10 Upcoming Indie Games We Went Hands-On with at LVLUP Expo 2026

2 hours ago 3

Published May 4, 2026, 9:30 AM EDT

Ethan Krieger is an Editor at DualShockers, where he covers reviews, guides, lists, features, previews, interviews, and gaming news. He began writing professionally in 2017 as a sports writer before moving into games coverage with DualShockers in 2024.

Before joining DualShockers, Ethan wrote for the FanSided Sports Network, including 8 Points, 9 Seconds, where he covered the Indiana Pacers, and Pelican Debrief, where he covered the New Orleans Pelicans. His background in sports writing, editing, and content strategy now informs his approach to gaming coverage, especially around reviews, rankings, guides, and event reporting. Ethan studied English at Arizona State University, with a focus on writing and text editing.

At the end of April, I attended the LVLUP Expo in Las Vegas. This show is jam-packed with tons of incredible cosplay, celebrity meet and greets, live gaming tournaments, and more nerdy merch than you could ever imagine (shout out to my awesome new Zelda desk mat from Bryce Kho Draws).

50 Best Indie Games of All Time

Forget blockbuster AAA games! We want some plucky little indies!

But most excitingly for someone like me, a massive indie game lover, were the dozens of public demo booths for a collection of passion projects from small teams, some recently released, and some coming soon in 2026 (and perhaps beyond). I made it my personal goal to go hands-on with everything I possibly could over the weekend, and it was a great time overall.

Of course, not everything I tested out spoke to me on a personal level, but the majority did. As such, here are the ten currently unreleased indie titles I played at LVLUP that I think any fellow indie game lover should put on their shortlist of games to check out as soon as they drop.

10 Grave Seasons

A Cozy Killer Caper

Grave Seasons looks pretty unassuming at first glance. The artwork is lovely, putting forth a Stardew-esque cozy vibe that, while surely intriguing for many, doesn't clue you in that something sinister is lurking beneath the surface. Take a closer look, and you'll notice this one is published by Blumhouse Games, who are pretty new to the gaming scene, but have a deep catalog of horror movies under their belts already.

After briefly getting the lay of the land in this life/farming sim full of amazing character art I'd most closely liken to something like Date Everything, Grave Seasons reveals its dark and gory murder mystery/serial killer theme. I walked around town and met the locals before finding a trail of blood on the ground, then witnessed a murder when night fell over the village at the hands of something that seemed truly monstrous.

Cozy and horror fans alike seem like they're in for a treat with this one. It's also one of the few on the list that has a concrete release date: August 14, 2026.

9 Truckful

Truck Stranding

Developer

Publisher

Genre

Release

MythicOwl

MythicOwl, Pocketpair Publishing

Driving, Physics

2026

Next up is Truckful, a game I've honestly been meaning to demo for months, so I was thrilled to see it on the show floor at LVLUP. The premise to this one is pretty simple, but where it shines is in its driving and physics-based control system. Here, you drive an old, but customizable and upgradeable pickup truck around a country town.

From an isometric perspective, it'll take a second to get used to the steering controls here, but I've also been a longtime lover of similar driving and racing titles from similar camera angles. You'll perform a series of errands for the locals, which means you've got to load up your truck bed, then traverse the winding and hilly roads carefully to keep everything safely on the vehicle without it all flying off if you take a turn or an incline too recklessly.

A colleague and I joked that it's Death Stranding with a truck, but it's obviously all ultimately a bit simpler and cozier than Kojima's walking simulator. There's no release date on Steam beyond a 2026 label, but keep it on the radar.

An Homage to an Homage

Developer

Publisher

Genre

Release

doinksoft

Devolver Digital

Retro Platformer

TBA

Devolver has a ton of wacky and irreverent games under their publishing umbrella at this point (more on this later in the list), but Dark Scrolls isn't really one of these. Instead, it's a retro-style side-scrolling action-platformer that looks and feels most like the iconic Shovel Knight. And as a big fan of both Shovelry and Dark Souls (which Dark Scrolls is clearly riffing on with its name), this one was another standout.

