Whether stemming a tide of Tyranids in Warhammer 40:000: Space Marine 2 or whaling on one of Left 4 Dead's chargers to make it stop pummeling your pal, the best co-op games thrive when you're hard-pressed to keep up. Far Far West, developer Evil Raptor's breakout co-op shooter, is no exception. It's equal parts maximalist and stubbornly simple, pitting spellcasting robot cowboys against escalating hordes of supernatural cowpokes – accompanied by the greatest (and first) techno-banjo soundtrack I've ever heard.

To dig into Far Far West's creation, inspirations, and the philosophy driving the small team at Evil Raptor, GamesRadar+ caught up with developer Arnaud Petit.

Questions and answers have been lightly edited for clarity

Goin' out West

How did the development team come together?

Petit: Evil Raptor was born out of Pumpkin Jack back in 2020, when Nicolas, the head of the studio, was solo-developing the game. Following its success, we had the opportunity to hire more people and become more ambitious with our projects. Most of the current team already worked together on our previous title, Akimbot. So, transitioning to Far Far West was just a natural continuation of our work as a group, with a few new additions to ensure we could make the game as good as possible.

Similarly, how did the creative vision of Far Far West take shape?

Petit: The art direction, the atmosphere, mood, and overall fantasy come from Nicolas, who is incredibly skilled at creating spooky and moody vibes. As for the concept of spell-slinging robots fighting skeletons… honestly, it's just cool. Gameplay-wise, our main objective was to create a fun (a very important word for us!) experience that anyone could enjoy, from casual to more hardcore gamers.

Far Far West actually went through three major iterations. Our first prototype was a fresh take on tower defense, and the second leaned into a linear, mission-based structure similar to games like Left 4 Dead. When we realized those directions weren't clicking the way we wanted, we decided to take our best ideas, throw them all in the same bag, and focus entirely on tight gunplay, funny spells, and wacky combos. We mixed it all into a replayable game loop, and the game finally found its footing! While we had a solid foundation, we iterated heavily and integrated player feedback right from the start, which really helped shape the game into what it is today.

Far Far West had a lot of hype at the demo stage, but that doesn't always translate to launch. Ahead of release, how did you feel? How about now?

Petit: Running several open playtests followed by a demo with open reviews definitely helped ease our nerves, as we could see people were enjoying the game. However, since the demo was free at the time, it was impossible to know if that interest would translate into actual sales at launch. Thankfully, it did! We honestly didn't expect the full release to be received this well, nor did we anticipate such a high player count. We couldn't be happier with its success! Now, we're back hard at work and can't wait to bring more content to the players.

Far Far West reminds me of some brilliant co-op shooters – think Space Marine 2, Left 4 Dead 2, Borderlands – more so in spirit than design . What do you think creates the right environment for a shooter to thrive in a group environment?

Petit: For us, the key word is simply fun. Everybody loves wacky concepts and flying around the map at lightspeed, so we thought, 'Why not let them?'. Once we ensured the gunplay felt satisfying and the core loop was engaging, there were still a lot of things to consider. But our philosophy is straightforward: if we think an idea is fun for us, we don't hesitate to implement it for the players.

I adore the music, particularly that crescendo in the final stage of an extraction. Could you tell me a little about why Far Far West's musical direction felt right? (Bonus question: would you like to name your electro-gothic-Western genre, if you haven't already?)

Petit: Like with pretty much everything we do, we just went with a vibe, and that vibe perfectly matched the rhythm of the game. Our composer also did the OST for our previous game, Akimbot, which was heavily electro-based. Since that's his specialty, we wanted to carry that energy over. You just slam some banjo over it, think cowboys, and you get this "electro banjo bop." Not tying ourselves to a specific name or genre keeps the door open to pretty much anything, so we're just going with the flow!

Are there any other developers – solo or studio – that you look up to?

Petit: There are obviously a few names that constantly come up when people compare Far Far West to other titles, like Helldivers 2 or Deep Rock Galactic. They are staples of the co-op shooter space, and they both did an excellent job defining the genre in their own unique ways. When it comes to the gunplay itself, I also have to mention Overwatch. They did an incredible job making shooting feel as satisfying as possible for an FPS, and we definitely studied their animations closely!

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Meccha Chameleon, the latest "friendslop" hit on Steam to absolutely dominate the web, is now second in player count to its fan-created Roblox clones.

The new indie gem is no stranger to clones, having seen an AI ripoff so bold as to use its title in some regions come to light earlier this week – but those on Roblox are arguably more of a "threat," so to speak, seeing as they're freely available… and the platform boasts millions of daily users.

Unsurprisingly, there are a good few, too, ranging from "Paint and SEEK!" to "Paint Or Seek" to… "Paint To Hide!" and so on.

What is surprising, however, is that these Roblox clones have now reportedly overtaken the actual Meccha Chameleon in daily peak player count.

A Reddit chart from RoWatcherHQ, an account that focuses on gathering data from and about Roblox, highlights this, showing that around 150,000 to over 200,000 players still engage with the clones.

These figures aren't as high as Meccha Chameleon's record of 340,534 – but they're higher than its current numbers.

[OC] Peak daily players: the Steam game Meccha Chameleon vs. its Roblox clones. Three weeks after launch, the clones combined pulled ahead of the original from r/dataisbeautiful

Right now, as per the chart and SteamDB, Meccha Chameleon has about 55,000 players in-game. That's how many users it's boasted daily for a few days now, meaning that it's faced quite the drop – especially when lined up against the free Roblox clones, which only started to surface some three or so weeks ago.

Obviously, Meccha Chameleon isn't hitting mind-boggling lows here or anything… but it's still disheartening to see.

This isn't a first for Roblox, either, as the platform features a plethora of other game clones. From REPO to Dead by Daylight, its users have copied just about everything under the sun – and evidently, they won't be slowing down any time soon.

I do wonder if Meccha Chameleon's own developers will share their thoughts on the matter at all, or if they'll strike down the paid clones over on Steam.

Only time can tell, I suppose, but I'd advise folks to give the original game a go – it's a whole lot of chaos, and even more fun, if you ask me.

Viral indie hit Meccha Chameleon sells a massive 15 million copies in less than a month, becomes the fastest and best-selling game of the year

Meccha Chameleon, the latest "friendslop" hit on Steam to take over our social media feeds, is officially so popular that it's spurring shameless clones.

It's no secret that Meccha Chameleon has absolutely dominated the web for the past month or so, with its unique Prop Hunt-esque hide-and-seek gameplay. Flying by seven million sales in under two weeks on Valve's PC platform, it was only a matter of time before the new indie gem would spur copies from other developers – and that it has.

Scribble Hunt is one such copy, sitting on Steam with screenshots that look straight out of Meccha Chameleon.

Developed by mysterious studio "Scribble Bunny," Scribble Hunt sounds a whole lot like the smash-hit game from lemorion_1224, too. "Paint the bunny man and blend into the scene like a chameleon," reads its description. "2–10 player online hide-and-seek. Sample colors, match the lighting, tune your materials – disguise yourself to perfection and slip away right under the Hunters' gaze."

And, erm, yes… there is an AI-generated content disclosure declaring that "some store page images and promotional art of this game are made with generative AI."

Interestingly, as pointed out by South Korean outlet INVEN, the game's name is perhaps the most egregious "rip-off" of all here. In Korean, it translates to – you guessed it – Meccha Chameleon. This feels far too close for comfort, perhaps paving the way to potential legal issues.

I'm instantly reminded of other recent supposed game "clones," like Monster Fantasy and, of course, Pickmos, which made headlines for similar reasons.

The maps showcased in Scribble Hunt look like fan-created Meccha Chameleon maps as well (I mean, that is the Art Museum map redone, is it not?), but we can't see too much of the game yet. As for its release date, it isn't out yet – and Scribble Bunny doesn't disclose when it'll launch, either, simply stating that it's coming sometime this month.

If I'm honest, though, I'm not certain it'll last… at least not in its current state.

I suppose only time will tell what ends up happening to Scribble Hunt – it might make a comeback with a different name and design, if nothing else.

Searching for more to look forward to? Browse our quick roundup of the best upcoming indie games to anticipate, or our rundown of the coolest new games underway.

Paddle Paddle Paddle developer Mateo Covic of studio Zoroarts went viral this month for his comments on Steam's refund policy, which, after more than 55,000 people refunded his well-reviewed but short rage game, he called exploitable. Speaking with GamesRadar+, Covic defends much of his argument but stresses that he supports the refund system overall and doesn't want to see consumer rights eroded.

"I'm 100% pro refund but the current 'no questions asked if you request a refund within two weeks and with less than two hours of playtime' policy just makes it super easy for players to abuse this rule," Covic says.

Referring to Valve's refund rules, which expressly prohibit gaming the system "as a way to get free games" under threat of refund denials, Covic adds, "Steam says that refunds are not for people to play games for free, and refunds in general should be requested (in my opinion) when the Steam page misled you with wrong information, the game had problems that prevent you [playing or enjoying] the game, and other similar reasons that can be found in the Steam policy."

He says he isn't dissatisfied with his game's sales or refund count, which he acknowledges is not out of band for a game like this. "My tweet was targeted towards the people who enjoyed the game, wrote a positive review, and refunded the game just because they can," he explains. "Many people think that I'm a complete asshole now and want to remove the refund policy in general but that was never my intention."

This whole saga led to more "hateful DMs and insulting comments" than he'd ever seen, Covic says, and Paddle Paddle Paddle was "review bombed already and went from very positive recent Steam Reviews to mixed ones." He reasons, "I guess it's a big learning opportunity and I will think twice before posting a statement / request like that in the future."

Covic singles out an argument made, among others, by Twitter user and game curator Indie Game Joe: the existence of Steam's refund policy gives users a level of protection that makes it easier to try out some games, which can lead to more sales overall even if it can also result in more refunds. Covic says this stance did give him pause.

"Sure my refund rate is high with 55,000+ refunds, but when I did some research I found out that a refund rate of 20% is pretty normal for a rage game," he says. "Overall, a refund rate of 10% is normal for games on Steam. I'm super grateful for the game's success after all, and I just learned that it's a normal thing to have that many refunds when you have an amount of 270,000 sold units... Regarding your question: I don't know if people think, 'Yeah let's try it out, I can refund it anyway.' What helped my game way more was the cheap price. When I showed people the game's trailer they often were like, 'Oh looks fun,' but when they found out about the price of $2.99 on sale they were willing to try it out right away."

One thing he does firmly dismiss is the idea of intentionally making games longer just to dodge the two-hour Steam refund window. He worries Steam's policy could discourage shorter games in this way. Despite this hiccup, Covic says Paddle Paddle Paddle "changed my whole life," enabling him to work on games full-time, and now specifically making short games has become a joy and a focus for him after spending years on hybrid action game Makis Adventure.

Covic concludes, "I don't know how many people really refunded my game with a true reason since you could just lie and choose one of the possible refund reasons. Steam's 'no question asked' policy makes it super easy and quick to do that. I can see how many players refunded the game because it was too difficult, for example, but it would help if they left a helpful comment too since that would help me to work on that problem."

Here are the biggest upcoming indie games for 2026 and beyond.

If your online algorithms have even a small appetite for gaming content, there's a good chance you've seen clips from Meccha Chameleon, the viral multiplayer sensation that's taking the internet by storm. The small indie game that could has now sold a whopping 15 million copies in under four weeks, making it both the year's best-selling and fastest-selling game.

Just in case it's missed your feed, Meccha Chameleon can loosely be described as a multiplayer hide-and-seek game. Before a round starts, the so-called Hiders will find a secret spot and paint their all-white bodies to hopefully camouflage into the background. The Seekers then walk around with their guns and shoot anything they suspect of being a Hider, sometimes accidentally gunning down suspicious rolls of toilet paper.

In two weeks, the game shot past seven million sales. Less than a month after the game dropped on Steam, Meccha Chameleon has now moved a whopping 15 million units, per the developer's recent short blog post.

"Thanks a million! Get ready for a new collaboration with a famous Japanese star next week," the dev writes.

Niko Partners video game analyst Daniel Ahmad tweets that the sales milestone makes Meccha Chameleon "both the fastest selling and highest selling game of the year." That means the small indie game has outsold heavy hitters like Resident Evil Requiem, Forza Horizon 6, and Crimson Desert - its affordable price tag probably doesn't hurt, though.

"Also just to note that the two devs working on this game have done an amazing job updating it," Ahmad adds. "Often when small indie games like this blow up overnight, they can’t support the demand for updates / bug fixes. But MC has added new features and fixed bugs quite consistently."

Browse our quick roundup of the best upcoming indie games to anticipate and our list of the coolest new games on the horizon.

Meccha Chameleon, the latest "friendslop" hit on Steam to take the web by storm, now boasts a whopping seven million sales… and news of a fresh "Japan-themed map," too.

In case you've missed it, Meccha Chameleon has been circulating online forums and social media reels like no tomorrow – in fact, it's pretty much all I see right now as I scroll.

It's already proven a smash hit on Steam, with developers constantly updating folks on the number of sales it's reached. 500,000, then a million, then two million, three million, five million… and today, a whopping seven million sales in total.

For context, Meccha Chameleon only released on June 10. That means less than two weeks have passed, and it's already reached over seven million players worldwide. That's no small feat, especially for an indie game with just a couple of devs behind it. And, perhaps unsurprisingly, they're thrilled.

A new post on Steam celebrating the milestone proves as much, with the small studio writing, "7 million copies sold! Thank you so much!"

The devs then tease an update coming within the next couple of days: "The new official Japan-themed map will be added today or tomorrow."

Honestly, I'm thrilled to hear it – I may or may not have spent the latter half of the weekend cycling through Meccha Chameleon's few existing maps (please, no more Backrooms) and exhausting the Steam Workshop of all its player-created options… so I'm more than ready for something fresh.

