The scale and stakes of video game development have seemed to become unsustainably large in recent years, with many RPGs, say, requiring hundreds of millions of dollars and years of manpower from huge teams. While Iโm certainly not one to say no to a feast, I find itโs the small appetizers that I walk away with the strongest memories of. Since 2023, Tokyo Indie Games Summit has been a celebration of small (mainly Japanese) dev teams with big ideas, a chance for creatives to rub elbows and inspire each other.
I was lucky enough to join the 2026 Summit, and after a full day of fresh experiences, I walked away feeling optimistic about the coming years of indie gaming (and perhaps pessimistic about my wallet).
Tokyo Indie Games Summit 2026โs venue was an inspired choice: a former elementary school reoutfitted and reopened as a childrenโs science museum, Imaginus, in 2023. The main showcase on the first floor was in the former PE gym, with basketball hoops still hanging above. The second-floor showcase was in a home economics workshop, another in a chemistry lab, and so on. The atmosphere was nostalgic and joyful, rife with creativity without pressure placed on perfection.
Being one of the few non-Japanese attendees and wielding my media pass, I delighted in seeing creators eager to share their small games with foreign press. Iโd be writing in my notebook on my lap as I played, and directors and designers showed genuine interest in what I was writing and whether any feedback could be used to improve their work.
Of the dozens of game demos available, I was able to sit down at length with a handful of upcoming, RPG-adjacent experiences, the smaller of which Iโll share here. Be sure to read my more in-depth hands-on previews for titles like the HD-2D treasure nabber Bandit Knight, the EarthBound-inspired auto-battling roguelite, Summer Days, and the overhauled combat of the Pokรฉ-like Disc Creatures WORLD. Without further ado:
HARUKA: Beyond the Stars
Three-person developer atelier mimina is based in Kawagoe, Saitama, a town known as โLittle Edoโ for its centuries-old buildings. Despite their vintage surroundings, atelier miminaโs upcoming HARUKA: Beyond the Stars has a soft, Star Ocean-like sci-fi setting. Its protagonist, Yuuki, is a boy whose stagnant world is shaken by the crash-landing of a mysterious girl, Miiya, and her robot butler, Ronaldo. Together, the two set out in Miiyaโs starship on an interplanetary journey to discover the cause of humanityโs dwindling future.
If that all sounds high-stakes, donโt worryโHARUKA feels very cozy thanks to its Ni no Kuni-esque 3D anime graphics, manga cutscenes, acoustic and woodwind-heavy soundtrack, and punny writing akin to Dragon Quest. The gameplay is a standard action RPG, with Yuuki locking on to and swinging his hammer at robotic enemies (including a giant Robo-Turtle boss). The simple combat could be likened to an early 3D Zelda game, or something from the PS2 era or earlier. The devs, however, told me that the game still has a way to go, perhaps releasing on Steam and PS5 in 2026 or later in 2027, so Iโm hopeful that the combat, the unfortunately choppy framerate, and slightly stiff animations can improve.
As developers, atelier mimina promise โnostalgia and warmth,โ and they certainly deliver on those fronts, so Iโll give HARUKA: Beyond the Stars more time for polish.
Hips N Noses
Hips N Noses, from Korean dev team PepperStones.Inc, is a hip cafรฉ management simulator by day, and a Vampire Survivors-like shoot โem up by night. I was impressed by the gameโs keen sense of styleโthink heavy Jet Set Radio cel-shading and a funky, jazzy, lo-fi soundtrack mirroring Persona.
Mela is a no-nonsense streetpunk who moves in above a struggling cafรฉ run by a bubbly witch, Beri. With ingredients sourced by the local drunk, Zephy, the girls must meet changing customer demands for their drinksโ bitterness, lightness, strength, and so on, in a minigame not unlike Overcooked.
Beyond the management sim and light visual novel elements, I was impressed by the dreamworld Mela enters, where characters from the waking world appear as recruitable allies in its roguelike, reverse bullet hell/bullet heaven survival gameplay, which includes automatically tossing out weapons like giant purple pillows or cans of beer. As Iโve said, many great games came to my mind while playingย Hips N Noses, though not games I wouldโve ever thought would jive together. From the demo I played, things blend quite nicely.
