Indie City's Chicago Indie Game Showcase Shines with Great Games and an Immaculate Vibe

Listen closely, youngs. We want to tell you about a time when people would take their entire computers to other people’s houses, connect them all up at one person’s house, fire up the microwave, pour the Doritos, and game together. It was called a LAN party, and it was one of those weird things where you suddenly decide maybe it WOULD be awesome if you could hang out with all your gamer friends IRLsies. And it was. You could eat a bunch of snacks, play a bunch of couch co-op, explore new games, and team up for co-op action where you could actually communicate with other people easily and in the same room.

Ok, sure. We only did that once, but lots of people did it way more often. And I get it. I game to escape too. I like to cozy up with my console or hunker down in my office with a great game and forget the rest of the world exists. But there’s something wonderful about getting around other people who love games the same way you do.

We’re extremely lucky to be where we are as a publication, because Chicago has long been home to iconic game companies, from pinball giants like Williams and Stern to arcade giants like Midway - even Bandai Namco and Atari had HQ here back in the day.  That’s not remotely all though, as the indie game scene in Chicago continues to shine, and gain national recognition. 

We can lay claim on everything from Mortal Kombat to Killer Queen Black, Bugsnax, Cosmo’s Quickstop, Cold Calling, and a myriad more. What else we can lay claim to is an amazing culture around indie games that’s accepting, cool, and supportive. Chicago’s indie game scene is familial, fun, and intimate. You don’t just get to play a lot of cool games - you get to talk to their creators, and cheer them on later when you see their games in a Nintendo Direct, a PlayStation showcase, or Steam Next Fest.

CIGS 2025. Photo: Marielle Bokor

We’ve been surfing the scene since the very first BitBash. We were there for the Logan Playtest parties, VGA Gallery openings, collabs at MSI and the Art Institute, and the opening of Chi Gamespace.

Sadly, a lot of that magic seemed to have vanished in the post-pandemic world, and we’d be lying if we said we didn’t miss it. Until we made it through the doors at the Chicago Indie Game Showcase presented by Indie City Games.

In their own words, Indie City Games is :

“a Chicago-based non-profit working to provide local independent game developers and artists with space to create, share, meet, collaborate, and showcase their work. Our mission is to foster an intentional, mutually supportive community around multimedia, interactive art.”

And what it felt like to us when we walked in was the return of an old friend. Just like some of the first Bitbash events we attended, it was FULL of people ready to jump in to the amazing, quirky, silly and social world of indie games. There were familiar faces with developers Young Horses of Bugsnax sponsoring along with Big Sir, creators of Cosmo’s Quickstop, which we first saw in its earliest iterations at a Logan Playtest party in years past. Cold Calling was on site, and plenty more people who’ve been here all along. 

There were all kinds of new and interesting games, too, from brand new developers and those who’ve been around the block some time. There were great DJs, ‘zines, games with alt controls, arts and crafts, drinks, and killer after parties, and we ate up every minute of it. 

The full list of games (which you should absolutely check out) is pictured in this graphic for the event, but here’s a few picks from our staff stroll through. 

• Contract Rush DX

What happens when you mix the shoot ‘em up genre games like Metal Slug with early internet flash cartoons? I would say, you end up with something like Contract Rush. A shooter that plays in that perfect nostalgia old school shooter realm but with so much charm and wit to the overall story that makes the levels vastly different in game play. There’s a lot to explore with multiple unlockable characters and each level having a unique mechanic, so strap in for some Contract Rush DX! - Alex

• Beatdown City Survivors

Beatdown City is an ongoing series of beat ‘em ups that are throwbacks to the old school NES games. Now, they're flipping that all on its head by moving into the Vampire Survivors space with Beatdown City Survivors. Much like Vampire Survivors, you are moving around a level, auto attacking as hordes of enemies attack. What makes this cool is all the Beatdown City flavor with characters, movesets and unlockables that really lend itself cleverly to what we already know about Beatdown City. This is definitely one to keep on your radar.  - Alex

• Wordlock

I love me a good dungeon crawler, but we are also big fans of typing games. Smash both of those worlds together and we have Wordlock, a dungeon crawling typing game. You play as a wizard, roaming a dungeon and typing to cast spells. Each spell is set to a specific key, and you've just gotta hit the key to equip the spell, then hit the space bar to start the casting process. A word will appear above your head, and typing it correctly will unleash the spell on an enemy. This is the same for opening chests and doors, so there’s a lot of fun typing action to be had. One neat detail is that when you start to type, the game enters a slow-mo bullet time mode. This is already on my watch list and it should be on yours too if you are into typing games.  - Alex

• Escape from Slumberland

We blindtested this game without knowing it was in fact, a Big Sir game. See, in our time in Chicago, we’ve found a lot of great people, and Big Sir are certainly that. Their first game, Cosmo’s QuickStop, has long been a game we’ve personally been in love with and in our opinion, something more people should know about.

