10 Things I’m Excited About from the April 2025 Triple-i Initiative Showcase

Katana Zero by Askiisoft

This was the first Triple-i Initiative showcase I managed to catch live and I’m so happy I did. The variety on display was impressive and they had a bunch of stuff I hadn’t seen before (this isn’t as common as you might think). 

The “one more thing” (which they hyped up just before the show started) was a surprise so monumental it acted as a reminder that watching these things live is almost always a worthy exercise.

There were a total of 35 announcements during today’s presentation, but here are the ten that I feel deserve your immediate attention (and if any of these pique your interest, many of them received developer deep dives in the post-show). 

Neverway

We started out with a bang. 

What if your cozy game was suddenly infected with nightmares? Now also imagine that it was worked on by Celeste’s pixel artist (and they chose to give it the look of a Game Boy title). 

This trailer alone has farming, fishing, and simple combat with a stubby blade. I need to play it ASAP. 

Timberborn

Timberborn is a management sim with a focus on logistics and automation–by a society of beavers. And while this “efficiency” genre has never been one I’ve gravitated towards personally (we need to come up with an official name for it, Google gave me nothing), everything happening in this trailer is so silly I’d be shocked if it doesn’t find an audience. 

Not to spoil the trailer, but if you need a little extra convincing to watch it, it has beavers on ziplines. 

OPUS: Prism Peak

One of the fastest ways to get me onboard with your project is to highlight that it includes photography. Here it doesn’t appear to be used in a Pokemon Snap way, but more so to solve puzzles and interact with the mysterious and melancholic world. 

I have the sinking feeling that this is going to be so sad. 

The Alters

The Alters has received a lot of media coverage (including a preview in Game Informer last year). It’s definitely entering the “I’ve seen enough, just let me play it” phase of its marketing cycle, but I wanted to touch on it briefly if this is your first time discovering it. 

The Alters is about surviving on a hostile planet. In order to staff your mobile base and gather resources, you can create clones of yourself. However, during the process of creation, you have the ability to alter past decisions in your life in order to give this new you a new specialization (if you didn’t get that DUI, you would have gone to med school and became a doctor, etc.). While they are genetic clones, they’re also different people. This adds an extra layer of drama, and politics to what already promises to be a tense experience. 

Don’t sleep on this one–even if it does release a week after the Switch 2 (June 13th). 

Over the Hill

Over the Hill is a co-op off-roading game built around working together to cross treacherous terrain. The beautiful environments are what immediately caught my eye (it has shades of the minimalist Firewatch/Olly Moss aesthetic). 

Also, the developers made The Art of Rally–which was really good if you’re into that sort of thing.

Ikuma: The Frozen Compass

Did you know sled dogs consume upwards of 10,000 calories each day?

You get to play as both the human and dog (with the option of couch co-op, no less) in this arctic adventure game. I’m sold. 

The Eternal Life of Goldman 

We got a brief glimpse of The Eternal Life of Goldman at a different event a couple weeks ago. Interestingly, this showing was presented by the game’s  four composers. Each has a distinct musical style and I’m curious what that means for this project (in Detroit, it was to emphasize the different characters–in The Medium it was to create dissonance between realities). Regardless, the new trailer featured chunks of gameplay and it looks wonderful, so far. 

Man, people who make things are so cool. 

Into the Fire

Inspired by classic disaster films and the documentary Fire of Love (the latter is an easy recommendation), Into the Fire tasks the player with rescuing people from volcanic eruptions. I watched the deep dive after the main show concluded and I appreciate the thought process that went into the world the developers are creating (it has a comic book and retro future style that is informed by actual advancements in volcanology throughout the ages). 

Buckle up, you won’t be able to save everyone. 

Clover Pit

This trailer opens with the bold question: do you like gambling?

Why yes, yes I do. 

The best way I can explain Clover Pit is if Iron Lung required you to keep cranking away on a slot machine. Go bust, and your avatar is surrendered to the abyss (there’s a metaphor about addiction in there somewhere). 

I don’t have much more to say about this other than it looks awesome. This was easily one of my favorite reveals from today. 

Katana Zero DLC

I experienced Katana Zero on a whim when it was scheduled to leave Game Pass. It ended up being my favorite thing I played that year. 

For the uninitiated, Katana Zero is a fast, visceral, and difficult neo-noir action game where you raid the hideouts of your enemies and clear screen after screen of gangsters and goons. However, you die in one hit. So you’ll need to manipulate time, deflect bullets, and abuse the puzzle-like environments to stay alive. 

Do yourself a favor, look up the soundtrack and add “Rain on Brick” to all your playlists. 

Sometimes the only purpose a trailer serves is letting your fans know that a project still exists (and in this case, is still free), but when your game is this good, that’s all you really need. 

Thanks for reading! It’s been a quiet week at Tactical Reload but I’m looking to remedy that. I’m currently working on a pair of small reviews about small games (at least one should be online in the next 24 hours, the other might have to wait until Monday). 

In addition, a fresh batch of games just released on Game Pass and PlayStation Plus (one of which seems like it might be a game of the year contender) and I’m doing my best to keep up. God knows with the return of 90 degree heat I’m looking for reasons to not be outside. 

Go update your Steam wish lists and play something.