5 great indie games from GDC 2026 | The Verge
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I played games about family drama, adorable slimes, and picking noses.
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I just got back from the GDC Festival of Gaming, a big industry-focused event in San Francisco that was formerly known as the Game Developers Conference. While the show is mostly about educational sessions and networking opportunities for working developers, there were also a bunch of games that I got to play. Here are some of my favorites, listed alphabetically. Best of all, these could all launch this year — hopefully well before Grand Theft Auto VI.
At Fate’s End is a gorgeous new action-adventure game from Spiritfarer developer Thunder Lotus all about grappling with sibling relationships through exploration and battles. I got to see two fights with just the first of the main character’s siblings. But even those early battles were thrilling skirmishes with dramatic animations, full-screen lightning attacks, and dialogue choices that can influence which ending you get. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about the game all week. At Fate’s End is set to launch in 2026 on PC, Play Station 5, and Xbox Series X / S.
The next title from Shovel Knight developer Yacht Club Games is an homage Link’s Awakening on the Game Boy, but with the twist that you play as a mouse that can dig through the ground. The game is set to launch sometime this spring following a delay last October, and based on a new demo I played, the extra time was worth it. I was disappointed by the demo I played on PC last year, but this time around, I loved exploring the game’s world, fighting challenging enemies, and even digging my way into some hidden secrets. Yacht Club Games plans to launch Mina the Hollower this spring on PC, Play Station 5, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, and Xbox Series X / S.
The Melty Way blends challenging, Super Meat Boy-style platforming with a gooey twist: You play as an adorable little slime, and as you move through the world, you melt away and get smaller. Becoming smaller gives you advantages like higher jumps and being able to squeeze into tighter pathways. But if you don’t find a checkpoint or finish the level in time, your little slime will die — and the slime is so dang cute that you’ll feel bad for letting that happen. The Melty Way is launching in early access on Steam on April 24th.
In Poke a Nose, from developer Jelle van Meerendonk, you fly around as a severed hand that collects toilet paper and finishes levels by poking noses. The concept is absurd, yet flying around as a hand actually takes some finesse, so getting a finger into a nose at the end of a level feels like a satisfying accomplishment. It’s targeting a 2026 release on PC, though van Meerendonk tells The Verge that early 2027 is “more likely.”
Speaking of Super Meat Boy, Super Meat Boy 3D feels like a promising 3D version of the brutally difficult 2D platformer. I was happy to see that a lot of the hallmarks of the original are present, like really floaty jumps and buzzsaws littered around the world. Sometimes, I fell to an untimely death because the new perspective led to some confusing jumps, but restarts were quick, so I didn’t mind too much. Super Meat Boy 3D is coming out in 2026 on PC, Play Station 5, Nintendo Switch 2, and Xbox Series X / S.
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