Indie games are more popular than ever right now as evident by the success of titles such as Balatro and Hades 2 in 2024. While indie games generally require less money and work than triple-A games, they are a serious undertaking for the small teams and individuals working on them. Ambitious projects often need a lot of groundwork and have active marketing campaigns that are very vocal about their plans in order to generate hype. A lot of these projects never make it past production leaving fans waiting for information for years to no avail.

This list takes a look at the current state of some of these games and what the future holds for them. 

N1RV Ann-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action

N1RV Ann-A is the highly anticipated sequel to the hit game VA-11 Hall-A, A cyberpunk visual novel where you play as Jill, who works as a bartender in Glitch City, A dystopian city controlled by mega-corporations.

Similar to VA-11 Hall-A, N1RV Ann-A is also a cyberpunk visual novel set on the fictional island of Saint Alicia, where you play Sam, a bartender. N1RV Ann-A was initially announced back in 2018, with a release window set for 2020.

In late 2020, Sukeban Games, the studio behind N1RV Ann-a, put out this statement:

For the time being, we’re changing N1RV Ann-A’s release date to an indefinite one and we’ll start shifting our public push towards other projects. N1RV Ann-A’s production won’t stop or slow down but it also won’t be our main promotional focus for a while.

There have been no official statements from Sukeban Games about N1RV Ann-A after this. Sukeban Games have since announced other projects they are currently working on.

While there is a lot of debate over whether the game is still in the works or not, A lot of fans see this long of a time without any news as not a good sign.

Inaka Project

Inaka Project is a story-driven exploration game where you play as a post officer traveling the Japanese countryside. This game was being developed by @inasa_fujio on Twitter, an illustration student who made video games as a hobby.

The game came into the limelight when Fujio’s tweet about the game went viral on Twitter and Reddit garnering thousands of views back in 2018. Inasa released a playable demo of the game in a very early state back in 2019 and after months of no news, later shifted all his focus to his other project Rainy Season/梅雨の日which he released in 2020.

Inasa said this in an interview, 

I was burnt out from school when I started working on Rainy Season. Feeling that my passion for art was slipping away, I was struggling with workaholic symptoms and was obsessed with being productive. By revisiting a calmer moment in my life, I thought I could understand myself more and find people who felt the same way.

This leads us to speculate that he felt burdened having to balance his school life and hobby which might have been a major hindrance in the game’s development.

Inasa’s twitter has been inactive since 2023 and there have been no new updates on the game’s future.

The Last Night

The Last Night is a cinematic pixel art platformer that was announced in 2014. The game is set in a post-cyberpunk world where computers and machines have replaced human labor. You play as Charlie, a second-class citizen as you explore a futuristic city and interact with the world around you.

The game is being developed by Odd Tales, a game studio opened by brothers Tim and Adrien Soret, who initially worked on the cyberpunkjam version of the game. 

The game is still stuck in pre-production as of now and has no concrete release date.