Earlier today, a second Triple-I Initiative Showcase took place. This now-annual showcase is organized by independent game developers to show off their upcoming games. Last year’s show included titles like Slay the Spire 2 and The Rogue Prince of Persia. While no announcements this year quite reached the same level of surprise as those two games, plenty of fantastic indie games were all shown off.
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The showcase is worth a watch if you’re a fan of indies, but if you don’t have time to dedicate to a 45-minute showcase, I’ve rounded up five of the best-looking indie games from the showcase that are set to arrive in 202. Make sure you keep an eye on these games, as one of them could become the next Palworld, Balatro, or Blue Prince.
VOID/BREAKER
If you enjoy roguelike games and first-person shooters, you need to see VOID/BREAKER in action. It’s a game where players attempt to escape the evil grasp of an AI run-after-run, but it stands out the most due to its complex gun-crafting system and bombastic environmental destructibility. Impressively, VOID/BREAKER comes from Stubby Games, a one-person studio, although they are supported by Playstack, the same publisher who backed Balatro.
An open playtest for VOID/BREAKER is being held between today and April 23, while a full release on PC is coming later this year.
Frostrail
Frostrail is a new co-op FPS where players fight to survive in a harsh, arctic, post-apocalyptic world. A train serves as the players’ base of operations, but they have to venture out to find resources without being killed by horrifying monsters called Revenants. Survival and cooperative horror games are quite popular nowadays, so I certainly see the potential for Frostrail to find an audience when it finally comes out. It’s developed by Barotrauma studio Fakefish and published by Dune: Spice Wars’ Shiro Unlimited.
Frostrail will enter early access on Steam sometime in 2026.
SpeedRunners 2: King of Speed
The original SpeedRunners was an early indie game favorite of mine, as its competitive 2D platforming doesn’t feel like much else out there. It’s a lot of fun to run and jump through intense levels alongside other players, sabotaging them when you can. This sequel, which is still published by tinybuild but now developed by Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2’s Fair Play Labs, looks like it retains all the energy of the original while expanding on its core with eight-player matches and 3D visuals.
SpeedRunners 2: King of Speed will be released for PC later this year and for consoles in 2026.
Ikuma – The Frozen Compass
Ikuma – The Frozen Compass had one of the better trailers of the show, as it teased an adventure where a boy and his dog venture through a harsh Arctic mountain. It gave me similar vibes to games like Rise of the Tomb Raider and Song of Nunu: A League of Legends Story, and I can’t wait to see more of it. I’ve enjoyed previous Mooney Sutdios-backed projects like Smushi Come Home and Lost Ember, so I have high hopes for this indie game.
Ikuma – The Frozen Compass comes out on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S in 2026.
Star Birds
As a big fan of Toukana Interactive’s Dorfromantik and the YouTube channel Kurzgesagt, I’m excited to see the pair work together on a game. It’s called Star Birds, sporting the distinct style of Kurzgesagt’s animation and featuring gameplay where players have to build bases on asteroids in order to mine resources from them. If it’s anything like Dorfromantik, it should be a game that makes you feel equal parts relaxed and like a strategic genius. I’ll be keeping an eye out for its demo, which launches on Steam in June.
The full version of Star Birds is slated to be released in 2025.
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