[Gamer's World] BitSummit the 13th Brings Magic and Surprises from the Indie Game World
Daniel at the entrance to BitSummit, the annual indie game festival held in Kyoto
BitSummit is Japan's premiere indie game festival, held annually in Kyoto – and this year's 2025 edition was far and away the best yet.
And I should know: I've been to every edition of BitSummit since it was first held as a tiny ramshackle gathering of 200 independent Japan-based game developers in 2013.
This July, for its 13th edition – appropriately titled BitSummit the 13th – the show boasted more exhibitors than ever, spilling out of the two main floors of the Miyako Messe convention centre. The very definition of indie spirit, the event has grown organically and exponentially, drawing 58,065 visitors compared to around 38,000 in 2024 and 23,000 the year before (2023). That's a big leap for a small event!
I've definitely noticed the rising recognition of BitSummit within the game industry. I go to a lot of global game expos throughout the year, and this past 12 months, I had more indie developers than ever tell me they were planning to go in 2025 – or that they hoped to go someday, or that exhibiting at BitSummit was their dream.
This is a testament to the high bar of curation BitSummit has set: Getting your game into the official selection is a mark of quality.
It's probably also because of BitSummit's reputation as a highly social event, where developers can quickly meet new business partners and make new friends. The show really nails this aspect, allowing participants to make essential network connections while also blowing off steam at after-hours parties and the show's legendary nighttime gatherings beside the Kamo River.
More Games, More Visitors
Despite featuring more games and more visitors than ever, this year's show felt extremely well designed. Many of the bigger booths were concentrated on the third floor, with platform holders Nintendo and PlayStation hosting a number of games playable on their respective hardware. However, the first floor also had some larger highlights, like PocketPair's booth showing Palworld as well as some other smaller games they are publishing.
Overall, the venue was zoned so that you could easily find the types of games you like. Casual gamer who is new to the indie space? Start at the PlayStation and Nintendo booths. Prefer to go deeper and find smaller games made by one-person teams? Or deeper still to check out raw new demos whipped up in a game jam or by university students? Like games with insane controllers? Or board games, or merchandise? There was a corner for each of these and more, allowing visitors to immerse themselves in different islands of the indie game world.
There was also a large stage on each floor, with the first-floor stage playing host to sessions by influencers and streamers, and the third-floor marquee presenting special guests. That had a strong lineup that included live musical performances by pioneering chiptune composer Chip Tanaka and Final Fantasy legend Nobuo Uematsu. It also featured panels with renowned independent developers like Okami/Bayonetta creator Hideki Kamiya and Boku no Natsuyasumi creator Kaz Ayabe.
Uematsu's performance in particular drew the biggest crowd in BitSummit's history, according to cofounder James Mielke. The grey-haired veteran musician performed songs from Final Fantasy alongside new songs by his band con TIKI.
Highlights from the Show Floor
IGN Japan livestreamed some of the highlights from BitSummit on our YouTube channel, playing a selection of game demos interspersed with developer interviews from the show floor. With so many excellent games to choose from, we had to be extremely picky about our lineup, resulting in an all-killer no-filler selection.
Here are some of my highlights from the BitSummit show floor.
Henry Halfhead is the game we picked as IGN Japan's game of the show, presenting developer Lululu Entertainment with the IGN Japan media award. It's a sweet, quirky game filled with curiosity and playfulness, where the player controls Henry, a 3-year-old toddler who can possess any item around him and play with them in unexpected ways. As the demo progresses, gentle narration reflects on Henry's childlike view of the world, resulting in a game that is both mischievous and moving.
Dreams of Another is the latest opus from Kyoto-based Q-Games developer Baiyon. A paean to the 1990s original PlayStation days, it features dreamlike fuzzy visuals generated by modern tech, surreal gameplay where you clear a thick fog in each stage with a machine gun to find your way through oblique environmental puzzles, and deliberately hammy dialogue, evoking a bygone age while still feeling fresh and new.