It seems I'm not alone either, as comments show people praising Meccha Chameleon. One person exclaims, "W development, keep it up." Another jokes that the "friendslop" game just keeps winning – and I'm inclined to agree.

There are nearly 10,000 reviews, after all, and a solid "Very Positive" rating to boot for the Prop Hunt-esque gem from lemorion_1224. I'm almost certain that number (and score) will continue to soar, too.

Here's hoping Meccha Chameleon keeps flying toward the moon and the devs keep on with their work on the hide-and-seek hit. I don't think there'll ever be enough maps to paint in, but every new addition is a very welcome one.

Searching for more to look forward to? Browse our quick roundup of the best upcoming indie games to anticipate, or our rundown of the coolest new games underway.

After indie gems like Lethal Company and REPO, fans have lovingly branded plenty of little games "friendslop" – the latest of which is a Prop Hunt-esque title currently taking the web by storm: Meccha Chameleon.

In case you missed it over the weekend, Meccha Chameleon seemingly came out of nowhere and impressed thousands of fans with its hilarious chameleon-like hide-and-seek chaos.

Put simply, you place a little guy (who you play as) somewhere and paint over him to match whatever his surroundings are at the time – and then you sit and wait, hoping your friends don't realize that hey, something isn't quite right about that person-shaped brick wall…

It's as amusing as it sounds, and I've honestly spent the last couple of days scrolling through various funny clips of Meccha Chameleon in action.

Unsurprisingly, it's been dubbed a new "friendslop" hit by players over on Steam, where it sits with "Very Positive" reviews right now. Not only is it well-received already, but indie developer and publisher lemorion_1224 (say that 10 times fast) is celebrating over two million sales.

That's just five days after release – in other words, a pretty big number for any brand-new title, not just an indie game.

The reviews see fans drawing all sorts of comparisons to other multiplayer experiences, namely Garry's Mod's own Prop Hunt. As one person so eloquently puts it, "Like Prop Hunt, but chameleons." Another calls Meccha Chameleon "a unique and refreshing take on the hide-and-seek genre."

I'm inclined to agree. In an era of various silly viral games like this one, it's not often that a title stands out – and Meccha Chameleon does just that. The creative possibilities feel nearly endless, and the co-op aspect makes it all the more fun.

Searching for more to look forward to? Browse our quick roundup of the best upcoming indie games to anticipate, or our rundown of the coolest new games underway.

Big Walk crossplay is an important consideration for this quirky adventure, because there is no single-player mode or online matchmaking available as it's designed to be played cooperatively with the same group of friends over multiple sessions. This experience is tailored to 2-, 3-, or 4+-player groups, though up to 12 players are supported for maximum chaos!

It's likely that your friend group will be split across multiple platforms, so if you want to join them and go trekking together then here's what you need to know about crossplay in Big Walk for PC, PS5, and Switch 2.

Does Big Walk have crossplay?

Yes, Big Walk does have crossplay, which means you can go on adventures with friends whether they're playing on PC, PlayStation 5, or Switch 2. If your friends are using the same platform as you and are on your friends list, they will automatically appear in the menu to connect with. If your friends are on other platforms, the host can provide a unique Join Code for their session that anyone else can use to connect with them.

How does hosting and progress work in Big Walk?

Big Walk is a journey designed to be experienced over multiple sessions, and to maintain your progress throughout the host is the keeper of the save game. Once the host starts playing, others can connect through their platform friends list or a Join Code and continue where they left off last time, then when the host disconnects the session will end for everyone. This means you should pick your host carefully, as if they are not available to start the session then you won't be able to access your progress.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

10 long years later, Until Dawn 2 has been revealed, but if you were hoping for a direct continuation of the first game from OG studio Supermassive Games, you'll be disappointed on both counts. Until Dawn 2 seems to revolve around an entirely new cast of characters, and it's in development at Firesprite, the first-party PlayStation developer behind Horizon Call of the Mountain and a handful of other VR-first titles.

PlayStation dropped the announcement trailer for Until Dawn 2 during today's State of Play showcase, revealing a group of ghost hunters who don't know they're about to become the hunted. The trailer shows the young fools partying it up at an exotic and seemingly abandoned tropical destination called Akashima Island, which of course is said to be haunted. Then Baldur's Gate 3 star Neil Newbon shows up and belly flops into a pool. "Who's the buff idiot," one ghost hunter asks. "Does no one know this guy?" another asks, possibly a wink at Newbon's household status.

From there, things take a dark turn. Notably, I didn't see any mention or sighting of a Wendigo, the former humans-turned-monsters that serve as the main bad guys of the first Until Dawn. Instead, the only antagonists shown in the reveal trailer are some masked, machete-wielding hunters, which whack off one of the characters' legs.

Assuredly, this is still an Until Dawn game. We see one extremely critical quick time event toward the end of the trailer that results in a lad named Luke falling off a cliff to his bloody death, and the trailer closes out with the reveal that the psychiatrist character from the first game is back. "Can you do what needs to be done?" he asks ominously as a 2027 release window is shown.

I'm conflicted about this one. I have extremely fond memories of the first Until Dawn and have played it and re-played it at least a dozen times, but there's no denying Supermassive quality is inconsistent at best these days. That said, Firesprite hasn't proven itself as the lead developer on a non-VR, non-mobile first-party PlayStation game, so we'll have to wait and see how that shakes out. So far, I'm liking what I see.

Here are the best PS5 games you can play right now.

Ikumi Nakamura, the iconic horror artist known for her work on Okami, Bayonetta, The Evil Within, and Ghostwire Tokyo, has unveiled a brand new project that looks like some of the best parts of all those games combined and enhanced with a three-player co-op option.

Kemuri: Hunt the Unseen made its debut during today's PlayStation State of Play, and quite frankly, it woke me out of the slight boredom I was experiencing watching Wolverine impale someone's face for the 15th time. Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge fan of Marvel Games and I'm looking forward to Marvel's Wolverine, but that trailer was just a whole lot of slashing people to a bloody pulp and not a whole lot else. Kemuri: Hunt the Unseen, on the other hand, looks like something fresh, new, and weird in a way you would rightfully expect from Nakamura.

Fast, fluid, frenetic, and brimming with colorful J-pop style, Kemuri looks like a decidedly non-spooky take on Ghostwire Tokyo, the supremely underrated 2022 action horror game that Nakamura was originally creative director on. You team up with up to two other players and take on Kemuri City, which of course is the city "closest to the afterlife," and hunt down some ghosts inspired by Japanese folklore. It seems you have numerous ways of traversing the city both horizontally and vertically, with the trailer showing player characters gliding around environments, wall-running up buildings, and rail-grinding across ledges in pursuit of yokai which you can form contracts with and absorb their powers, changing your appearance, combat, and movement.

In terms of battles, it seems there's a mix of fast-paced supernatural ability-based melee and ranged combat, with what looks to be a Devil May Cry-influence.

Kemuri is in development at Nakamura's new studio Unseen, hence the subtitle. There's no release date just yet, but you can expect it to land on PS5 at some point in 2027.

In the meantime, here are the best PS5 games you can play right now.

The studio behind Party Animals has found itself in hot water after announcing an AI-generated video contest that promised $75,000 worth of prizes for participants, a plan that prompted heated backlash on Steam and an apology from the developers.

As you might remember, Party Animals is the co-op brawler that came out almost three years ago. What began as a physics-based hoot reheating Human Fall Flat's nachos has since turned into a more generally pleasant party game that includes a chill fishing minigame, what looks like a kart-racing mode, and other activities to enjoy with friends.

Things went sideways for the normally well-liked game earlier this week, however, when the devs welcomed players to enter a contest for AI-generated videos. "A short film you've been dreaming of making, a story that breaks all the rules, a character tribute to your favorite beast," the studio wrote on social media. "In the past, ideas like these could only exist in your head. Now, with AI, they finally have a chance to become reality."

The contest promised a grand prize of $15,000 and more prizes totaling $75,000 altogether, all for prompt videos about players' "wild ideas" for the game. "AIGC must be the core creative tool," was one of the rules.

The Party Animals contest, as you can imagine, didn't go down too well. On Steam, the game's 1,200 recent reviews are 'Mostly Negative' with 73% of people giving it a red score. Limiting the contest to AI content only and having people enter via online hashtags made the competition seem more like a way to flood social media algorithms with mass-produced slop.

"Rest in peace," one such negative review says, "loved this game but they're leaning into AI now so I will no longer support this company."

"Sucks to see a good party game stoop so low to replace assets and/or community competitions with AI garbo," another writes. "COMPENSATE ACTUAL ARTISTS!!!"

Complaints eventually got so loud that the Party Animals account stepped in to respond with an apology of sorts: "We'd like to address the recent discussion around the AI video contest, and first of all, we're sorry for upsetting players with this event. We're also sorry that we didn't communicate with everyone clearly enough before the event started."

Developer Recreate Games claims its "original goal was to lower the barrier to creation" for people who might not have the editing, modeling, or animation skills to otherwise participate. "We hoped AI could be a more accessible tool that lets more people take part," it adds, before saying it didn't mean to "dismiss handmade work or disrespect creators."

In an effort to make amends, the studio is now giving the player base three options to vote on via Twitter or the official forums: Cancel the contest entirely, turn it into a non-AI contest, or have the AI contest proceed as planned,d with a separate category for human-made videos.

Even that response hasn't swept the controversy under the rug, judging by replies in the Party Animals forum, at least. Talking about generative AI as a tool - a means to an end - somewhat dismisses real concerns people have around the tech's environmental and ethical impact. And while wanting to open up a creative contest to more people is an admirable pursuit, there's not much creativity involved in prompting. One fan suggested the company could make a few assets publicly available if accessibility were the dev's main concern, which I thought was a nice idea.

Former Assassin's Creed Hexe lead says no one at Ubisoft lost their job to AI while he was there: "That's just factually untrue."

Things went wrong for me in Kill Team: Terror on Devlan as soon as boots hit the dirt. Our crack Kill Team of Spectre Squad operatives fanned out across the Imperial ruins, ready to seal tunnels that xenos scum kept scuttling out of. Yes, the fabled 'Red Terror' – a monster famed for eviscerating platoons with ease – was still out there. But we had time before it arrived. The key was speed and focus. Right? Wrong. This wasn't our ambush; it was theirs.

Lesser Tyranid bioforms darted in and out of cover to pin us down, firing from all sides. Others hurtled forward in a swarm, ripping into my sniper as if he were a sack of jello. Flanking maneuvers made us pay for every inch gained, and while we killed plenty of them in return, they kept coming. Then the Red Terror (the undisputed star of Kill Team: Terror on Devlan) showed up. And yep, shit really hit the fan.

All this is to say that Kill Team: Terror on Devlan is hard. Bloody hard, in every sense of the word. As the first box set to focus exclusively on co-op and single-player gameplay, it's also an anomaly. Whether that's a good or bad thing will depend on what you want from Kill Team, but I came away impressed.

Kill Team: Terror on Devlan features & design

• Features solo/co-op missions
• Astra Militarum commandos vs. Tyranids
• The iconic Red Terror returns with an all-new model

Unlike most large box sets for Kill Team (Warhammer 40K's smaller, faster sibling), Terror on Devlan doesn't kick off a new competitive season with fresh terrain. It doesn't pit two new squads against each other like usual, either. Rather, it's all about you (and maybe a friend) taking down alien hordes. These can be controlled by another person, but they don't have to be; deigned 'non-player operatives,' their behaviours are dictated by a clever mix of if/when scenarios.

No matter who does what, it's all based on an old piece of 40K lore from previous editions: the loss of the planet Devlan to a hideous Tyranid offshoot, nicknamed 'the Red Terror.' However, this set expands and enriches that idea with horrifying context. Half the rulebook is dedicated to backstory, and it's a chilling read. The mounting tension is palpable as reports trickle in of unexplained murders and missing bodies, making Tyranids feel like inscrutable monsters that can't be defeated – only outrun.

Then you get to take it on yourself in a series of missions that can be run as one-offs or as part of a larger campaign. If you string everything together, your wins or losses dictate which scenario gets played next.

Of course, you'll have to build everything first… and despite the impressive Red Terror scything through scenery in a gravity-defying pose, it's a pleasantly straightforward process. I didn't struggle with the Red Terror, its push-fit Tyranid underlings (making a reappearance from the Warhammer 40K starter sets) or the Astra Militarum Spectre Squad. The only thing I'd say to do is paint your Red Terror before attaching it to the base. It'll be so much easier.

Speaking of easier, one quick thing to note: Terror on Devlan is designed to work with the Volkus Kill Zone terrain pack, sold separately. You can adjust things to make other scenery work, of course, but scenery is needed even so. You don't get any in the box, so bear that in mind before charging in.

Here's what comes in the pack:

• Dossier: This is the box set's rulebook, combining lore and backstory with mechanics and missions for all the models contained within.
• Data, ploy, and equipment cards: You'll need these to run both Spectre Squad and the Tyranids.
• Tokens: You get tokens for Spectre Squad and the Tyranid Red Terror, allowing you to keep track of their special abilities in play.

Gameplay

• Missions are a real challenge
• Spectre Squad are finicky, but hugely effective
• Will likely be too tricky and complex for beginners

Terror on Devlan has a very different feel compared to previous Kill Team sets; while the likes of Kill Team: Tomb World were tense, tactical head-to-heads, this has more in common with the best board games. Even if you're going into battle with a friend at your side, your goal is to overcome an automated foe powered by cards and an easy-to-follow set of behaviours.

Don't think it'll be straightforward if no-one's on the other side of the table, though. It's an exercise of cat and mouse, but I'm not sure we're the cat. Enemy behaviours are meticulously detailed, and there's an emphasis on them doing whatever will make your life harder each turn. No, really, that's what it says in the rulebook – it urges you to take whatever action will benefit the Tyranids and jeopardize your mission most. In addition, they… well, they just keep coming. Trying to wipe them all out is an exercise in futility as a result. More can, and probably will, emerge in their next activation. As such, getting around them to your real objective is challenging enough… and that's before the Red Terror gets involved.

