The second day of Summer Game Fest is always one of the most intense, with a bunch of back to back showcases advertising all sorts of games from all corners of the development industry, and this year was no different! After Day 1 treated us to some major gaming announcements, the highlights of which you can find here, Day 2 is a chance for some smaller development teams to step into the limelight. So, what did this year’s showcases bring to the table? It’s time to go over our highlights from a jam-packed second day of Summer Game Fest 2025!

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Omelet You Cook

Image courtesy of Summer Game Fest

The day kicked off with the Wholesome Direct, which is always a bit of a mixed bag for me. I’m all for cozy gaming, but it’s also disheartening to see how many developers are convinced that the only way to make a game cozy is to have you farm – or just sort of, walk around. Omelet You Cook caught my attention not only for its quirky trailer and its cringe-inducing ‘punny’ title, but also because of its incredibly distinctive premise.

As revealed at Summer Game Fest, Omelet You Cook is described as an ‘egg-making roguelike’, where you must work a shift at a school cafeteria, satisfying the hunger of quirky students while avoiding the wrath of a terrifyingly large chicken principal. In a Wholesome Direct full of farming sims, this title was a really refreshing addition to the line-up, and the best part of it all? The game shadow-dropped during the Summer Game Fest showcase, and is available to play right now! Go check it out, if it tickles your fancy, and show your support to games that are willing to think outside of the box.

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Out and About

Image courtesy of Summer Game Fest

The other announcement to catch my eye from Wholesome Direct comes in the form of Out and About, an exploration adventure game where you must forage, cook, and craft your way across a beautiful open world. What really elevates this game above the rest is its combination of plant inspection and herbology – you’re not just looking at all of the plants around you, you’re using them to create in your own way.

The game is also graphically stunning, with a gorgeous, luscious style that makes its exploration aspects worthwhile. While there’s no official release date for a full launch, the development team at Yaldi Games announced a playtest during Summer Game Fest coming to Steam soon! Be sure to check this one out for those cozy nights in, when you want to game without the stress that so many modern games bring.

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Ministry of Order

Image courtesy of Summer Game Fest

During the Women-Led Games Showcase, Ministry of Order absolutely stole the show for me. Narrative puzzle games are always a good time, but this game looks like a new take on an emerging style of puzzle games in recent years – think Papers, Please, or That’s Not My Neighbor, but you work at a maternity work, undertaking mini-games where you must match babies to parents, whilst juggling social relationships under a strict regime.

Throughout your time in Ministry of Order, colleagues will drop by your office and issue ‘eerie commands’, which you must choose to blindly follow, or dare to challenge. As the game describes, every decision you make will have a consequence including ‘vanishing friends’ and ‘burnt documents’ – a perfect blend of narrative decision-making, challenging puzzle gameplay, and some real, thrilling tension. While there’s no release date, you can wishlist Ministry of Order on Steam now – we can’t wait to hear more about this one.

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White Knuckle

Image courtesy of Summer Game Fest

Up next came the Latin American showcase of Summer Game Fest, and the highlight for me here was this first official trailer for White Knuckle, a speed-climbing horror game, where one tiny error can result in your sudden, and terrifying death. A word of warning – this is a game that will make you angry. One mistake can result in the failure of a whole run – those stakes just up the ante when it comes to the game’s horror elements though, resulting in a very effective formula.

In the current gaming landscape, uniqueness is everything, and this is certainly one of the most unique horror experiences to ever grace the industry in recent times. The game is currently available in early access on Steam, so be sure to go and show Dark Machine Games some love, so we can invigorate the horror genre with more magic like this. Just make sure you don’t have a fear of heights – or horrific monsters.

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Acts of Blood

Image courtesy of Summer Game Fest

This year’s Summer Game Fest featured the event’s first ever Southeast Asian Game Showcase, a showcase that’s really been quite overdue for a while now. So, what was the highlight of this newfound showcase? For me, that would be Acts of Blood, a thrilling, beat-’em-up action game where the protagonist must take revenge on his father’s business rival after his entire family is killed. Intense, I know.

This game certainly doesn’t look like it’s for the faint of heart – the development team at Eksil Team have prided themselves on this game’s ‘bone-crushing attacks, realistic enemy reactions, and blood-soaked scenarios’. The game also promises to mix parkour in with its combat, allowing players to interact with the environment in any way they so choose in order to survive. This is not only my favourite announcement from the Southeast Asian Showcase, but also one of my favourite from Summer Game Fest as a whole. Be sure to check this one out when it releases in 2026.

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Sleep Awake

Image courtesy of Summer Game Fest

It wouldn’t be one of my highlight lists if I didn’t include some sort of horror game. However, I think you would be hard-pressed to find anyone who didn’t take note of this upcoming release during the Future Games Show. Sleep Awake certainly let viewers in on its vibe by announcing the involvement of Robin Finck from Nine Inch Nails as a game development leader. This game has been described as a psychedelic horror game, where residents of the last city on Earth must dedicate themselves to never sleeping, as those who fall asleep seem to inexplicably disappear.

There are plenty of opportunities to explore the horror of insomnia, and I cannot wait to see what Sleep Awake does with this idea – quite literally anything is possible when it comes to dream / nightmare horror. The game is also going to explore a group of death cults who, presumably, will try to force our protagonist to sleep. Some really interesting ideas going on with this one, and I cannot wait to see more. The game is set to launch in 2026 – be ready.

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The Bureau of Fantastical & Arcane Affairs

Image courtesy of Summer Game Fest

This was easily the most attention-grabbing trailer from Future Games Show for me – a comedic narrative adventure, where you play an inspector getting ready to prepare a world for an unseen hero to conquer. Think The Stanley Parable, but if your objective was to build a world that you would play through in many of the other games showcased at Summer Game Fest. For those of you in the know, this title is really reminding me of Dr. Langeskov, The Tiger, and The Terribly Cursed Emerald – I’m not sure if anyone remembers that game, but I was just reminded of it after watching this trailer.

However, unlike that game, The Bureau of Fantastical & Arcane Affairs actually lets you take control of the hero for which you build an adventure. I cannot wait to see how much freedom the game gives players to craft their own stories – there’s a real opportunity for endless replayability with this formula. However, the overall tone of this is enough to get me on board all on its own. The Bureau of Fantastical & Arcane Affairs is available to wishlist now on Steam – be sure to do so!

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Luto

Image courtesy of Summer Game Fest

Now, we close our list of today’s highlights with another horror game – who’d have thought it? Luto is a first-person narrative horror game based on the exploration of fears, as we take control of a protagonist who is unable to leave their house. As we’ve seen in the past, cyclical environmental exploration in horror games can be really effective – walking through an area that should be familiar, yet changes in some slight way, is truly terrifying, and a type of horror we can all relate to.

Luto also promises to provide a deep exploration of the pressures of anxiety and depression, adding a layer of emotional poignancy to a game that already looks to be leaning elbow-deep into the horror genre. I cannot wait to see how this game makes the player feel like they themselves are experiencing the range of phobias explored across the game. The best part of it all is that we don’t have long to wait at all – Luto drops on July 22. We cannot wait!

See also: Best PlayStation Games of All Time

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Conclusion

And that was our highlights from the second day of Summer Game Fest! Lots and lots of games were announced throughout the day, so be sure to check out a full list of all the announcements, and let us know your own highlights! There are plenty more announcements to come across this huge weekend of gaming, and we’ll be sure to keep you updated right here. What was your favourite announcement from Summer Game Fest Day 2? Be sure to let us know, and thanks for reading!

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