Sponsors Tease Announcements; Merch Partners Announced

TOKYO – 16 June, 2020 – BitSummit, the pioneering indie showcase brimming with the spirit of Japan, today announces a line-up of sponsors and partners supporting BitSummit Gaiden. Taking place 27 – 28 June, 2020, BitSummit’s first all-digital event will feature more than 20 sponsors showcasing upcoming indie titles via the BitSummit Discord server and the BitSummit Twitch channel.

BitSummit is happy to welcome back Platinum Sponsors Nintendo Co., Ltd., NISSIN FOODS, Sony Interactive Entertainment, and Cygames, Inc. NISSIN FOODS, making its second appearance as a BitSummit sponsor, will award prizes to its favorite games at the show. 

Gold Sponsor INTI CREATES CO., LTD. will also make big announcements regarding its upcoming projects during the BitSummit live streams. Other notable sponsors include Silver Sponsors Microsoft ID@Xbox, DotEmu, Devolver Digital, Unity Japan, and new Japanese publishing house, Phoenixx, Inc.

Fangamer Japan will present their full merch lineup during the weekend to participants in Japan, along with an exclusive, event-limited selection of goods from longtime BitSummit partners, EDITMODE in a special area of their website. Customers in Japan will receive a special limited edition BitSummit Gaiden sticker featuring one of the BitSummit Heroes with purchases. Fangamer Japan will live stream its own content during the event, as well.

Two of Japan’s most knowledgeable indie game streamers, LayerQ and J-mon, will take over hosting duties on one of the BitSummit Gaiden Twitch channels. Fans from outside Japan can look forward to hearing more about the titles at the show in Japanese and English, with both presenters being bilingual. 

For a full list of the sponsors, partners, and the content they will showcase, please visit the official BitSummit website.

About BitSummit

BitSummit is an annual festival based in Kyoto celebrating independent game developers and development in Japan. Founded in late 2012, the show aims to support and unify Japanese indie developers, as well as evangelize their vibrant and innovative works to the world at large. BitSummit has established itself as Japan’s premier independent gaming event, attracting thousands of visitors annually as well as a notable and international media presence. 

BitSummit has been covered by every leading gaming website around the world and featured in print publications including Weekly Famitsu, Dengeki PlayStation, Games™, and EDGE. It has also been the focus of panel discussions at the Game Developers Conference, IndieCade, IndieCade East, and CEDEC. Coming into its eighth year running, BitSummit continues to grow alongside the burgeoning Japanese independent development scene.

To learn more, visit the BitSummit website, and follow BitSummit on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

About Japan Independent Games Aggregate (JIGA)

The Japan Independent Games Aggregate is a collective of studios dedicated to developing spaces for and running events promoting the work of Japanese indie game developers throughout the world. Its most notable event is the annual BitSummit event held in Kyoto, Japan, but each year it expands its horizons with BitSummit Roadshow events and now BitSummit Gaiden.

JIGA’s member studios are Q-Games Ltd., Pygmy Studio Co. Ltd., Skeleton Crew Studio, and BlackSheep Consulting.

Full Release Planned for 2021 on PC & Consoles

June 16th, 2020 — Independent game studio Unbound Creations announce its upcoming slapstick comedy game Rain on Your Parade is now available to demo for a limited time as part of the Summer Festival on Steam! The pre-release preview arrives ahead of the full release currently scheduled for 2021.

Travel the world as a mischievous cloud set to rain on everyone’s parade! Unlock new methods of causing mayhem and destruction across a wide range of short and sweet levels each with their own unique objectives. This is the ultimate schadenfreude simulator.

Rain on Your Parade is a slapstick comedy game where you play as a mischievous cloud determined to ruin everybody’s day. Play across a wide range of levels while unlocking new abilities and mechanics that get progressively more ridiculous. Use thunder and lightning to scare people out of hiding and set things alight, tornadoes to suck up everything that gets in its path, rain explosive material that you can blow up and much more.

Travel across the world, inventing new ways of causing chaos and mayhem. Turn the perfectly dry and sunny wedding day into a wet one, unleash thunder and lightning upon the cities, bring pandemonium to supermarket shoppers, destroy farmer’s crops, sneak around military bases and rain down meteors on dinosaurs! Yes, not even the dinosaurs are safe!

Features

• Ruin people’s day with rain, thunder, lightning, tornadoes and many more abilities.
• Travel the world in over 40 levels causing disorder and havoc to weddings, cities, farms, military bases, parking lots and much more.
• Give the mischievous cloud your personal touches. Draw a unique face and choose the hat it wears.
• An upbeat and silly soundtrack that encapsulates the nature of the game.