The trick is working out how to use those set (and therefore predictable) behaviours against the foe, luring them into traps or distracting them so you can sweep in and complete your mission. This is immensely satisfying when done right, and a worthy challenge for those already familiar with Kill Team.

It's even more gratifying if you can avoid being mauled by the Red Terror in the process. This monster lives up to its name – if you aren't afraid, you should be. The first time I faced it, it eviscerated one of my strongest fighters in a single attack. It then re-emerged a short while later and swallowed my heavy gunner whole, at which point it vanished back underground in the biggest "up yours" I could imagine. Just like that, my meticulously-laid plan was in tatters. When combined with the smaller Tyranids that are still likely to be sprinting around the battlefield, you'll really feel up against it. Difficult decisions will need to be made.

That's what Spectre Squads excel at, though. This Astra Militarum Kill Team thrives on finesse, clever planning, and a willingness to pivot. While few of the individual troops will stand out much, the group's special abilities help it punch far harder than you might expect. Its Elite Fieldcraft power lets you act before a foe uses an action, for instance, potentially giving you a (devastating) bonus shot or allowing you to regroup to a more advantageous position. It takes some getting used to, and there's a fair amount to juggle where ploys are concerned, but the team will sing in the right hands.

With that in mind though, the one thing I'll say is that this won't suit beginners – or at the very least, it'll be one hell of a trial by fire. For one thing, Spectre Squad is tricky to get the most out of. Secondly, the missions are difficult as is. Indeed, they'll strain even the most experienced commanders.

Should you buy Kill Team: Terror on Devlan?

Whether you buy Terror on Devlan depends on a couple of things. If you're an experienced player, you'll find so much to dig your teeth into. If you want a way to play Warhammer solo, it's also ideal. Oh, and if you already have Kill Zone: Volkus, were gonna buy that terrain, or are happy to DIY a solution using scenery you already have? Great.

If you're new to all this, though, I'd steer clear. There are better entry-points to the hobby, even playing solo (I'd recommend Hivestorm), and it's punishingly hard. You need an established setup with terrain as well, none of which is included in the box. Beginner can obviously have a blast here, but it's an uphill battle.

Hoping to test your mettle as a seasoned veteran, on the other hand? I'd definitely recommend trying this set. I've had a lot of fun so far, and am desperate to even the score with the Red Terror. I doubt it'll go well.

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

How we tested Kill Team: Terror on Devlan

This product sample was provided by Games Workshop.

After familiarizing myself with the rules, I went about assembling every model in the box and painting whatever I could over the course of a few weeks (that included multiple members of Spectre Squad, the Red Terror, and some lesser Tyranids). I then dove into test matches direct from the pack to see how they handled in practice.

For more on our process, see how we test board games or the GamesRadar+ reviews policy.

Looking for something else to play? Be sure not to miss the best tabletop RPGs or the best card games.

I'm now perhaps overly self-conscious about when I use a certain word starting with "f" and ending with "riendslop," but casual co-op, low-fi visuals, and proximity chat is clearly a winning formula. The latest hit in that space is Sledding Game, which reached 100,000 copies sold and overwhelmingly positive Steam reviews just days after launch, and nobody's more surprised than the mostly solo developer who brought it to life.

We'll put the usual caveats on "solo" here – you will see the credits for music and the logo on the Steam page – but the bulk of Sledding Game is the work of a single developer who identifies himself as "Max," and says this is his "first ever video game." The title is pretty self-explanatory, as the game has you hanging out on a mountain resort and sledding around, tossing snowballs, making snowmen, and other appropriately wintery activities.

Sledding Game launched on April 30, and by May 5 had already sold over 100,000 copies. "Thank you everyone for playing," Max said in a Steam post announcing the news. "It means the world to me that I have the support to continue making games full time off of my first game on Steam. It’s a dream to reach this large of a number, and you all made it happen in 5 days. Couldn’t be more grateful."

Judging by the user reviews, which currently sit at an "overwhelmingly positive" 97%, that success is well-earned, too. This one probably catches the vibe better than any other: "This adorable little game brings my boyfriend and I unbridled joy. We love it so much for how endearing and entertaining it is. I love getting to be a little frog who drinks hot cocoa and goes sledding."

Dozens (upon dozens (upon dozens)) of games launch on Steam every day. Many of those are genuine labors of love that have something to offer an appropriate audience, but only a fraction of those manage to find the success they deserve. Seeing news about indie success stories like this always feels nice, but those stories stand out precisely because they're so uncommon.

Sledding Game is currently in early access on both Steam and Xbox – including Game Pass – and expected to remain there for up to a year, as Max continues to add "more cosmetics, more minigames, and more ways to hang out." Here's hoping the good times continue to roll.

Here are the upcoming indie games you need to know about.

Nick Kaman of Peak co-developer Aggro Crab predicted the friendslop "fad" will surely fade, just as previous genre booms have petered out over time. But for now, friendslop is still going strong, and co-op gambling game Gamble With Your Friends is the latest short-and-sloppy game to hit it big on Steam.

Gamble With Your Friends, you may have deduced, is about gambling with your friends. Up to six people "share one bank account and one massive debt," and head to the one place where all debts are consistently resolved: the casino.

"Gamble, buy sketchy items, make terrible decisions, and climb an ominous casino tower to hit your loan shark’s daily quota in 5 minutes - or face the consequences," the game's four developers (SkyBrave, blazitt, Gevizz, and Kiwick) challenge players.

In case there's any confusion, the devs previously said: "Our game is NOT A VIRTUAL CASINO. YOU WILL NOT SPEND ACTUAL MONEY TO WIN/LOSE MONEY FROM IT. You will only pay once and that's when you buy the game. There will be no in-game transactions that will require real money."

For $8 – which, as we all know, is basically $5, and it's literally $5 on sale – and "around 2 - 3 hours of playtime with 3 endings," Gamble With Your Friends had all the makings of the next friendslop success story.

It launched on May 1, and on May 4, the devs announced it had sold over 500,000 copies.

"We're soooo happy and speechless by the positive reception our game has gotten so far, and we would like to celebrate the fact that 500k+ gamblers have entered Jeff Booth's Paradise since last Friday with you all!!!" a Steam news post reads. "We're also aware of the bugs you've been reporting, and the team is hard at work addressing them as soon as possible."

Published by Tenstack, whose second top-selling Steam release is Pullback Racers with 34 user reviews, Gamble With Your Friends has blown all expectations away. It's brought in millions in revenue, and is holding at 89% "Very Positive" after 2,247 user reviews. SteamDB shows its all-time Steam player peak was just under 37,000, putting it in the upper echelons – albeit not the stratosphere – of the friendslop wave.

Peak co-dev says games like its iconic friendslop hit "wouldn't exist" if the studio tried to turn everything it makes "into the next Fortnite" with endless content updates.

Guerrilla Games has confirmed another playtest for its Monster Hunter-like co-op Horizon game Hunters Gathering, but the developer warns you probably won't be making it into this playtest, either.

The second batch of Horizon Hunters Gathering playtests are set to take place between May 22 and May 25 on PS5 and PC. Over on the PlayStation Blog, Guerilla detailed what to expect, promising "implemented player feedback" set to be revealed at a later date. There's also more to play with this time.

There will be two new Hunter characters: Ensa – "a charismatic Oseram smuggler with a mercenary past" and Shadow – sadly not the hedgehog, but "a Carja covert operative who commands a fearsome Stalker machine." Plus, another Monster Hunter staple (well, in Sunbreak and Wilds, anyway) is joining the game in the form of Hunter NPCs during Episodes or Machine Incursion modes – the latter of which sounds like a take on Rise's Rampage missions.

Aside from all of that, there's going to be a new Episode added to the game's narrative campaign, as well as new difficulty modes for the Machine Incursion and Cauldron Descent missions found in the previous playtest, and a training mode to help you tackle them. Finally, there's a new area called Breakers' Bounty, which features "dense jungles and ravaged ruins bordering a scorching desert home to dangerous machines."

However, Guerrilla doesn't seem to be adding a significant amount of players this time around, saying, "We want to emphasize again: Horizon Hunters Gathering is a game in development; we choose to playtest early and with small numbers to focus on the core experience and implement player feedback before opening to bigger groups of players. We learn a lot from each playtest and this second one is no different; we appreciate each of you who take the time to leave us your honest thoughts."

When Hunters Gathering was announced a Horizon lead said "we absolutely love making single-player games, and we're going to keep making them," although reports soon surfaced that Horizon 3 is probably not coming for a long time, as "most of the studio" is reportedly working on Hunters Gathering. I'm as skeptical about Sony's live-service ambitions as any, but the Monster Hunter-like genre is woefully underutilized, and if it can result in a Horizon game that I actually like, I may be down.

The Last of Us Online was "the best multiplayer game" many Naughty Dog devs had "ever played," ex game director says.

One indie developer is celebrating the fact that his new co-op adventure, Together: Moon Escape, has far and away surpassed the six other games he's released on Steam over the last 15 years.

Carlos Coronado today took to social media to rejoice. "You just broke my Wishlist chart," he tweets alongside a screenshot of Steam's developer backend that shows the Daily Wishlist graph shoot sharply up.

"Just to put things into perspective: none of my previous six games in 15 years reached more than 5,000 wishlists at launch," Coronado, who also goes by CarlosGameDev, writes. "And yesterday alone, Together: Moon Escape was wishlisted by 10,500 players!!!!!!!! IN A SINGLE DAY!!!!!!!!!!! Thank thanks thank thanks thanks to everyone."

Together: Moon Escape is a first-person, two-player puzzler set on an abandoned moon station that the game's Steam description calls an "extremely profitable slime empire," playable in both split-screen local co-op or online multiplayer.

Think It Takes Two, only without the expressive platforming and colorful levels. Essentially, puzzles are designed so you absolutely need to rely on your co-op buddy - you'll both have different tools required for the other person's progress and there's also a sprinkling of nonsensical fun throughout, like the poop geyser shown off in the trailer above.

"You are Moonfishers, specialized astronauts sent to the Moon," the game's Steam page explains. "Your employer? Moontella. A trillionare corporation extracting rare (and questionably carcinogenic) lunar slimes to supply high-end restaurants back on Earth. The job was simple. Until something went wrong. This is not your average serious space game. Expect absurd tools, ridiculous logic, and nonstop cooperation. Whether you're arguing over a puzzle or laughing at your partner falling into a crater (again), you’ll need each other to get home."

Together: Moon Escape is out now on PC, and already has some pretty strong user reviews. "If you like games like We Were Here, Portal or other work-together co-op games like It Takes Two, you’ll love this game," one such player writes. A free demo is also available if you'd like to give it a whirl before committing fully.

For now, check out the best co-op games to play with a friend in 2026.

Generating one billion of anything is an impressive feat. Whether it's song or TV show streams, or copies of something sold, that's around one eighth of the world's population accounted for; just mind-boggling. Among Us, the perennial space-based, party game, has managed to garner that amount of downloads just from one store, and Innersloth isn't sure how to react.

The studio posts about the achievement on Twitter. "Yooooooooooooooo we recently hit 1 BILLION downloads on the Google Play store," the post exclaims. "That's so many crewmates... thank you for playing…"

The poster says they're going to "barf in a vent," because "that is so cool." I don't blame them one bit, that's a lot of players – unfathomable, really, and to imagine them all interacting with and playing a project you've worked on must summon some amount of anxiety.

Innersloth jokes in the replies about the scale of its audience. "1/8 of the world are Crewmates... or Impostors... hard to say...," it says, when the true answer is we've all been both.

This comes with the caveat that it's individual downloads, presumably including people who've deleted it and reinstalled however many times, or folks with the game installed on multiple devices. I don't play on mobile, but I've done it on Steam numerous times, because I only play occasionally with friends, and I'd imagine many others are the same.

Even still, one billion – 1,000,000,000 – is an astronomic achievement, and this is just one particular storefront. Among Us is available on numerous platforms, putting the overall number much higher again, though it seems unlikely any are very close to the Google Play store since everyone and their technophobic gran has a touch screen phone these days.

Quite an achievement in just under eight years. I wonder where it'll be when the game turns ten. Whatever the number is, I hope it's still the same slightly janky experience, because if it's not broken, do not fix it.

Check out our list of new games for 2026 and beyond to keep up with all the upcoming releases on the horizon.

Mike Klubnika, creator of the 2023 multiplayer mega-hit Buckshot Roulette, is establishing himself as a (mostly) solo developer with a very specific niche focus: party games with lethally high stakes. His next game is called Machine Party, and the premise in the simplest terms is horror Mario Party.

Per the official Steam description: "Machine Party is a collection of violent party games where failure is lethal. Gather your friends and endure high stakes situations to prove your life is worth more than theirs. Survival is unlikely."

With challenges like competitive pea-eating and speed cigarette smoking, in which losing seems to almost always result in a revolver blast to the face – not to mention the distinct low-poly, grungecore aesthetic – Machine Party is to Mario Party what Twisted Metal is to Mario Kart.

It's unclear if there's a Mario Party-style game board, or if Machine Party really is just "a collection of uniquely violent party games," but the game supports 2-4 players and gives you "multiple devious ways of screwing your friends over."

The distinction here is that, unlike in Mario Party, screwing your friends over means the violent deaths of said friends. I don't know if there are Thwomp-like things in Machine Party, but if there are and you suffer the misfortune of being under one when it falls, you wouldn't bounce back like a gelatinous blob. Bones would crunch. Blood would flow. Bits of flesh would stick to the Thwomp's jagged edges. You get the idea.

In the words of the developer, there will be "frequent gory outcomes from losing mini games."

Machine Party is due out Q3 2026.

In the meantime, here are the best party games to get down with right now.

After a post from the developers went viral, the co-developer of Peak, Landfall Games, says it doesn't think players are ungrateful for wanting more updates, but that just isn't how the studio works.

