their trust. Send out your pioneers to discover untouched soil, find hidden resources and explore secret places. Enjoy the fantastical and inviting world of Pagonia, where your carefully considered decisions cause thousands of bustling inhabitants to satisfy your orders. Every transport of goods, manufacturing process and discovery your people make is comprehensible and presented with lovely animations in this ultimate game world simulation.

Get your climbing gear ready - Jusant launches on October 31st 2023 on Steam, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5. Play it day one on Xbox Game Pass too! In Jusant, you'll experience a meditative journey to reach the top of an immeasurably tall tower and uncover clues. Challenge yourself at your own pace, explore different paths, and unravel the secrets left behind from a bygone civilization with the help of a mysterious companion made entirely out of water.

The reception to Jusant has been fantastic since its initial announcement and it's really been wonderful for us to see your excitement and to hear your thoughts and feedback on the demo. In celebration, we're putting the demo back up on Steam so as many as people as possible who want to play, can. So whether you missed it the first time, or simply wanna play again, it's available to play right now!

At Gamescom 2023 in Cologne we had a booth for fans to play Path of Exile 2 and try out the new Druid class - a spellcaster who channels the fury of nature on the battlefield to become a walking natural disaster. Check out our Gamescom Druid gameplay walkthrough below! Thanks to everyone who has come to play Path of Exile 2 at Gamescom so far! It was great meeting you in person, and the fan meetup beforehand was fantastic. We'll be at PAX West next week. See you there! For more information about Path of Exile 2 and to see the other trailers, visit pathofexile2.com.

Path of Exile 2 is a next generation Action RPG created by Grinding Gear Games. Set years after the original Path of Exile, you will return to the dark world of Wraeclast and seek to end the corruption that is spreading. Path of Exile 2 is a free-to-play online multiplayer game with co-op for up to six players.

Ben Limare, CEO at 2.21: "Dear friends and supporters, I'm tasked with sharing a disappointing update. Despite our earnest efforts, we were unsuccessful in securing a publisher for the reboot of Twinsen's Little Big Adventure.

What's the path forward? With a heavy heart, we've halted our work on the reboot and, for the moment, regard the project as canceled. This allows us to channel our focus and energy into the remastered version of Twinsen's Little Big Adventure (TLBA Remastered). We will explore whether we can reincorporate the reboot's ideas into the remaster, but that's a conversation for another time."

It's been ten… long… years…We are thrilled to announce that Slender: The Arrival, the spine-chilling horror game that has captivated millions of players, is about to become even more terrifyingly immersive. Brace yourselves for a huge update coming this October as we introduce a complete visual overhaul utilizing the latest and greatest technologies within Unreal Engine 5.2.

Every shadow, every material, every model and every hair-raising encounter with the mysterious Slender Man will be rendered in stunning detail. This new update not only enhances the graphics but also elevates the overall gameplay experience. Mark your calendars because this October, Slender Man is back.

Sabotage was founded with a clear goal: presenting our own definitive editions of the game genres we grew up playing. By combining retro aesthetics and modern design, we shoot for experiences that capture what we love about games of old while leaving behind the elements we feel might hold them back today. We knew from the beginning that out-of-combat controls would be an important aspect to tackle for our modernized take on classic turn-based RPGs, and one of the pillars of Sea of Stars.

Sea of Stars will be available as a PlayStation Plus Game Catalog title on launch day
We're extremely excited to confirm that Sea of Stars will be joining the PlayStation Plus Game Catalog catalog (available for all Extra and Premium members) on launch day, August 29. It's incredible for us to imagine how many more players worldwide will experience Sea of Stars and join the conversation around our project. After working on this game that is so dear to us for five years, we're now only a few weeks away from release, and we're happy to share this moment with the PlayStation community.

Welcome to Calyx, Groundbreakers! Techtonica has officially entered Early Access. If you haven't noticed, there's a launch discount available for the game, too. Techtonica will normally sell for $29.99, but there's a 15% launch discount that will run for the first week.

From us at Fire Hose to you, our growing community of Groundbreakers, thanks for being here. We hope you have a blast with Techtonica. v0.1 marks the beginning of our journey. We leave you with a link to our Discord if you want to chat directly with the devs and other community members and our upcoming Road Map. Let's get to work.

You better not run out of battery in your flashlight, darkness approaches…GYLT, the delicate horror game by Tequila Works (us), responsibles for RiME, The Invisible Hours, The Sexy Brutale, Deadlight and the upcoming Song of Nunu: A League of Legends Story, among others, is finally out on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series, Xbox One, Steam and will soon be available on GOG!

With bullying as a common thread, the game presents Sally, an 11 years old girl whose little cousin, Emily, has gone missing. While everyone else has stopped looking for her, she's decided to find her. The mission will take her to a weird and dangerous version of her own city. But what can a small girl do against the night's horrors? Well, more than you may think.

