The Coolest Games We Saw At GDC 2026

Coming off its most celebrated title yet, Spiritfarer, Thunder Lotus Games is gearing up to release what feels like a culmination of its lineage with At Fate's End. Gorgeous art style? Check. Engaging combat? Also check. A story that will make you sob uncontrollably? It remains to be seen, but the studio tells me that if you cried at the story of Spiritfarer (as many of us did), it's entirely probable you'll do the same with At Fate's End.

The story centers on an estranged family that is dealing with what seems to be the aftermath of their mother's passing. It would appear that every family member handled it differently, and it's causing friction. The team tells me it's a tale about family therapy, and even some of the early dialogue I experienced felt like a bit of a gut-punch. For instance, a sister of one of the protagonists has developed a resentment for our playable character because she ghosted the family during her mother's funeral, and what follows is a palpable display of anger. Combat is akin to that of Sundered, one of Thunder Lotus' most underappreciated projects, including what appears to be intricate enemy patterns, but with various evolutions, including the ability to obtain new abilities through reconnecting and rectifying with your family. I didn't play an incredible amount of At Fate's End, but what I did play leads me to believe that we might have another incredibly special game from the folks at Thunder Lotus when it arrives sometime in 2026.

From the team behind Guacamelee, Nobody Saves the World, and Severed comes Blighted, an isometric action-RPG that pulls inspiration from Metroidvanias and Soulslikes. Going on a quest to reclaim the memories and powers of your people, who have been consumed by an evil, power-hungry villain, your hero must sacrifice part of their own humanity en route to saving what's left of their village. 

With grotesque boss battles that grant new powers, stamina, and parry-based combat, and an absolutely gorgeous art style that recalls some of Drinkbox's most visually striking aesthetics, Blighted feels like the natural evolution of the beloved indie studio's works. For more, be sure to check out our full preview. Blighted comes to Switch 2 and PC this fall.

From Magic: The Gathering creator Richard Garfield and the team at Popularium comes an autobattler-royale called Chaos Agents. The game arose from Garfield's desire to present an "unsolved metagame" to players. The team loved the accessibility of the autobattler genre, but wanted better multiplayer features that encouraged more engagement and prevented what felt like a long wait for an inevitable conclusion. The solution Popularium found was to inject that autobattler genre into the battle-royale space. 

Using one-of-a-kind Agents (with their skills, looks, and names rolled when you acquire them) across five different species, you drop your characters onto the field. Each character begins with various elements that you can activate to improve their attributes, which progress round by round over the course of the match. Each of the 20 rounds takes about 50 seconds with a 30-second break to level up your Agents between them. During that time, you can also strategize what you want your Agents to prioritize (KOs or Shard collections), as well as at what health level they should run away from the action to avoid elimination. With three win conditions – last person standing, most KOs, and most Shards gathered – Chaos Agents also provides different builds multiple ways to win. I've never been the biggest fan of either the autobattler genre or the battle-royale space, but I'm intrigued enough to keep an eye on Chaos Agents when it fully launches on PC later this year.

The Konami-published, ZDT-developed puzzle platformer starring an octopus named Darwin is cute, charming, and, perhaps most important of all, clever. Controlling Darwin, I breezed through the opening tutorial, which took place primarily underwater. I learned about the smooth swimming controls, as well as Darwin's ability to camouflage and blast ink to conceal himself in the face of dangerous predators. Plus, the little guy can suction-cup his way onto land and climb various surfaces.

After the initial stage, I was treated to a tutorial showcasing the narrative thrust of the adventure: Aliens have kidnapped his fellow octopi, and it's up to Darwin to go on an adventure to save them. But he wasn't immune to the abduction, as he was transported to what appears to be a dump, and with rats everywhere, I needed to avoid the blood-thirsty rodents, which included puzzles involving moving platforms, moveable boxes, and all-out sprints to safe zones as the rat mischief closed in on my location. The puzzles I encountered were quite simple, but they showcased the potential of what could await in the final game. I went into my brief demo of Darwin's Paradox not quite sure what to expect, but I came away intrigued by what might await me when I embark on this eight-legged adventure on April 2.