New and Puzzle Platform Games
Another Kyoto studio, 17-Bit, showed its new game Awaysis. This colourful dungeon brawler pits four friends against waves of enemies as you explore a fantasy landscape. A fun physics-based combat system allows players to knock enemies flying, interacting with items around the environments to inflict extra damage, while also engaging in some slapstick friendly fire. With four players and tons going on at once, the screen gets a little busy at times, but it'll be cool to see how the physics elements stack up for unexpected effects in the final game.
Love Eternal from developer brika is an intriguing puzzle-platform game rendered mostly in black and white. It has a mysterious story of family tragedy intercut with its well-designed puzzle box levels where you must control gravity to avoid brutal obstacles and reach the end of each screen.
One More Plate! is a two-player party game where players must work together to catch falling snacks and feed them to the hungry monsters waiting mouth-open on each side of the screen. The controls are simple but deliberately tricky, and teamwork is a necessity, meaning you'll laugh and argue and sweat your way to victory in the vein of Overcooked.
Monster Girls and Building Relationships
Cuisineer developer Battlebrew Productions unveiled new game HellHeart Breaker, a hack and slash roguelite game with a dating sim twist. Monster girls you date unlock additional powers, and the ones you don't become the bosses you fight. This game's cute graphics, 1920s Shanghai-inspired setting and abundance of tasty looking food make it one to watch.
The central pun in the title of Building Relationships is that it is a game about both developing bonds between characters, and the central characters literally being buildings. Controlling a boxy house that cartwheels hilariously through an island setting, you must find other houses, windmills and sheds to befriend and romance, all through a filter of retro visuals and arcadey gameplay. The surprisingly risqué dialogue and challenging platforming will bring a smile to your face.
BitSummit's Unique Controllers
But BitSummit is about more than just traditional games, no matter how unusual. The Unique Controller area featured around 20 short, sharp games built around inventive inputs and hysterical outcomes.
One of these, Okonomiyaki Taiken Game: Kote no Meijin, was made by students of Tokyo Polytechnic University as a graduation project. It tasked players with flipping an okonomiyaki pancake when prompted by the game.
Okonomiyaki is of course a cuisine native to Kansai, where Kyoto is located, so the game seemed geographically relevant. The plastic okonomiyaki device was designed to crumble to pieces quite easily, while the size of the spatulas available – small, medium and large – translated to hard, normal and easy modes. It includes a device fitted with an accelerometer to tell the game when it has been flipped, and other sensors to detect whether it has remained intact.
I watched a guy walk up and boldly proclaim that he is a real-life okonomiyaki chef. But as he confidently flipped the pancake and set it down smartly, he misjudged the edge of the table, sending half the pieces scattering all over the floor – and eliciting shrieks of laughter from the crowd around him.
Other games were controlled by snakes, digital beer glasses, bananas, spinning office chairs and screams. It's well worth a browse of the X (Twitter) feed of Unique Controller area curator make.ctrl.Japan for videos of many of these bizarre devices in action.
Draw for Locals and Hardcore Gamers
BitSummit draws a diverse crowd, from hardcore gamers who travel from around Japan and overseas to attend, to locals who bring their families to simply spend a day at play.
This year I had the pleasure of seeing the show through the eyes of a newbie, as an old friend who lives locally and who doesn't usually play games came to check out the show for the first time. Overwhelmed at first by the hundreds of games, the friend quickly became mesmerised watching someone play the humorous game Baby Steps, before finding a few games to try for themselves, chatting with the developers who made them, and eventually leaving the show with a couple of games on their wishlist.
That's the magic of a game show like BitSummit. Big enough to offer something for everyone, small enough to be intimate, and filled to the brim with surprises. This year's 13th edition of was far from unlucky – and I can't wait to see how BitSummit levels up again in 2026.
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Author: Daniel Robson
Daniel Robson is the Executive Producer of IGN Japan
