New Game Plus - London Games Festival Preview Event Round-Up
New Game Plus Games Showcase
London pulled out all the stops for their annual London Games Festival taking over the city with gaming and industry events. From industry insights and updates to networking and new games it was a stellar week of pitching, parties and pixels.
The final two days of the festival, New Game Plus, gives players the opportunity to test out new games in development, play recently launched titles and meet the team behind the games. I had the chance to attend both days of New Game Plus to play a tonne of games and share my thoughts with the development team.
There is a lot of talk about the state of the games industry suffering with job losses, losing talent and shrinking budgets - all of which are true and causing a real problem for new and indie developers to get noticed and find funding. But New Game Plus, is a fantastic event to support these studios with showcasing their work, get feedback from players directly, and to pitch their demos to potential investors. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a tough market in the industry at the moment, but the games I played and the developers I got to speak with, give me hope that there is still a hunger for people to make awesome games that connect with players and get us excited to jump into their digital creations.
Check out my thoughts on some of the games I previewed and make sure to support the developers and Wishlist their games on Steam!
4:AM
Developer & Publisher | Dark Zone Studios
Director | Tolga Tun
Release Date | Q4 2026
Wishlist on Steam| Click Here
Tolga Tun and his small team are creating an exciting, one to watch, experience with 4:AM. You play as a Aila who is in a dystopian future where light becomes threatening. This side-scrolling stealth game takes inspiration from games like Out Of This World and Prince of Persia and mixes them with the mechanics of games like The Legend of Zelda: Echos of Wisdom. Alia, finds a machine that can let her clone items around the environment to travers her way through the world. There is no one-way to get through the stealth sequences and progress through the environments allowing for player creativity and unique gameplay experiences. This game has all the right vibes for me and it’s definitely on my list to check out when it’s released later this year.
Astro Burn
Developer | Beyond the Pixels
Publisher | Pixel Doors
Director | HaZ Dulull
Release Date | 27 April 2026
Wishlist on Steam | Click Here
This cute-em-up, inspired by side-scrolling shooters such as Pariodus from the 80s and 90s, is a barrage of pixelated mayhem, cute enemies and a cat that has more attitude than Sonic and more style than Fox McCloud. In my play through of the demo, I found the game to be overwhelming at first and I lost 3 of my 9 lives really quickly. There are a lot of enemies on screen, and sometimes it was hard to tell which one’s would cause damage and which one’s were just cute and distracting things to look at. But through the use of haptic feedback and tuning into the visual cues, I was able to figure out this intense space shooter and made it to the first world boss level by the end of my ten minute demo experience. If you’re into shooters and you get excited about a cat doing a hadouken, you don’t have to wait long as this game launches on April 27th! And you can even back the kickstarter to get an SNES style cartridge for the game.
Crewcial
Developer & Publisher | Scry Studios
Director | Eugenio Fattori
Release Date | 2027
Wishlist on Steam | Click Here
Crewcial is a fast-paced multiplayer party game where you work together to fix machines within different environments. You use different tools such as a wrench, screwdriver and hammer to keep the machines running within the environments. Sounds simple, but this chaos filled game play has you dodging environmental challenges such as steam and electricity while you throw tools to the other players across the screen so that you can each fix a machine in different areas. This game gives me vibes of Overcooked and other co-op multiple party games which will have you and your friends shouting at each other and laughing at the same time.
Deaths of Peck
Developer & Publisher | The Line
Director | JuanPe Arroyo
Release Date | Coming Soon
Wishlist on Steam | Click Here
The main aim of this game is to die, over and over again! Death’s of Peck is a side scrolling platform puzzler where you play as Peck, a cute little blob of a character who just can’t die! But poor Peck won’t stop trying. The only way to make your way through the levels and puzzles is to make poor old Peck repeatedly die, because when he does die, he gains a new ability. You can then use that ability as needed until you choose to ‘reset’ Peck back to his starting form. For example to reach a higher platform in the demo I played, you need to have Peck jump on a giant meat cleaver which will cut him in half, this gives him a double jump which got me to the platform that was out of reach. A simply straightforward concept, but there are some devilishly button twitching challenges that ask you to die, reform and die again to make your way through the environments. There was a section of the stage where you have to get Peck to jump up vertically by jumping on to a meat clever, immediately double jumping up, then reforming yourself to your starting form, land on another meat clever so you can double jump again and continue this pattern until you make it to the platform at the top of the area. The graphics give me Red and Stimpy vibes while the game play gives me platforming challenges like Celeste. If you like challenging platforms and don’t mind dying over and over again, make sure you check out Deaths of Peck!
