Copenhagen Gaming Week’s best indie games –

A few weeks ago, we wrote about the most interesting student games from the TAGS 2025 showcase at Copenhagen Gaming Week. However, it was not only the students who showed off their games to the many guests. Several professional developers had also brought their latest projects, some of which are already out, while others are still far from launch.

It would be almost impossible to summarize everything on display. In short, the variety was astounding. Attendees had the chance to fight dinosaurs, duel in distant corners of the galaxy, sail the high seas or participate in backyard skirmishes in a suburban neighborhood. Some games were complicated and featured a multitude of mechanics, while others embraced simplicity – one game even used only one button.

Because the event also offered entertainment, contests and more, the competition for the public’s attention was clearly fierce. Still, a few games managed to stand out more than others, and those are the ones we highlight here.

Settle the account

There was something for gamers of all ages at Copenhagen Gaming Week, but a quick glance revealed that the crowd consisted mostly of school-aged children with their parents – more or less willingly – in tow. Many of the kids had probably come to take a picture with their favorite YouTuber, buy Pokémon cards or watch the big show. But some young gamers had also found their way to TAGS, and Settle the Score by small start-up studio Hex Two quickly proved to be one of their favorites.

We have no reloading and no aiming sights. Standing still only puts you in more danger.

The game’s intense, non-stop action and cartoony universe clearly appeals to a generation that grew up with Fortnite and Overwatch. Whether it will also appeal to their parents is an entirely different question. Settle The Score is a brutal game – inspired by films like John Wick and Kill Bill – and it’s all about mowing down enemies in a fast and creative way. The main inspiration, however, comes not from the movie world, but from a classic game series, reveals studio founder Kim Charlney.

“The new Doom has found a great recipe to keep players always moving. We want to do the same thing in our game, which is why we have no reloading and no aiming sights. Standing still only puts you in more danger. For example, the way you get life and new weapons is by performing takedowns, just like in Doom. Since there is no reloading, you have to make sure you always have enough ammo on hand to mow down enemies.”

Kim Charnley has had an unconventional way of getting into the game industry. When he’s not developingSettle the Score, he works at Unity as a UX/UI designer. However, he has no background in gaming or programming. Instead, he comes from the fashion industry, and among the many hoodies and creased shirts at Copenhagen Gaming Week, he stands out with his clean, freshly ironed suit. “When I started at Unity, I realized that I needed to have a better understanding of the customer. I had to become the customer, so to speak. That’s why I learned to use Unity and learned how to make games.” he explains.

His unique background is also reflected in Settle the Score. For example, the vast majority of the game’s assets come from the Unity Asset Store. This may sound a bit soulless, but to draw a parallel with the fashion world: it’s more about how you wear your clothes than whether you sewed or knitted them yourself.

The game’s style is unmistakable. With its dark, muted color palette and dimly lit hallways, the game exudes a sleek elegance. It’s almost like a model strolling down a catwalk – beautiful and seductive, but perhaps also a little too skinny? “A lot of the feedback we’ve had so far is that people want more. More user interface, more of the text that appears on the screen, more lighting, more neon, more 80s, more of everything.” says Charlney.

As it stands, Hex Two has plenty of time to add a lot of new content to Settle the Score, as the game is still in pre-alpha. It will probably be some time before we hear more about the project, so who knows? Maybe the young fans who sampled the game at Copenhagen Game Week really will be old enough to play it when it is finally released.

Void crew

The ambitious space game Void Crew has already seen a lot of success on Steam since its November launch, but it is not necessarily the type of game that does well at conferences and showcases. After all, these occasions are all about getting the player on board from the first second, which makes deep and complex mechanics a hindrance. Whether this was the reason is unknown, but developer Hutlihut Games had sent some experienced “lead pilots” to the showcase to help inexperienced players. One of them was lead game designer Laurids Binderup, and before we went to the stars, he briefly explained what Void Crew is all about.

