GoKawiilPublisher Fellow Traveller hosted its first showcase this summer and, may we just say, it was a smash. The Story-Rich Showcase was dedicated to highlighting narrative-driven games from developers of all kinds — no paid spots or secret ads, just great-looking games chosen because they look great. Fellow Traveller is the publisher behind the fabulously written Citizen Sleeper games, the Hugo and Nebula-nominated sci-fi adventure 1000xRESIST, and the organizer of LudoNarraCon. That is to say, they really know what they're doing here.
The inaugural Story-Rich Showcase featured 26 games over 45 minutes, and overall it was a captivating blend of levity, penguins and existential terror. The penguin part comes from Penguin Colony, the next game out of Umurangi Generation studio Origame Digital. It's a Lovecraftian horror story set in 1939 and told from the perspective of a penguin who's witnessing a cataclysm of Nazis and Indigenous Kaitiaki in the mind-melting Antarctic wilderness. This is also the existential terror part, it turns out.
There was also the reveal of Burn-9, a "reverse-Metal Gear" that places you in the role of a handler for a secret agent who's on a job that's gone all wrong. Communicating through the radio, you have to balance the demands of a military command against the field agent's needs and your own moral compass. It's a little bit Papers, Please, a little bit Metal Gear, and it looks fantastic.
The second and final act of Soft Rains' Ambrosia Sky lands on August 6, closing out Dalia's journey of death cleaning and finding closure amid a lethal outbreak of alien fungus. Act one is available to play now (with a Very Positive rating on Steam) and the second part will be a free update to the base game.
The showcase included release window announcements for a lineup of titles we've personally been anticipating: Mother-daughter psychological horror game Am I Nima is due out on October 8; the escape room comedy-horror Janet DeMornay is a Slumlord (and a witch) is coming to PC and PS5 this year; Rusty Lake's ambitious point-and-click adventure Servant of the Lake is out on August 13; and SFB Games' detective title The Mermaid Mask will hit PC, PS5, Switch and Switch 2 on July 16. Plus, Building Relationships is coming to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S later this year, alongside the Steam version.
We also want to take this moment to say SHE: Seraphim Helix Experiment from Rocket Adrift Games looks and sounds incredible. Here's the full Story-Rich Showcase Steam page.