Rain on Your Parade will release on a rainy day in 2021 for PC and console platforms.

To learn more, visit:http://unboundcreations.com/games/rain-on-your-parade/
Twitter:https://twitter.com/unboundcreation
Discord:https://discord.gg/Zz3eD5Q

About Unbound Creations
Unbound Creations is an award-winning, independent game studio focusing on crafting believable worlds, immersive gameplay, and strong narrative experience. It is founded and led by me, Jakub “Koobazaur” Kasztalski. Hi! I am half-Polish half-Traveling guy currently in Seattle. I lived all over the world working on games, storytelling and even cinematography at one point. I studied humanities and ethnic conflict, all of which inspire my creative works.

We launched our first title, the political-narrative adventure Postmortem: one must die, in 2013. Its follow-up was 2016’s choose-your-own-adventure meets crime-mystery, Karaski… What Goes Up. In 2017 we launched HEADLINER, a game about controlling the news and seeing the effects on your career, society and family. It received rave reviews from critics like GeekWire, and now has been surpassed by a more ambitious spiritual successor Headliner: NoviNews, released October 2018.

Hand-painted dig ’em up launching on PC, Mac and Linux later this week

June 16th, 2020 — Rokabium Games announces its upcoming 2D digging and puzzle adventure release Something Ate My Alien is now available to demo on Steam ahead of its June 18th release on Steam for Windows, Mac and Linux platforms! Explore a variety of hostile planets packed full of puzzle chambers to solve and subterranean secrets to discover. 

Take on the role of the AI Antalasia in Something Ate My Alien to control your little Alien blobs as they dig through different worlds in an attempt to find all the items required for the pirate who hijacked your mining ship. During the adventure on each planet you have to battle environmental dangers, fight off wildlife, and solve secret puzzle chambers; all while surviving on a depleting oxygen supply and a threat far scarier than the local wildlife.

Key Features

• Dig through the depths of 4 different planets and collect as much loot as possible.
• Solve puzzle chambers by pushing and pulling blocks to reveal secret treasures.
• Survive by finding oxygen recharge stations and dodging environmental obstacles.
• Fight the hostile flora and fauna with your choice of 6 specialized weapons.
• Upgrade and build your equipment by collecting items and energy.
• Find hidden relics and collect achievements.
• Engage in bigger battles with the scary huge threats guarding the hidden secrets.

Something Ate My Alien will be available with full controller support on Steam, and other PC retailers including Humble Store and Green Man Gaming, for $16.99.

To find out more, visit:http://www.somethingatemyalien.com/
Discord:https://discordapp.com/invite/fYg5jzs
Twitter:@RokabiumGames
Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/rokabiumgames/
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/RokabiumGames

About Rokabium Games
Rokabium Games is a Dev Game Studio. It includes 2 people, 1 Dev (Rob Donovan) and 1 Artist (Kat Langwagen — Credits Include: The Last Federation, Starward Rogue, and Bionic Dues). The pair are currently finishing work on their debut release, Something Ate My Alien.

It’s not a bug. It’s a feature.

Krakow, Poland–June 16th, 2020. All in! Games are excited to acquaint players with the perspective-shifting world of Metamorphosis two-fold today, following the release of a brand new gameplay trailer and a free demo out now as a part of the Steam Summer Game Festival! Metamorphosis is set to release later this summer on Nintendo Switch, PC, PS4, and Xbox One.

Download the Metamorphosis Steam demo now

Metamorphosis lets players experience:

• A bug’s perspective in first person – see the world in a whole new way
• Challenging environmental puzzles – parkour, wall climb, search for clues, and overcome obstacles
• Unique movement mechanics – make full use of your tiny body and sticky limbs
• A story inspired by Kafka’s imagination – meet eccentric characters in a hand-painted world, as you journey through surrealist landscapes towards The Tower

About Metamorphosis

Play as Gregor, a man who has morphed into a tiny bug, and set out on an extraordinary journey to unravel the mystery of your transformation. Metamorphosis is a first person adventure based in a surrealist world where your newfound abilities are your last and only hope for redemption.

Trailer:

Join the Discord server:

Metamorphosis I Discord

About Ovid Works

Ovid Works is an independent video game studio from Warsaw, Poland started in 2015 as the passion project of friends who wanted to bring traditional storytelling and interactive gameplay closer together. Today they are a team of 17 talented individuals working together to tell vivid stories through innovative gameplay.  

