This week's Indie Game Round-up (September 9th-13th) 🕹️

Your round-up of every notable and under-the-radar indie game release from each day. Plus, new indie game announcements, trailers, updates, & relevant industry news - for gamers + devs. 🎮

Welcome to the September 9th-13th edition of the indie game round-up newsletter - your ultimate one-stop shop for all things indie!

This week’s update includes the Unity runtime fee cancellation, Annapurna Interactive’s entire team resigning, layoffs at Evening Star, the return of Flappy Bird, and several indie game announcements. It’s also been a particularly busy week of launches, with more than 40 notable indie releases across PC and consoles. (This one has taken me most of the weekend to put together!) 🥵

Thanks for all your support, and apologies for inconsistencies - between events, work, holidays, illness, and general burn out, I’ve sadly been a bit all over the place. Hopefully you find below’s update interesting and useful. Please consider checking these games out, purchasing them, or wishlisting them - it all helps indie devs! ❤️

This Week’s Indie Games News

Flappy Bird is making a surprise comeback, 10 years after it originally was taken down from storefronts by its original solo developer, Dong Nguyen. You may remember the weird times where folk were rushing to buy iPhones on eBay, just so they could tap a little bird past some fairly-familiar looking green pipes. They were simpler times.

The new game looks like a spruced up version, with multiple birds, game modes, unlocks, and more. But you may wonder why it’s made a comeback, after its developer delisted the game after feeling guilty by creating an addictive game. Dong has posted on Twitter, confiming that he is not involved in the new game, did not willingly sell it, and does not support crypto - as this new edition appears to have some bizarre crypto ties. Unfortunately, it’s looking like a company simply filed that the trademark was not being used, and (legally) stole it in the courts, allowing them to brandish it as an “official” return.

🔗 Forbes news article

Palworld's studio is deliberating whether to turn the game into a free-to-play live service title to boost its longevity and revenue, or to keep it as a premium paid title.

🔗 Automaton news article

Unity has announced that it is cancelling its controversial Runtime Fee in its entirety, reverting back to its normal model, under its new leadership. Indie developers, rejoice - you have been heard, though perhaps a year too late! It’s worth noting, that Unity’s CEO and the majority of its entire executive suite have since been replaced, as a result of the fallout of the initial fee unveiling.

🔗 Unity blog post

Annapurna Interactive, publisher of beloved indie games such as Sayonara Wild Hearts, Stray, Outer Wilds, What Remains of Edith Finch, Wattam, and many more, has had its entire team of 25 people resign, in an unprecedented move.

Details are still emerging, but talks between Annapurna Interactive and its parent company, film studio Annapurna Pictures, were ongoing to spin-off the video game division as its own separate entity. After talks fell through, the entire team resigned. This has left developers remaining under its label uncertain as to their future, even as Annapurna Pictures heads have assured they will honour existing publishing contracts.

My personal two cents, is that the team found their position under a film studio’s thumb and a billionaire leader untenable, and potentially had the upper-hand in negotiations with plans to leave and continue their work together as a team under a new name elsewhere. An entire team leaving all at once is unprecendented, especially in the current difficult market, so I expect we may hear from them in some form in the future.

It’ll be difficult getting Annapurna Interactive back off the ground and kicking with new signings, even with a new team installed, now that developer trust is shaken. My personal thoughts are that Annapurna as we know it is effectively dead.

🔗 Bloomberg news article

Evening Star - the studio behind recent 3D platformer Penny's Big Breakaway, and the team behind Sonic Mania, is letting go of 6 members of staff, due to difficulties securing another project.

🔗 Developer LinkedIn post

The Six One Indie Showcase airs on September 19th, 11:50am/4:50pm BST, with 45 indies premieres and exclusive news.

🔗 Showcase link

Human: Fall Flat, one of the best-selling games of all-time, has hit 50 million copies sold. Its upcoming sequel is expected to launch next year (cue the debate as to whether that still counts as indie or not!)

🔗 GoNintendo news article

Spray Paint Simulator, a relaxing, stress-free game where you just spray-paint objects - like a reverse PowerWash Simulator - has been announced by publisher Whitethorn Games, launching in 2025.

🔗 Wishlist it on Steam

Wizard of Legend 2 publisher Humble Games has announced the sequel to the acclaimed action-roguelite game is coming to Steam Early Access on October 3rd.

🔗 Wishlist it on Steam

Planet Coaster 2 publisher Frontier has announced the coaster park sim is launching on November 6th for PS5, Xbox Series, and PC.

🔗 Wishlist it on Steam

Home Safety Hotline, an analog horror game from Puppet Combo, is coming to consoles (Switch, PS4/PS5, and Xbox) on September 20th.

🔗 Steam page

Paid subscribers will be able to see round-ups of the week’s indie game launches below (40+ more indies) - please consider supporting! ❤️