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After last year’s tremendous first offering, we’re back for another Frosty Games Fest, an exhaustive showcase of all of the wonderful talent and video games coming out of both Australia and New Zealand.
As someone who loves digging into the indies on Steam Next Fest and wandering the show floor at PAX every year, these showcases, geared at spotlighting the little guy, are very necessary.
In addition to the showcase itself, there’s a Steam event running, which is a separate curation of demos you can get stuck into right now.
Here’s a rundown of everything that was shown off during the sophomore Frosty Games Fest at Summer Game Fest.
A Pocket Full of Slagford
I feel like this one has quite a big Double Fine energy; it’s silly, it’s messy, and it’s even got a soundtrack from Hunt for the Wilderpeople composers, Moniker.
Acting Out
This isn’t one for the introverts, but it does look like a laugh-a-minute kind of time with friends that’s janky as all get out.
Akashic Slingshot
Set on a strange, alien world, Akashic Slingshot looks like a challenging adventure-platformer where a single graze will kill you, and all you’ve got to defend yourself is the titular slingshot. Good luck.
Allogloom
This cool-looking point-and-click adventure has enough macabre tidings to make Lemony Snicket blush, not a fan of eyes with teeth, though!
Apathema
This looks to be an existential trip. Apathema is a fantasy turn-based RPG with an aesthetic I can only manage to sum up as Quakeslop. I dig it.
Apothecurse
It’s a game of brews and bros, as you make both potions and friends in Port Gelour, a seaside city ravaged by plague.
Atlanta TD
Atlanta TD is a roguelite tower defense game, and honestly, it looks like a game that might need to be played to get.
Attack of the Astrals
As a fan of Into the Breach, I do love a little turn-based strategy roguelike, so this one is on my personal shortlist.
Bashful Adoration
This one is a cute, little 3D platformer that features a light-hearted narrative about a heated rivalry, if you will, as four ultra-competitive witches battle for the affections of their one shared crush.
BLIGHTEN
Not sure about the field of vision on this one, but it looks like an eerie survival horror game nevertheless.
Box Knight
Whether it’s a box or a koala-skinned cap you’re wearing as you battle through this irreverent office space-brawler, Box Knight looks to be a lot of fun.
Bravest Coconut
This retro-inspired adventure about a sword-wielding cat is sure to speak to fans of the Super Nintendo era Legend of Zelda games.
Canvas City
This turn-based tactics RPG combines roller skates, street art, music, and scantily-clad warring factions into one weird little game.
Cloudlings
As a fan of cute, vibey colony sims, Cloudlings looks to be all silver linings.
Cooking For MA!
This game is looking to do for Korean cuisine what Venba did for Southeast Asian food. Looks delicious.
Cow Chess
Despite the name, this ain’t chess. It’s Worms meets Smash, baby.
Cozy Game Restoration
Scratching a similar itch to Power Wash Simulator, this little game has peeling off stickers and scrubbing off grime to bring old video game cartridges back to life.
Doomsday Diner
This feels like a Borderlands spin-off where you run the world’s last functioning hot dog diner, which, as it turns out, is a hotbed for bandit activity.
DWARRF: A Pinball Roguelike
Grab your balls good and tight and get into this fun mash-up of pinball and pachinko mechanics.
Echo Zero
This kind of strikes me of what Returnal would be like as an action side-scroller.
Edwin Earstwhile: Medical Examiner
As a sucker for alliterative names and Victorian-era murder mysteries, this one has got the juice.
Fishing Echoes
Don’t mistake this for a quaint fishing hole kind of game; these fish are imbued with the powers of the elements and a whole lot of gusto.
Freeline
I’d have called a cat parkour game Meower’s Edge, personally.
Ghost Writer
This adorable little desktop companion will get the creative juices flowing with fun writing prompts.
HAWKER
Another action-RPG roguelite in a sea of action-RPG roguelites, although the hook of having to pay your debt to Death is a fun take.
HYPER PRIMATE
I’d have called a monkey parkour game—I don’t actually have a good one for this one.
Janet DeMornay Is A Slumlord (and a witch)
Do not play this game high, you’ll lose yourself.
KUU
This game is self-billed as an interactive tragedy full of tough choices, and that’s right up my alley.
L8R SK8R
This 3D platformer mixes its 90s aesthetic with what seems like endless runner energy.
Lone Pine
This one is set in a national park, and your job is to snap candids of the park’s elusive cryptids.
Management in Space
Being a strategy roguelite about managing your intergalactic debt, while keeping your head down amidst the war and turmoil ravaging the galaxy, this looks to be a bit of a thinker’s game.
Mingle
This is a bit of a dressed-up hidden object game full of adorable little critters.
n00b’s guide
Like Mixtape told the story of a friend group’s final night together through music, this funny, introspective game delivers the same sort of vignette experience as a millennial combs through the YouTube videos they made as a pre-teen.
Night Shift: 1999
This choose-your-own-adventure-like place puts you in Kings Cross, Sydney, at the close of the millennium. To make matters worse, you’re a vampire.
Penguin Colony
Cosmic horror through the eyes of a penguin? Sounds interesting enough in what is billed as a faithful reimagining of H.P. Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness.
PUTRID/SHARP
It looks ghastly, but that’s the point, as Ode, the player-character, has to work his way through the stages of decomposition in a game about love and rot.
Radio Decay
This one is a survival horror extraction game where you, and up to five friends, can drop into the fallout of a supernatural nuclear apocalypse. Best not get caught by the mutated abominations waiting for you, though.
Rusthaven
This looks like a cosy management sim set within the world of SteamWorld, and I mean that as the most sincere of compliments.
Shape Sender Deluxe
Solve physics puzzles for a little pop-up best friend who looks just as annoying as that paperclip bastard from Windows.
Slayblade
This legally distinct version of Beyblade looks cool as heck. It’s a roguelite with several parts and builds to discover.
Sludgineers
Sludgineers looks to meld the satisfying gameplay loop of something like Power Wash with idle click and forget games that have become so popular.
Sting & Swing
This one’s a strange, explorative puzzle game where you play as a bee who golfs; even his swing is better than mine.
Straycloud
If the trailer is to be believed, this looks like a rather peaceful, passive trek to restore power to a skyward island whose magic is running dry. Its art reminds me a lot of Hyper Light Drifter.
The Isle of Lost Bees
Bees?!
The Troll & The Witch’s House
This point-and-click adventure is set within the confines of a witch’s house, and the aim is to piece together what on earth happened there and find a way to escape.
Toil&Trubble
It’s Pig, starring Nicolas Cage, except it’s not a chef and his truffle pig, it’s a witch and her lil’ hog that helps her find potion ingredients in this cosy life sim.
TOYA
Like a rolling stone cube.
Trading Card Inspector
This game about trading card appraisal riffs enough on Papers, Please to get my attention.
UnQuollified
Perhaps the most outward Aussie-looking game of the lot, this detective point-and-click adventure will have you filing away clues, interrogating dodgy locals, and solving the strange, untimely death of a childhood best friend.
Verbal Void
Described as a unique conversation-beat ’em up, this one seems to really shine a light on how varied neurodivergence can be and how it impacts everyday life.
Wild n Chill
Boasting beautiful pixel art, this is a relaxed wilderness sandbox where you live your life off the grid, all the while foraging and hunting for food with your pup.