A collection of characters with unique sprite work and attacks need to get from one side of a level to another, and defeat enemies along the way. Sounds pretty simple, right? Not quite. As the name Dark SCROLLS implies, the levels are also auto-scrolling in nature, meaning they're constantly moving, and if you get left behind, you die. This puts a premium on not only defeating enemies, but also platforming proficiently enough to keep up with the screen scrolling.

More excitingly is that Dark Scrolls can be played solo or in co-op, so you can take a buddy along for the ride if you please. This one is just listed as "Coming Soon," so keep your eyes peeled.

7 Ground Zero Hero

The Best Garlic-Like at the Show

Vampire Survivors is awesome, but I've gotta be honest; it was a bit shocking to see just how many games were at LVLUP from indie devs that follow the same formula with their own spin on it. I believe Justin Davis from IGN coined the term "Garlic-Likes" for these Vampire Survivor-likes, so I'd like to help proliferate that subgenre name to the masses as well.

Despite some Garlic-Like fatigue at LVLUP I had by the end, Ground Zero Hero was definitely my favorite of the bunch, and it's one I'm really excited about. The colors and artwork here are vibrant and hyper-cartoonish, along with the powers and attacks you'll gather along the way, like a giant tentacle that can wipe away hordes of enemies above you on the screen.

I'm not sure anyone has done this genre better than Vampire Survivors yet, but they also set the bar ridiculously high. Ground Zero Hero, however, looks to be an absolute blast in its own right, and it's one you should check out whenever it's out of "Coming Soon" mode.

6 Dice of Arcana

Roll for... Fingers

Developer

Publisher

Genre

Release

Studio Evil

Shoreline Games

Roguelike, Turn-Based, Tabletop

TBA

Speaking of games inspired by other games, Dice of Arcana is very clearly riffing on the incredible Inscryption, but this one also switches the formula up in big ways. Instead of being card-based, Dice of Arcana is a one-on-one turn-based game played with dice. Its mechanics are pretty simple on the surface, but this also feels like a game that's going to get way deeper as the stakes get higher, and you unlock more and more dice to pay with.

There's also a very clear through line of something very dark, concerning, and downright evil going on with your adversary across the table, who keeps pulling clearly unwilling opponents into the seat across from you to play the game, many of which are noticeably missing several fingers from previous games.

I will say that if you check out the public demo that's already on Steam, I think Dice or Arcana does move at a pretty slow pace initially. I'm also confident, however, that once this one really gets rolling (get it?), Dice or Arcana is going to be a thoroughly weird, memorable, and challenging one. For now, it remains listed as "To Be Announced" in terms of a release date. Make it happen soon, please.

5 Croak

A Ribbiting Good Time

Developer

Publisher

Genre

Release

WoodRunner Games

Platformer

2026

Holy cow, is Croak a beautiful looking little indie platformer. The game's artwork is clearly the immediate standout, which looks like a simply lovely, hand-drawn storybook. It used to be that when a game looked this charming, we wouldn't assume a very high difficulty ceiling. Then Cuphead happened, and we all know to look a little closer now.

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Croak is adorable, but it's also a precise 2D platformer that will surely require mastering our frog prince's movement abilities by the end, which include latching onto surfaces with his tongue, and pinballing around the screen when he rolls up in a ball. For me, there are slight tweaks I'd like to see with some of the jumping and momentum physics for such a precise game, but I also have to admit that Croak and its stylish boss fights already have me more than interested regardless.

We're supposed to get this one in 2026, which is fine by me, since I'm always looking for more indie platformers to champion.

4 Neo Titan

Slashin' and Shootin' and Twin-Stickin'

Developer

Publisher

Genre

Release

idoz & phops

Isometric, Soulslike, Twin-Stick, Metroidvania, Bullet-Hell

TBA

Neo Titan is the most under-the-radar game on this list, and I'd love to change that right now. In fact, at LVLUP, it was separate from the main grouping of indie titles, housed unassumingly in a separate Mad Mushroom section of the show floor. By the end of my demo with it, I immediately went and told my aforementioned colleague to check it out to see if I was crazy for thinking it was so good, but no. After getting another set of eyes on it, we were able to confirm: Neo Titan is very cool.

