Summer Game Fest 2025 Video Game Announcements: My Favorites
With Summer Game Fest 2025 firmly in the rearview mirror, I feel compelled to talk about some things I’m excited to see more of. In all, it was an exciting series of showcases with lots of potential.
One thing this year was sorely lacking, though, was release dates. There are a number of titles that came with no date, a year, a quarter, or even a month. Very few things that I was excited for got an actual date.
Something that I saw an abundance of, though, is variety. I have games in the adventure, simulation, city building, action, survival, and strategy genres that tickled my fancy this year. If there’s one complaint I had as far as variety goes, it’s that there are still too many Stardew Valley games being made. Where are they all going? Who’s buying them? Just keep playing Stardew Valley. That game has so much content, I don’t understand how another one could do anything massively different. Yet, I probably saw at least a dozen of them this year that are all indistinguishable from one another. Let’s move on, everyone.
Speaking of moving on, let’s get on with it. Here are the game’s that got announcements that I’m excited for:
Clockwork Revolution
This is the only entry in this list that was already announced previously. However, with what they showed off at SGF, I’m all in. Clockwork Revolution skyrocketed up my list, becoming one of my most anticipated games. Seeing the enrapturing story and gameplay elements on screen only to get the cold shower of no release window at the end felt sobering. I was practically giddy. The reactivity of the world that InXile Entertainment promises boasts something truly unique from technical, mechanical, and narrative standpoints.
Out of Words
About seven years ago, I saw what Hazelight Studios was doing with A Way Out and clocked it as the future of narrative games. While I thought the shift would come quicker than it has, I think we’re finally starting to see this reality. Co-op narrative games have been around for a while; even earlier Call of Duty games like World at War have campaigns with co-op capabilities. However, Hazelight has mastered the co-op by creating puzzles and action sequences that make smart use of two-player, co-op functionality, all of which are driven by the narrative.
Out of Words is an addition to this genre with exciting twists. The stop-motion animation and voiceless characters tease some exciting visuals and themes that carve a space in two-player co-ops. This genre and style of game feels fresh. Out of Words clearly showed enough promise that Epic Games picked it up with the intention of adding it to the growing list of narrative co-op adventures, alongside Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, A Way Out, Unravel Two, It Takes Two, Split Fiction, Stage Fright, and this next title…
LEGO Voyagers
What’s especially interesting about this one is that it takes it to the next level in terms of difficulty. While Out of Words faces an uphill battle telling a compelling narrative without voices for the main characters, LEGO Voyagers says, “But what if they didn’t have bodies, limbs, or even a second eye?“ I get the feeling LEGO Voyagers will be heavier on puzzling that telling a complex narrative, but from the reveal trailer, the two little LEGO bricks clearly have personality. The animation tells a story all on its own.
Game of Thrones: War for Westeros
Real-times strategy isn’t my genre, but Game of Thrones is my IP. The SGF reveal trailer was stunning. While the game will certainly never look like that, and it’s not even a good representation of the perspective the game will deliver, the premise speaks to me. Revisiting these characters in Westeros with more control over the narrative sounds like a blast. The floor for RTS in my view is pretty low, so I’ll have to keep an eye on Game of Thrones: War for Westeros to make a final determination, but if done right, I definitely think this will make its way onto my PC at some point.
Chronicles: Medieval
As the first game from SGF 2025 that I added to my list, Chronicles: Medieval strikes me as the classic medieval game that tickles my brain but will likely be more money than I’m willing to pay for the type of game it is. The unknowns alone scare me a bit.
Is it single-player? Is it multiplayer? Is it a live-service game? Is it an MMO of some kind? As far as I can tell, none of that is particularly clear. Even the Steam tags fail me. One of the tags (far down on this list) is single-player, but right underneath it is a co-op tag as well. That leads me to believe there’s an least some form of multiple-player support. Other than that, the tags and description indicate that it’s an action RPG in an open, sandbox world. It feels like a competition to be as vague as possible.
If I were to make a jerk reaction of whether this game will be a zero or a hero for me, I’m leaning toward zero. The expectations aren’t being set immediately, and that leads me to believe the marketing and/or development teams don’t even know what the expectations should be. Everyone knows that when expectations aren’t met, gamers aren’t happy. Since nobody knows what to expect, lots of people will fill in the gaps with what they hope the game is. A lot of people will be disappointed.
