8 must-see indie game trailers from Triple-I Initiative

Key Takeaways

The Triple-I Initiative Showcase focuses on indie games and debuted on April 10, 2024.
Slay the Spire 2, Dino Lords, The Rogue Prince of Persia were teased at the showcase.
Kill Knight, Cataclismo, Hyper Light Breaker, and Streets of Rogue 2 were also highlighted.

Every few months we can count on some big showcase to see what big-budget games are on the horizon. While E3 was once the spotlight of the year where every publisher and developer made its biggest announcements, we now get a trickle of reveals throughout the year. While this does make it a little easier for us to keep track of all these games, it does make it harder for indie titles to find a place where they can get some attention too.

Enter the Triple-I Initiative Showcase. This new showcase is made for indies, by indies and held its first showcase on April 10, 2024. As the name implies, this showcase is designed specifically for indie developers to come together to showcase upcoming projects in one larger event that will draw more eyes than any individual team could. For its debut, the Triple-I Interactive Showcase had a roster of 30 developers participating so quite a lot was revealed. If you missed the showcase live and want to catch up on the biggest announcements, these are the ones I personally recommend looking into.

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1 Slay the Spire 2

A strong hand

Among its fans, Slay the Spire is considered a near-perfect deck-building roguelike. It featured a few different characters that had their own set of cards you would use to defeat monsters and bosses as you climbed a tower. That formula proved to be addicting enough to skyrocket the game to one of the top indies in recent years. Naturally, that made the announcement of a sequel the perfect way to kick off the showcase. The trailer showed no gameplay but did reveal at least two returning characters in the Defect and Watcher, plus a new class known as the Necrobinder. This game will first hit early access in 2025 before a full release hopefully not too long after.

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2 Dino Lords

Dungeons and Dinosaurs

What at first looked like a somewhat normal medieval isometric RPG city builder took a radical turn when the enemy forces showed up riding dinosaurs. You play as a Lord of England who needs to collect resources to build up a kingdom that will eventually come under attack. You can train up various soldiers to help you defend your land against normal spear, sword, and bow-wielding foes, but the dinosaurs are where the real threat lies. The trailer shows a T-rex smashing through a stone wall and armored stegosauruses being used as mobile archer platforms, plus a co-op mode. Dino Lords will be coming to early access first, but no date was given.

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3 The Rogue Prince of Persia

The Prince is back…again

Even though we kicked off the year with the amazing Price of Persia: The Lost Crown, that doesn’t mean we can’t get another 2D action title in the franchise. The Rogue Prince of Persia isn’t at risk of being overshadowed by the previous game, either, thanks to a striking art style and the prestige of being made by Dead Cells developer Evil Empire. That pedigree is on full display in the gameplay we’ve seen, which looks like a perfect blend of the core mechanics from both games. Combat looks incredibly slick with free flowing movement and an interesting take on wall running for a 2D game. This will be in the roguelike genre as well, so expect a lot of replayability when this game releases. You can get an idea of what’s in store when it comes to early access on May 14.

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4 Kill Knight

Bullet hell heaven

Sometimes the simplest names are the most appropriate. Kill Knight is all about a knight killing tons of enemies with guns and swords. Imagine the speed, brutality, and raw visceral carnage of Doom, but played from an isometric perspective and you can get an idea of what Kill Knight is going for. Based on the trailer’s music and visual style, this is a game that will get your blood pumping and never give you a second to breathe until either you or everything else on screen is dead. While it doesn’t have a specific date, Kill Knight is set to release this year on all platforms.

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5 Cataclismo

Build and defend

Cataclismo is an interesting hybrid of genres. On one hand, it’s a small-scale city builder where you create your own castles by placing individual blocks almost like Minecraft. On the other, it has RTS elements where you need to place and manage units to defend said base. You are in charge of defending the land of Hogar from monsters attacking from the mist in what looks like a mythical and inspired story. You also won’t have to wait long for this one, as Cataclismo is releasing on July 16.

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6 Hyper Light Breaker

Slash and dash

The sequel to Hyper Light Drifter has been in the works for a long time already, but this trailer really gets me pumped for when it finally releases. The original had plenty of style and action but kept to the 2D perspective. The sequel has much higher ambitions by not only going 3D, but open world as well. None of that neon flair, sense of speed, or difficulty appears to have been lost in translation from what was shown. This is another game that will enter early access first sometime this summer.

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7 Streets of Rogue 2

Be anyone or anything

Plenty of games claim you can “do anything” in them, but I’ve yet to play one that actually delivers on that promise as well as Streets of Rogue did. The only slight issue was how contained it was, which the sequel aims to fix. Just like the original, you can play as almost anything you can imagine, from a firefighter or a soldier to a gorilla or werewolf. Each character has different abilities and interactions with all the other character types in the world. This game truly lets you play how you want, so your only limitation is how creative you can get. If you somehow missed the first game, don’t miss Streets of Rogue 2 when it hits early access sometime in 2024.

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8 Mouse

1930s animation shooter

If you loved the art style of Cuphead but found the gameplay a little too challenging? Mouse is a much more direct reference to the 1930s rubber hose animation style but instead of a 2D run-and-gun, it is a first-person shooter. Everything from the animation, black and white visuals, effects, and music feel ripped right out of a classic Mickey Mouse cartoon. You play a private detective on the job in a city filled with nefarious characters and gangs. There’s still no date on this one yet besides the window of 2025.