This is a twin-stick, Soulslike, bullet-hell, Metroidvania that controls like butter, and has a lot more depth to the combat than you'd expect from a fairly unassuming-looking isometric action game. In particular, I think the twin-stick projectile elements here combined with snappy dodging and fluid melee combat are really going to result in something very fun, and very special once this one is in the wild.

Be one of us that are now in-the-know, and add Neo Titan to whatever 2026 shortlist you've got cooking already. This is another listed as "Coming Soon," and I hope "Soon" is like... ASAP.

3 D-topia

Black Mirror, But Nice

Developer

Publisher

Genre

Release

Marumittu Games

Annapurna Interactive

Puzzle, Adventure

July 14, 2026

Like the previously mentioned Blumhouse Games, Annapurna Interactive is further proof that a film studio going the game publisher route can be a beautiful thing. I've gotten to the point that if I see Annapurna on a game, I immediately want to check it out, because it's probably at the very least a cinematic-feeling, creative, emotion-driven gaming experience. D-topia from Marumitta Games is now officially the latest Annapurna-published game I've tried, and I am stoked for more.

This one was a nice change of pace on the LVLUP show floor, and feels kind of like a movie like The Island, or a Black Mirror episode like "Fifteen Million Merits" where our protagonist is living in some sort of corporate community centered around maximum workplace productivity since everyone just lives where they work. I have no reason to believe D-topia gets as severely dark as those other comparisons, but the setting was still reminiscent.

What is actually here is an adorable, somewhat minimalist, artsy game full of number and block-moving puzzles that I found very engaging and that made me feel smart (a tall task, I must say). I'm excited for even more brain-teasers when D-topia comes out on July 14, 2026.

2 Fractured Blooms

Jim Halpert "WHAT IS GOING ON?" GIF

I got my first look at Fractured Blooms during the 2025 Summer Game Fest presentation, and it was one that stood out to me during the show as an indie that seemed ready to get extremely weird with it, which always speaks to me. After getting to go hands-on with this one myself, yeah; Fractured Blooms is a bit of a trip.

We control a self-narrating Angie, who is stuck in a time loop at her old farmhouse, completing mundane tasks like tending to her tomato garden, making dinner, and doing laundry. It quickly becomes very apparent, however, that something is seriously wrong; whether that's with the house, an unwelcome presence, or Angie's mind itself, I still do not know.

What I do know is that navigating these increasingly terrifying loops full of stressful timers and stamina management, moving objects, and insanely trippy visuals has created one of the most intriguing indie game demos I've ever played. This one's release date is "To Be Announced." Fingers crossed it's like... today.

1 The Dungeon Experience

A Very Meta Quest

Developer

Publisher

Genre

Release

Jacob Janerka, Simon Boxer, Bone Assembly

Devolver Digital

Adventure, Comedy

TBA

We've covered the "normal" type of Devolver game, so let's wrap up with one of the seemingly most unhinged (in a good way) ones on their roster. The Dungeon Experience is already one of the weirdest and most absurdly hilarious games I've ever played, and I've only tried the demo. Full of extremely meta dialogue from a narrator crab character, as well as seemingly every NPC in the game, this one is a hoot.

It's also filled with plenty of visual gags, references, and double entendres that I often couldn't believe I was experiencing in public with other expo attendees circling the demo stand, which was hilarious in its own right. I don't even... really know what this game is yet, aside from it being a first-person fantasy dungeon experience where a crab is determined to help me experience financial freedom. And... thanks, I guess?

The type of ridiculous Adult Swim-esque humor we see in other Devolver games is honestly not always a 100% success rate for me, but so far, The Dungeon Experience is working for me tremendously, and I'm both excited and lowkey freaked out to see whatever else is in this game whenever the release date is announced.