Here Are The Seven Most Exciting Announcements From Day Of The Devs: Game Awards Edition
Release dates, demos, and more made Day of the Devs an unmissable showcase.
When it comes to big game showcases, Day of the Devs has always been one of the most exciting. Now in its second decade, the curated festival of indie games has grown from an offshoot of developer Double Fine to its own non-profit, and it’s still one of the best places to learn about the most interesting upcoming indie games. Ahead of The Game Awards 2025, the latest iteration of Day of the Devs shared more than 20 new games to keep an eye on.
Here are our seven favorite games from Day of the Devs: The Game Awards Edition, featuring cooking sims, platformers, and more. Some of these even have release date announcements and surprise demos.
Beastro
In Beastro, you play as a chef cooking to support heroes in their adventures into the dangerous wilderness.
Beastro is an intriguing stew of ideas combining deckbuilding RPGs, cooking sims, and minigame collections. In Beastro, you run a restaurant for heroes called Caretakers, growing or fishing your own ingredients, cooking them up through varied minigames, and assembling dishes that suit each adventurer’s tastes. The ingredients you choose determine which cards the Caretaker will bring into battle, which are presented as charming puppet shows you then play through as the adventurer regales you about what happened on the road.
Along with its Day of the Devs appearance, Beastro’s first demo is available on Steam today.
Big Hops
Big Hops is a cute platformer with surprising depth.
If you think about it, a frog, with all of its jumping prowess, is the perfect protagonist for a platformer. Big Hops seems to get that, combining its froggy hero’s propensity for hopping with his sticky tongue, which can be used to grab items, launch him toward platforms, and even (for some reason) pick locks. Collectibles throughout the game also let you reshape the environment by adding vines, grapple points, and other interactable objects so you can make your own path through levels.
At its Day of the Devs appearance, developer Luckshot Games also announced that Big Hops will be out on January 12, 2026.
Demon Tides
Indie platformer Demon Tides is set to launch in February.
You may have heard of developer Fabraz from the announcement that it’s developing a revival of the forgotten platformer series Bubsy, but that’s not all it’s working on. Its Demon Tides has been one of the most anticipated indie platformers of the past few years, and at Day of the Devs, it finally got a release date. With incredibly smooth movement and fantastic character designs, the high-speed platformer will finally be out on February 19, 2026.
Soundgrass
Soundgrass looks and sounds like nothing else out there, using sound as its main puzzle-solving tool.
I’m not going to pretend that I totally understand what’s going on in Soundgrass, but I know I’m interested. The upcoming game takes place on a planet where everything around you emits and reacts to sound, from rocks to plants. Controlling a spherical drone, you can manipulate the environment with light and sound to navigate and solve puzzles. Its bizarre visuals and experimental sound makes it one of the most striking games at Day of the Devs.
Stretchmancer
Stretchmancer is full of mind-bending puzzles based on reshaping the game’s environment.
I can already see the ways that Stretchmancer is going to break my brain and I can’t wait to play it. In Stretchmancer, you play as an alien with the ability to stretch the physical environment around them, which comes in handy when you’re trying to escape from space prison. Your powers let you push and pull the entire world to move obstacles, compress levels for easier jumps, and alter the world in all kinds of unexpected ways to get through platforming puzzles, all with a cool, cartoony vibe and a fittingly fun soundtrack.
Unshine Arcade
Unshine Arcade is an Inscryption-like take on old-school arcades.
Roguelike twin-stick shooters and psychological horror might not have much in common on their own, but Unshine Arcade combines them into one extremely compelling package. The game is set in the world’s creepiest arcade, centering on a shooter, a possibly evil virtual pet, and a few other strange machines. The further you progress in the shooter game, the more you can unlock upgrades that effect the arcade itself, letting you figure out exactly what’s been going on here and whether the knockoff Tamagotchi you’re talking to is really on your side or not.
A demo for Unshine Arcade is also available on Steam today.
Virtue and a Sledgehammer
Virtue and a Sledgehammer is a narrative game from the developers of Many Nights a Whisper.
The next game from Deconstructeam and Selkie Harbour could hardly look more different from their Many Nights a Whisper but it looks just as fascinating. As Deconstructeam explains in its Day of the Devs appearance, “Virtue and a Sledgehammer is a game about realizing you don’t belong in the place you grew up anymore” — that’s also about destroying buildings and robots with a sledgehammer. Like the rest of Deconstructeam and Selkie Harbour’s games, it’s a narrative-driven experience, where you tear apart your hometown with your hammer to uncover the story. Virtue and a Sledgehammer is set for release some time in 2026.
