ID@Xbox Showcase: 18 Indie and Remaster Highlights Coming to Xbox

The October ID@Xbox showcase packed 30 minutes with indie reveals, release windows and returning favorites. For Xbox players, the range is the story: upcoming games span survival, platforming, strategy, creature collecting and co-op, while several are also headed to other consoles and PC. A number of titles will join Game Pass on their first day, including Croak, Drill Keeper, Mr Magpie’s Harmless Card Game, Scramble Knights Online and Red Kiss.

New worlds to explore

Magenta Down, the new game from Unto the End developer 2 Ton Studios, is set on a harsh exoplanet. Coming to Xbox Series X/S and PC in 2027, it asks players to scavenge supplies and manage injuries and radiation as they try to keep their crew alive. The showcase also offered a glimpse of the planet’s threats, including what appear to be giant alien sea urchins.

Waveling Island takes a gentler approach to exploration. This 2027 Xbox Series X/S and PC release mixes hand-drawn pixel art with creature collecting and island rebuilding. After washing ashore, players can capture and train unusual creatures, including a sentient pencil, get to know the island’s residents and investigate a larger mystery. Gathering resources also lets them build and decorate structures, giving the adventure a creative home-making thread alongside its battles.

Another mystery drives Rustown, a story-led action game scheduled for June 30, 2027, on Xbox Series X/S and PC. A letter from the protagonist’s long-missing father sets off a search for answers in a post-apocalyptic setting. The journey runs through slums populated by infected citizens, with the story focused on finding kindness and life amid a broken world.

Graytail shifts the investigation to a top-down adventure. Due in November 2027 for Xbox Series X/S and PC, it follows a detective searching for a missing female pilot. Players will gather clues and solve puzzles while dealing with the detective’s persistent headache, including by taking medication. Combat adds more than eight weapons, among them a cane, umbrella and crossbow.

Platforming, cards and tactical choices

Hand-drawn platformer Croak arrives in March 2027 on Xbox Series X/S and PC, with Game Pass access on day one. Its Frog Prince uses a long, sticky tongue to grapple across platforms and propel himself through levels, then curls into a ball to bounce between objects. Mr. Records, meanwhile, showed off a full music-based platforming level. Glee-Cheese Studio’s game is set for spring 2027 on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch 2 and PC.

Chronoscript: The Endless End is a hand-drawn search action game about an editor trapped in an unfinished manuscript. Its summer 2027 release on PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC brings the previously announced game to Xbox.

Two deckbuilders put very different spins on strategy. In Love is a Roguelike, due in fall 2027 for Xbox Series X/S and PC, rogue space marshal Rex and his partner Lakshmi are trapped in a time loop on an asteroid. They must recover Lakshmi’s shattered memories in a sci-fi western that combines deck-building with a story about repeating time. Developer Titan1Studios describes its premise as “50 First Dates” meets “Edge of Tomorrow.”

Drill Keeper adds tower defense to roguelike deckbuilding. Players strip resources from destructible worlds while defending their Planetary Drill with fortresses and other structures. It reaches Xbox Series X/S and PC in summer 2027, with Game Pass access on day one. In Mr Magpie’s Harmless Card Game, a deranged puppet voiced by Matt Mercer presides over a sinister corporate office. Players flip cards, build combinations and try to climb the company ladder without drawing a Jerry card. The game is planned for early 2027 on Xbox Series X/S and PC, also on Game Pass from day one.

Red Kiss brings choice-driven tactics to a fantastical story set in Cold War-era Berlin. From the team behind Herald: The Interactive Period Drama, it tasks players with dispatching a team of vampires, earning the trust of undead teammates and using their abilities to shape their house’s fate. The Xbox Series X/S and PC release is planned for 2027, with Game Pass access on day one.

Co-op and multiplayer on the way

A Game About Digging A Hole Together arrives December 4 on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch 2 and PC. The multiplayer follow-up to the 2025 minimalist hit moves the digging to a beach and supports up to four players. Friends can uncover treasure, sell collected resources and unlock new tools as they work toward a deeper hole.

Scramble Knights Online, formerly known as Scramble Knights Royale, launches October 26 on Xbox Series X/S and PC, with Game Pass access on day one. Its focus has shifted to co-op exploration in a shared world. The MMO-lite pairs dungeon crawling and monster battles with loot hunting, aiming at players who want a multiplayer take on classic Zelda.

Returning games and remasters

The Wolf Among Us Remastered arrives October 29 on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch 2, Switch and PC. A new story trailer offered a look ahead of the release. Aspyr’s Shrek 2 Remastered, revealed during the showcase, follows on November 10 across the same platforms. The 2004 movie tie-in supports solo play and co-op for up to four players, locally or online. The remaster adds improved visuals, photo mode and instant character swapping, bringing Shrek, Donkey, Fiona and other familiar faces back into the adventure.

Zero Parades: For Dead Spies, the spiritual follow-up to Disco Elysium, gets a Director’s Cut on November 3 for PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC. The update adds more than 40,000 words of new scenes, a backstage mode, a dramatic encounter, voice-over improvements, new clothing, a new death screen and inventory filtering. It’s already available for the PS5 and PC versions; Xbox players will get this edition as the default release.

Across the showcase, the most useful details for players are the spread of release windows, platforms and day-one Game Pass titles. The lineup also gives Xbox a mix of fresh concepts and familiar returns to watch through 2027.