It's Show(case) Time!
From OddFauna to the Wholesome Direct: everything on my radar this June
June is, without question, the most chaotic month in the gaming calendar, and I mean that as a positive. Every year, the summer showcase season rolls around and suddenly my wishlist is doing something alarming. This June feels particularly stacked. We’ve got new releases worth talking about, and a schedule of showcases that runs from the 2nd through to the 7th. I’ve been taking notes. Here’s what I’m paying attention to!
New Releases in June
OddFauna: Secret of the Terrabeast (Early Access on 2 June)
This one has been a long time coming!
OddFauna started life as a Kickstarter back in 2021 and has finally made it to Steam Early Access!! The premise is unlike anything else: you play as Astor, a tiny creature living on the back of a TerraBeast, a living, breathing landmass that you can shape, terraform, and grow by nurturing the ecosystem on top of it.
Farm, forage, build, befriend creatures called OddFauna with their own behaviours and abilities, and gradually turn a small patch of back-of-creature wilderness into something thriving.
What makes it stand out visually is that every single item, plant, and creature has been hand-sculpted in clay and painted before being brought into the game world. In an era where “AI-generated assets” is increasingly a phrase that appears on Steam pages, that kind of painstaking craft is worth supporting. It’s a married, two-person studio, too.
Being Early Access, it’s not the finished product; the roadmap mentions more narrative content and story quests to come. But the core sandbox is fully playable, and if you want to get in early and support a small studio doing something beautiful AND original, this is the one. There’s also a demo on Steam if you want to try before you commit!
Solarpunk (8 June)
This is probably the big cosy release of the month, and it’s been generating serious wishlist numbers — over a million on Steam before launch.
Developed by a two-person studio called Cyberwave in Germany, Solarpunk is a survival crafting game set on floating sky islands in a world powered by renewable energy. You build your home in the clouds, grow food, craft gadgets, manage a working energy grid using sunlight, wind, and water, and explore distant islands in your own customisable airship.
What I love about it is the philosophy it’s built around. It’s rejecting the post-apocalyptic anxiety of most survival games in favour of a world where humans and nature coexist, where the challenge comes from building and sustaining rather than fighting and surviving. Top marks from me!
There’s also four-player co-op, though no cross-play at launch (a shame, but understandable given the team size).
It’s landing on Xbox Game Pass day one, which means if you’re a subscriber, there’s no reason not to try it.
The Showcase Guide for June
If you’re new to the summer showcase season, the short version is: June is when game companies and communities hold their big digital events to announce new titles, drop release dates, and occasionally spring surprise releases. There’s a lot of it, so I’ve compiled here what’s worth your attention, with BST (UK) times.
Latin American Games Showcase (4 June @ 10pm BST) One of my favourites in recent years. This showcase spotlights games from Latin American developers specifically, and the output tends to be distinctive, creative, and full of things you won’t see anywhere else. There’s usually at least one title here that ends up on my wishlist for the rest of the year.
Women-Led Games (5 June @ 12am BST) this follows at midnight BST the same night as the Latin American showcase. Women-Led Games is a dedicated showcase celebrating games and studios built by women, and this year they're billing it as their biggest yet. Confirmed titles include updates on Soulframe and We Were Here Tomorrow, with new announcements and deep dives promised alongside them. If you care about who is actually making games and what they're making, this is worth staying up for.
Access-Ability Summer Showcase (5 June @ 4pm BST) A showcase dedicated to accessibility in games, both games with strong accessibility features and games created by disabled developers. Important and easy to overlook in favour of the louder events. I always find something in here.
Summer Games Fest (5 June @ 10pm BST) SGF is the closest thing the industry has to a replacement for E3, and Geoff Keighley’s show tends to have at least a few surprises. Expect major announcements, trailers, and the odd surprise release.
Day of the Devs (5 June @ midnight BST) Runs directly after SGF and focuses on indie games specifically. Always worth staying up for if you can manage it, or catching the VOD the following morning with a coffee.
Wholesome Direct (6 June @ 5pm BST) This is the one I look forward to most every year, and this year is the seventh! Over 50 cosy, uplifting indie games in one showcase with a mix of world premieres, demo drops, and release date announcements. This year features updates from NPC Studio (Fields of Mistria), Stray Fawn Studio (The Wandering Village), and Spry Fox, who are back under independent ownership after a stint with Netflix and are showing something new. The fundraising side of the event is supporting the Transgender Law Center this year.
If you only watch one showcase this month, make it this one!
Future Games Show Summer Showcase (6 June @ 8pm BST) GamesRadar’s showcase, usually a solid mix of indie and AA games with some interesting smaller announcements.
Gayming Pride Parade (6 June @ 8pm BST) The Gayming Pride Parade comes from the Gayming Foundation, a nonprofit that supports LGBTQ+ workers, aspiring professionals, and players in the games industry, and it's a dedicated showcase spotlighting LGBTQ+ developers, creators, and games during one of the biggest weekends in the gaming calendar. Confirmed titles include Wylde Society, Neon Death Drop, Spill the Beans, and Art of Solitaire (which is revealing a Pride-themed deck at the show). Worth watching on the day or catching the VOD.
Frosty Games Fest (6 June @ 11pm BST) This one is new to the Summer Game Fest lineup, founded by fellow Substacker Amy Potter-Jarman! Frosty Games Fest is a dedicated showcase for games made in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, with over 50 titles this year, curated from more than 200 submissions, and its stated aim is to give ANZ developers a platform during one of the biggest global gaming weekends of the year.
Southeast Asian Games Showcase (6 June @ 4am BST, 7 June) An awkward time for UK viewers, I know, but the VOD is absolutely worth watching back. Games from Southeast Asian developers are consistently some of the most visually interesting and culturally rich things in indie gaming right now.
Xbox Games Showcase (7 June @ 6pm BST) Microsoft’s big summer event. Expect Game Pass announcements, first-party updates, and third-party partnerships. If Solarpunk is your kind of thing, worth watching; they tend to do well by cosy and indie titles in this slot.
PC Gaming Show (7 June @ 8pm BST) PC Gamer’s annual showcase, usually running long and covering a wide range of PC-focused games. A good one to have on in the background.
That’s an overwhelming amount of content! My advice: you don’t have to watch all of it live. Pick one or two that matter most to you (Wholesome Direct and whichever platform showcase fits your setup), and catch the rest as highlight compilations or roundups later. The FOMO is real but it’s also fine. The recordings will still exist tomorrow!
What are you most looking forward to this month? Let me know in the comments!
Thanks for the roundup! Solarpunk caught my eye right away. I love crafting survival games, and the solarpunk aesthetic looks really appealing too.
Oh and there's also Steam Next Fest!