The Six One Indie Showcase made its grand arrival, and with it came an insane number of indie games and a (thankfully) quick kill-switch on any hopes of seeing Hollow Knight: Silksong. I know how much Dwayne appreciated that. It was an hour and fifteen minutes of games that seemed to represent every genre, and more than a few stood out and rocketed to the top of my most wanted list.
‘Leftovers ko!’ – the cartoons of my childhood are playable
I one hundred percent should have never been watching Ren and Stimpy as a kid. Hell, Rocko’s Modern Life might be a stretch. Leftovers KO! looks like it was pulled directly from those Nickelodeon blocks I loved so much. Look at this description: “After a long day at work, you come home to find that your uneaten food has come to life—and it’s here to beat you up… with its hands.”
It’s a Punch-Out!-inspired game, and the hand-drawn animation looks straight out of Ren and Stimpy. Apparently, there’s a storyline reason for the leftovers in your fridge to decide they want the not-so-friendly fade. And you can only find out why by delivering hands yourself. The game comes out May 25th, and I will be on this day one.
‘Kejora’ – if ‘groundhog day’ was an indie game, but darker
I have a soft spot for narrative puzzle platformers thanks to What Lies in the Multiverse. Kejora fits that mold perfectly. Another game with a hand-drawn art style (keep these coming), this follows a kid named Kejora who is living in a town whose inhabitants are reliving the same day over and over again.
So, now we have a mystery only a kid can solve. And in keeping with that particular genre of storytelling, when this game comes out on September 4th, 2025, we will have a resolution to this well before the end of Stranger Things. If that’s not reason enough to buy this game, I don’t know what is. The game boasts a party system that has Kejora’s two friends help you solve environmental puzzles. If the narrative and gameplay can match the art style, this could be one that’s sitting at the top of more than a few lists at the end of the year.
‘cast n chill’ – get in the boat, we’re going fishing
This is a game some would say they might not expect me to be excited about. But fishing has always intrigued me. My grandfather promised me for years that one day we’d hop in a boat and hit the water. And while we never did get in that boat, he did take me to a pond down the street from his house to fish with him. It remains one of my favorite memories. We’re gonna have to do it again.
Until then, Cast n Chill seems to evoke all the calm and relaxation a fishing trip provides. The trailer says it’s “cozy idle fishing.” It boasts an active mode that lets you cast your line and reel it in yourself, or a passive mode that does most of the work for you. When you come back to it, you can see your progress. Think The Office: Somehow We Manage and other idle games like that. Personally, I’ll be spending my time in active mode as this feels like the perfect type of game to unwind with. It won’t replace the actual feeling of just losing yourself with a rod and reel in your hand, but it’ll do. Cast n Chill comes out in June 2025.
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