Echo Breaker
Developer | Up Stream Arcade
Publisher | Weekend Games
Release Date | 2026
Wishlist on Steam | Click Here
Echo Breaker is a fast-paced futuristic platforming runner set in the year 2097. You play as a character who is testing out a rig that can push human pilots past their limits. This isometric game is clearly inspired by the precision run and gun platforming of Neon White but takes you out of first person and gives the player a retro style view of the playing area. The twist with this game is that as you make your way through the level you can use abilities that are tied to your health. These abilities will give you a boost or advantage that could possibly shave off a few seconds of your run time, placing you higher on the leaderboard. But, you’ll make yourself more vulnerable to the enemies around the environment. The game oozes style and I can’t wait to see what speed runners do with this one. I’m not the best at these types of games, but I had a lot of fun in my playthrough of the demo and I can’t wait to see how this game performs with the community of players who will push the game to it’s limits.
EMITIME
Developer & Publisher | Otterweave Games
Director | Marco Ng
Release Date | Coming Soon
Wishlist on Steam | Click Here
EMITIME is a deck-builder rhythm game with a lot of charm and grid based fighting areas. In this demo I had the chance to play as a fox-like character, who had a companion as a battle partner. You battled various enemies on different grid-like stages, where you can move around the grid and attack using various powers from the cards you choose before each battle such as ice, fire, healing etc. But the unique twist with this game, is that you can only attack on the beat, of the dance inspired soundtrack. The more you get your timing right the more attacks you can unleash, but miss the beat and you miss your chance to attack. It’s a twitchy mix of game play mechanics that took me a several tries to get the hang of, but once I found my rhythm, literally, I was hooked.
Remote Control
Developer | Canteen Games
Publisher | Weekend Games
Release Date | 2026
Wishlist on Steam | Click Here
This futuristic text based adventure puts you in remote control of humans as you navigate different dystopian environments through text-based commands. This is a story rich game that immediately pulled me in with its mysterious premise and eerie environments. The game play harkens back to early text based games from the 80s and 90s whereby you explore environments and commend your character to perform certain tasks by simply typing into the text field. If you want to move forward one section you type ‘Forward’. If you want to explore a desk in the area that you are in you type ‘Search Desk’. This triggers the action to start and the text-based narration will inform you of what you’ve found or what is in the environment providing clues as what you need to do next. It’s a slower paced think-em-up type experience, which challenges the player to methodically explore various environments and discover commands to trigger actions. I’m a sucker for sci-fi, retro-inspired, space station mysteries and if you’re the same, make sure you Wishlist this game so you can pick it up when it’s released later this year.
Smash N’ Grab
Developer & Publisher | SLAP-BANG! Digital
Release Date | TBC
Wishlist on Steam | Click Here
In Smash N’ Grab I was immediately dropped into the game without any knowledge of where I was or what to do. And within the first moment I was attacked by a guard in a museum and died. It happened so fast, I didn’t have time register what happened, or react. But the game instantly restarted, the guard lunged at me again, but this time I reacted, dodged the attack, and I counter punched the guard and killed him. I immediately started smashing the environment around me and grabbing all the treasure I could without thinking. I moved to the next area of the game died instantly, and respawned at the starting point where I dodged the first guard and did it all over again. I love games that simply drop you in the gaming environment and ask you to figure out what to do, and Smash N’ Grab does this brilliantly. I died over and over again, but that was part of the fun. I was figuring out how to make my way through the environments and felt rewarded and clever every time I made it past an area of enemies that I died in several times before. I discovered secret areas and pathways to make may way through the level and it was an absolute joy. Smash N’ Grab is a game where you play as a crime fighting duo, a big brute and his small racoon partner, who are smashing everything in their path, stealing valuables from museums and dodging the guards that are protecting them. But all is not as it seems, as you’re only taking back what was stolen already enacting revenge on the evil doers. The fast-paced action game has elements of Donkey Kong Bananza’s destruction mechanics mixed with a loot based gaming loop. All set to a jazzy soundtrack and an art-deco inspired graphic style. This one has a lot of promise, so make sure to Wishlist and pick it up when it’s released.
Have you had a chance to play any of these titles yet? Are you excited to see play them? Let us know in the thoughts below!