Hello and welcome back to the world of marbles - it's been a while! Straight to the news of the day—Marble It Up! Ultra releases on August 17th! It will be available on Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Steam (including Steam Deck) and the Epic Store. We'll be rolling out more info over the coming weeks in anticipation of the launch!

Be sure to check out our updated FAQ and drop by the Discord Community. A very special thank you to our community. Whether you've been here from the start or are about to roll with us for the first time - this game couldn't exist without the attention and dedication of those who play it.

BattleBit Remastered, a low poly alternative to EA's Battlefield franchise, was released two weeks ago via Steam Early Access. Developer SgtOkiDoki has announced that their massively multiplayer online first-person has sold a respectable 1,800,000 copies (at $14.99 a pop) in a relatively short span of time. The game has been in the works since 2016, with its early access launch occurring on June 15 (2023). BattleBit received some attention following the poor launch state of Battlefield 2042, with long term fans suggesting that their money would be best spent on the less visually appealing indie title. Streamers and influencers also focused more community eyes on BattleBit early last year.

Feedback on Steam—"Very Positive" from over 40,000 users indicates that first person shooter fans are enjoying the BattleBit Remastered experience, despite its primitive and blocky art style—SgtOkiDoki recently revealed some insights to How to Market a Game: "Players have an assumption about your game...And if the screenshots don't match the gameplay you have a problem. Our game played like Squad but looked like Roblox. That was a terrible move." Apparently BattleBit had a more military simulator approach earlier on in development, which clashed with its simplistic aesthetics. "We had to make a decision...(the team) had to pull back and make the game more open for arcade. It wasn't a decision I enjoyed, but I had to do it. It turned out it was a good decision." SgtOkiDoki's operation is expanding thanks to the BattleBit's success, but additional staffers will be dealing with an increase in DDOS attacks and a growing number of cheaters within the game's very active population.

After 10 months of Early Access, Brotato is now out in the form of Version 1.0, thank you everyone for playing the game and for your feedback! I hope you all enjoy Brotato in its complete (?) form! - Blobfish

Brotato is a top-down arena shooter rogue-lite where you play a potato wielding up to 6 weapons at a time to fight off hordes of aliens. Choose from a variety of traits and items to create unique builds and survive until help arrives.

Hello readers! We've proudly launched Harmony: The Fall of Reverie on PC and Nintendo Switch—versions for Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 will arrive on June 22nd. It's a narrative adventure with two vibrant worlds, a cast of loveable characters, and a compelling story we hope all kinds of players will enjoy. One of the main features of our game is the Augural, and that's what we'd like to talk about in this blog. The Augural is the game board and visual representation of our main character, Polly's, gift of clairvoyance. It is the place in which you will foresee and make all your choices in Harmony: The Fall of Reverie.

We wanted to the Augural to be a peaceful and beautiful place where you can prepare your next move without any stress. That's why the Augural is set against a placid lake reflecting a starlit sky, and this starlight conveys the idea of an astronomical map where fates can be deciphered. When we first set out to build the Augural, the intention was to offer significant choices that were well-informed, so you need never be surprised or caught off guard by the decisions you make. From there, it evolved naturally into a way to expose the "core" of the story and show how events are connected to one another. We wanted to do something new in the Choices Matter sub-genre.

A FREE DEMO of Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew is playable now during Steam Next Fest! We're absolutely excited for you to experience a part of Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew firsthand before its official release on August 17, 2023. It'd help us a lot if you could share your first impressions of the demo on all community and social media channels that you are active on with a link to the Steam page and the hashtag #playshadowgambit. Also, tell your friends and family about it and get them to play the demo, talk about Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew and mention it everywhere you can.

The demo is now playable for everyone during Steam Next Fest from June 19 to 26. Don't forget to add the game to your wishlist, too! Thank you for your support! It means a ton to us. Now, get ready to assemble your cursed pirate crew. Enjoy your first trip to the Lost Caribbean! 🏴‍☠️

The developers of the indie hit roguelite Dead Cells - Evil Empire and Motion Twin - announced today that the game has sold more than 10 million copies in the six years since its initial Early Access launch on Steam in 2017. The consecutive launch of the 1.0 version on PC & consoles in 2018, a whopping 34 free updates and later launches on mobile have all helped to drive long-tail success in all major global territories, pushing the game into rarely charted sales territory for an independent title.

Dead Cells' amazing list of free updates include chunky content additions that have provided new ways for fans to play the game, numerous weapon & item additions & enhancements, extra levels, a host of enemies and large crossover events featuring popular characters from other high profile indie games such as Hotline Miami, Shovel Knight and more. Dead Cells' well-received four paid DLCs - including the groundbreaking recent Return to Castlevania DLC, which featured an unprecedented collaboration with Konami - have also continued to drive development on the title.