“The game is basically a mix of FTL: Faster Than Light and Sea of Thieves, but without the PvP element. If you have a good session in Sea of Thieves, a group of 12-year-olds who are much better than you can appear out of nowhere and ruin the fun. We also tried to add the element of chaos from FTL. In that game, you’re the underdog, but if you work together, you can do things you couldn’t accomplish on your own.”

Void Crew can be played alone or with up to three other players, and it always starts on the same space station, which acts as an interactive lobby. Here you can hang out with your fellow players and select your next mission. When you are ready, you are beamed to your spaceship thanks to a resource called biomass that is used to print a clone aboard the ship. This way you can easily reach the farthest reaches of the galaxy.

In true Balatro fashion, you can create synergies that are not of this world…. You can create something that is very, very broken, but broken in a good way.

Originally, the idea was that players would be able to travel freely through the galaxy, Binderup explains. “We had an idea of a much larger map of galaxies, where you sat and planned a route through, just like in FTL. But we ended up embracing the fact that you are in a limited arena and move on to the next one after one mission – it made you get to the action much faster. We released the day after Starfield. So the fact that we had no downtime helped set us apart from this other huge space game.”

After getting on the ship, we’re ready for battle. Well, sort of. There is a lot to be done before we can even begin to pilot the ship. First, the ship’s generator must be turned on. Until then, neither weapons nor navigation work, and there is not even gravity on board.

Binderup compares the ship to an “RPG paperdoll,” a kind of equipment screen where you can choose weapons, armor, and so on. In Void Crew, however, you physically move around the ship and install modules in real time. It’s important not to install too many or too powerful modules in the heat of battle; otherwise, the power will shut off and you’ll be stuck like a defenseless tin can in cold, hostile space. By completing missions, you gain access to new and more powerful modules, and thanks to the rogue-like structure, you can eventually build a spaceship that makes the Millennium Falcon look like Yuri Gagarin’s rocket.

“In true Balatro fashion, you can create synergies that are not of this world.” explains Binderup. “In our 1.0 version, we’ve seen examples of ships that are practically invulnerable. In return, you don’t do that much damage. Conversely, you can do builds where you do millions of damage, where we normally have thousands. You can make something that is very, very broken, but broken in a good way.”

With all systems running, I settle into the cockpit while Binderup mans one of the turrets. You don’t control everything yourself, so cooperation and coordination between roles is incredibly important. For example, the Engineer is best at changing batteries and operating consoles, while a Gunner excels with weapons in their hands.

If you cannot fill the crew to maximum capacity, you can choose to install autonomous modules that perform some of the tasks themselves. But otherwise, you have to physically go to the ship’s various weapons and consoles to operate them, really bringing the ship to life. You can even choose to go outside the secure metal frame, which is especially useful for the Scavenger -class, as it is armed with a boarding hook. “There can be nice clutch moments where you call your pilot, who opens the airlock and then shoots in at the last moment with the grappling hook. Those are the moments where Void Crew shines the most”, explains Binderup.

Our session wasn’t quite as dramatic, but there was still plenty of action along the way. With our ammo-hungry miniguns, we turned four spy satellites into space debris, and with a horde of enemy ships on our heels, we finally made a Star Wars -inspired void jump and escaped unscathed.

All went well, but of course not everyone is lucky enough to play with the game’s lead designer. Binderup admits that the game’s in-game tutorials only teach you the bare essentials. Fortunately, other players seem more than willing to help. A quick Google search reveals numerous tutorials in both text and video form, and the game’s subreddit is full of tips for new players. It may not be the most modern design, but it is undoubtedly appropriate for a game that, despite its nonexistent atmosphere in space, breathes dedication and cooperation through every oxygen tank.

A Btn Bosses

And now for something completely different. Although Void Crew probably had more buttons and internal systems than a real spaceship, One Btn Bosses is operated with just a single button. Press the button and your little spaceship changes direction, allowing you to dodge enemy attacks. Everything else is automatic. Your spaceship circles around the dangerous bosses and fires its projectiles by itself.