Furthermore, the language that is there wreaks of deceptive, live-service, multiplayer slop. Here are some phrases lifted from the Steam description that rise eyebrows:
“Earn your name… Build your castles, then hold them against those who would tear them down.“
“Shape your destiny in a living, breathing realm…“
“Create your character and experience a path filled with conflict and opportunity. Forge your destiny and rewrite history.“
“Choose power, adventure, or fortune… create a story uniquely yours.“
“Our game will evolve, shaping itself alongside community feedback into a living medieval playground - where… no two stories are ever the same.“
Nonetheless, I’m foolishly holding out hope that this will be just as cool and enticing as the trailer was. Consider my interest piqued.
Eriksholm: The Stolen Dream
It’s great to see another player in this style of stealth adventure that Mimimi Games so expertly spearheaded until its unfortunate closure in 2023. The tone here looks a little grittier than Mimimi’s games, but the gameplay looks solid. Hopefully, River End Games is able to toe the line between challenging and fair while telling a compelling narrative with intriguing characters.
We knew about this game after SGF 2024, but it flew under my radar. Now, with the July 15, 2025 release date announcement at SGF 2025, I’m anxious to see some reviews and hopefully even try it for myself.
Echoes of the End
Tough, slow combat seems to be what we have here. However, the magical elements look like they could keep that combat flashy and fresh. The singular, most important aspect of this for me will be the plot and characters. In order to sustain this type of combat for an extended period, I’ll need some well-crafted context, including complex characters, quality voice acting, a serviceable plot, and an engaging setting. All of that’s not easy, but if Echoes of the End pulls it off, this could be a fantastic experience.
Ahoy
Color me skeptical. I’m excited to follow this game as a game developer, not so much as a consumer. Gamers have been chomping at the bit for a pirate game that lives up to Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag’s standard. After the recent failure of Ubisoft’s Skull and Bones, developer Capstan Games is either capitalizing on capturing gamers’ hopes that have been left deserted or foolishly diving into the shallow end of the pool. Either way, I’m not particularly interested in playing the game once it comes out.
What I’m actually interested in is seeing if this thing every gets made, and if it does, I want to know the reviews. This is a Kickstarter game that’s being made by a team of less than 20 people, and it’s been made on a volunteer basis since 2020. The game is being developed independently (without a publisher). Where my skepticism really surfaces is with the amount of money the Kickstarter asks for and the number of features it’s promising.
As of writing this entry in this post, the game has over $650,000 USD funded, and the game is expected to receive a closed alpha in Q1 2026. One thing that we’ve seen with Team Cherry’s Hollow Knight: Silksong is how scope creep can set a game’s release back ages. There are people who were born when Silksong was announced and are now about to go into first grade. What started as DLC for the first game is now a standalone at least six years into development that’s become the poster child in the games industry for a game that will seemingly never release. With more than half-a-million dollars staring at the team and lots of promised stretch goals, will the Ahoy team be able to stay on schedule?
Furthermore, with how quickly the money can dry up in game development, I’m concerned that the team is putting themselves in a difficult spot. What the money from the campaign will be used for is not entirely made clear. Marketing? Salaries? Engine tools? Licenses? Equipment? Whatever it is, I don’t think that money will go particularly far.
Nonetheless, as someone who is also part of a volunteer game development team, I want to be optimistic about this. What they’ve done so far is already a great achievement, and I hope this doesn’t enter development hell.
Let’s Build a Dungeon
I haven’t played Springloaded’s previous title, Let’s Build a Zoo, but this one looks very promising. Ever since Game Dev Tycoon came out, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed business simulation games, especially ones that allow you to run a game development studio. This one looks like the next step in that journey for me. I still go back to Game Dev Tycoon every once in a while; for a bit, I was going the game dev route of Software Inc.; lately, I’ve been getting into Mad Games Tycoon 2. I hope these games never stop coming out.
Where Let’s Build a Dungeon stands out is with its tools that allow you to actually design and play the MMO that your virtual studio is building. This takes the genre to a new, meta space with potentially infinite possibilities.
Is This Seat Taken
This may be one of the first games that I saw a trailer for and subsequently installed on my phone. This seems like the perfect little puzzle game to take around with me wherever I go, slowly chipping away at it. The design is cute, and the basic puzzle mechanics seem addictive. Usually, I try to read on the bus… So much for that.