One of the surprise hits of 2025 was Peak, the viral co-op indie climbing game from Aggro Crab and Landfall that was made to be a fun little game jam project, and swiftly became the biggest game either developer had made. But despite the surprise, the developers adapted and have been updating the game over the last year or so, with the final biome set to arrive in 2026. Last week, in response to a user calling it a "lazy dev cycle," Landfall reminded people that "neither us or Aggro Crab are live service studios," adding that "any update is a bonus not a right."

After the comment went viral, Landfall has released a video elaborating it a bit further. "No, we do not think that people playing our games are 'ungrateful' or 'entitled,'" they say, adding: "We actually think it's really cool that people like our games enough to want more updates – which is why TABS [Totally Accurate Battle Simulator] and Peak got so many of them."

The video continues, "However, there seems to be a disconnect between what we communicate we're going to do, and what people expect us to do." It's reiterated that neither Landfall or Aggro Crab make "so-called live service games," explaining, "we make limited experiences that we update for a while and then we move on to different projects."

It's pointed out that this stance is something the studio has been clear on for many years, but "despite this, every new game we make people assume we're gonna turn it into the next Fortnite – but that's just not how we wanna work." They note that, if this was the approach the studio took, games like Peak, Content Warning, and Stick Fight "wouldn't exist." So, no, "we will never be updating the same game forever."

I think it's probably down to just how long games take to make nowadays mixed with the rise of forever games like Fortnite, Minecraft, and Roblox, but there is a rise in people expecting developers to keep at games perpetually. Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fuelled was a comprehensive remake of the PS1 game, added all of the tracks from the PS2 game, and was updated for about half a year with new characters and tracks before the devs called it a day, but fans call it 'abandoned' rather than being satisfied with the idea that the developers were simply done.

Obviously, some devs do take this approach – CD Projekt Red just released a PS5 Pro patch for Cyberpunk 2077, and is even rumored to be releasing a new DLC expansion for The Witcher 3 later this year (11 years after launch). But that is the exception, not the rule. As much as I'd love to see more Super Smash Bros. Ultimate or Kirby Air Riders updates, sometimes developers are just done with games.

Peak's lead wants to keep its game "jam-like spirit" for future updates.

Whether or not you consider "friendslop" a dirty word, there's no doubt that the makeshift genre is making its mark on the industry. Games with simple hooks and short development cycles have been dominating the indie scene, and one developer – Peak co-dev Landfall – is aiming to pay its success forward by funding and advising studios making similar games. While those aims might sound altruistic, the name of the company's publishing arm is named with a sinister spin: Evil Landfall.

"We have so many people pitch us games that are like, 'This is like Peak, please fund it,'" Evil Landfall CEO Kirsten-Lee Naidoo tells GamesIndustry.biz. "And I think that it's good, because I think that we really believe in making games this way. We believe that you shouldn't spend multiple years on a project, because we've noticed that we often get caught up in the spiral. Our developers have been like, 'We work on a project for years, and we keep going deeper, and it doesn't really go anywhere.' That's not a good feeling."

Evil Landfall has existed, albeit without its silly name and public branding, for several years as regular Landfall's business arm, handling duties like marketing, community management, and the like. It's not spinning off into a full publisher, like those founded off the respective successes of Among Us developer Innersloth or Palworld studio Pocketpair. Instead, Evil Landfall is offering money and advice.

The company had been "quietly" doing this in the past, like when it invested in a game called Voidigo from developer semiwork – a studio that would help to pioneer the friendslop spirit with co-op horror hit REPO. Now Evil Landfall plans to invest in "a few games a year," with funding levels going up to around $1 million, or even beyond, if the right project comes along. The first publicly disclosed game to get Evil Landfall support is a goofy fishing game with guns and gore called How to Fish, due out later this year.

Landfall's development philosophy, Naidoo says, has been, "'We want to find the core of the game really quickly and have a shorter development cycle, because that's really fresh and that's really interesting.' And we all think that that model is better, because it just eliminates so much risk. If you work on a project for six months and it doesn't end up being anything, you can move on. It's not a huge time and money thing."

That's why Evil Landfall is looking to work with developers making similar sorts of games: small in scope, and clear in the type of fun they're going to provide. "If you're not finding the core of the game in a few months, don't sink five, six years into this," Naidoo says. "Don't put your life savings into it. Rather, put it out there, let people play it, if it doesn't stick, move on."

She adds, "I think that too many developers develop their game secretly for several years and just go with it, without showing it to anyone, and that doesn't always go very well. But if you get your game in front of people, they'll probably give you feedback that will steer you in the right direction early on."

This hasn't just been an indie problem, as ballooning dev cycles have arguably been an even bigger problem in the AAA space. Square Enix's Naoki Yoshida has been on record lamenting how difficult it is for Final Fantasy to collect new fans as "the release intervals for new titles have gotten longer." By the time The Elder Scrolls 6 finally launches, Skyrim's likely going to be old enough to buy cigarettes.

It feels like there's an increasing pressure for games to be all things to all people, and in some cases that can work. Certainly, Crimson Desert has found its audience. But those are massive gambles funded by massive publishers. For a small studio, it might make a lot more sense to place a safer bet on something that speaks to the desires of a very specific type of player. In nothing else, Peak has proven the niche audience might be bigger than you think.

Here are the upcoming indie games you need to know about.

Peak might have suddenly become one of the biggest games on Steam last year, but co-developers Aggro Crab and Landfall are still small, indie studios that can't crank out infinite updates at the pace of a live-service studio. The friendslop favorite is getting its final biome in 2026, even as some fans continue to demand more – and Landfall is keen to remind them that the studio has no moral obligation to keep updating the game.

In a Twitter response to one player lamenting what they call a "lazy dev cycle" for Peak, Landfall says that the game has "had sooo many updates tho!" And, it should be noted, those are free updates for an $8 game. "Neither us or Aggro Crab are live service studios," Landfall says, adding that "any update is a bonus not a right."

Perhaps the long-term support for games like Terraria and No Man's Sky, which have continued to get massive, free updates for years and years after launch, have skewed people's expectations a bit. Those games are very much exceptions, not rules, and you probably shouldn't expect most studios to approach those ridiculous standards.

This controversy, such as it is, comes in part because Landfall built a precedent of releasing new games on April Fools' Day. 2026 marks the first time the studio skipped a new April 1 release in five years, though it did release ports of both Content Warning and Haste today, on top of the recent Peak update.

"Last year was our busiest ever, with the PEAK release, Haste, TABS: Pocket Edition, and ROUNDS ports," Landfall says in another tweet. "We worked on something new for this year, but in the end, it didn't work out. We've stretched ourselves too thin, and the pressure to deliver a new game every year can be a lot on such a small team."

Landfall concludes by assuring fans that more is on the way: "Don't worry, we'll still be working on new projects, just maybe at a more reasonable pace." I think the devs have probably earned a humane working schedule, after all.

Peak is "not going to be a forever game," but the viral co-op climbing game's devs don't want to "leave anything on the table" either.

Peak co-developers Aggro Crab and Landfall have suddenly released the Play It Your Way update, and with it comes the literally game-changing autosave feature.

"Oh now this is peak," as one fan of the climbing sim summarizes on Reddit. Players have been yearning for autosave – it theoretically makes your boneless climb up a hairy mountainside less horrifying. In their Steam patch notes, Peak devs explain they're now making good on all those "long-requested quality of life features...but we snuck in some weirder stuff, too."

As far as bowing toward existing demands goes, in addition to those campfire autosaves that'll last "until you win, lose, or start a new expedition," devs have introduced custom runs with granular modification options and abridged mini runs. Campfires have also officially become "chill," as the developers say, "You can now hang out as long as you like by a campfire without gaining hunger or the fog progressing. It will not extinguish until any scout leaves."

In an effort to broaden Peak's accessibility, Play It Your Way also includes a zombie phobia mode that creates "an alternative aesthetic for the mushroom enemies in the Roots that hopefully squicks you out less," Peak devs say, or you can simply annihilate all zombies by excluding them from a custom run.

And finally, for the weird, Play It Your Way offers a grapple mode that devs emphasize is "stupid." That's probably true. But it's also Peak.

"Make friendslop games before the fad dies": Peak co-creator encourages indie games to free themselves from traditional dev practices.

The co-creator of Peak made an impassioned plea for indie devs to eschew traditional development systems that don't work for them - and to chase the friendslop "fad" before it's too late.

In a presentation at GDC last week, Nick Kaman, studio head at Peak co-dev Aggro Crab, said that the friendslop phenomenon, which was made in a matter of months and outperformed its joint devs' wildest expectations, was "the most fun I've ever had making games." In fact, Kaman said that the enjoyment he found in the development process - the subversive style of which was the main subject of his hour-long talk - "did more for me than the success of the game."

The financial and mental payoff that resulted in, he said, brought him "to this realization - 'why aren't we making more games like this?'" Perhaps not everything is going to sell quite as well as Peak, but Kaman argued that "freedom of development feels so good, and gets such good results. So if you're indie, don't let what people say is the way to make games tell you how to make games."

Finding new ways to work might have been the core part of Kaman's message, but he also called on devs to "please, make friendslop games - before the fad dies!" As a developer whose work helped cement the idea of friendslop in the public consciousness, it's no surprise that Kaman is one of the concept's biggest cheerleaders.

Elsewhere in the panel, he asks "why are we hating on friendslop? [...] what's so bad about hanging out with your friends?" Whether he truly believes it's a fad in danger of dying out isn't clear - the mass popularity of these types of games dates back at least as far as Among Us - but the uptick in silly, multiplayer-focused games like Peak, RV Where Yet?, Content Warning and more over the past few years has been notable. Perhaps the trick to cutting through in an increasingly crowded genre is to simply price your game at exactly eight bucks.

Peak devs originally borrowed from Zelda Breath of the Wild's climbing, but "everything changed" 1 week into development: "At this point, the game kind of made itself"

The term friendslop has proven divisive, particularly among people who make friendslop games, but the developer who's arguably wearing the genre crown has no issue at all referring to his work that way.

"Consider friendslop. Let's defend - why are we hating on friendslop? Why is it slop? I love this term, I say it all the time," Peak co-creator Nick Kaman says during a GDC panel attended by GamesRadar+. "But what's so bad about hanging out with your friends and playing games like this?"

I definitely think there's a minimizing quality to the term friendslop that isn't always justified, especially when it refers to genuinely inventive games like Peak, Content Warning, or Lethal Company. The developers behind Big Walk, the new Peak-like indie game from Untitled Goose Game studio House House, have said they have "complicated feelings" about the term, which makes sense, and to be fair, even Kaman seems to disagree with the "slop" part.

"I think there's a lot of beauty in them, and they have a lot of core game design in them. They're not slop, they're not poorly made," he says, jokingly advising other devs, to "make your game eight bucks."

Peak is the result of a collaboration between Another Crab's Treasure studio Aggro Crab and Content Warning publisher Landfall, the conceit of which came about following a bet between co-lead developers Kaman and Wilhelm Nylund to see whose game would sell more. (Content Warning won.) Ironically, friendslop or not, the game ended up selling more than both Another Crab's Treasure and Content Warning combined, becoming the hottest co-op indie game of 2025 and enduring into 2026 with strong player numbers.

Peak devs originally borrowed from Zelda Breath of the Wild's climbing, but "everything changed" 1 week into development: "At this point, the game kind of made itself"

Think what you like about 'friendslop' games like Peak and RV There Yet?, but these things are fun. They're gloriously silly, inviting groups to revel in their absurdity while attempting to work toward a shared goal. Peak's success has impressed many, including higher-ups at Xbox, who celebrate such comedy.

"The biggest trend that I see and I love in games right now, I'm going to call a return to fun," Chris Charla, general manager of portfolio and programs at Xbox, told GamesRadar+ at GDC 2026. "This is different for every player. We all have different things that motivate us to play games."

He notes he enjoys exploration and story games, but finds friendslop incredibly endearing. " I love seeing the success of games like Peak," he explains, "where it's just like, 'this game is just about having fun' and like, 'we're just gonna give you permission to have fun from the second you push the start button and laugh and just goof around.'"

Aggro Crab and Landfall's cartoony climbing sim is truly made for goofing around. Yes, you can take the whole endeavor seriously, and there are moments where it inspires that kind of attention, but you can also screw over your friends and take wild risks and then roll into hysterics afterward.

He compares the general vibe to that of skateboarding, and flip-flopping between nonchalant skating and trying to shred a line. "Skateboarding has had moments where the skate videos are very serious and everyone's very intense," he says. "Skate videos also have joy where, like, skate videos are super goofy, and everybody just has fun and that's great. That is diversity. It's awesome."

He finishes by adding this whole movement makes him "hopeful." While I agree, I'm also now more hopeful for skateboarding DLC in Peak. Skateslop - make it happen.

Peak devs originally borrowed from Zelda Breath of the Wild's climbing, but "everything changed" 1 week into development: "At this point, the game kind of made itself"

It's no secret that Peak, the chaotic multiplayer climbing game, was made quickly during a game jam, with the full release coming just five months after ideation. Towards the start of that process, The Legend of Zelda was a big influence, before the central mechanics actually came into view for the team at Aggro Crab and Landfall.

"Day two, [there are] ones working on this climbing mechanic from like, Breath of the Wild, so we can climb anything, and that's looking really exciting, right?" Nick Kaman, Aggro Crab co-founder, recalls during a GDC 2026 talk attended by GamesRadar+. "Meanwhile, our team is kind of finalizing the scout design."

The idea, it seems, was to make a whole game based on the climbing in Breath of the Wild. Not a bad notion. But on the third day, "everything changed," says Kaman.

"This is our best idea ever," he explains. "Basically, you get afflictions like hunger, injuries. Items carry weight, and they all take up spots on the same bar that lowers the amount of stamina you have for that entire amount; this solves every design problem you could ever think of."

