The Best Little Games I Played at Gamescom 2022

ign.com:

The IGN crew played a lot of games at Gamescom 2022. A lot of those were through dedicated appointments to write big previews of some of the most anticipated games out there. But my personal favorite bit of every conference is wandering down to the indie floors and seeing what gems are coming up that may not be getting the same mainstream attention, usually because their teams and budgets are much smaller.

In no specific order, here’s a collection of all the absolute best things I played at Gamescom 2022. Most of them aren’t out yet, though a few are, and some even have demos on Steam you can check out now. Chances are you’ll find something neat in here, especially if you’re currently looking at the massive slate of AAA delays right now and bemoaning the lack of games coming up soon. Don’t worry, everyone – the games are still coming (many of them, funnily enough, in exactly one week), and there are some darn good ones.

While it first caught my eye earlier this year at Day of the Devs, I thought How to Say Goodbye was just a cute puzzle about moving ghosts around. I certainly didn’t expect to be crying at the end of a ten minute-ish demo. I mean yes, it is about moving ghosts around. They’re cute, cartoony little dead guys set down on a grid that you can move sort of like a conveyor belt. The goal is to get them through a door, but sometimes the door is locked and you have to get them a key first; or maybe there are obstacles in the way of the door that require switch pushing, or getting another little ghost to stand on a button. It’s all quite clever and pleasant to look at with its funny little “oo oo oo” ghosty music, its nice and cozy mood akin to a Halloween decor sale. And then you get to the part that’s sad – the