Haunted Paws
Two-player co-op strikes again! This one caught my girlfriend’s eye, and I don’t blame her. It seems injected with humor and adorableness. If it weren’t for her, I probably wouldn’t bother with this one. However, it’ll be fun to see the look on her face every time the dogs do dog things.
Aphelion
I’m just always interested in anything Don’t Nod does. The funny thing is that while their games always end up on my wishlist, they rarely end up in my library. The reality is that I’ve disliked everything that I’ve played from Don’t Nod that wasn’t a Life Is Strange game: Vampyr was uninteresting and dull, Tell Me Why did the transgender community a disservice by making that the only interesting thing about either of its main characters, and Twin Mirror didn’t even hold my interest until the end credits.
Since the release of Twin Mirror in 2020, I haven’t bought a Don’t Nod game. However, they’re all on my wishlist because I’ve seen the studio at its best. While their best hasn’t always appealed to everyone, it’s certainly appealed to me in the past.
This one could be the one that finally breaks my hesitation. Being from Don’t Nod, Aphelion is poised to have a heavy focus on narrative, and that will always speak to me. However, they’re doing something they haven’t quite attempted before with what seems like a space sci-fi setting that could still play around with the supernatural chops Don’t Nod has shown with Life Is Strange and Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden. What’s really exciting, though, is the promised focus on stealth gameplay.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 7
The Black Ops series has been through a lot of ups and downs. I’m excited for this potential return to form. I really enjoyed the first two Black Ops campaigns. The resurfacing of Mason as a character makes me anxious to replay those original games to relive the story. However, when it comes down to it, I’m expecting this to be another Call of Duty game.
With that said, I’m not sure if I’m going to be ready for whatever price Activision decides to ask for the game. Could it be $80 like Obsidian and Nintendo decided to go with for The Outer Worlds 2 and Mario Kart World? Maybe they’ll stick to the $70 price point that they went with for Black Ops 6. Although unlikely, they could decide that reducing the game back to the tried-and-true $60 price point will net them more profits from more casual fans who enjoyed the first two games. It just feels like $70 and $80 are too expensive for a 10-hour campaign. Heaven knows that I don’t have any interest in the multiplayer.
Railborn
My girlfriend and I love survival, so this had to go on my list. When I saw this, I thought, “What. A neat. Idea.“ While it’s not unprecedented, it’s feels clever. I can see a lot of base-management mechanics coming out of the “train is your base” novelty.
It’s very reminiscent to me of Raft, a game that my girlfriend and I played quite a bit before getting tired of it. The moveable base flips the genre on its head by giving you more freedom and variety. Games like Minecraft can start to feel restrictive when you don’t want to stray too far from your base. With Railborn, you get freedom to go places with your base, but your base is on literal rails, so you still have limitations, making for a different experience than Raft.
DarkSwitch
Vertical city building is just what I needed. City-builders have exhausted the horizontal plane. This is another situation where I believe the restrictions will yield interesting gameplay. Since you can’t sprawl outwards too far away from the “great tree” in this game, you’re first to build upwards and become one with the tree. The survival mechanisms that come with defending the tree from “the Fog” is also intriguing.
City-builders like Cities: Skylines can be very detailed, but they get boring because it feels like there’s nothing against you. Where’s the antagonist? The elements? Kind of. In games like DarkSwitch and Surviving the Aftermath, the elements really are against you. That mixture of city building and survival yields a crossover with management games where your resources are very limited. This is where we get brilliant games like Frostpunk from. DarkSwitch could be the next one.
Paralives
I’m still on the hunt for a replacement for The Sims. Can you believe that The Sims 4 came out more than a decade ago now? And Electronic Arts clearly doesn’t care that the game is still buggy and now old news. People keep buying the new packs, so as long as that’s making money, we’re never getting a Sims 5. And when we do get a Sims 5, you better believe it’ll be some kind of live-service, microtransaction-littered, buggy, characterless slop. The gaming community has spoken. They’re willing to make EA rich for crappy additions to an underbaked game. That’s what they’ll keep doing.
Enter Paralives. I’m not super enthusiastic about this one, though. Well, I am, but I’m staying… cautious. Especially after InZOI released in early access with little to offer gamers in terms of a new experience. This is another life sim inspired by The Sims that’s decided to come out in early access. I don’t think I’m willing to take a chance on a life sim in early access. People (including myself) are ready for a polished addition to the genre, not a work-in-progress game that needs more time and feedback.
Militsioner
What even is this? Seriously. Look it up. This one looks so weird that I may just have to have it.