A Gamescom-week indie-game roundup highlights several newly announced and recently released titles, alongside a trend for deliberately tedious “needle in a haystack” games. The selection matters as it points players towards smaller releases across genres, including Metroidvanias and multiplayer action games, while showing how novelty concepts are finding an audience.

– Several viral games ask players to locate an almost impossibly obscure object, such as a Bitcoin hard drive in a landfill, one needle among five million pieces of hay, or a missing semicolon in 187,421 lines of code.
– Fatal Claw has left Steam early access with its 1.0 release; it is a £25-style Metroidvania in which cat protagonist Kisha explores a technologically revived ancient kingdom and absorbs enemies’ abilities.
– Fatal Claw is Steam Deck Verified, has generally positive Steam reviews and is discounted by 20% until 9 September.
– Divinum is another pixel-art Metroidvania, following young warrior Fjør as he confronts an invading external threat; it is Steam Deck Verified and available on Steam and GOG for about $15, discounted by 10% until 11 September.
– The roundup also flags free Bomberman-style multiplayer chaos and a dog game featuring a “play dead” mechanic.