Hips N Noses is coming soon to Steam Early Access, with a full release planned for Q4 2026.
Harma
I have to say, roguelikes/lites are the flavour of the year, not the least impressive of which was the dark fantasy deckbuilder Harma, developed by INDIRECT SHINE and published by Astrolabe Games. Its 16-bit rendition of classical Western dark fantasy in the visual vein of, say, Berserk (oh, now youโre listening?!) is gorgeous, and the strategic gameplay is suitably complex for fans of the genre without being crushingly difficult. Iโve played my fair share of deckbuilders, though I wouldnโt call myself a fan of the genre. However, Harmaโs mana-balancing and resource management, alongside its impressive enemy design (I fought a miniboss griffin almost too beautiful to slay!), itched the turn-based RPG part of my brain too.
Harma is coming soon to Early Access on Steam, so you can soon give it a shot yourself.
Syndream
Formerly titled Unslept, Ugono Studiosโ Syndream has been in development for a few years now under director-artist-writer โEtsukiโ and programmer-composer โtechene.โ The devs keep the game’s development close to their chest, but they’ve offered glimpses at the choice-heavy dialogue and 2D overhead action.
Syndreamโs 16-bit graphics are truly unlike any Iโve seen, hallucinatory in a drug-addled fever dream type of way. The game combines a choice-heavy visual novel adventure narrative with 2D action mimicking The Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past, as heard straight from the devsโ mouths. The five-minute boss fight I experienced was against a three-headed neon demon-dragon that reminded me of the flashy nebuta parade floats of Japanese summer festivals. As a sleepy sheeplike girl, I could either swing my pillow at the nightmare or else throw endless projectile pillows, while simultaneously strafing from the dragonsโ fire breath and heat-seeking missiles.
The dreamy visuals alone have ensnared my interest, so Iโll be keeping watch for more on Syndream and its eventual Steam release in the future.
Dungeon Overdose
Dungeon Overdose is a writhing, nightmarish, 8-bit roguelike dungeon crawler with sidescrolling exploration and snappy turn-based combat. The spritework is wonderfully dark, relying on heavy blacks and reds. As players delve deeper into the game’s 100 randomly generated floors, they’ll encounter random characters from a roster of twelve classes, beefing up their party to five. At the heart of the game is the โKaiganโ system (้็ผ), meaning โopening oneโs eyesโ in an enlightening, spiritual awakening sense. In Dungeon Overdose, Kaigan means employing a string of semi-hidden stat buff chains mid-battle to topple seemingly invulnerable enemies, ranging from Japanese demons to โOmuneko,โ a cat-shaped bit of omurice. Mana is limitless, but using too much can lead to Overdose debuffs.
Though I had designer Shigefusa29 (Kazumasa Wakabayashi) leading me through the demo, it was all a bit overwhelming, so he promised an English version was coming ahead of the gameโs slated Q3 2026 Steam release. I was absolutely in love with the aesthetic of Dungeon Overdose and the punchiness of its combat and am eagerly awaiting more information. There is currently a demo available on Steam, though as of this writing, it is only available in Japanese.
Tokyo Indie Games Summit 2026: Wrap Up
I could have spent several more full days sitting down with all the non-RPG games that caught my eye at Tokyo Indie Games Summit 2026.
There was the silly first-person puzzler Stretchmancer, in which you stretch and squash the environment to navigate its sci-fi world. Ultra0 is a โpseudo-3Dโ shooter in the style of Space Harrier that sees you battling kaiju monsters as a teenage girl. I saw horror-splatformer Love Eternal for the first time since Tokyo Game Show 2025 and was reminded how much I need it. I saw my first live Beyblade battles since I was in the third grade. Hell, there were a whole two rooms devoted to minigames using unconventional controllers from make.ctrl.Japan that I canโt even begin to describe.
In other words, the new and the bold are championing the indie game space, and so many small, hard-working developers in Japan are seeking to bring a unique experience to a global audience. The wellspring of creativity is never dry if you know where to look.
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