They keep pushing on this central concept, creating a proper prototype by day seven. This includes multiplayer, the physics, and several other facets that'd remain in the finished game. "At this point, the game kind of made itself," Kaman adds. "The whole game is just the client, the wall, and the stamina bar preventing you from getting onto the wall. So we all really clearly understood what this game was about."

As long as they centered on the wall or the stamina bar, ideas were free-flowing, leading to a massive creative buzz as the devs excitedly put together what we'd come to know as Peak. "It was a beautiful time," he states. Honestly, I can think of nothing more peak than that.

"Whoever sells more copies pays for the other's therapy": Peak came about after a bet between Content Warning and Another Crab's Treasure leads, and ironically the friendslop collab that followed sold more than both games combined

When Another Crab's Treasure director and Aggro Crab founder Nick Kaman found himself in therapy following a lost bet with Content Warning lead developer Wilhelm Nylund, he probably wasn't expecting to release a game co-developed by Nylund's studio Landfall Games that ended up outselling Another Crab's Treasure and Content Warning combined — but that's exactly what happened.

Telling "the story of Peak" at a GDC 2026 panel attended by GamesRadar+, Kaman says he had a "raging jealousy" for Nylund when he saw that Landfall was able to make Content Warning in just six weeks while Another Crab's Treasure, which was a month away from releasing, took about three years to make. "I was so mad. How dare you come up with something this good in so little time when I've been over here busting my ass," Kaman says.

So, Kaman went to therapy to dig out the deeper meaning behind his envy, right? No, the therapy came later. Kaman's response was to make a bet with Nylund that Another Crab's Treasure would outsell Content Warning, and well, one quick look at the Steam charts for both games tells you how that went down.

"Whoever sells more copies pays for the other's therapy" was the bet, and after reading that last paragraph, you can probably guess which developer wound up lying face-up on a couch talking about their childhood.

"I had three sessions. Content Warning blew us out of the water," Kaman says, adding, "those sessions were very illuminating," and, "I recommend therapy."

I also recommend therapy based not only on my own experience, but the ensuing collaboration between Kaman and Nylund that has become a massive viral sensation and has outsold Another Crab's Treasure and Content Warning combined. After their bet, Kaman and Nylund teamed up and quickly co-developed co-op climbing game Peak, launching the following year and selling more than 10 million copies as of August 2025. I'd call that a happy ending.

"Complicated feelings on our end": Indie devs behind new Peak-like co-op understand you think it's friendslop, but "it's a slight bummer that the other half of the term is the 'slop'"

The perpetual chase toward perfect game balance in Helldivers 2 isn't the job of any one person or team, but rather a "team effort" involving the studio, says one of the game's support devs.

"There's no balance team," says Arrowhead staffer B Vitamin on Discord (via Helldivers Now on Twitter). "It's all a team effort between several people and roles because 'balance team' has let to some pretty unfair assumptions to be made."

I can absolutely understand why Arrowhead wouldn't want anyone on the team to bear the massive burden of responsibility when it comes to balancing Helldivers 2. With the game's many balance updates, and in particular weapons nerfs, being as controversial as they so often are, it makes sense for the studio as a whole to be united against the backlash.

"People don't really have any idea how things actually work behind the scenes, and that leads to bad assumptions and making things up turns into misinformation that gets spread around until people think it's fact," adds B Vitamin. "Such as 'the balance team' when this isn't a thing. There isn't a team whose sole responsibility is to do the balancing for the game. We have game designers and directors people who do these sorts of things but there isn't a 'balance team'.

"The actual changing of weapons is done by the people who make the weapons, decisions about what should be changed, when, and in what way is a team effort between designers and directors."

I get the impression that B Vitamin is making these points of clarification in response to backlash toward specific people at Arrowhead, as they specifically call out the misconception that the dev known as Alexus is the "one balance dev."

"He has far less to do with balance decisions than people assume," says B Vitamin, adding, "no dev gets to just change whatever they want without oversight or discussion, and the person who made the thing may not necessarily have the final say in if it should be changed."

Alexus himself has previously reached out to the Helldivers community in an attempt to lower the temperature around balancing, referring to himself as "villain of the month" and saying "the witch hunt has reached a level uncomfortable even for me."

Related: As death threats derail Helldivers 2's wholesome D10 challenge, Sony and Arrowhead address “increasing hostility in the community”: “We do not tolerate threats of violence, harassment, or doxxing”

Big Walk, the upcoming co-op adventure from the creators of Untitled Goose Game, looks as though it might be the next title players will dub a "friendslop" gem lovingly – but developers aren't quite sure how they feel about the fan-created genre name.

Stuart Gillespie-Cook and Nico Disseldorp of House House tell GamesRadar+ as much when asked what they think of the term.

"Complicated feelings on our end," admits Gillespie-Cook. "It's a funny one, where I really think it depends on how positively or negatively you want to take that term." He goes on to cite that there are plenty of other titles – think Peak and the like – that are similar in nature.

"The fact that there are a bunch of games that are popular at the moment, where hanging out with your friends is the chief activity? That's great. We love that," explains the dev. "I guess we've been making this game for so long that the kind of term and almost like the backlash for these types of games wasn't around when we started, and I think we were a bit nervous that, like, 'Is there even an audience for this type of game?' Like it was a bit foreign to us."

He concludes: "So I think that the emergence of this at least proves that, like, yeah, people are into these games. It's a slight bummer that the other half of the term is the 'slop,' but yeah."

Disseldorp echoes this last part himself, adding, "All artists always hate the name of the genre that people give them. So it's nothing new there."

It seems that, all in all, House House isn't quite sure how it feels about "friendslop" – it's got both negative and positive connotations.

The devs behind Peak similarly spoke on the term late last year, calling friendslop "juicy" and saying, "There's a real desire to connect and hang out in online worlds, and friendslop games put that at the front and center of the experience."

Need something else to look forward to with Big Walk still underway? Browse through our roundup of the best new games coming this year and beyond for more.

What are the playable characters in Big Walk, the upcoming social multiplayer walker-talker game from developer House House of Untitled Goose Game fame? Having played a couple of hours at a recent hands-on in-person preview, I'm still unsure. Ants? Birds? Humans? They've got distorted heads with bulbous protrusions that get larger when speaking, spindly limbs, and what I can only describe as a snowman-style body of multiple orbs. It's unclear, and House House isn't interested in clarifying.

"That's for you to decide," says House House developer Nico Disseldorp when I ask. "We've kind of left a lot of built-in ambiguity – lots of the items, the characters, lots of the spaces in the world, they're deliberately a bit difficult to describe, and that's part of the game is for you to figure out what language you want to use with your friends."

"This isn't a game where you can just not describe them," continues Disseldorp. "There's so much teamwork that you will need to kind of build that shared language. But through doing that, you take ownership and build a shared understanding of the game together."

"You make your own little vernacular that you kind of refer to things by, and you have your own little story," adds House House developer Stuart Gillespie-Cook. "Plus, we wanted to really frustrate anyone who was making a wiki of the game. Gonna make that job as hard as possible."

"The blank at the blank is the blank," says Disseldorp, laughing. "That's the ideal wiki entry for Big Walk."

Hold and shake

Mechanically, Big Walk is fairly simple. You can point, you can jump, you can crouch, you can run, and you can interact with objects – with ways to combine all of the above into different actions – while traversing an outdoor space populated with various structures and puzzles. "Interact" here is broad and can mean pushing buttons, shaking an item in your hands, or reeling your foot back to give a nice big kick to whatever you're holding. Sometimes what you punt might have been the key to unlock the next step of a puzzle. Sometimes that something goes flying off somewhere you can't locate it again. (There's a Lost & Found in the starting area where such things respawn.)

"I do think our impulse the second we get a character in a game is just to make them as expressive as possible," says Gillespie-Cook. "Where so much of the focus of this game is looking at each other and interacting with each other, you kind of do want your little puppet guy to be as expressive as possible."

"A pretty big philosophy of ours is like, there's no dance emote button or whatever," continues Gillespie-Cook. "All the dancing you can do comes from your own movements. There's weird little combinations of things you can do to make your character move around in the way you want."

"We let you layer your actions, rather than having a bunch of discrete moves," adds Disseldorp. "It's kind of like, 'OK, you can do everything in the game with your hands above your head. What makes sense for that? What does that mean if you're holding something? What does that mean if you're not holding something?'"

So, for example, you can hold an object in Big Walk, but there's no inventory screen so that everyone can see what you have. This also means you're pretty much relegated to holding a single thing at a time. But is that the most important part of holding anything? Of course not.

"The most important verb when you're holding something is just to hold it above your head to show someone else," says Gillespie-Cook. "It's like, 'Check me out.'" The two of them refer to this as a "Look What I Found" button, which is born out of the natural instinct of playing games together.

Look what I found

While Big Walk and its focus on social interaction might at first blush seem to be pretty far afield from House House's previous title, the spirit of the goose is alive and well here. For example, there's a heavy emphasis on shenaniganery. There are challenges to be solved, but also, you can just… not do that. There's nothing stopping you from running around and playing tag or hiding key items (sometimes literally) around the world. There's no traditional online matchmaking, however, so if you're out there griefing others it'll be people you know. Then again, one person's grief is another person's pleasure, right?

Not that my time with Big Walk, between 45 minutes to an hour and change from start to finish, was anything to do with "grief." Though I'd only known one of the other three playing with me at the beginning, we quickly gelled and were soon crawling across the landscape, solving puzzles and shouting "key, key, KEY, KEY, KEY." I can only imagine the chaos of having up to 12 players doing similar, though many hands may make light work, and tackling multiple challenges simultaneously could make solutions simpler. If I were a betting man, however, I'd wager that another eight players in our game would have simply meant a louder "key" chorus.

Really, the only fundamental change to Big Walk depending on the number of players is the scale of challenges – and even then, not all of them. It's a pretty "light touch," according to House House, and there's plenty where nothing really changes at all. For example, if you have to form a chain to carry something… the chain's just longer. One early challenge, as another example, tops out at four buttons and any additional players are just there for moral support.

"The biggest thing we wanted to make sure of is you only need one other person to play through the whole game," says Gillespie-Cook. "We make sure we support two players, then three players, and then four plus we just kind of categorize as its own big thing. Every challenge might have a distinct role for different players to take on, and we found that once you get up to like four people, people start making their own roles anyway. So there's no point shoehorning them into things."

"If you played the two-player version of a challenge, and your friends played the three-player or the four-player, and you were talking about it, it wouldn't be immediately obvious that you're having different experiences," adds Disseldorp.

"A lot of the fun of designing those challenges to capture that same feeling – no matter how many people you play it with, you've had the same feeling of coordination that you've had and as other groups," continues Gillespie-Cook.

Proximity chat isn't quite working as intended with my setup, or so it seems. I've been invited to the Panic office in Portland, Oregon to play in a room specifically designed to have four-player Big Walk sessions together. It's a bit cobbled together given the intent is to play Big Walk online, but it works.

I can only hear one or two people, and not consistently, but there's no time to stop and troubleshoot because they're already moving away through the brush and I can hear them echoing in the physical room we're sharing anyway – not something every player will experience, to be sure, but then the specific circumstances of my playthrough are something outside the norm anyway.

Panic CEO Cabel Sasser excitedly explains the technical aspects and we're greeted by a scripted intro that's projected onto the walls. It's a bit much, but in a good way. The four pods, equipped with Mac Minis and monitors and headsets, have their own accompanying light show. Sasser later confirms Big Walk is running 1080p, 30fps here and also shows us a really stylish broom for reasons of which I am sworn to secrecy. (The public will soon get to find out, however, as Panic is opening the room up for scheduled previews.)

Despite the proximity chat snafu, I have a good time and am generally able to keep up just fine, but it does inspire me to then ask House House directly: why the emphasis on proximity chat at all?

"We would play a lot of these games during lockdown," says Gillespie-Cook, having previously explained that Big Walk started life around the end of 2020, "and quite often get frustrated."

"Our go-to anecdote has been playing a big session of Red Dead with a bunch of different people," he continues, "and having one group over here robbing a train and one group over here exploring a cave, and because we're all just on a Discord voice call, the things were happening simultaneously, and you didn't really feel as connected to your your immediate party."

"Someone would say, 'Look over here,' and you're like, 'Where?' And then you realize, 'Oh, they're on the train and I'm in the cave. I shouldn't really be hearing this player,'" adds Disseldorp. "It's only confusing, and you're kind of yelling at each other rather than talking to each other when that sort of thing happens. Proximity voice chat just gives you that natural ability to only hear from people who are in the same space as you and focusing on the same things you are."

"It both gives you this immediate focus of, I'm sharing this experience with my friends, but then later, when the two groups recombine, there's this great moment of storytelling where you get to live vicariously through their story of the train robbery, or whatever," continues Gillespie-Cook.

"We don't have a train robbery, just to be clear," adds Disseldorp with a laugh. "That's the game we were playing. There's a train, but I don't think you rob it – I mean, you could. That's a challenge for your readers, I guess: can they do a train robbery in Big Walk?"

I bet you could do a train robbery in Big Walk. If nothing else, I'd love to see you try – and to hold something above my head or kick something off a cliff, maybe both, while you do.

Big Walk is set to release later this year for PS5 and PC with cross-play. While you wait, be sure to check out our ranking of the best co-op games.

Peak, the viral co-op climbing sensation that helped put friendslop on the map in 2025, is still proving popular – so popular, in fact, that very blatant lookalikes of the beloved indie gem are everywhere, including mobile platforms.

Late last year, publisher Landfall Games acknowledged the wave of Peak rip-offs hitting the PS5, stating it had been "reporting a bunch of these AI slop things for the past year," but that "the process takes a while." Sadly, it seems like that process doesn't just take a while – it's, at this point, never-ending.

In a new online post, a fan flags yet another unofficial Peak doppelganger, this time on the App Store, writing, "I'm assuming this isn't real."

