ECGx 2026
Another year, another Edinburgh College Games eXpo! I wrote a post about last year's event, so it was only natural to continue the tradition (first ever series on this blog? huge if true!)
It was very busy and over way too soon. Our usual suspects from the local scene were present. But one thing was different and not the same. This time, I picked up a wee paper map that named all the games and their devs. I am so prepared to write this post!!
One More Game by MonsterHunteroo
You play a game-within-a-game on a TV on the left side of the screen, while keeping an eye out for the jumpscare-ape on the right. When you see it creeping, you can close your eyes to make it disappear... but it also means you can't see the TV screen of the game you're playing. A simple but effective multitasking concept. I thought the ape pixelart was really neat!
The student dev posted the game on itch and also joined the edindies discord (#notsponsored) and got some feedback there. The scene is better when there's more sharing and showcasing of the stuff we've all made!
Less Miserables by College Fun Games
Sacrebleu! Isn't it... the successful-on-Kickstarter, demo-having, point-and-clicking jeu vidéo? I didn't play too much of this one as I didn't want to hog the machine, but from what I played, the environment art is lovely, the characters are funny, and the writing... how do I put it, it just has a bit of je ne sais quoi to it.
Hand In Glove by Kyle Newman
I couldn't figure out how to play this one, so I just tinkered for a bit but even that felt cool. The 3D modeling and texture work is excellent, and I remember the dev posting a timelapse of them working on the main menu's 3D art (still in the edindies discord, still not sponsored) that I was really impressed by.
They even included a Game Design Document on the table, that was stylised to fit the Cold War vibe of the game! Always appreciate a dev doing the most. (Also, if you're asking yourself, "if the GDD was right there, couldn't you have read it to figure out how to play?" and yes, you've got a point, but on a busy expo floor my cognitive abilities are reduced to "press button".)
Forest of Deceit by Ghost Camp
Forest of Deceit is a recently released social deduction game. Yo get paired up every night and have to discard resource cards, with the good guys trying to keep the valuable cards in play to survive, and the bad guys doing whatever it is those guys do. I thought the character art was so cool! Look at me slaying with my lute. Didn't get to fully play it myself due to some technical troubles, but I noticed people got to enjoy it later on!
Mirror Knight by Dylan Odonnell
The theme for this year's student games was "reflection". This game implemented a shield system so you're only ever reflecting enemy bullets rather than shooting your own, while jump-wallrun-dashing in style. The movement felt really satisfying! I thought the dev did a good job of using assets where needed, while ensuring the game looked visually cohesive.
Sigil of Kings by Byte Arcane
The dev did a great job utilising simple pixelart animations and lots of shader work to make the game visually dynamic. "Bot mode", which auto-plays through the game, was fun to just look at, which is a good sign! More games should have an attract mode for expos.
There's lots of biomes and powers you can obtain, and the photo I took is the worst example; the game looks much better in motion, so do check out its Steam page so you can go "woah it does look much better in motion".
Turbo 16 by Socks Off Studio
This game looks so good! It's got a really dreamy memory feel to it. It's a narrative racing game about dementia. The racer's room was so cool; you select different items like the trophy case or the TV to get to different menus, and a model display case on a shelf serves as a way to select and customise your car. It also has a demo out...
I had a chat with the dev about having a stable part-time dayjob that leaves enough days for consistent indie gamedev. This was a theme at this event for me, as a couple people mentioned having a similar setup. With the current state of the games industry, this seems like a more realistic goal to work towards than full-time gamedev, at least to start with.
Lab Rat Jonny by Nocturne Games
This was really charming, and I loved the ZX Spectrum-inspired art. The controls felt great, so even though I was mostly talking to the dev's friend who was exhibiting on their behalf and not actually making any progress through the level, I was still enjoying it.
A running thread (for this post but also maybe for all expos?) is getting the basics right. If I'm going full streamer mode, where I'm talking to the dev while continuing to idly mess about in the game rather than putting it down, you know you've got something decent going!
There's a website for the game with some screenshots but it doesn't seem like it's been updated in a while, hopefully it'll have a Steam or itch page soon.
Realms of Ashjana by Hour of Oblivion
Immersive sim but it's made in Godot? We've got it at ECGx! I had a lot of fun messing around and kicking guards (which currently catapults them into the sky), killing enemies then dropping them from a variety of large heights, and also completing the actual quest of course. The game has an impressive number of systems in it already, including a dialogue flow and various weapons to pick from. I didn't encounter any major bugs (which is saying a lot as immersive sims seem really complex to build), and the jankiness of the physics systems is not a bug, but a feature.
I've been seeing regular updates in the discord of things not working in funny or annoying ways, so it was pleasantly surprising to actually play the game and see how much of it is functional and fun to play!
And that's all I had time for when the event concluded!
I noticed that most indie devs had some kind of digital presence for the game that I was able to link to, while most of the student projects I only had the name of. If you're exhibiting even at a small event, it's a good call to set up a placeholder itch page early, so that people that enjoyed your thing are able to have another look at it or get in touch with you after the event... or link to your game in a blog post.
I wonder what next year will bring. Manifesting Opona and Exon Deluxe Collector's Edition...