Although you only have one button, One Btn Bosses is definitely not a button mash-up. On the contrary. Every time you press the button, the speed of both your spaceship and your projectiles slows down. However, the same applies when you take damage, so it’s all about using the button as little as possible without getting hit in order to get the best score possible. This results in an addictive gameplay loop in which you constantly balance on the edge of disaster and always dodge at the very last millisecond.

One Btn Bosses was developed by Midnight Munchies, a small start-up studio consisting of Brin Žvan, Jonas Gohn and Fernando Rodríguez. The trio met during the Games Master program at Copenhagen IT University, where they studied together from 2020, and it was here that the game was born during a game jam. “At the time, it was a very rudimentary idea, where it was basically a circle with a triangle. But we had the core concept of: you’re always moving, you’re always shooting, and if you press the button, you move slower.” explains Žvan.

Later, the developers added new ideas, such as more varied weapons and other optional ways to move. In the full version of the game, you can not only reverse the spaceship’s course, but also teleport or briefly slow down. But Midnight Munchies itself has clearly never hit the pause button, and since their student days have really taken off. A release on the user-driven entertainment site Newgrounds and the indie platform itch.io attracted a lot of attention, especially from a Chinese company. This led to the game’s commercial release in China before it finally reached Steam in the summer of 2024 thanks to funding from Outersloth, the new publishing arm of the Among Us developer Innersloth.

We once had a contest where a player put up an insane score. We were like, “This can’t be real.” So we asked him to send us a replay.

The next stop on their journey is a handheld version for Nintendo Switch and mobile devices, where the game’s simple console seems like an obvious match. “It’s kind of a leap of faith. One day we’re prototyping, the next day we’re talking to PR agents, looking at marketing and all that kind of stuff. You just have to dive in and hope for the best”, Žvan tells of the many new challenges they have faced in running a studio.

Besides the many practical considerations, one of the hardest things was to, well, adjust the difficulty of the game. “Being a small team, we didn’t have too much money to get more QR testers on board. So we had to do everything ourselves, and you become blind to the difficulty after a while. For me personally, I can do all the levels without falling, because I’ve played so much”, explains Žvan.

However, developers may still be surprised by how other players complete levels and how high a score is possible to achieve. “We once had a contest where a player set an insane score. We were like, ‘this can’t be real.’ So we asked him to send us a replay. He then used the replay, and the way he played was something we didn’t expect. It was crazy, because he was so perfect. He actually avoided everything, clicking on exactly the right frames. This shows that there is a lot of optimization in the way you play the game.”

Don’t worry. As a casual player, you can still enjoy One Btn Bosses. It has been a clear priority for Midnight Munchies that the learning curve is smooth and that a level can always be completed regardless of your selected weapon type or movement pattern. However, some levels prefer specific approaches, which is a big part of the game’s metagame, as are the many small upgrades you can choose between each level as part of the rogue-lite structure.

Although One Btn is clearly “gameplay-first,” it’s also quite an audiovisual trip with its pulsing geometric shapes and bright, vibrant colors. You feel like you’re playing on an arcade cabinet in the middle of a psychedelic nightclub, and the effect is almost euphoric. According to Žvan, the trick – as with other aspects of the game – is to make the most of scarce resources.

“In modern gaming, there are a lot of beautiful graphics, but it also costs a lot of money. We are a team of one designer, so we decided to have a very simple base and just build on that. It’s all triangles, shapes and lines, splashes, explosions, but we can do a lot with that. We also decided for artistic reasons to only have a few colors in each stage, but the game is still very colorful because we have a palette system, where all the colors change.”

As mentioned, One Btn Bosses is already out on Steam. If you prefer to experience the game on the Nintendo Switch or mobile, you won’t have to wait long, as the handheld version will be released on March 13.