I've been looking forward to Invincible VS ever since I got my hands on it just before it was announced. With the pedigree of Quarter Up (consisting of several members of the team that brought us 2013's Killer Instinct) and Skybound (the team that delivers the beloved comics and excellent Prime Video show), I was confident even before I played it. Each time I get more time with Invincible VS and its ever-expanding roster of fan-favorite characters, I'm more excited for the gloriously gory, technically proficient, and visually stunning tag-team fighter.

For more on Invincible VS, check out our cover story here.

In one of the most clever concepts in recent memory, Screenbound puts you in the same game from two different perspectives to create a fun puzzle-platformer and action title with an extraordinarily unique twist. The main game has your character traversing a 3D space in the first-person, but thanks to their Q-Boy (a clear homage to the Game Boy), you can also see what you're doing from a 2D perspective. Sometimes, this means finding secrets that you wouldn't have seen otherwise, while other times, you can spot obstacles and objects invisible to you in the world.

Just like the Game Boy, the Q-Boy has different cartridges, which serve as the game's worlds. The first cartridge is a platformer, so in the 3D world, you're platforming in first-person,  while in the Q-Boy, you're playing a side-scrolling platformer. Meanwhile, the second cartridge is an action/adventure game akin to The Legend of Zelda, with the 3D world being a first-person game where you can slash at enemies with a sword, while the Q-Boy features a top-down 2D game similar to the NES and Game Boy Zelda games. Screenbound delivers such a clever twist, requiring you to monitor both screens while navigating the world, while providing distinct gameplay styles across cartridges. I can't wait to see if the team comes up with any additional styles and how intricate the interplay between the 3D and 2D gameplay becomes as the adventure progresses. Screenbound arrives in the latter half of 2026.

Guitar Hero and Rock Band ruled my life for a long stretch of time. I poured thousands of hours into those franchises, and probably even more dollars as I accumulated as much DLC as possible. I even played competitively in tournaments for a couple of years. Today, I still mourn the loss of the genre, which is why I was exhilarated to meet with Echo Foundry Interactive, a team consisting of former developers of Guitar Hero, Rock Band, and other rhythm games, to see their upcoming title, Sound System.

Sound System plays much like the classic Guitar Hero games that introduced the Western world to the guitar-driven rhythm-based genre, with five-lane note highways, background animations, and plenty of engaging rock songs to strum and hammer-on/pull-off your way through. Echo Foundry is taking a smart approach, delivering master recordings of indie songs, while licensing more popular (and expensive) tracks so they can include covers of them in the tracklist – a move the team tells me will help keep costs down and make previously inaccessible songs attainable.

On top of a large list of songs included at launch, as well as a robust post-launch DLC plan, Sound System also includes a built-in custom song creator, meaning you can upload any song and create your own chart for it. For example, I watched the creators upload one of the most iconic rock songs that fans have been clamoring for since the inception of Guitar Hero and design how they think the intro should go. It will certainly take time and knowledge, but I could see a community forming around this feature and sharing charts for sought-after songs. Sound System is set to arrive on PC sometime this year, with the team investigating bringing it to consoles sometime after that.

The original Super Meat Boy gave me a feeling I've been chasing ever since. However, with original designer Edmund McMillen departing Team Meat many years ago, and subsequent releases failing to reach the heights of the 2010 smash hit, I worried the series would never feel the same again. That was until I played Super Meat Boy 3D. I played the Switch 2 version, experiencing the first world of Team Meat's latest platformer, and I came away feeling like Super Meat Boy 3D is the best way to bring the formula from 2D to 3D.

Based on the first world, many of the core elements of the original are perfectly transposed; it even begins with an homage to Super Mario 64, which was Mario's first foray into the 3D space. From there, I played through the easy early stages to help me get my feet under me. That confidence didn't last long, as I was soon watching Meat Boy getting skewered, sliced, and splattered all over the latter courses in the first world.

Thankfully, restarts are quick, and you still get the series' iconic joint replays where you watch all your failures play out alongside the successful run. Since the game takes place in 3D, I had to retrain my brain on how to approach certain levels; one in particular had me navigating a level full of thorns from a side perspective. After numerous failed attempts where I was trying to air-dash around instead of thinking in 3D, I was reminded that it's on a 3D plane, even when some of the levels swing the camera out to the side. Once I was told that, I started sliding on the wall to slow my ascent, making the level much easier. I have a feeling the more difficult levels past World 1 won't be so simply solved. I entered my Super Meat Boy 3D demo with a level of apprehension, but I emerged excited to play the full game when it arrives this spring.