About All in! Games All in! Games is a new video game publishing and production company based in Krakow, Poland. Founded in 2018, the team has raised 10M EUR for production and marketing and already signed sixteen games, including Ghostrunner (One More Level), Tools Up! (The Knights of Unity), Alaloth – Champions of The Four Kingdoms (Gamera Interactive) and Paradise Lost (PolyAmorous).

En Masse Entertainment, a player-focused publisher dedicated to delivering great games and great service, today launched the all-new Draakon Arena Dungeon as well as the new Partner Adventure System on PC for their successful, long-running action MMO TERA. The new Draakon Dungeon is a challenging five person dungeon in which players must work together to defeat fearsome enemies and earn great rewards.  

The new Partner Adventure System allows for players to send up to three partners per account on Partner Adventures. Using the Compass, players can check the number of partners on adventures, and time spent on the Adventure. Players will Receive different rewards in each area, which include gathering materials, Skill Advancement Scrolls and Relics, as well as Dungeon rewards. In addition to the new Draakon Dungeon and Partner Adventure system many quality of life improvements and enhancements have been implemented such as updates to crafting, class balancing, and more.

For more information about this update, please visit:
https://tera.enmasse.com/news/posts/draakon-arena-is-live

TERA has entertained and enthralled just under five million players on console in North America, the EU, and Japan since it launched in 2018 and over 9 million players in North America on PC for over 8 years. 

Stay up-to-date on all the latest TERA information by following the game on Twitter, Facebook and Discord, or check out the official TERA website.

ABOUT EN MASSE ENTERTAINMENT
Based in Seattle, Washington, En Masse Entertainment embodies the evolution of modern game publishing. The company’s mission is to publish great games and provide great service. Beginning with its inaugural title, TERA, and continuing with Closers, En Masse Entertainment has built a track record of excellence and innovation. The team at En Masse includes experts in online technology, live service, branding, community, and player support, allowing them to thrive as a publisher in the digital era. For more information, visit enmasse.com.

Calico, Onsen Master, & We should talk. Teased Ahead of 2020 Launch Dates

June 16th, 2020 — Whitethorn Games is excited to announce Peachy Keen Games’ cat café simulator Calico, Waking Oni’s hot spring customer management game Onsen Master, and Insatiable Cycle’s short-form narrative title We should talk. as part of the Steam Summer Festival and Wholesome Direct virtual events ahead of their respective launches later this year!

Calico — due out this Fall for console and PC platforms — is a day-in-the-life community sim game where you are given an important and adorable task: rebuild the town’s cat café and fill it with cute and cuddly creatures! You will journey to a small village filled with magical girls and other fantastical friends, where you are placed in charge of a run down cat café. Build up your café by filling it with cute furniture, fun decorations, yummy pastries, and get it bustling with animals again!

Calico is meant to make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. The gameplay reflects that with a laid back, low stress creative environment to explore and play in. A demo is temporarily available to play on Steam during the Summer Festival, and the game was highlighted in last month’s inaugural Wholesome Direct event as well.

Calico on Steam:https://store.steampowered.com/app/1112890/Calico/

Onsen Master — also due out this Fall for console and PC platforms — is a hot spring customer management game where players must revitalize various hot springs across the fantasy island of Izajima! Create ingredients to match the various customer ailments, reconnect the communities that surround each onsen, and discover the supernatural world that they’ve long since been disconnected from.

Dive into a 1-2 player story mode, or take on others in a competitive couch multiplayer mode where you must each work to manage your customers within the same hot spring. Onsen Master was featured in last month’s inaugural Wholesome Direct event.

Onsen Master on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1334780/Onsen_Master/

It’s not what you say — it’s how you say it. We should talk. is a game about relationships and the nuance of communication that will make you think carefully about the words you choose. We should talk. will launch this July on Steam for PC and Mac platforms, as well as Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One consoles for $6.99.

A Kickstarter campaign for the short-form narrative game is active through 7:00a PDT on June 11th — having reached the initial funding goal on its first day and hovering around twice that amount heading into its final days. Kickstarter funds will go towards providing the game with a budget for post-launch marketing and promotional efforts. A demo is temporarily available to play on Steam during the Summer Festival. 

We should talk. on Steam:https://store.steampowered.com/app/1255990/We_should_talk/

About Whitethorn Games
We’re an indie game publisher focusing on pleasant, cozy games that can be played in pieces, that require no special skills or knowledge, and that anyone can pick up and play. We’re believers in accessibility, inclusion, and widening the audience that gets to play. We like to consider ourselves the defenders of easy games. Join in on the discussion via our Discord.

