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Kwalee Highlights Four Distinct Indie Titles at Galaxies Showcase 2025
At this year’s Galaxies Showcase 2025, publisher Kwalee is spotlighting four of its most distinctive upcoming indie projects — Hark the Ghoul, Talespinner, Town to City, and Ground Zero. From heartfelt storytelling and imaginative world-building to eerie psychological horror, these games highlight Kwalee’s growing range as a champion of creative and genre-defying experiences.
While each title stands on its own in tone and theme, together they represent Kwalee’s continued commitment to backing developers who tell stories with personality, purpose, and emotional punch.
Hark the Ghoul — A Theatrical Descent into Memory and Identity
Leading the showcase is Hark the Ghoul, a surreal narrative adventure by Mezzanine Studio that blends haunting imagery with heartfelt introspection. The game follows Hark, a once-celebrated actor who awakens as a ghost trapped within his own memories — a spectral theatre where regret and self-reflection take centre stage.
Unlike traditional horror, Hark the Ghoul isn’t about survival or jumpscares. Instead, it invites players to confront the echoes of failure, fame, and forgiveness through dialogue, exploration, and symbolic stagecraft. Every encounter is a performance, every discovery a revelation about the human condition.
Stylised visuals, sharp writing, and an atmospheric score give the game a timeless, dreamlike quality — one that’s already turning heads for its narrative ambition and emotional depth.
Talespinner — Where Stories Become Worlds
Next up is Talespinner, a creative sandbox game from Haunted Tie Studio that transforms storytelling into an act of world-building. Players take on the role of a mystical “storyweaver”, crafting myths, legends, and destinies that shape a living, reactive world.
Every decision in Talespinner ripples outward, altering the fate of characters, landscapes, and cultures. Villages can become kingdoms, heroes can fall into legend, and stories can twist into unexpected tragedies — all depending on the tales you choose to tell.
Visually striking and mechanically inventive, Talespinner bridges the gap between narrative adventure and simulation, offering a kind of interactive folklore where imagination is both the tool and the weapon.
Town to City — Expanding the Art of Cosy Building
For those seeking something gentler, Galaxy Grove’s Town to City continues to embody the growing appeal of relaxing, creative gameplay. The charming builder has become a quiet hit for its gridless design and painterly visuals, and we are in love with it already. And at the Galaxies Showcase, the team introduced its first major update, set to launch this November.
This free content drop adds pets, cattle, and even an animal shelter, while allowing players to wander their creations in first-person mode for the first time. Two new buildings — a dressmaker and a patisserie — expand the town’s social and economic life, letting players design livelier, more personal communities.
Town to City captures the joy of creation without stress or timers, offering a heartfelt reminder that progress doesn’t always need to be loud or competitive. It’s a small game with big personality, and this update cements it as one of 2025’s most endearing indie builders.
Ground Zero — Survival Horror, Reimagined for a Modern Audience
Closing out Kwalee’s showcase presence is Ground Zero, a chilling throwback to 1990s survival horror developed by Malformation Games. Set in the aftermath of a meteor impact that devastates Busan, South Korea, the game puts players in the role of a lone operative investigating the truth behind the catastrophe — and the horrors it unleashed.
The game’s newest trailer, revealed at the Galaxies Showcase, showcased a blend of fixed-camera tension, modern lighting, and beautifully grim atmosphere. From derelict hospitals to fog-covered ruins, Ground Zero channels the dread of classics like Resident Evil and Silent Hill while carving out its own identity through psychological storytelling and regional flavour.
Kwalee also confirmed that Ground Zero will launch on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S in 2026, expanding beyond its initial PC audience.
A Showcase of Creativity and Range
Through these four wildly different titles, Kwalee continues to prove that its approach to publishing isn’t defined by genre but by vision.
Whether it’s the introspective melancholy of Hark the Ghoul, the imagination-driven design of Talespinner, the warmth of Town to City, or the nerve-shredding dread of Ground Zero, each project represents a corner of the indie ecosystem that thrives on risk-taking and individuality.
