video games

Ten highlights from the Top Hat Studios indie games showcase

This morning, during a half-hour livestream, Top Hat Studios shared updates on and announcements for over twenty indie games. Here are some highlights.

Matt Buckley

April 22, 2025 11:59

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Ten highlights from the Top Hat Studios indie games showcase Source: Under the Island, Bombshell Blitz, & Motorslice, Source: Top Hat Studios.

Today, Top Hat Studios, a small publisher that s indie developers, held a showcase for over twenty indie games. This studio is known for publishing great indie games like last year’s Crypt Custodian, and other indie games like Frogun, and Ova Magica. Today’s showcase lasted for about half an hour and featured a wide variety of games, from metroidvanias, classic pixel-art RPGs, and a few survival horror games as well.

Ten highlights from Top Hat Studios Showcase, indie games to look forward to

This article can’t cover absolutely everything from the showcase, so if you are interested in learning more about some exciting indie games, the full showcase is highly recommended. These are just a handful of games that stood out to me, so there’s bound to be more that might be a better fit for you. Some of these games are newly announced, while others are sharing updates, such as release dates.

, if any of these games look interesting to you, wishlist them on Steam. It’s a free and easy way to the developer, plus Steam will send you emails whenever the game gets a playable demo, fully launches, or goes on sale.

Labyrinth Of The Demon King

One of the most anticipated games in this showcase is the debut game from developer J. R. Hudepohl Labyrinth Of The Demon King, a survival horror dungeon crawler. The new minute-long trailer showed more of a look at the first-person combat, dark, gritty environments, and the dangerous creatures you’ll find hidden in the shadows. Track down the demon that betrayed your lord and end its life.

The major reveal for today’s showcase was a release date and the announcements of more platforms. Labyrinth Of The Demon King will launch on May 13th, but not just on Steam. This dark gritty horror game will also launch on Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5. If you want to give it a try, Labyrinth Of The Demon King has a free demo available now on Steam.

Bombshell Blitz

Minecraft). The lowpoly aesthetic comes through in the character designs, which are blocky, but still manage to be full of character and personality.

The gameplay centers around controlling a tank from a top-down perspective. Navigate each level and take out groups of enemy vehicles using various strategies. This is all part of the combat exams for the Bombshell Military Academy. Bombshell Blitz will also have dating sim elements, so make sure to impress your supervisors with high scores. This is the first time we’ve heard of Bombshell Blitz, so there’s no release date yet, but you can wishlist the game on Steam!

Motorslice

Explore a vast industrial structure in Motorslice, an atmospheric parkour action-adventure. You may have seen clips of this game go viral on social media over the last year, but until now, this indie game did not have a publisher. Today’s announcement shared that Top Hat Studios would be stepping in to fill that role.

Use your chainsaw to fight off various construction equipment, from small enemies to massive machines. Today’s trailer is reminiscent of games like Shadow of the Colossus, where the player needs to climb onto massive enemies to bring them down. Currently there is no release date for Motorslice but expect a launch sometime in late 2025 or early 2026.

Unannounced Game by Kyle Thompson

You may know some of solo-developer Kyle Thompsons’ work. Islets and Sheepo. Today, alongside the wonderful announcement that Crypt Custodian will be getting a physical edition on August 29th, we got a first glimpse at the next project.

The video starts with a blood red moon and a small cabin glowing with red light. The next shot shows a forested environment that looks a lot like a stage from a metroidvania game, suggesting that’s the kind of game we can expect. The last image we get is a red clawed hand reaching up, covered in golden jewelry. We will have to wait until this summer to learn more.

ZWAARD

There are only a handful of games from today’s showcase that completely surprised me. I had heard of at least the game or the developer for most of these titles so far. But ZWAARD, an isometric action adventure about crafting the ultimate sword in a post-apocalyptic world, from Beleef Studios, caught me by surprise.

The beautiful and vibrant pixel-art landscapes instantly caught my eye, and the relaxing piano soundtrack gave the vibes of a world I want to spend time in and explore. But it wouldn’t be a game about crafting the ultimate sword if you didn’t swing it around a few times. Between giant bosses, puzzles, and a science-fiction story that seems to go much deeper than I expected, I am absolutely hooked. ZWAARD doesn’t have an exact release date yet, only a 2025 window, so I’ll be adding it to my wishlist to keep track.

