It’s summer season in Kyoto once more, and which means the return of two issues – climate that’s formally hotter than the solar, and BitSummit.
For the uninitiated, BitSummit is Japan’s main indie recreation competition, happening at Kyoto’s Miyako Messe conference centre for a couple of days yearly.
That is the present’s thirteenth yr and as soon as once more VGC is its Western media companion, so I’ve braved the Kyoto warmth (and a number of rain too, for what it’s price) to take a look at this yr’s serving to of indie video games from world wide.
The most effective issues about BitSummit is the present’s laidback vibe, particularly on the primary day. Going down over a Friday-Sunday interval, the Friday is a enterprise day primarily attended by exhibitors, sponsors, media and numerous different members of the video games business.
Whereas BitSummit takes place in a big sufficient venue and has a large sufficient choice that it by no means even feels crowded on the general public days – to not point out the truth that the final well mannered nature of Japanese folks means the present is refreshingly mild on influencers leaping round with cameras and different shenanigans – enterprise day is nonetheless a pleasant method to check out as a lot as potential.
On Friday, even the most well-liked cubicles (reminiscent of Nintendo’s Indie World sales space and PlayStation’s indie choice) supply fairly small queues, whereas many others can merely be approached and performed straight away. I’ve discovered this makes it the very best day for stumbling upon curiosities that I’d by no means heard of earlier than however instantly catch my consideration.
It’s additionally the proper alternative to meet up with previous pals.That is the easiest way I can describe Thumbylina, which in a present stuffed with ‘smaller’ video games was the smallest – fairly actually – by a big margin. Developer Leona Takahashi’s sales space at first seems to be displaying completely nothing, nevertheless it’s solely whenever you get proper as much as it that you just discover the tiny Sport Boy-like system sitting there.
That is the Thumby, a tiny open-source keychain which was initially Kickstarted a few years in the past. Takahashi has created Thumbylina, which he claims to be the world’s smallest digital woman. It’s seemingly above board, particularly as a result of with a display screen this small – my thumbnail is greater than it – it’s not prefer it may have dealt with smut even when it needed to.
The concept is that gamers can take Thumbylina wherever they need, and after they’re learning or exercising, they’ll set a timer throughout which she’ll do the identical. Over time she’ll achieve expertise, unlocking new outfits and the like. Though it’s presently being developed for the Thumby, Takahashi instructed me he plans to launch Thumbylina on a separate tiny keychain system and promote them as standalone merchandise (presumably with a name-change to keep away from points).
In fact, not the whole lot on present at BitSummit is kind of as eccentric as a centimetre-tall woman good friend. There’s extra standard indie fare there too, with one of many highlights on present at Nintendo’s personal Indie World sales space.
Final yr Japanese developer Tecopark launched Pico Park 2, a enjoyable co-op multiplayer puzzle recreation on Change, PC and Xbox. Now Tecopark is releasing an add-on for Change 2 which provides new phases primarily based on the Pleasure-Con’s mouse controls.
Pico Park 2 + Mouse Stage had me enjoying with three random strangers – all Japanese, naturally – and regardless of the language barrier we had an absolute blast working collectively to resolve every of the sport’s platforming-style puzzles.
Every participant controls their little character by holding down the mouse button, pulling again and letting go to fling them round (like Indignant Birds however with much more gravity). The purpose is to get by means of every stage by stacking on prime of one another, hitting switches, blocking lasers and numerous different enjoyable gimmicks.
There’s presently no equal of Snipperclips on Change 2, however after quarter-hour enjoying Pico Park 2 + Mouse Stage, I reckon this would possibly simply be kind of the native multiplayer silliness that can result in related ranges of lounge hollering and cheering.
■ PICO PARK２ + MOUSE STAGE ■
「PICO PARK 2」は「Nintendo Change 2」向けにちょこっと追加ステージを予定しています！
「BitSummit the thirteenth」の任天堂ブースにて先行体験できます！よろしくです！PICO PARK 2 may have somewhat little bit of further ranges for Nintendo Change 2!… pic.twitter.com/k0qRT5WsHJ
— PICO PARK / ピコパーク (@picoparkgame) June 24, 2025
You possibly can’t have indie video games with out horror, however anybody who’s dabbled with the style will know there’s a number of unimaginative jump-scare garbage on the market. I’ve already written concerning the steps Blumhouse Video games has been taking to curate larger high quality indie titles, and that seems to be the mission additionally being taken on by The Black Lantern Collective, a model new writer making its debut at BitSummit.
The writer has eight video games accessible on the present, three of which I attempted out. Muffles’ Life Sentence is an episodic RPG, the primary few episodes of that are already out, however primarily based on how few consumer opinions it has on Steam it’s nonetheless very a lot below the overwhelming majority of radars. It doesn’t should be – a number of indie video games attempt too exhausting to be humorous and fall painfully flat, however this had me laughing out loud quite a few instances all through the demo.
You play as Muffles, the newest inmate in a mysterious jail. You don’t have any concept why you’re there, nor are you aware why your face has been ripped off. This grotesque idea results in a hilarious scenario the place every NPC dialog has you selecting from a choice of effectively thought-out responses, all of which come out as “mmmmph mmm-mpph”, which results in quite a lot of reactions from stated NPC (“ah, the quiet sort, eh”). The primary episode is free on Steam now – I extremely suggest giving it a go in the event you fancy one thing darkly comedian.
I attempted a few different Black Lantern Collective video games, every of which was additionally fascinating. No Gamers On-line is the newest instance of an ever-growing subgenre of what can solely be described as ‘pretend working techniques’, the place gamers are confronted with a stranger’s faux old-school Home windows 95 type entrance finish and should discover their laptop. On this case, doing so ultimately results in the invention of an previous beta for a web based FPS which, naturally, is now so previous that no person’s enjoying it, which means you’re simply operating round its Seize the Flag map by yourself. Till you’re not.
I additionally tried the transient prologue for Soviet Spooky Tales: Inexperienced Eyes, a visible novel set within the Eighties Soviet Union. Placing apart the apparent potential problems with supporting a mission that was developed in Russia, the sport itself tells a enjoyable story – if a barely interactive one, primarily based on the prologue – a few woman who buys a mysterious vinyl report which finally ends up enjoying a Ring-like message, resulting in a grotesque stranger showing at her entrance door.
This was only a choice of a few of the extra memorable titles I performed throughout BitSummit’s first day. I’ll have additional protection on Saturday and Sunday, in addition to an article on VGC’s Sport of the Present, adopted by a extra detailed round-up of the whole lot I performed on the VGC Patreon web page early subsequent week.
Tomorrow, amongst different issues, count on hands-on impressions of a curious Chinese language FMV recreation, an intriguing origami-themed platformer, and a visible novel that reveals what occurs after the moon lands on Earth.