In response, developer Aggro Crab confirms that it's indeed not real. "It's fake, but they take FOREVER to get removed." The studio adds a sobbing emoji and concludes, "We have no plans to go to mobile."

Landfall Games leaves a similar reply, stating, "It is not real." Fans question how Apple approved the obvious copy, which is even dubbed "Peak!" on the App Store. Screenshots show it's basically a 'we have Peak at home' situation.

Everything from the art style to the UI matches (not to mention, you know, the literal title of the game). The "fake," as Aggro Crab calls it, has a 3.0 rating and sits at the #4 spot on the App Store under the "Entertainment" category.

Unfortunately, upon a quick check, it appears that it's still up and selling for $3.99. The developer listed, Sarukent Demiray, was apparently founded just two months ago, releasing only the one game so far.

Here's hoping Apple cops on to the problem (and every other platform, because Peak fakes seem to be a universal problem) and takes the lookalike of Aggro Crab's iconic co-op experience down soon.

The other sad part about all of this, I suppose, is the fact that devs have confirmed that Peak isn't coming to mobile – but fans of gaming on-the-go can at least look to the Steam Deck for now.

Peak developers promise a console port is coming, but there's still no timeframe: "Porting games, let alone a game jam, takes a while to do."

Viral co-op sensation Peak still has plans to climb toward consoles, but its developers aren't sure when exactly those ports might arrive.

Peak's ascension on Steam was really something to behold last year. Co-developers Aggro Crab (Another Crab's Treasure) and Landfall (TABS, Content Warning) spent more or less four weeks on a joint game jam, which eventually became both a hilarious climbing simulator and the quintessential game in the divisive 'friendslop' subgenre.

The developers, collectively known as Team Peak, previously revealed plans to bring the hit game to consoles, but after months of silence, you'd be forgiven for forgetting about the ports or worrying about them altogether. Now, Team Peak promises that development on those console ports is still ongoing.

"I don't know, okay?" the developer cheekily says in an unserious Q&A video posted to social media, responding to questions about Peak's console edition. "We're working on it. Porting games, let alone a game jam [project], takes a while to do. We want to, don't worry. We're really excited for when we can. And you will see a TikTok the moment we can share anything."

The Peak developers have yet to confirm which consoles the co-op phenom might arrive on, but if the game's outsized success is any indication, I'm guessing it'll come to them all. Well, at least PS5, Nintendo Switch 2, and Xbox Series X|S. I'm not expecting a Sega Genesis port here.

Elsewhere in the Q&A, we finally got some juicy, very important news about Bing Bong's love life. The love of his life is a woman named Miriam, but she's not part of whatever species Bing Bong belongs to. She's just a regular human woman. I always knew that guy had rizz.

Peak's "8 bucks is still 5 bucks" view is a genuine look "behind the curtain" at "vibes pricing" across the industry, analyst says: "70 bucks seems right. All right, we'll try that."

The friendslop era is truly upon us, and it seems the genre's potential for success didn't, uh, peak with Peak and REPO last year. A new contender has entered the friendslop arena in the form of Yapyap, and just a week after launch, it's already managed to reach 500,000 copies sold.

"Way more of you showed up than we ever expected," the devs say in a February 9 Steam post announcing the news, "and it's honestly been surreal to watch! All of us at Maison Bap are super thankful for the overwhelming support we've had from you all!"

Reaching half-a-million copies sold would be impressive for a small-scale indie game in any context, but it's made all the more impressive by the fact that Yapyap only launched on February 3. Those 500,000 sales happened in less than a week.

Yapyap is billed as "a magic-themed co-op horror game," and it essentially plays like REPO in reverse. Instead of trying to extract piles of treasure from haunted locations, you're instead trying to destroy as much as possible. Add in the voice recognition spellcasting popularized by Mage Arena, and you've got a stew going – not a particularly original one, but a tasty one nonetheless.

Steam reviews for Yapyap currently sit at a "very positive" 82%, and the primary complaint right now is that the game just doesn't offer a whole lot of content. For now, the devs are working on basic bug fixes, but more is on the horizon. "We want to make sure the game is fully stable and smooth for everyone," Maison Bap explains. "Once that's locked in, we'll start planning the fun stuff!"

While "friendslop" might carry some derogatory connotations – and certainly, there are those in the industry are eager to see the term die – some developers wear it as a badge of honor. Whether or not the term sticks around, it seems that the games themselves are here to stay.

These are the best co-op games out there.

Back in November, a team of Valheim leads quietly announced their new studio Grip Jaw and debut project Begraved, a game billed as a mishmash of Lethal Company, Phasmophobia, and Content Warning, and now you can check out what they've been up to yourself.

Grip Jaw is a small studio led by Valheim creative director Robin Eyre, and it just released a free demo for Begraved on Steam, giving you the chance to go hands on with what sounds like a pretty interesting concept. You start out in a huge mansion of a hideout filled with various items like torches and pickaxes to slot into your tiny inventory and then head out into procedurally generated dungeons crawling with grotesque, violent creatures. Why? Money, of course.

Your goal is simple: get in, collect treasure, and get out, definitely a familiar gameplay loop for fans of indie horror right now, but there's a fun twist: you have to sell enough stuff to to afford paying the taxman when he comes around, and if you don't, it's straight to the gallows. It's unclear what consequences you face for getting hanged, and in my testing I just got kicked back to the beginning of the demo, but I imagine it's not good.

As for the cozy element, I guess that's the hideout, which Grip Jaw promises you'll be able to expand and customize in the full version of the game. What I do find very cozy indeed is the adorable black cat that meows and roams around the hideout, although I don't love how when you pick him up, you grab him by the scruff of his neck, which I've heard you're not supposed to do. Anyway, Grip Jaw says there will be more pets and cosmetics in the full game, as well as a night garden where you can tend to crops. I always appreciate when an otherwise action-packed game like this one gives you some cozy stuff to break up the tension, like how Dondoko Island basically turns Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth into Animal Crossing.

Admittedly, it's a peculiar look going and forming a different studio and releasing a new game while still working on Valheim, which has been in early access for five years. As I mentioned, I played the demo and had an alright time, but so far Begraved hasn't clicked in a way that Valheim did pretty much instantaneously for me. That could be because I was playing solo, though, as the game is clearly designed for co-op play. Give it a try yourself and let us know what you think in the comments.

Otherwise, here are some games like Valheim we recommend.

Guerrilla Games wants everyone to know that they are still dedicated to single-player games despite the announcement of Horizon Hunters Gathering.

If you've been paying attention to the PlayStation fanbase over the last few years, you'll have no doubt seen the fear caused by Sony seemingly focusing its efforts on multiplayer titles. Concord obviously had a lot of negativity surrounding it, as did the now-cancelled The Last of Us multiplayer project at Naughty Dog, and the news that the first game Bluepoint was working on under Sony was apparently a live-service God of War game.

So with that growing sentiment, it's not entirely a surprise that with the announcement of Guerrilla Games' new Horizon multiplayer game, along with the opportunity to sign up for the Horizon Hunters Gathering playtest, the studio was quick to acknowledge the elephant in the room. Even before the game was shown off, Guerrilla studio director Jan-Bart Van Beek explained, "I want to be very clear about one thing. We absolutely love making single-player games, and we're going to keep making them."

He continues that single-player is "a huge part of who we are as a studio." However, Van Beek explained, "we also have this long-standing dream to try to do something different. Our own take on how you can explore the world of Horizon together as a team of machine hunters." Hey, that's pretty much exactly what Horizon Hunters Gathering is.

While there was no news on whether a potential Horizon 3 is being worked on simultaneously, the fact that the studio's first priority was to emphasize that single-player games aren't going away is enough to give fans some hope that the third iteration is still on track to release sooner rather than later.

Square Enix might finally reveal Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 3 as the RPG's director promises "more updates" on the series "than ever before" this year.

Horizon Hunters Gathering is a new co-op action adventure currently in development from Guerrilla that takes place in the Horizon universe.

Set to come to PC and PS5, the new game was announced back in February, with the studio holding its first playtest that same month. Now, a second blog post has given us yet more insight into the experience, with confirmation that a second closed playtest will be held later this month on May 22.

As a series that's known for bringing us single-player open world RPGs with Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Forbidden West, Hunters Gathering is taking the post-apocalyptic setting in a new direction, one that promises to encourage teamwork as a group of heroic hunters who take on the dinosaur-like machines who roam the lands. With a new art style, an appearance from Aloy, and more details about the locations, modes, and gameplay it promises, read on below to learn more about Horizon Hunters Gathering.

Horizon Hunters Gathering release date is still to be determined

Horizon Hunters Gathering doesn't yet have a release date or even a release date window.

As Bak stated in the debut trailer, "it's still early days" for the game, but we can expect to get further development announcements in the coming months. Playtests are also expected to take place in the future, and the team have created a dedicated Discord channel and social platforms @PlayHorizonHG that you can follow for further updates.

We may get some new updates on a release during the upcoming State of Play showcase, so stay tuned for details!

Horizon Hunters Gathering platforms

Horizon Hunters Gathering is coming to PC and PS5.

Guerrilla confirmed it will be among the upcoming PS5 games, making it a PS5 exclusive on console. Excitingly, though, it will support cross-play and, as the official PlayStation blog post details from Bak, cross-progression will also be included when you're logged into your PlayStation account.

Horizon Hunters Gathering trailer

Horizon Hunters Gathering gameplay

As detailed in the above trailer and the official blog post, Horizon Hunters Gathering will see you choose from a lineup of different hunters who all have their own unique skills. From soldiers "who hold the line", to tanky looking mercenaries, stealthy infiltrators, and tough champions, they're all described as "upstarts whose stories are just beginning".

Up to three players can team up to try and protect the world, which is under threat from the deadly machines that roam the lands in Horizon. While you'll need a PlayStation Plus subscription to play on PS5, you can also play solo with two NPCs helping you fight.

As we explore in our Horizon Forbidden West review, combat in the single-player RPG developed quite a lot, and it sounds like the fighting in Hunters Gathering is going to be more tactical and reactive, with "deeply skill-based" combat to "build on the tactical precision of the Horizon games while embracing the dynamics of team play."

With a rogue-lite perk system at play, you're also able to tailor your build to suit your own preferred playstyle or team set-up, and each Hunter's class can be switched out to your liking. With different challenging and replayable hunts to get stuck into and powerups to play around with, there's also even a hub-like space where you can hang out with your pals. Known as Hunters Gathering, you can upgrade your gear here and customize a campsite, too.

Two modes have been revealed so far, including Machine Incursion that see you take on waves of machines that are ultimately led by a big boss. Cauldron Descent, on the other hand, brings you into a dungeon-like environment that's said to be a "longer, multi-stage trail" where ever-changing rooms will test your teamwork, and hidden doors hide powerful rewards.

Horizon Hunters Gathering story

While it is a co-op action game, Horizon Hunters Gathering is said to part of the canon of the Horizon universe, and all the playable Hunters will have their own personal struggles and motivations, with new stories that the team are setting out to tell through the experience.

As Bak details in the blog post, "the game has a narrative campaign which will introduce new mysteries, characters, and threats, but we're keeping it under wraps for now."

While we still don't yet know any story details, a later PS blog post in May 2026 detailed that Horizon Hunters Gathering will feature Episodes that are said to "play a central role in the game's narrative campaign".

Horizon Hunters Gathering setting

Horizon Hunters Gathering will take place across various environments within the Horizon universe, and you'll venture to different places as you take on the machines of the wild. Each location is said to feature "its own atmosphere, challenges, and opportunities for your team to explore and master".

Guerrilla has so far revealed that we'll have access to Devil's Thirst, a site that appeared in Horizon Zero Dawn, as well as a central social space known as the Gathering where you meet other players and customize your loadout. Horizon Hunters Gathering will also introduce a new region in Breakers' Bounty, which is made up of jungles, ruins, and a desert that's said to be home to dangerous machines.

Horizon Hunters Gathering characters

While we seen teases of some familiar faces including Aloy in the initial reveal, Guerrilla shed some light on the playable characters known as Hunters who have been brought to life for the co-op experience.

So far we know of Rem, Sun, and Axle who appeared in the first playtest. As part of the second playtest, two more playable Hunters will enter the fray, with Ensa, a "charismatic Oseram smuggler with a mercenary past" and Shadow, a "Carja covert" who has a Stalker machine sidekick.

Horizon Hunters Gathering playtests

After holding "a small-scale closed playtest" at the end of February 2026, Guerilla is doing another round of playtesting between May 22 - May 25, 2026.

The team is said to have implemented a lot of play feedback from the first playtest, which will be highlighted at a later stage. You can currently sign up for the Horizon Hunters Gathering playtest if you're interested in testing out the game in these early stages of development.

"On a personal note, this is both an exciting and daunting step for us," says Bak. "Multiplayer games have always been part of our studio's DNA, and it’s where I began my own career. Bringing a co-op hunting experience into the Horizon universe is something we’ve envisioned for a long time, and we’re approaching it with care, ambition, and passion. I hope the coming months give you a sense of the scale and complexity of what we’ve been building – or better yet, let you experience it yourself in a playtest."

Need something to play while you wait for Horizon Hunters Gathering? Check out our pick of the best PS5 games or best co-op games around right now.

Peak developer Aggro Crab has just released patch 1.53.a, which adds a number of new features and bug fixes to the game. The most exciting addition is that you can now kick other players from the game. This is a long-awaited option, as it will allow hosts to kick people with connection issues, rather than forcing them to restart the whole session.

According to the Peak patch notes, while Peak players are still not allowed to kick our fellow scouts in-game, and you should feel ashamed for even thinking that, we can now kick them out of the game if there are issues. A session's host can now see a little boot symbol next to the audio slider in the pause menu, and clicking it will kick the player from the game.

A kicked player can't be 'un-kicked', so if you want to include that player in the session, you'll need to go back to the menu and start hosting a new session. There are numerous non-evil reasons for wanting to kick someone from the game, such as if they are suffering from connection issues, or are causing problems for other players.

