Taipei Game Show 2026 Reveals Finalists for Record-Breaking Indie Game Award
Taipei Game Show 2026 Reveals Challengers for Best Indie Game Award
The Taipei Game Show (TGS) 2026 has officially unveiled the list of finalists for its prestigious Indie Game Award (IGA) 2026. This year’s competition set a new record, drawing an astounding 515 entries from 51 countries and regions globally. The competition has significantly expanded, showing a 1.5-fold increase in scale compared to the previous year. New participating countries this year included Norway, the United Arab Emirates, Panama, Slovenia, and Kyrgyzstan, further enriching the diversity of the submitted titles.
The competition saw 38 outstanding teams from 16 countries and regions advance to the final phase.
Key Finalists and Noteworthy Contenders
The roster of finalists includes games from across the world, competing across eight categories, including the coveted Grand Prix.
- Best Design Focus: A key title is The King Is Watching from Serbia. This game uniquely combines base-building with roguelike strategy on a constrained 4×4 grid. This strategic constraint makes every decision critical.
- Best Audio & Narrative Contender: From Taiwan, Always With You is an Unreal Engine 5-developed title. It follows the heartwarming journey of a girl and her cat. Its engaging puzzles and soothing atmosphere position it as a strong challenger, particularly for the Best Audio category.
- Other Notable Taiwanese Finalists: Taiwan boasts five finalists in total, including YARETA, Aeruta, Back of Beyond, and Froggo’s Adventure: Drifting Sky.
- Global Buzz: Other high-profile finalists include Nine Kings from Brazil, which blends roguelike elements with city-building, and Consume Me from the United States, which is nominated for both Best Innovation and Best Mobile Game. The Wandering Village from Switzerland is also noted for its painterly visual art style.
Best Narrative
The Berlin Apartment from Blue Backpack
All Our Broken Parts from Tin Bird
CARIMARA: Beneath the forlorn limbs from Bastinus Rex
Above the Snow from Above the Desk
NODE: The Last Favor of the Antarii from Lapsus Games
Best Audio Best Soundtrack
ENDLESS™ Legend 2 from AMPLITUDE Studios
, Breathedge 2 from RedRuins, Softworks
and Roger from TearyHand Studio
Star Birds, Toukana Interactive
Gloomy Juncture from Filipe Rodrigues (Subtales)
Always With You from SNOWYOWL ENTERTAINMENT LIMITED
, YARETA from Mariana Games
Best Visual Art
Doloc Town from RedSaw Games Studio Breathedge
2 from RedRuins Softworks
Toy Smash Kaboom! from Free Particle Studio
The Northern Path from Triluna
Graytail from Concode
, The Wandering Village from Stray Fawn Studio
Aeruta from FromDawn Games
, Back of Beyond from Poly Poly Games
Best Design
9 Kings from Sad Socket
BALL x PIT from Kenny Sun
, MotionRec from HANDSUM
Telebbit from IKINAGAMES_Traveler
The King Is Watching from Hypnohead
Roots Devour from Rewinding Games
, Net.Attack() from ByteRockers’ Games
Best Innovation
MotionRec from HANDSUM
WHAT THE CLASH? FROM Triband
AiliA from IceToad Studio
Consume Me by Jenny Jiao Hsia, AP Thomson, Jie En Lee, Violet W-P, Ken
S4U: CITYPUNK 2011 AND LOVE PUNCH from U0U Games
No Players Online by Beeswax Games
Best Mobile
Consume Me by Jenny Jiao Hsia, AP Thomson, Jie En Lee, Violet W-P, Ken
AiliA from IceToad Studio
, Graytail from Concode
Gambonanza from Blukulélé
, Lost Castle 2 from Hunter Studio
Best Student Game
Glintseeker Island from Half Soup Labs,
Hermit Computer from VIA studio (Visual Interactive Art)
One More Mix from Annulus
Weefager from Monodo
Froggo’s Adventure: Drifting Sky from SmellyFrog
The winners of the Indie Game Award 2026 will be officially announced on January 28, 2026.
The Road to the Grand Prix
The IGA features a unique two-phase selection process. The preliminary stage involves a peer-review mechanism where participating developers evaluate each other’s games. The final phase, which includes the 38 finalists, will be judged by a jury composed of industry experts, professional media, past IGA winners, and content creators from across the world.
Winners for all eight categories, including the Grand Prix (Game of the Year), will be officially announced on January 28, 2026. All winning titles will then be featured in a special exhibition area at the Taipei Game Show 2026, allowing players to experience the best of global indie creativity firsthand.
About Taipei Game Show 2026
An epic gaming festival organized by the Taipei Computer Association of Taiwan. It is one of Asia’s biggest video game trade shows. Gather game development teams from major labels, as well as independent game labels and many electronic distributors. In addition to that, there are other activities such as game demo testing, cosplay, and an investor zone.
The 2026 event will be held from January 29 to February 1 at Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center Hall 1. Don’t forget to follow us here as always so you don’t miss out on new news and interesting stories before anyone else.
THIS IS our take:
The sheer number and geographical spread of entries for the Taipei Game Show 2026 Indie Game Award is fantastic news for the gaming scene in Southeast Asia and beyond. It proves that innovation and creativity are thriving in the independent development world. The variety of games, from high-concept strategy to heartwarming narratives, shows that the future of gaming is bright and wonderfully diverse. We can’t wait to see which underdog takes the Grand Prix.