But, this time around, Big Sir has something spooky, artistic, and immersive going. Escape from Slumberland evokes that cozy but creepy sort of Alice meets Tim Burton and Beetlejuice sort of spooky vibe.

We got a chance to play around in solo mode, but the game will be a four player co-op adventure you can play online. It’s got a great atmosphere, with that great balance of silly, acerbic and scary that means you can play it with your older kids or in a group of friends on a Friday night with some brewskis and it’ll be fun either way. You find toys, grind them up (say goodbye to Pookie!) and then collect moonbeams to be released from your dream dungeon. In co-op mode, dead players who are spectating can even buff their teammates. Simply put, it looks like it’s going to be a blast. 

We can’t wait to get our hands on this when the release date is announced. - Marielle

• Hyper Typer 2000

“I love a good typing game” I said enthusiastically, enjoying a moment of pure chaotic confidence before my downfall. See, one of my journalist superpowers is a very quick typing speed (with good accuracy!) so I thought “I’m about to CRUSH this.” 

How sweet and innocent I was then. See, HyperTyper 2000 isn’t one of those “simply type fast and you’ll be fine” games. No, no no. It involves being able to prioritize threats, only type with the left hand, and use combat tactics like parrying and secondary weapons. As you beat waves, you get cooler upgrades, but the enemies become harder. 

The different upgrades are well-balanced, the controls are simple but tricky, with variants like numbers if you want to try your hand at that instead, the soundtrack slaps, and the balance between bullet hell and typing game is absolutely addictive. A regular bullet hell gives me anxiety and I panic and fold, but Hyper Typer 2000 makes me want to come back and get that high score every time. I played the demo far more than I had to to do this review, and it’s just because it’s that fun.  - Marielle

• Take That Mainstage! - 

The Take That Mainstage! demo was the most involved one we sat down to play at CIGS. This is another genre mashup, and while we love those in theory, in practice it’s not always something that works. So when we say it’s a mashup of a management, conversation battle and rhythm game that actually somehow combines the genres in a meaningful way, it’s a compliment. 

It reminds us a little bit of Boyfriend Dungeon, a game we thoroughly enjoyed for the depths of its world and the chaos of its battles. In Take that Mainstage, you’ll have to craft songs, manage relationships, find places to play, and then actually get up on stage and play the monstrosity of a song you put together earlier, hoping it’s not too hard to actually get through now that it’s in Guitar Hero form. ((Spoiler alert: we chose poorly, opting to see what a chord called K would lead to, and in the end, were practically booed off stage))

While we did think that there’s a bit of information overload going on as you start the game, it actually means there’s a lot of depth to the gameplay once you’ve mastered the rounds, so to speak. Talking to people garners information, of course, but also inspiration, and after a while starts to flavor your runthrough, and when wading through a bunch of walls of text in conversation battles can be fun for some, it’s still a nice respite to get a little more active with rhythm game segues. 

We’ll be wishlisting this just to get a little more time with it when it releases in Q2 of 2026.

At the end of the day, it’s easy to put a bunch of games in a room and call it a festival. Hire a DJ, now it’s a party. It’s harder to nail a vibe, but CIGS did it effortlessly. Coming into the Indie Games Showcase felt like coming into the living room on a Saturday morning ready for your favorite cartoons - knowing for sure that things were going to be awesome - but all your friends are there too, and some of them made the things you’re playing. It’s discovery, art, and plain fun all at once, and it’s our favorite flavor of gaming event.

Lucky for us, there’s more to come from Indie City, with Chicaghoul kicking off at Night City tomorrow. This three week game jam with an emphasis on horror and Halloween runs September 28th through October 18th, with a pop-up showcase at Night City on October 25th, but you can start playing the games via Itch.io now.

If you’re in Chicago, and you love games, you need to have Indie City on your radar, because these are events you won’t want to miss, and a community you ought to get to know.