If you’ve been following Akupara Games over the last year, you’ll have seen us in a ton of different indie showcases. We’ve been featured in The Mix Next, by IGN and just last week Mutazione won the Grand Jury Prize at IndieCade 2020! A neat side effect of participating in all these shows is it puts us front and center to see the best and brightest in upcoming Indie Games! Today, our team picked a couple of titles we’ve been shoulder to shoulder with over the lasts few months to highlight what we think is looking great!

Monster Prom 2: Monster Camp chosen by our Social Media Manager, Miguel

I loved the hell out of Monster Prom. It was great enough that the game was overflowing with gorgeous art, hot monsters, and hilarious writing. But to also create an addictive party-game experience out of the traditional dating sim was something I had never even known I needed. My friends and I fell in love with all the characters in the game, so seeing a bigger and badder sequel that gives me another excuse to get to know them, along with a bunch of other cool new geeks and ghouls, has got me hyped as hell. What other video game experience this year will let you and your friends date a seven foot tall athletic demon girl with horns? That’s what I thought.

Transient chosen by our Producer, Alyssa

Transient elegantly combines the surreal horror of HR Giger with the neon dystopia of the cyberpunk genre into one beautiful, compelling world. The eerie voice acting overlaid with Bioshock-esque atmosphere prompting the player to enter their own memories has me hyped to jack in to the matrix and inject this game directly into my brain. It’s gritty and beautiful at the same time.

Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion chosen by our Producer, Chris

Without a shadow of a doubt, Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion is a 100% Chris game, and that was by title alone. With fun-looking characters and an absolute ball of cute (literally), how can you not trust the titular Turnip Boy? What seems like a wholesome and cozy game is actually a comedic romp in the making. I’m excited to grow my assets and keep them away from those who dare to take away my hard-earned earnings. Let me know when all the stickers and enamel pins come out – I’m sure to throw all my money at this. On second thought, don’t tell me.

 Ring of Pain chosen by our CEO, David

Roguelikes and card games have been combined a lot recently in the indie space, which I love as a fan of both genres. What makes Ring of Pain especially interesting to me, though, is the dark tones and odd characters we saw in the showcase. It’s combining my favorite gameplay mechanics with my favorite narrative aesthetics. Moreover, the game’s mechanics are deep and complex with plenty of room for innovative tactics and strategy. That’s the kind of thing I love to see from indie games like this one!

The Riftbreaker chosen by our Community Manager, Buddy

For someone that can’t stop talking about Starcraft II and Factorio, it feels like The Riftbreaker was designed in a lab specifically to appeal to me and my tastes. Complex inventory management, RTS basebuilding, rate-based resource production, it’s just full of everything I look for in games. I’m not sure I’ve ever been more excited to hook up a flamethrower and barbecue a few thousand swarming aliens, but you better believe the day The Riftbreaker releases it’ll be the only thing I’m focused on.

If you want to gush about your favorite upcoming releases, make sure you say hi to all of us over on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or Discord!