To find out more, visit:https://whitethorndigital.com

Nintendo Switch is a trademark of Nintendo.

© 2020 Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC. “PlayStation”, “PlayStation Family Mark”, and “PS4” are registered trademarks or trademarks of Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc.

Full Release Planned for 2021 on PC & Mac

June 16th, 2020 — Developer Maccima Games and publisher Squeaky Wheel Studio announce upcoming evil overlord simulator Ruinarch is now available to demo for a limited time as part of the Summer Festival on Steam! The pre-release preview arrives ahead of the Early Access launch of Ruinarch set for August 2020.

Ruinarch is a devilishly fun simulation game featuring procedural story generation. As an evil demon overlord creating havoc and invading fantasy worlds, a rich and fertile land lies before you; ripe for the picking. Take over regions one by one, spreading your influence inexorably towards the heart of the kingdom. Poison people’s food, raise the dead, and inflict endless misery. Turn heroic defenders into pitiful wretches by unleashing an array of demonic spells upon them and create a hellish chronicle for the ages.

Weaving tales of anguish and woe are central to Ruinarch. You could simply summon a pack of wolves to attack the region, but a true evil overlord toys with his prey first. Turn the local village idiot into a cultist that secretly works on your behalf, and watch as he eagerly turns the tables on the villagers that mercilessly mocked him for his deficiencies. Inflict the local hero with lycanthropy and watch as his once loyal followers turn on him when the full moon rises. Or if you’re feeling lazy and don’t want to come up with anything creative, just start a zombie apocalypse!

Each playthrough generates a random fantasy world for you to conquer, and different worlds offer varied situations for you to exploit, manipulate and corrupt — providing unlimited replayability!

Features

• Generate an infinite number of procedural fantasy worlds
• Invade elven villages, human towns, bandit camps, ancient ruins, monster lairs, and much more!
• Build demonic structures with various world corrupting capabilities
• Summon minions and recruit cultists to assist in world domination
• Unleash powerful spells, dangerous monsters and mystical artifacts upon the world and watch the mayhem unfold
• Fracture the kingdom into multiple competing subfactions to weaken them from inside
• Wipe out the world’s defenders – each one equipped with complex AI that takes into account its needs, traits and relationships.

Ruinarch will debut in August for $19.99 on PC and Mac platforms. A full release is currently planned for 2021.

Why Early Access?
Ruinarch is a highly experimental game with emergent storytelling and gameplay at its core. As a small indie team, we have a lot of ambitious ideas but we need the help of the community to test them out and provide feedback and critique to guide our development in the right direction. While we have a clear road map for the upcoming year, we are also very open to adjusting and pivoting based on what the community really wants.

What is the current state of the Early Access version?
The current game includes a random world generator that produces procedurally-generated maps with multiple factions and regions that interact to produce emergent ever-changing worlds. The player will have access to seven different demon-type minions, eight demonic structures, dozens of Spells, along with a handful of Summons and Artifacts.

To learn more, visit: https://www.ruinarch.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ruinarch_game
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ruinarch/

About Maccima Games
Maccima Games is a small Indie Studio founded in 2016 and based out of Jersey City and Manila. We make experimental PC strategy/sim games.

About Squeaky Wheel Studio
Squeaky Wheel Studio is an independent game development company based in the Philippines that aims to be a developer of thematically unique PC strategy and simulation games.

Milky Tea Studios revealed that its high-adrenaline arcade style sports brawler HyperBrawl Tournament, now has a free demo available as part of Steam Game Festival. The demo is available from June 16th-22nd. To celebrate the demo, Milky Tea Studios just released a developer walkthrough offering an overview of HyperBrawl Tournament’s ruleset, game modes, characters, classes and weapons. It’s everything you need to understand how HyperBrawl Tournament works in five minutes!

In the demo, players can take control of one of four characters (Shade, Tristan, Ti and Go-Zen), across four game modes (Arcade, Blitz, The Trials and Advanced Trials) as they brawl it out across two arenas  (Court of Azdritch and Base 27).

HyperBrawl Tournament is a beautiful and fast-paced PvP experience, optimised for skill-based on-line or local ‘party’ play. Smash, brawl and score your way to victory in relentless, high-adrenaline, 1-4 PvP arena battles. Master the HyperCurve, that allows you to seize control of the ball mid-flight to score legendary goals and channel the HyperForce, with its devastating, game-changing, power.

In a combination of sports and brawling, the heroes can choose different abilities and awesome weapons to bring into the arena as they fight for control of the ball.

