Thanks to games like Florence, Gorogoa, and What Remains of Edith Finch, Annapurna Interactive has steadily become one of the most exciting indie game publishers around. And at its first showcase event, the publisher showed that there’s plenty more in the works. In less than 30 minutes, Annapurna revealed some exciting new partnerships and showed off upcoming games that involve everything from being a cat to hunting demons in heaven. Here’s everything that was shown off.
Stray turns you into a cyberpunk cat
Arguably the highlight of the event was the debut gameplay trailer for Stray, a game set in some kind of forgotten cyberpunk city in which you play as a lost cat. It looks like a great action-adventure game, albeit one where you can nuzzle robots and scratch up a couch. It’s slated to launch on PlayStation and Steam in early 2022.
The Artful Escape gets a release date and star-studded cast
Gorgeous musical adventure The Artful Escape sends players on a “psychedelic, multidimensional journey” that involves lots of killer guitar riffs. It also has a killer cast: the game will feature voice work from the likes of Michael Johnston, Caroline Kinley, Lena Headey, Jason Schwartzman, Mark Strong, and Carl Weathers. It launches September 9th on Xbox and PC.
Storyteller lets you build your own narrative
One of the brand-new announcements was Storyteller, which is a bit of a puzzle game where the goal is to create a story. You’re given a theme, characters, locations, and other narrative elements, which you can then mix-and-match using what looks like a very intuitive drag-and-drop system. It’s listed as coming “soon” to both the Switch and Steam.
The Outer Wilds is getting an expansion
The mysterious sci-fi adventure The Outer Wilds is about to get even bigger: an expansion, called Echoes of the Eye, is due to launch on September 28th. The trailer is delightfully cryptic, so it looks like fans will have to wait to see what it really entails.
A closer look at Neon White
Neon White looks to be quite the departure for Donut County creator Ben Esposito. It’s described as a speedrunning first-person shooter “about exterminating demons in Heaven,” and the new gameplay trailer gives a better idea of what that really means. It’s expected to launch later this year on Switch and PC.
Solar Ash is coming in October
The team behind Hyper Light Drifter is returning with another gorgeous action game, and now we know when it’s coming out. Solar Ash will be out on October 26th on PC and PlayStation.
A Memoir Blue explores memory
Another new announcement, A Memoir Blue is described as “a poignant story of a mother and daughter, experienced through memories cherished and memories suppressed.” It currently doesn’t have a release date, but it’s coming to a huge range of platforms.
A gameplay trailer for Skin Deep
Blendo’s next release looks to make the world of immersive sims just a little bit weirder. The sci-fi game is about “sneaking, subverting, and sabotaging, all while not wearing shoes,” according to the developer. You can get a sense of what that means in the gameplay trailer above.
A number of new partnerships
In addition to new games, Annapurna also announced publishing deals with a quartet of exciting developers. That includes Jessica Mak, best known for the musical games Sound Shapes and Everyday Shooter, as well as horror studio No Code and Falcon Age developer Outerloop Games. The publisher is also working with a new team called Ivy Road, led by Stanley Parable creator Davey Wreden and Karla Zimonja, formerly of Gone Home developer Fullbright.
Old games, new platforms
Some of the publisher’s more popular games are also hitting new platforms in the near future. Both Telling Lies and Gorogoa are coming to Xbox Game Pass, The Pathless is coming to Steam on November 16th, I Am Dead is coming to Xbox and PlayStation on August 9th, and Edith Finch will jump to mobile with an iOS port on August 16th.
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