The Triple-I Initiative Showcase Highlights

The Triple-I Initiative (from left to right) The Rogue Prince of Persia, Slay the Spire 2, and Hyper Light Breaker.

A few days ago the first livestream of the Triple-I Initiative debuted with forty-five minutes of game announcements. The presentation was organized by dozens of high-profile indie developers like Thunder Lotus Games (Spiritfarer), Mega Crit Games (Slay the Spire), and Poncle (Vampire Survivors). There were a lot of exciting announcements during this presentation including plenty of DLC announcements, new information about upcoming games, and entirely new titles. I can’t cover everything in a reasonable amount of time, so I will focus on what I thought were some of the highlights. To watch the full presentation yourself, check out the video here.

So, you may be wondering, what is the Triple-I Initiative? The name comes from a typical video game industry term: Triple-A. Think Call of Duty, Super Mario, Halo, The Legend of Zelda, The Last of Us, or God of War. Triple-A is not an official term, but it is commonly used to describe the games that have significantly larger financial resources to create and market the game. Indie games are usually seen as the other side of the spectrum, but lately, there has been a push for a distinction between games made independently and games made independently but with a larger budget. This usually stems from studios that had major success with a previous game and now have a much larger budget to put into the next game or perhaps games developed independently but being published by a big-name publisher. The definitions are all very nebulous, but the key understanding is that the Triple-I Initiative adapts the common industry term of Triple-A and applies it to the handful of indie studios involved in this initiative. Essentially implying that these studios, while they are still indie, are on a larger scale than the typical indie.

Now, to get into the showcase. The livestream started strong with the announcement of Slay the Spire 2, the sequel to the highly popular rogue-like deck builder. While this was just a teaser, it was still announced that Slay the Spire 2 would be available in Early Access sometime in 2025. The two iconic characters from the original game, Ironclad and Silent, appeared in the trailer alongside a new playable character, The Necrobinder, a charismatic skeleton with strange magical abilities.

The highly anticipated Hyper Light Breaker, from developer Heart Machine, was revealed to arrive in Early Access this summer. The successor to 2016’s popular game Hyper Light Drifter had already been announced, and fans knew that Early Access was planned for sometime this year, but it is nice to have a confirmation. Hyper Light Breaker brings similar rogue-like elements into a 3-D open world, greatly expanding on the scope of its predecessor.

Tchia from developer Awaceb announced it would be coming to the Nintendo Switch on June 27th. I have been very interested in trying this game ever since it won the Game Award for Games for Impact at the end of 2023. It’s great to see a game like this coming to more platforms and therefore reaching a wider audience.

What the Car? from developer Triband brings all the ridiculousness of their previous What the Golf?, but to a car with a face, and maybe legs. What the Car? will be released on September 5th, but if you can’t wait that long they also announced a free demo which is available now on Steam.

Pocketpair’s smash hit from a few months ago, Palworld made an appearance in the showcase to announce a new arena mode that will finally allow players to build a team of Pals and duke it out against each other. The new mode is set to be added later this year and the trailer showed players facing off with their team in some kind of coliseum. For a game that has already seen impressive success, this will surely re-spark some interest for many players.

Thunder Lotus Games announced a closed beta for their upcoming game 33 Immortals. This game caught my eye last year when it was revealed in an Xbox presentation, and I’ve been patiently waiting for an update ever since. 33 Immortals, true to its name, is a multiplayer action game that allows thirty-three players to fight through a gauntlet of enemies and levels to earn a chance at immortality. The closed beta was announced for mid-May, so if this looks interesting make sure to sign up on their website for a chance to play.

The showcase wrapped up with the rumored and highly anticipated rogue-like Prince of Persia game: The Rogue Prince of Persia. With stylized cartoon graphics, this new game seems to capture the same metroidvania style that The Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown impressed with earlier this year. Perhaps the most exciting part, The Rogue Prince of Persia will launch on May 14th, 2024, only a few weeks away.

There was also plenty of exciting DLC news, especially for fans of vampire games. Castlevania’s Simon Belmont will make an appearance in V Rising, and Contra characters will appear in Vampire Survivor’s upcoming DLC affectionately titled: Operation Guns. Darkest Dungeon 2 is getting a free update that brings a new playable Kingdoms mode that turns the rogue-like RPG into a tactical board game where players fight off encroaching enemies. Risk of Rain 2’s upcoming Devotion update will include a skin of the protagonist from another popular indie rogue-like, Dead Cells, along with a new map and new artifacts.

One last highlight that caught me off guard was a game called DinoLords from developer Northplay, which at first appeared to be a normal medieval strategy game. Then, as the name suggests, a knight riding a Tyrannosaurus crashes through the castle gates. I will have to wait to see if this is a game for me, but typically dinosaurs are a great way to get your foot in the door.

There is a long list of other games that caught my eye during this presentation, but this article is already long enough as it is. If any of these games look interesting to you, make sure to check them out on Steam and add them to your wishlist. This presentation also kicked off an ongoing sale for many of the games that are already available. Fortunately, the Triple-I Initiative put together a list on Steam you can browse through here.

If you want to read more about this presentation, I could probably fit more thoughts into a second article. Leave a comment if you would read more and while you’re down there, share which game or games looked the most interesting to you!