There are some great indies in the Xbox Summer Game Fest demos

66 now, maybe more to come

PC has already had its day in the sun. It’s time for Xbox to lounge and chillax to the max.

The vacation has started a day early. Earlier this month, we reported that Xbox is getting its own Summer Game Fest demo showcase set to begin on July 21. Well, it’s live today with 60-some game trials. It’s unclear if this is the finalized list — the original Xbox messaging mentioned between 75 and 100 demos — but it’s a big sample size. 

With a little bit of digging, you can find some interesting indie stuff here. Cris Tales seems like an inventive take on classic JRPGs. Ars Fabulae was one of my favorite games from judging the Digital Dragons Indie Celebration. Knight Squad 2 has that action-packed party-feeling local multiplayer, just like the original. SkateBIRD lays it all out in the title: A skateboarding bird. There are two games about swimming.

Here’s the list thus far, courtesy of TrueAchievements:

• #Funtime
• 9 Monkey of Shaolin
• Alchemist Adventure
• Armed and Gelatinous
• Ars Fabulae
• Back to Belt
• Book of Adventum
• Cake Bash
• Chickens Madness
• Clea
• Cris Tales
• Curved Space
• Dandy Ace
• Darkestville Castle
• Deleveled
• Destroy All Humans!
• Doodle God: Crime City
• Dungeon and Gravestone
• Dungeon Scavenger Inferno
• Ephemeral Tale
• Flowing Lights
• Fractal Space
• Freshly Frosted
• Galacide
• Gauntlet Force: Rise of the Machines
• Genesis Noir
• Haven
• Hellheim Hassle
• Hellpoint
• Kaze and the Wild Masks
• Klang 2
• Knight Squad 2
• KungFu Kickball
• Long Ago: A Puzzle Tale
• Lost Wing
• Mars Power Industries Deluxe
• Mayhem Brawler
• Momentus
• Nine Witches: Family Disruption
• OkunoKA Madness
• PHOGS!
• Pixel Skater
• Projection: First Light
• Raji: An Ancient Epic
• Road to Guangdong
• Rover Wars: Battle for Mars
• Sail Forth
• ScourgeBringer
• Seasons of the Samurai
• SkateBIRD
• Skycadia
• Solaroids: Prologue
• Space Otter Charlie
• Swim Out
• Swimsanity!
• Tesla Force
• The Ambassador: Fractured Timelines
• The Dark Eye: Chains of Satinav
• The Dark Eye: Memoria
• The Last Cube
• The Vale: Shadow of the Crown
• Tribble Troubles
• Unspottable
• WarriOrb
• Welcome to Elk
• YesterMorrow

The odd man — ermm, extraterrestrial — out? Destroy All Humans! Among dozens of indie games, there’s a fairly high-profile remake with major publisher backing. Kinda weird, right? Regardless, it’ll probably be among the most-downloaded of anything on the list.

Anyway, you can get started on summer with Xbox right now. All of these games should show up on the Xbox One dashboard eventually, and more games might get added. (Also, it’s worth noting that a handful of the demos aren’t quite yet accessible.) Have fun and remember to wear sunscreen. The TV can bounce some very harmful rays off your porcelain skin.

Xbox Summer Game Fest Demos [TrueAchievements]