Our heroes have eight mythical weapons to choose from, including the earth-shattering Slam Hammer, the lightning-quick Turbo Thruster, or the deadly, deadly and decisive Grapple Gun. As players learn the intricacies of Hyperbrawl Tournament they can experiment with over 4,000 different hero and weapon combos to create their own unique playstyle, along with a custom designed hero decked out with your choice of unlockable weapon skins, goal blazes and ball trails.

HyperBrawl Tournament has 7 Game Modes including:

• ARCADE – Jump into instant local multiplayer or single-player matches for 1-4 players, earn XP and level up.
• CAMPAIGN – Challenge for glory in the single-player campaign mode. Conquer the Galaxy League and the Cosmic Cup to become the greatest team in the universe.
• BLITZ – Compete online with players across the world for the ultimate accolade – ‘The HyperBrawl Champion!’ The longer the win streak, the greater the rewards from cups to Artifacts.

HyperBrawl Tournament launches this summer on Nintendo Switch, PC via Steam, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. 

Visit the official HyperBrawl Tournament website: https://www.hyperbrawl.com/
Check out the Steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/591760/HyperBrawl_Tournament/
Like HyperBrawl Tournament on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HyperBrawlTournament
Follow HyperBrawl Tournament on Twitter: @HyperBrawl

About Milky Tea Studios
Milky Tea is a UK Game Development Studio. Established in Liverpool in 2005, the studio designs, makes and publishes its own video game intellectual property as well as offering “work for hire” game development services.

Over the years the studio has won or been nominated for nearly every major award in its industry, including prestigious awards from BAFTA, EMMY, Banff and TIGA. In 2017 the studio was shortlisted by Creative England as one of the top 50 best up and coming, innovative and disruptive companies across film, games and digital technology.

In 2017, a leading integrated Internet services provider in China, Tencent, made an investment into the company. With this new partnership in place, Milky Tea has expanded the team in Liverpool and is now working on exciting new gaming IPs.

A new trailer has been released for SCARLET NEXUS; a new action RPG franchise developed by BANDAI NAMCO Studios. Take on the role of Yuito Sumeragi and uncover the mysteries of a Brain Punk future caught between technology and psychic abilities. The new trailer highlights animation from world renowned Japanese animation studio Sunrise Inc. The trailer can be found below:

In the far distant future, a psionic hormone has been discovered in the human brain, granting people extra-sensory powers, and changing the world as we know it. As humanity enters this new era, deranged mutants known as Others begin to descend from the sky with a hunger for human brains. Impervious to conventional weapons, those with acute extra-sensory abilities, known as psychics, are our only chance to fight the onslaught from above and preserve humanity. Since that fateful day psychics have been scouted for their talents and recruited to the Other Suppression Force, humanity’s last line of defense.

SCARLET NEXUS will be available for the Xbox Series X, Xbox One, PlayStation®5 (or 4) console, and PC via STEAM®.

Take on new night maps, weapons and gear today in New World Interactive & Focus Home Interactive’s team-based tactical FPS

PARIS — June 16, 2020 — Insurgency: Sandstorm, the hit team-based tactical FPS from New World Interactive and Focus Home Interactive, has just released its biggest update yet with “Nightfall.” Every map in the game now offers* a night variant, including the new Tideway map. There’s also new gear like night vision goggles, flashlights, infrared gadgets and more to help you play in the dark. And to celebrate, Insurgency: Sandstorm is available for 50% off on Steam from now until June 20!

“Nightfall” brings with it five free new weapons, including two modern subsonic stealth weapons for the Breacher class, the AS Val for Insurgents, and the Honey Badger for Security. In addition, the Breacher has gained two new classic weapon choices: the Sterling submachine gun for Insurgents and the Grease Gun for Security. The Insurgents also get a new integrally suppressed bolt-action pistol: the Welrod. This is alongside new night-themed cosmetics for all players on both sides.

Insurgency: Sandstorm’s first paid cosmetic DLC packs also arrive with today’s update. Become the night with the Ghillie pack for the Security forces or the dark-themed Nightstalker pack for Insurgents. Both factions also have several weapon skins available, with a dark red digital theme for Insurgents and midnight blue for Security. These four DLC can be purchased at a lower price with the Night Ops set.

Insurgency: Sandstorm is coming to PlayStation®4 and Xbox One on Aug. 25, 2020. For more information, visit https://insurgency-sandstorm.com.

*The new night mode is available in official co-op (with modified enemy AI responsive to light), as well as PvP in limited-time playlists and on community servers.