Windswept

Windswept is an adorable pixel-art 2D precision platformer from WeatherFell starring Marbles the duck and Checkers the turtle. This game’s Steam page also taught me that apparently you can use emojis in a Steam description. I had heard about this game before because the developer is very active in posting great clips on social media. On the surface this looks like a game about adorable animals, but I can already tell the platforming challenges in this game are going to have me throwing controllers, in the best way.

Just based on this trailer though, Windswept looks amazing. Between the two main characters there is lots of creativity in how to get around. The environments are gorgeous and full of other cute animals, players can ride on a dog, a chameleon, and maybe others to unlock new abilities, and there are boss battles. I’ll be looking forward to exploring the pirate ship run by mice, a beehive with bee knights, and fighting the mustachioed octopus. There is still no exact release date for Windswept, but the end of the trailer gives us a Summer 2025 window to look forward to.

EbiTapes

Play as Ebi as you explore the handcrafted world of EbiTapes from developers Marton Kiss and Lilla Turi. The hand-drawn paper cutout aesthetic of the game almost gives it a stop-motion animation style. Record various sounds throughout the world and create remixes of those sounds to put on concerts for other residents, with the ultimate goal of saving the Annual City Festival from the Shushinator.

Not only does EbiTapes sound like a charming adventure game, but I’m also always fascinated when a video game includes such a creative mechanic as this. Today’s new trailer shows some of the sounds Ebi has recorded, including “cave vibes” and “snoring.” EbiTapes seems like it will be rather silly but could also share the majesty and wonder of the randoms sounds we experience on a day-to-day basis. Especially if players start sharing their musical creations. As of today, EbiTapes has not announced a release date, but the Steam page still says 2025.

Elementallis

Elementallis gave serious top-down classic Legend of Zelda vibes during today’s presentation. From developer Iván Ruiz Lozano, Elementallis is a top-down RPG where the player uses a sword and the powers of multiple elements to fight and solve puzzles across a “pre-apocalyptic world.” The trailer shows the player using a wheel to select various elemental abilities to aid in combat and exploration.

Creating a puddle of water to then zap it with electricity or causing a plant to grow to create a ladder to another area are just the kind of creative problem solving that gets me excited for a game. But there’s more than just creativity with elements here. The specific callout of the “pre-apocalyptic world” in Elementallis’ Steam description, plus a journey to restore the elements makes me think this game will have an interesting story as well. Elementallis is planned to launch sometime later this year.

SONZAI

A combination of social simulator, RPG, and 2D combo-based action from Two Odd Diodes, is SONZAI, a completely hand-drawn adventure. Explore the modern town of Kumotoshi, ride the subway, attend classes, but this is not just any ordinary town. It is wrapped with magical fantasy elements, spirits, characters to engage with, and monsters to fight.

The trailer does not give away much of SONZAI’s narrative, but even though there surely is one, it doesn’t feel necessary. Simply exploring this fantastical hand-drawn world, taking on combat encounters, and interacting with the various characters can be enough to make this game one worth wishlisting. There’s no exact release date yet for SONZAI, but it’s great to know it will be coming to nearly every platform, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and PC.

Under the Island

Explore a fantasy world based on the 1990s in Under the Island, a 2D top-down pixel-art RPG from developer Slime King Games. Nia, the protagonist of this game, uses her hockey stick as a makeshift sword to fight off various creatively designed monsters on Seashell Island. Delve into dungeons and solve puzzles with all kinds of various tools, from a horn that can be used to herd sheep to a less elegant but still effective bomb that enemies can be pushed into.

In Under the Island, you arrive on this mysterious island, and just as you’re getting to know the locals, you discover that the whole island is going to sink into the ocean. Team up with various characters, other humans, a dog, and what looks like some kind of onion gentleman to help save the island. Under the Island did not announce a release date during today’s showcase, so you’ll have to add it to your wishlist for now and wait to hear more about this charming game. When it does launch, Under the Island is planned to arrive on Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and PC.

Conclusion

It’s always hard to narrow down these lists of exciting indie games to look forward to. Personally, Crypt Custodian was one of my favorite games of 2024, so Kyle Thompson’s next game might be the biggest highlight for me. But I’m very excited about ZWAARD, Motorslice, and Windswept as well. There’s a lot of great indie games to look forward to. Thanks to Top Hat Studios for hosting this livestream and helping out so many talented independent developers create and publish their games.