Friendslop is the fashion, folks. I hope you’ve got a good crew who plays on Steam, because we just got a truckload of online multiplayer games announced at the iii Initiative’s third annual showcase. The showcase, which is quickly becoming one of my favorite digital events, featured dozens of new games and ever more updates on games we’ve wishlisted before.
With its promise of no ads, hosts, or other interruptions, it’s a parade of indies that have some kind of reach or traditional economic publishing/distribution structure (hence the “iii,” which is a kind of “AAA”), so what we got to see are some highly polished games from stable studios. It’s a refreshing slice of industry in that the showcase gets to flex some optimism and creativity at a time of uncertainty for many studios and developers.
It was a joy to watch and maybe even a bit hard to keep up with as 40 games get their chance to shine across the 45-minute or so presentation. Below are the highlights from the event. Crack open your wishlists; it’s time to add to the stack.
Kicking off with a showing from the next game behind the developers of 1000xResist, Sunset Visitor, the iii showcase threw a powerful first punch. We’ll be questioning our own human existence in a posthumanist conversation with an AI, taking photos to prove we know who we are.
Still looking great! We last saw this at the PlayStation State of Play in February. This go-around, we got more details on the Parisian setting and a quick look at a few bosses and more combat gameplay, with a reassured 2026 launch.
The friendslop golf battler is coming to consoles! A viral hit on Steam, it’ll make its way to more players sometime later this year.
The pronunciation here is Frost/Rail, and I am confident about this because of the stellar section of combat on a train. Since playing Choo Choo Charles earlier this year, I’ve been fascinated by this combat mechanic, and it looks extremely polished here.
To be honest, this is the first trailer where I realized that this is a co-op game and one that may end up testing the limits of your friendship. Featuring a nail-biting near fall, this seems to be a tense time. A playtest will be available later this month.
At the end of this month, on April 30th, the hit friendslop demo will launch into early access. We got an extended view at snowball fights and some general shenanigans. Tucked away at the very end of this news, however, is that Sledding Game will also launch on consoles and be a Day One release on Xbox, when it hits 1.0
It’s been a hot minute, maybe even an entire year, since Long Gone made an appearance anywhere. The trailer here gave us more gameplay and a riveting chase scene as the lead and their cat race over the ruins of a highway to safety. We were given a 2027 year for release, so this won’t be the last time we see it before it launches.
Having recently taken on the Survivors genre maybe a week ago, Cream is taking on Palworld with its newest game, Temtem: Pioneers. It’s nice to see what Cream is cooking up and especially cool to see them iterating on the world and adorable creatures from Temtem. Cream launched their Kickstarter for Pioneers today if you want to get in early on supporting the game.
The first game, which launched nearly 10 years ago in 2018, was a surprise hit for me. Early in the post-Stardew Valley wake of farming sims, Graveyard Keeper’s irreverent humor and medieval setting caught my attention, and it was the only game I played until I beat it. The sequel seems to ramp things up substantially, including what looks like a tower defense mode and combat. Coming sometime this year.
Early this year a friend showed me the trailer for The Lift, a game I had no idea was coming, but the concept hooked me. As a handyman in charge of fixing everything wrong in a supernatural gunk-filled building, you complete a variety of mini-games and puzzles to get things up and running. The trailer cemented my excitement but then tempered it when the year 2027 flashed across the screen. I can be patient, and I am sure it’ll be worth it when it does finally launch.
When “From the Creators of CrossCode” flashed across the screen, I felt a pang of guilt for not having finished CrossCode, but beyond that, I knew that we were going to be in for a visual treat. CrossCode has some phenomenal pixel art, and sure enough, this trailer for Alabaster Dawn did not disappointment. A spectacle to behold, the game will enter early access on May 7.
Muppets getting stuck in a cave. It’s Peak with Indiana Jones traps. It’s another friendslop game that presented itself incredibly well, with the right balance of silly and tense. It’s anticipated that it will release later this year.
The awaited game that combines the highly stylized pixel artist behind Celeste and the atmospheric tunes from Disasterpiece comes Neverway, a game I’ve seen many times. This trailer features new footage and some happy news: a prologue demo that is available now on Steam. Neverway is set to release in October of this year, perfect timing for Halloween and all things scary.
We’ve seen battle royale-style games before, but I can’t think of one nearly this gritty. The violence is wildly personal, with guards shooting typists at point blank if they fail to outperform their peers. If you think you’re quick on a keyboard, and you want a harrowing test to assess your ability, good news! Final Sentence is out now on Steam.
While I’ve been mixed on the Don’t Starve games, Don’t Starve Elsewhere looks like a charming take on multiplayer zombie survival. With some good humor and snappy gameplay from the trailer, I think I’ll give the series another try.
Count ‘em up! Those are fifteen games to add to the wishlist, the whole group demonstrating the range of creativity on display from the iii showcase. I recommend giving the show some of your time and watching it through, just to see the full spread of games coming down the pipeline. As for me, these have all got my attention, and that’ll be plenty to look forward to for this year and the next.