There are also a number of quality-of-life changes, such as an overhaul to how players can reconnect. One change allows people to return as a scout instead of a ghost if the party revives others at the campfire they are currently at. Another means there is time for you to throw a scorpion away before it stings you.

The ability to add rich text tags to your name has been removed, and if you're disappointed by that change, feel heartened that you'll be able to roll snowballs around to make them bigger. A huge boon for sure.

Peak will get its final biome this year and a couple of updates "that address some commonly requested features," dev confirms while teasing a brand new project "that I'm still gatekeeping."

Aggro Crab has released a video detailing its 2026 plans for Peak – with one final biome set to drop this year – and beyond with a new game teaser.

In the video an Aggro Crab representative (in Peak character form) reaffirms that "major Peak updates are going to be less frequent in 2026," but that the studio still has "a couple in the works right now that address some commonly requested features" – although we can't know what the features are because "I don't want to tell you yet."

And after the updates, the team wants to "start working on the final biome for Peak." Not much was revealed about the area except that it will swap with Caldera during runs and that the team is "pretty excited for what we have in mind." However, they warn, "don't expect these updates to come super fast this year."

The video confirmed that the studio's upcoming forklift-based multiplayer game, Crashout Crew, is set to release this year, saying, "We're almost finished with this game, so hang tight with news about its release." They explain, "Peak allowed us the space to just shoot the shit with games we're making, so we're not in a rush to release Crashout Crew until we're ready; that's why it doesn't have a date yet."

It was also confirmed that Aggro Crab is working on "secret things," with a very blurry screenshot shown. The screenshot has a blue background and what looks like rocks and greenery, and it could very well be an expansion or sequel to Another Crab's Treasure, but it is too unclear to tell. The video closes saying, "it's only January, and we already have a bunch of stuff planned for this year that I'm still gatekeeping," which could mean more surprises outside of the ones featured here are in store.

Peak's lead wants to keep its game "jam-like spirit" for future updates.

Helldivers 2 players can vote on which planet Super Earth will test out its newest weapon on, which is eerily similar to a big planet-exploding laser from some old movie I watched once.

Last week, the government of Super Earth announced that it was working to convert the Democracy Space Station into a "macro-scale laser, capable of generating a high-yield beam optimized for mass Freedom dispensation." And in the week since the space station has been equipped with the Star of Peace, which is "a Dark Fluid-powered high-yield weapon capable of collapsing an entire planet into a black hole." And now, in the name of democracy, the government is asking the Helldivers to decide which planet it should be aimed at.

Helldivers are asked to access the "Democracy Space Station voting panel from the Galactic Map" and select which planet should be targeted. The options are Zagon Prime (held by the Terminids), Penta (held by the Automatons), and Valmox (held by the Illuminate). The catch is that a planet adjacent to the main planet must be held by Super Earth by the time of firing, or else the second choice will be targeted instead.

The fine print explains "Immediate testing of the Star of Peace will commence when voting closes, liberating the nominated planet permanently" and that "The Ministry of Defense is not responsible for the loss of Helldivers liberating tyranny on the chosen planet at the time of testing."

However, as an outsider to Super Earth, I don't think this is going to go well. In the completion post, the post noted "Dark Fluid reserves are below recommended levels. But concerns of facility damage and personnel loss cannot be allowed to stand in the way of peace." Couple that with Super Earth deciding to target a planet with a "test fire" and the fact Illuminate structures were seen in the first announcement video – and to break the fourth wall, Arrowhead's studio CEO teased "a lot of Helldivers will die" in the next major event – I don't have the highest hopes it will go well.

Everything coming in the stealth-focused Helldivers 2 Redacted Regiment Warbond

Games like Rematch and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 last year proved that developers can create big hits and find success with moderately-budgeted projects not running on the power of a billion-dollar publisher. But it's not a sign of things to come, according to Ubisoft veteran Alex Hutchinson.

All the discourse was kicked off by the ever colourful director of Hazelight Studios, Josef Fares, who's no stranger to AA games thanks to his work on Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons and It Takes Two. This week, the Split Fiction boss worried that investors would look at Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's huge success and subsequently go all in on funding AA games.

"But I would not be able to live without a AAA title. I really want to play the blockbuster games. You can't do GTA for $10 million," Fares told The Game Business. "It's important not to get stuck in ideas, like AA is a new thing, or indie is a new thing, or 'blah, blah, blah' is a new thing. We need the diversity."

Former Assassin's Creed director and current Savage Planet lead Alex Hutchinson chimed in on the discussion and put those fears to bed on social media, however.

"If Josef Fares thinks almost any publisher is looking for or willing to fund a mid price AA game right now then he is sadly mistaken," Hutchinson tweeted. "This is the worst the market has been in that category since the early 2000s when Acclaim and others went bust." In a follow up comment, he called the market an "absolute wasteland."

Of course, for every Hollow Knight: Silksong, there's a hundred indie games that fly so under the radar that they might as well be subterranean. And for every Clair Obscur, there's a dozen mid-budget games that can't even secure proper funding. So Josef Fares can rest easy knowing AAA games won't be going out of fashion any time soon, but maybe publishers can spread the love a little wider. More options with games of varying sizes can only be a good thing, after all.

Speaking of, keep an eye out for these upcoming indie games of 2026 and beyond.

Kong Orange has always been a studio with an interest in the arts and genre-bending interactive experiences. Its first game Heartbeats was a mobile puzzler, visual novel and a Spotify playlist creator. 2019's Felix the Reaper was a collaboration between the studio and several different musicians and dancers. It's not really a surprise then that Out of Words, revealed at Summer Games Fest 2025, combines co-op gameplay with handmade animation and poetry.

Out of Words is actually the idea of Johan Oettinger, founder of animation studio WiredFly, and poet Morten Søndergaard. Oettinger is a filmmaker and much more besides, but he isn't an expert on games, which is why he asked Kong Orange for help all the way back in 2015. As a child, Oettinger became a big fan of stop motion in games, thanks to Neverhood Inc's stop-motion point-and-click adventure, The Neverhood. After having secured money for a stop-motion short film, Oettinger and Søndergaard initially wanted to make both the film as well as a short game but decided to "fully assimilate it into the game" instead.

A tale of two characters

Out of Words follows Karla and Kurt, two young friends who fall into the world of Vokabulantis after failing to confess their love for each other. There, they no longer have mouths to speak with. This may sound horrible at first, but the two friends are squishy, colorful clay figures who have to work together to make it across a magical land to find their words.

According to lead designer Jeff Sparks, Kurt and Karla's adventure inspired the unique co-op design which drives Out of Words. "For us, it was crucial that the game mechanics are conceptually rooted in the narrative," he says. "Emotional, narrative, and mechanical interdependence is at the very center of the design."

Søndergaard holds a special position in the development of Out of Words. Credited not just as game writer, but a game poet – one who sees in Out of Words a chance to make another piece of art about love. "The story was always about the two kids Kurt and Karla, so co-op was there somewhere in the ether of ideas," he says. "We obviously love how friendship, feelings, and relationships are now at the core of the actual experience of playing. Two people play as two people in the story."

Gravity is a central theme in Out of Words, a gameplay metaphor for how much Kurt and Karla depend on each other. While one has their feet firmly planted on the ground, the other can reverse gravity and walk on the ceiling to reach areas that were previously impossible to reach.

"This gravity mechanic lets players move through levels in creative and unexpected ways that we think feels really unique and engaging. It also emphasizes cooperation: you and your co-player must rely on each other to overcome challenges and navigate through some tricky spots together," says Sparks. "Ultimately, players should look forward to experimenting with mechanics, puzzles, and scenarios that continually evolve alongside the characters themselves."

Out of Words' all-ages themes and co-op gameplay are undoubtedly reminiscent of It Takes Two. But while Hazelight has specialized in cooperative gameplay for years now, Kong Orange found the process of approaching a co-op game intimidating – at first, at least.

"Out of Words was a single player game to begin with, co-op felt incomprehensible production-wise," says game director Johan Oettinger. "Wrongly so, in hindsight, but we were learning as we were going. It was challenging enough to just make the game, also forcing people to play it as co-op felt like a stretch. For quite a while we developed the game primarily as a single player game with potential co-op for those reasons."

"Eventually we threw the towel on the single player. It turned out to be a real blessing for both game design and narrative to focus on co-op only," Ottentinger continues. "Great game experiences just popped out of the team on a daily basis and merged naturally with narrative and visual concepts. It all started to cross-pollinate in a way we had not experienced at that point."

Kong Orange CEO Esben Kjær Ravn adds that while it's cool to work with collaborators from different artistic backgrounds and design completely different games, that approach led to a lengthy learning process for Out of Words.

"We needed to understand what this game would be, and how to make it from the ground up and that took time", Ravn says. "There weren't a lot of design, artistic, narrative or tech lessons from Felix The Reaper that were transferable to Out of Words. And vice versa I should add that WiredFly also developed a lot of new ways to think about and create stop motion in the process."

On the game's YouTube channel, Kong Orange has uploaded a few behind the scenes videos of the process of making a figure, and the combination of physical and digital work does look very special. At the same time, the problems the studio has encountered sound similar to those of Slow Bros., the German studio behind Harold Halibut, which also took over a decade to complete. While he acknowledges the challenges, the way Kjær Ravn speaks about the positives makes me excited to play Out of Words.

"The cool thing about working with a physical and poetic core is the inspiration it generates," he says. "The experience hasn't been one of jarring game development or stop motion limitations, but of how creative challenges grow out of words and become something unique."

Peak's developers were surprised by its massive success given it's the result of a game jam project, but Aggro Crab studio head Nick Kaman explains he wants that vibe to continue through the game's updates.

2025 had a ton of great games, but it felt like a year where some of its biggest and best games came from out of nowhere, so it wasn't exactly a surprise to see that two of these – Schedule 1 and Repo – place as the two most beloved Steam games of 2025. But my favorite of the surprise hits was Peak, the indie co-op climbing game co-developed by Aggro Crab and Landfall that was full of silly moments.

Speaking to GamesRadar+, Kaman explains why the game's success was such a surprise for the team. "I mean at the end of the day we didn't launch with so so much of what we thought was required to make a hit," he says. "We didn't spend a long time polishing it, and things like localization and console ports and media backing were all glossed over. We just wanted to get it out there."

That being said, Kaman admits, "It very quickly dawned on us just how electric the game really was, with every playthrough seeming to be able to make a viral clip." He adds, "When we flew to Sweden to release the game with the Landfall team, we were ready to hit the launch button and go into vacation mode, but that quickly became a pipe dream as the player base grew every day and we had a mountain (hah) of bugs to fix."

But Kaman says that the team was quick to recognize what it had, saying, "Ever since we've been treating it more like the big release that it is, which both teams have more than enough experience for, so we were able to hit the ground running." Even with its success, however, Kaman explains, "we still try to maintain that jam-like spirit for updates, because I think that's resonated with players as well."

Valve sends annual chocolates to Steam devs who earn roughly $800,000, and the Peak devs are happy to finally get theirs.

Steam's first sleeper hit of the year continues a trend from 2025 in that it's another co-op game best played with mates, but this one lets you commandeer a giant, freaky crab-base, so I can't be mad at it.

DuneCrawl is the name of the indie that came out a week ago and landed straight atop Steam's New & Trending chart at the time - it's still hovering around the chart a week later, too. And it's not hard to see why, either. The game puts you and up to three other friends in control of these cute mouse-people wondering about a sandy fantasy wasteland, but the art style on display in the trailer below will sell you on it better than I ever could.

Arguably DuneCrawl's biggest gimmick, however, is the hulking crab that helps you get around the wasteland. Not only are the big crabs lookers, they also serve as a pseudo-ship of sorts since you'll need to run about reloading canons, repairing joints, and even boarding other crabs during crustacean-versus-crustacean fights. A real pirate's life, only with more dry land.

"There are many flaws. A tad overpriced, a bit light on content, boss fights are rather rudimentary," one user review writes. "But I still begrudgingly recommend it. Its art style is distinct and pleasant to behold, its music does a reasonably fine job at complementing the visuals, the overall atmosphere is comfy and immersive, the baseline gameplay is sufficiently fun, the quests and underground puzzles are pretty solid... It's a wee gem... still has a lovely shine to it."

Here are the upcoming indie games of 2026 and beyond.

There's a deep, dark, and milky secret about a handful of highly successful developers on Steam: Valve likes to send them chocolates at the end of the year. Rumors about Valve's mysterious "chocolate tier" have become more prominent over the past year or so, and it very much seems that those whispers are true.

Perhaps the most detailed breakdown of chocolate tier out there comes courtesy of games marketing consultant Chris Zukowski, who published a video in December laying out the basics as he understands them from speaking with developers over the years. According to Zukowski, Valve will send out a high-end box of chocolate to developers who meet a threshold of roughly $800,000 in annual revenue.

As Zukowski understands, Valve sends out a chocolate box worth roughly $150 to developers meeting that $800,000 threshold in annual revenue. For the small batch of developers reaching $2 million in annual revenue, they get a $250 chocolate box – specifically this one from Fran's. $250 is a pretty small gesture in light of that kind of revenue, but it's a nice way for Valve to say congrats and happy holidays to Steam's most successful devs.

I came to learn of chocolate tier through a Game File interview (paid article link) with the Peak devs – the same one where we learned that $8 is five bucks. Peak is a collaboration between the devs at Landfall Games and Aggro Crab. The latter studio happens to share office space in Seattle with Mega Crit, the dev behind the wildly successful roguelike deckbuilder Slay the Spire, sometimes to their chagrin.

"Every year they got fucking chocolates that we didn't," Aggro Crab co-founder Nick Kaman jokes in that interview. He was apparently pretty sure that the studio's goofy 2024 Soulslike, Another Crab's Treasure, had met the necessary milestone for the chocolate tier, but no chocolate had arrived. He says he emailed Valve about the no-show candy box and got an apology.

