Three indie games are coming to Stadia as result of a game jam

Kyle Bradshaw | Apr 28 2021 - 8:00 am PT

Last month, Google Stadia co-hosted the “Play Anywhere Game Jam,” and as a result three indie games have been offered the chance to become full Stadia games.

Google started the “Stadia Makers” program last year to help sponsor indie game developers working with Unity to bring their games to Stadia. Stadia Makers and Playcrafting collaborated on a game jam last month, the Play Anywhere Game Jam, where 10 teams of Unity developers worked for a week on prototyping a previously unthought-of game.

Specifically, Stadia asked the developers to make a couch multiplayer game — meaning a game where two or more players can play together in the same room, on the same screen. While a game jam normally incorporates a theme to keep the participants’ games within a certain realm, the Play Anywhere Game Jam’s only requirement was the couch multiplayer aspect. This resulted in some interesting games like Dog Walker, a game about a guy trying to take dogs on a walk while the dogs instead wreak havoc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsSjztS76kk

Out of the 10 competing teams, three were selected to receive an offer to bring their game to completion with help from the Stadia Makers program. The first honoree — seen at about 2:10 in the video — is Walking Oni Games’ “Bushido Bots,” a rhythmic combat game pitting two robots against each other, only allowing movement at certain moments.

Next is Jump Button Studios’ “Fragments” — seen at 3:03 — a cooperative puzzle platformer that will require intense collaboration between you and a partner. Usually simple platformer tasks, like jumping, are only permitted if you have the correct fragment, which must be passed back and forth between players.

Lastly — shown at 3:30 — is Petricore’s “Battle Billiards,” in which two players play billiards against one another on the same pool table, without waiting for it to be your turn or for your opponent’s ball to even stop moving. Adding to the zany nature of the game, Petricore has added graphics reminiscent of the “Real Life Doodles” subreddit.

All three of these games will receive development assistance from the Stadia Makers program and should see release on the platform — and likely other platforms, Stadia Makers so far hasn’t specialized in exclusives — in the future.

If any of the other games in the video caught your interest — Jumbo Shrimpin looks adorable — know that there’s still hope for them. All participants have retained the full rights to their games, should they wish to develop them further on their own.