PlaySide Studios is excited to announce their first publishing deal in partnership with Rocket Flair Studios, who are the indie developers of Dynasty of the Sands. 2024 will see Dynasty of the Sands launch into Early Access on Steam, so be prepared to enter a realm of limitless possibilities and to have the adventure of a lifetime.

What is Dynasty of the Sands?
Dynasty of the Sands is an Ancient Egypt-inspired creative/survival city builder hybrid set in a stunning open world. You and you alone are the creator and protector of your society's destiny. Help your Empire seamlessly run itself by creating laws and mandates, allowing you to focus on the most important aspects of building the mightiest of dynasties.

Hello once again, friends of Lana and Mui! As we're here on launch day we finally get to share our off-earth odyssey with all you patient fans (Today! Tuesday, 23rd of May), we thought we'd drop a little summary post of what you can expect from the game we've worked so hard on for 6 years.

While we're feeling extremely proud of the final result, and confident that you'll have a great time exploring Novo with Lana and Mui, we think it's always a good idea to lay out the features of the game in black and white, so you know what to expect before spending your hard-earned money!

Earlier this month Discord announced that they would be rolling out a new username system that removes the 4-digit discriminator at the end of the current usernames. This change enforces that each user name is unique, and no copies of a specific spelling can exist on the platform. Discord claims this change is being made in part because they've noticed that almost half of all friend requests on the platform fail to reach the intended accounts. The problems with this change are probably immediately evident to most of you, as the platform has over 200 million active accounts, and the statistical probability of multiple people wanting to claim the same name is astronomical.

Rusty Lake, an indie game studio based in Amsterdam and creators of Cube Escape and The Path Within games, experienced the primary issue with the new system first hand: username theft. While Discord gave the company an advanced reservation to pick their username, Rusty Lake found that another user had already claimed their name. On Twitter Rusty Lake posted about the issue and issued a warning to other indie developers using Discord for their communities,

We just received an email that we, as Verified Owners, could finally submit a new username and wow... 'rustylake' is already taken! If we as a server owner with 240K+ members can't even claim it… [...] Now we have a risk of impersonation + extra legal costs to file a possible trademark infringement. In any case
[Discord] was helpful enough to respond with an automatic response email to this issue and the follow up is directing us to another helpdesk.

Two months ago French developer - 2:21 - announced plans for complete remasters of the quirky mid-to-late Nineties-era Little Big Adventure or Relentless: Twinsen's Adventure/Odyssey (titles were confusingly region dependent back then) games series. The team has paused work on a third entry/reboot, and development of spruced-up versions of the original games has since become the priority - both LBA Remasters are being rebuilt on the Unreal Engine 5 platform, and key members from the old Adeline Software outfit are involved in the remake process.

Ben Limare, the CEO at 2:21, has provided a small update this week - he mentions that a new teaser trailer was debuted at AG French Direct, and now the pre-alpha gameplay footage has been uploaded to YouTube and the company's social media accounts. The introduction states: "Discover the first video and images of the upcoming demo for Twinsen's Little Big Adventure Remastered! Built from the ground up, enjoy new breathtaking visuals, enhanced music and improved, deeper gameplay as Twinsen's Little Big Adventure - Remastered reignites the original TLBA game using the latest next-generation technology." The team reconfirms that a demo version of Twinsen's Little Big Adventure 1 Remastered will be playable in June.

Embark on a journey where you face your worst fears and are confronted with the emotional impact of your actions. After its release as an exclusive launch title on Google Stadia in 2019, GYLT will be now accessible to new players starting July 6th on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series, Xbox One and PC, with wishlist open on Steam.

We, Tequila Works, the studio behind RiME and the upcoming Song of Nunu: A League of Legends Story, among other titles, announces July the 6th as the chosen release date for its delicate horror game GYLT on new platforms.

Team Cherry, the indie development outfit responsible for producing smash hit 2D platformer Hollow Knight (2017), has this week announced that the sequel - Silksong - will be missing its proposed early-ish 2023 launch window. The Australian team's publishing and marketing manager Matthew Griffin confirmed via a tweet that Hollow Knight: Silksong is still a work-in-progress project: "Hey gang, just a quick update about Silksong. We had planned to release in the 1st half of 2023, but development is still continuing. We're excited by how the game is shaping up, and it's gotten quite big, so we want to take the time to make the game as good as we can."

Hollow Knight: Silksong was first revealed to the public back in 2019, with Team Cherry taking a quiet approach to the release of preview material since then. A playable demo was on show at E3 2019, but a wider internet-based public has only had access to a pair of video trailers, some screenshots and minimal written details on official sites and product pages. Silksong was initially conceived as a DLC/expansion for the base game, but the designers expanded their project's scope - thus creating a standalone and entirely new entry in the series. It seems that the development team's ambitions have grown over the years - Griffin has not confirmed a revised release date but requests that fans wait for further announcements: "Expect more details from us once we get closer to release."