This past year, with over 11 million copies of Peak sold, Aggro Crab did finally get its chocolate. Producer Joanna Lin tells Game File that the milk chocolate salted caramel pieces are especially good.

Peak put friendslop on the map in 2025, but neither of its 2 studios expected it to blow up: "We were ready to hit the launch button and go into vacation mode."

Peak's $8 price tag is easy on the wallet, particularly if you're trying to convince a cash-strapped friend group to all jump into a new co-op romp. Co-creator Nick Kaman jokes that the $8 investment really reads more like a $5 to players' eyes, and this is one of those jokes that has the unmistakable ring of truth about it.

"We had this joke of, like, how much is a game really?" Kaman says in an interview with Game File (paid article link). "In a player's mind, what does it mean to spend five bucks? Well, that's five bucks. But six bucks? Well, that's still five bucks. Four bucks is also kind of five bucks. Three bucks is two bucks. And two bucks is basically free."

The idea is that we make certain mental groupings of the price tags we see on Steam. Whatever psychological barrier there is to buying a game at $5 is roughly the same as there is to buying one for $8 – and, honestly, I can kind of see it. While, again, Kaman frames this as a joke, I'm immediately recognizing my own buying tendencies here.

"We've got these tiers: You know, twelve bucks… that’s ten bucks. But thirteen bucks is fifteen bucks. And we found that eight bucks is still five bucks. It doesn’t become ten bucks. Seven ninety nine, that’s five bucks, right?" (I do want to point out this is a direct quote, taken as it was written for clarity.)

The idea of a five-buck (by which I mean $8) price tag was directly inspired by Content Warning, the 2024 co-op horror game developed by Landfall, one of the studios that would eventually collaborate on Peak. Content Warning also bears an $8 price tag, which certainly seems to have helped encourage players on the fence to jump in.

But maybe it's just a question of profit margins. After all, if $8 is really five bucks, that's $3 worth of free money on every copy sold. "Eight bucks going to five bucks is the biggest differential we could find in pricing, so we found it very optimal," Kaman concludes. That part, I think, might actually be a joke.

Peak put friendslop on the map in 2025, but neither of its 2 studios expected it to blow up: "We were ready to hit the launch button and go into vacation mode."

Developer Lazy Flock is a two-person studio that's spent the past handful of years promoting an adorable horror game called Haunted Paws, where you and a co-op partner play as a pair of puppies trying to save your human pal from a haunted mansion. With Haunted Paws still without a definite release date, you might imagine the devs were quite surprised to find a game nearly identical in concept – just with kittens instead of pups – scheduled for release on the PlayStation Store later this month.

"THIS IS NOT A HAUNTED PAWS GAME. IT IS A DIRECT COPY," Lazy Flock says on Twitter, sharing an image of the PlayStation Store page for Ghostly Whiskers. "This is an unauthorized copy that steals our concept, visuals, and story, using AI-generated assets, releasing on the PlayStation Store."

The store page describes Ghostly Whiskers as a cute horror game where you and a co-op partner explore a haunted mansion as a pair of kitties in search of a human pal. There are no screenshots or gameplay footage on the store page, but it's impossible to ignore the similarities to Haunted Paws – and the art on the heading of the store page, which certainly resembles AI-generated imagery with its over-sharp animal characters and misshapen pawprints, doesn't help.

Ghostly Whiskers lists Nostra Games as its developer, and if you take a look around the trailers on the studio's YouTube page, you'll see a lot of names, art styles, and concepts that are quite similar to games with long-standing popularity or viral moments in the sun. There's Shelter 78 (Fallout Shelter and Fallout 76), Two Hands Hospital Assistant Simulator (Two Point Hospital), Weed And Greed (Schedule 1), Risky Roads (Crossy Road), and Only Up Rush (Only Up).

Not all of those titles are direct gameplay imitations of their obvious inspirations, but there are some pretty egregious examples. Hole Digging Master is easy to mistake at a glance for A Game About Digging A Hole, the micro-sized excavation game that briefly took over our features editor's life last year. Ultra Bonk Survivors is nigh-shameless in how much it resembles Megabonk, 2025's hit Vampire Survivors-like.

Most of the Nostra Games catalog has been released on the PlayStation Store, though it does have a handful of games on Steam. That includes an upcoming port of Trading Card Shop Simulator (no prizes for noticing the resemblance to the viral 2024 early access hit, TCG Card Shop Simulator), which does disclose, per Steam's rules, that "in-game art can contain AI generated textures." Those disclosures are not required on the PlayStation Store.

The PlayStation Store has been rife with cheap knock-offs of notable games over the years. There were the Peak clones, the ripoffs of Schedule 1, and even extremely specific riffs on particular GTA Vice City missions.

Here are the upcoming indie games for 2026 and beyond that you need to know about.

Indie co-op climbing game Peak's developer knows that "friendslop" has its haters but argues there's a place for these kinds of games.

Between REPO and Peak, it's been a good year for pick-up-and-play co-op games that came out of nowhere and blew up. But where there is popularity, there is also negativity, leading to the rise of the term "friendslop" to describe these games – effectively saying the games don't have much going for them outside of being something to hang out and play with friends.

Aggro Crab studio head Nick Kaman explains in an interview with GamesRadar+, "There’s backlash because sometimes these games forego traditional quality markers like polished graphics or story, but these games aren’t trying to be Game of the Year, they focus on delivering a specific experience and that can make it very cost-effective for indie production."

Kaman adds, "like with any hot genre you get a lot of fast-follows and low quality attempts flooding the storefronts, but I think it's mainly just fun to be a hater, especially when a term like 'friendslop' is so juicy."

He explains that the pull of "friendslop" is that "There’s a real desire to connect and hang out in online worlds, and friendslop games put that at the front and center of the experience," adding that, " These are games that emphasize teamwork and communication, as opposed to just testing your individual skill in a group setting."

Calling games like Peak and REPO friendslop "devalues" the skill of the developer, industry investor says

As the product of a four week game jam between two friendly studios looking to experiment, Peak was never intended to be an overnight viral phenomenon. Thus, co-developers Aggro Crab and Landfall also didn't have plans to support the co-op climbing game in perpetuity, like a live service title, and over 10 million copies sold isn't changing that fact.

Aggro Crab (developer behind Going Under and Another Crab's Treasure) studio head Nick Kaman said as much in an interview with GamesRadar+, where he explained that updates for Peak won't last forever. For context, both studios have been non-stop supporting the game since its viral launch, most recently with a wintery holiday event featuring snowball fights.

"We're currently working on it basically full-time while the rest of our team is wrapping up [forklift party game] Crashout Crew," Kaman told us. "It's not going to be a forever game but we also don't want to leave anything on the table."

Kaman does also acknowledge that Peak is so successful, "we could milk it for quite a while, but our goal is to get it to a point where we've done everything we're excited about, and after that it's on to the next one!"

Aggro Crab already prepared folks for the fact that Peak updates would be slowing down next year since the devs have pretty much been "running on pure adrenaline" for months on end. It's somewhat refreshing to hear Peak isn't going to bloat for the sake of bloating and/or money-making, unlike almost any other multiplayer hit that grows for better or worse as long as people are playing. I'd quite like to see what else the eccentric indie devs have up their sleeves, after all, especially after their financial insecurities last year.

Check out some other upcoming indie games to not miss a single release.

Games like Peak, REPO, and RV There Yet? have played a defining role in what's worked within the industry this year, though one games industry investor isn't too jazzed about the "friendslop" moniker they all fall under.

Talking on LinkedIn, Behold Ventures principal Binni Erlingsson reckons he'll be seeing plenty of the "friendslop" term in pitch decks over the coming years as other developers look to capitalize on the Steam trend. While he has little issue with the games themselves, he'd rather kill the moniker they fall under before it catches on any further.

"[I] know it's super new as a term but it's catching on and I want to lobby for killing it before it flies off," he says. "Mainly because I feel that the term itself is negative. 'Slop' to me means that something is sloppy, not well done and a bit junky.

"Since I live in Sweden and know some of these studios personally that are leading the genre I can say that those would be the last words I would use to describe those studios. I feel 'slop' devalues their skill and also in a way makes a little bit of a dig at the userbase at the same time. 'Oh you like friendslop games?' (says the token elitist gamerguy in my head). It's simply a term that sounds negative to me."

Erlingsson adds that the trend is also not that surprising, especially if you look at the history of popular games that gamers of certain generations flock to.

"Gen Z and Gen Alpha are raised on playing, laughing, and creating with their friends on Roblox, Toca Boca World, and Minecraft, and this is how I assume they are going to continue into adulthood," he explains. "They will look for experiences that are like those that they grew up with and the current gaming landscape isn't fully ready to catch them. But 'friendslop' games are and they fit perfectly into this narrative. (plus they usually cost as much as a restaurant meal or even just a drink, far below what an AAA experience costs. Perfect for young people in this economy)."

Of course, Erlingsson doesn't think games like Peak or REPO are going anywhere anytime soon, but for friendslop as a term, "let's collectively kill it." Alas, I fear it's already too late for that.

Peak devs rebut claim their award-nominated multiplayer game uses AI: "We might be slop, but we're human-made locally-sourced artisanal slop."

When my wife and I played through Split Fiction back in March near release, I remember thinking, 'how is anything this year going to top this? It's my Game of the Year, for sure, wrap it up now.' But then Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 came out and was almost instantly deified in RPGdom, Donkey Kong Bananza launched and redefined the modern platformer, and then I finally got around to playing Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 and realized it might be the ultimate immersive medieval RPG everyone had been saying it was.

There's a jarring dichotomy between the fact that we're living through one of the most turbulent periods of video game history, marked in large part by a corrective post-Covid downsizing and corporate greed, and the realization that we're increasingly inundated with fantastic games. It often feels like the industry's burning down around me, and yet, here we are, juggling handfuls of GOTY contenders seemingly born from the ashes. It's that very paradox that spins at the center of my conversation with Hazelight Studios COO Oskar Wolontis, who reflects on the decisive critical and commercial success of Split Fiction in 2025, and in contrast, the struggle to stand out in such an extraordinarily competitive year.

Split Decision

Wolontis tells me the team at Hazelight was "really, really happy," "blown away," and even "shocked" by the reception to Split Fiction, even though they had always known it was a "really good game." While everyone had confidence on that front, they were also well aware of the game's proximity to big hitters like Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 and Monster Hunter Wilds, which both launched the previous month to similarly enticing reviews. And although Wolontis says Split Fiction very much held its own with peak player numbers higher "than we ever saw with It Takes Two," 2021's Game of the Year, there's no denying the pitfalls of today's uber-competitive landscape.

"It's hard to break through in a year when every third week, the greatest thing comes out," Wolontis tells me. "It kind of is what it is. So, for us, it's been more trying to make sure that at least the people that are interested in what we do, that we try and reach them as much as we can … it's been a busy year, so it's more, we're happy to be remembered in the context of this year, when historians look back at everything (laughs), because it's been so jam-packed."

Compounding this issue of longevity is Hazelight's fairly unique approach to post-launch support. It's pretty much standard for big games across the genre spectrum to keep players busy with content updates, if not full-blown expansions, at least through launch year. At Hazelight, everyone pretty much just moves on immediately aside from performance and bug fixes. That means it's up to players whether they want to move on to other games as well.

"The way we operate at Hazelight, our games are done when we release them and we don't do DLCs or any kind of post-launch content or anything like that," he says. "So, by the time Split Fiction had launched, the team was already, for two months, everyone, all hands on deck on our new project. And that's been the case for an entire year; we're all doing the next big thing."

The couch's the limit

That next big thing has yet to be revealed, but Wolontis assures me the studio isn't about to stray from the formula it's been following since 2018's A Way Out: co-op-only games with big hearts. With three beloved releases under its belt, Hazelight has long since solidified itself as the local co-op standard-bearer in 2025, but that was never a guarantee. In fact, Wolontis tells me there was a lot of doubt from, well, pretty much everyone the moment Hazelight decided to make its debut game an exclusively co-op adventure.

"There were guesses from ourselves and from our publisher and from everyone, like, 'What is the cap here? Like, how many people in the world would want to pay for a game that you can't even start playing yourself, apart from a few people on YouTube and Twitch that are crazy and playing with two controllers,'" he says.

"And what we're seeing is that we're raising that ceiling every week," he continues. "Was it 1,000,000 players? Was it 2,000,000 players? Was it 10,000,000? And now, combining all of our games – and also the fact that we're kind of estimating that for every game we sell, there's probably two people playing it – I mean, the numbers are so high now. I mean, we broke through 20,000,000, 30,000,000, you know, how big is this? This audience for split-screen, co-op only games, it turns out, is really, really big, and it just keeps growing."

That last part is key: and it just keeps growing. I'd like to think Wolontis is withholding raw data backing up that claim. As someone who feels hopelessly limited in local multiplayer options, I desperately want him to be right that there's so much demand that developers can't help but pivot away from roguelikes and card battlers into splitscreen co-op, but his reasoning is anecdotal.

"We get hounded all the way from release from one of our games until we release the next one," he says, "like, 'when's there gonna be more? We just keep replaying what you have made. We want new stuff.' So honestly, I think the need for just coming together with someone on your couch is always going to be there."

Couch co-op is one of those luxuries of life that feels like it's not long for this world, even if there's little evidence to say that. In an era of gaming which is trending toward, if not dominated by, online-only multiplayer games, the idea of sitting next to a friend on a sofa and playing something on the same screen seems delightfully antiquated. And yet, Wolontis makes a very strong argument to the contrary: Is the sofa itself antiquated? He thinks not.

"I don't think personal connection is going to go away," he concludes. "We still watch TV shows with our significant other and our family at home. So, as long as the couch is there, there's going to be a need for couch co-op gaming. If the couch goes away, then I don't know about that future."

There's only one game that beat Split Fiction on our list of the best co-op games of all time.