10 Must-Play Brazilian Indie Games from Gamescom Latam 2024

The Brazilian indie game scene has been growing considerably in the past few years, bringing more and more pieces of art into our hands via consoles, mobile and PC. Our team played several of them at Gamescom Latam 2024, and we brought you a list of 10 Brazilian indie games that are definitely worth checking out!

Bloodless

To start off our list on a high note, you can play for free right now on Steam the demo for the winner of BIG Festival 2023’s Best Brazilian Game Award, about which we speak more of here! Bloodless is an action-adventure game with pixelated, retro graphics where you controlTomoe, a ronin who returns to her homeland to face the ghosts of her past and the army of the shogun Akechi.

What sets the game apart is the fighting style chosen by Tomoe: She doesn’t use weapons, relying instead only on her fists and her techniques in the form of Ki attacks, and she doesn’t kill her enemies, only disarms them. The fighting mechanics are very much reliant on the player’s skill to evade hits and get the timing right on your own attacks to disarm your foes.

The entire ambiance of the game, the soundtrack and most of all the scenarios are incredibly detailed, having several dynamic elements which, combined, create a contemplative atmosphere which adds another layer of excellency to the game.

Albatroz

This game is for those who have someday felt the urge to get all of their things together into a backpack and disappear into the world, running away from the chaotic and tiring life in the big city. And that’s precisely what the protagonist of this game does, and it’s up to you to manage the resources, which range from how much gas the car has left to go from one place to another to taking the right amount of food and water to hike specific trails.

A game like this couldn’t not have stunning visual elements, which invite the player to spend some time on their own company, and in this department the game overdoes itself. The entire scenery around you is inspired by the Patagonian mountains, and the result is breathtakingly beautiful and colorful.

Moonleap

Do you like retro platformers with puzzles? Moonleap offers everything you’re looking for, and on top of it completes the true retro experience with their booth in Gamescom Latam: The game, which is already available on Steam and offers a free demo, in a physical CD-Rom form and a guide booklet, a retro tube TV and a Mega Drive controller to play with.

About the game in itself, there’s no wrong way to go about it: 2D Pixel art graphics, platformer gameplay and an interesting mechanic, in which every time the character jumps, some areas of the ground become deathly, covered in spikes which grant you an instantaneous game over. Figuring out how to use each jump in the correct way to figure out each level’s puzzles and more around the scenario is the big trick, and certainly a very fun one.

Super Bafo Championship

Nearly every Brazilian kid up to the 90s has certainly spent more than one school break playing Bafo with their friends. The idea is to bring this very familiar experience to the gaming world, with visuals, jokes and equally Brazilian memes.

Having quite simple gameplay, where you decide the angle and strength with which you’ll hit the table and the one who has the most cards by the end of the round wins, there’s no big secret here. Simply open up the game and have fun as if you’re 10 years old again!

Tropicalia

What do you call a Brazilian JRPG? A Tupi Guarani RPG! This is exactly the objective of the game Tropicália, which takes the classic formula of turn-based RPGs and pixel art visuals, gameplay inspired by Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy and mixes it up together with the rich and severely underexplored in games culture from the Brazilian indigenous people.

In it, you step into the shoes of Kaique, a young indigenous man who goes on a mission to save his girlfriend from a mythological entity, Tau, who has kidnapped her. You’ll face several creatures you might know from the Brazilian folklore on your journey throughout Pindorama - Brazil before colonization -, such as the Curupira and the boto cor-de-rosa and get to know others, breathing life into these fascinating and sadly underused tales.

Lipsync Killers

With gameplay similar to the renowned Osu, and bringing together a gorgeous art style and a wonderful representation we barely ever see being included in games, Lipsync Killers is a rhythm game that brings visuals, characters and themes from inside the universe of Drag Queens and Kings, of which the developers themselves are a part of!

The game has voiceover and narration done by Brazilian drags, exclusive songs, looks that slayy, collectible skins and to top it off, their stand at Gamescom Latam has high-quality merchandise available, bringing the in-game elements to outside the screens. The devs, beyond being involved in the Drag community, have put great care into representation of every type of person, color and body type, and that’s always a huge plus.

Feelings

Just as the name suggests, Feelings is a game which will directly influence your own feelings. The game follows Sarah, an adult woman who is going through a tough, depressive period in her life and, upon falling asleep, goes back to being a kid inside the world of dreams, accompanied by her imaginary friend, Toothbun, who keeps her company and helps Sarah to get through the challenges in her way.

The game is a puzzle platformer that implements a mechanic of alternating between both characters to complete challenges, which often can only be completed by combining the unique skills of each of them, similar to the gameplay of Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons. You must explore the different floating islands which represent Sarah’s feelings and use the camera she carries to unveil hidden secrets in this world, thus creating your own path inside this self-discovery journey.

Sleeping Dragon

With the proposal of being a 3D puzzle-platformer enjoyable for all ages and bringing simply charming visuals, Sleeping Dragon is a project from Vermilion Studios and puts you in the shoes of Hiru, a boy who possesses a strange connection to a sleeping dragon and must, to understand the dragon’s past, explore levels presented to us as gorgeous dioramas and complete all of their challenges alongside Clockbirdy, your cuckoo sidekick.

The game is in Early Access on Steam and delivers very fluid gameplay, with several familiar mechanics to fans of the genre, which will help you solve the puzzles and the mysteries surrounding the dragon and its history.

Raining Blood: Hellfire

A classic top-down shooter, in which you get points for killing the waves of enemies coming towards you from all sides and use these points to open up new areas, passages and purchase new weapons, each possessing their own unique attacks and special effects.

With a cute yet creepy art direction, in the best Binding of Isaac style, the enemy waves are endless and keep getting harder and harder to beat, offering the players two approaches: Thoroughly explore each area and forgotten corner in the maps, focusing on the story, or challenging yourself to see how far you can last on your own among the hordes of demons thirsty for your blood.

Lighthouse Madness

And, to finish our list, how about some cosmic horror? Lighthouse Madness is a game heavily inspired by lovecraftian themes, as the name itself suggests, in which you need to explore and solve the mysteries surrounding a lighthouse whose technical team all went missing and the dark and full of challenges island it’s standing on.

From a gameplay point of view, the game is a genre classic: A walking simulator with puzzle-solving, but it brings a sanity mechanic which stands out and affects directly both your in-game character and the player’s vision of the screen as it lowers, and a fascinating detail which almost turns the game into an ARG: The devs, from Flying Jack Studios, commissioned a tabletop RPG adventure which took place in the same universe, and the decisions and actions taken by the players directly influenced the game: For example, it’s possible to find messages left behind by them which were implemented into the video game. The attention to detail and careful world building and puzzle design cause the game to stand out among so many already existing games with similar themes.

These are just a few of the huge variety of Brazilian indie games which are coming out soon and can already be played as demos and early accesses, all of them being available on Steam.

Have you played any of them? Tell us about your personal experience with these wonderful titles in the comments!