Indie games on the horizon you need to know about

Instead of being overshadowed by the giant game publishers and developers at E3, the prominent indie devs of the industry decided to head down the road and hold their very own conference, the Horizon Summit, at an art museum in Los Angeles.

There were some interesting games on show, not to mention some surprise announcements about what’s on the indie gaming horizon… I see what they did there.

Kachika

Kachika was announced by Ben Esposito, who worked on The Unfinished Swan on PS3.

Kachika requires players to try and solve puzzles using giant holes. The holes can be placed under things like trees, houses and cows, which can then be spat out again, in order to provide solutions to puzzles, such as trying to help chickens cross the road.

Tearaway

We already knew about Tearaway, but the game from LittleBigPlanet dev Media Molecule was on show at Horizon.

Tearaway will see players take control of a character named Iota, a messenger from a paper dimension on a delivery mission.

Players will need to use intuitive touch controls and augmented reality (using the Vita’s camera) to help overcome obstacles throughout the game.

Fez 2

Polytron Corporation kept the best till last, and announced Fez 2 – a sequel to 2012’s mind-blowing and mind-bending puzzle platformer.

There is precious little to go on at this stage, as no platforms or release date have been revealed.

One thing we do know is that the fantastic musical compositions of Disasterpeace will once again accompany the game.

Broken Age

Double Fine’s Kickstarter success, Broken Age, was shown at the conference too.

Broken Age is a point-and-click adventure telling the stories of a young boy and girl leading parallel lives.

The girl has been chosen by her village to be sacrificed to a terrible monster–but she decides to fight back. Meanwhile, a boy on a spaceship is living a solitary life under the care of a motherly computer, but he wants to break free to lead adventures and do good in the world.

Broken Age

Below

Below challenges players to step into the boots of an anonymous wanderer delving into the catacombs beneath a mysterious island.

The game follows the vein of Journey, where there are no instructions or any dialogue, requiring the player to explore and try and figure the purpose of being on the island.

Below

Hunicke and Takahashi’s upcoming game

Toward the end of Horizon there was some interesting news. Robin Hunicke, one of the developers behind Thatgamecompany’s Journey, and Katamari Damacy creator Keita Takahashi are teaming up to make a new game. And that’s all we know for now.

Hunicke and Takahashi