Having visited the Philippine Game Dev Expo 2025, I’ve come to notice how the offerings from the pool of indie developers have not only expanded but also greatly improved in what they have. To the point that there were some publishers out there quite interested in talking to the people presenting their original games in person and at length. I myself went around to try out the games that caught my eye, and let me share with you a handful of titles that, in my opinion, showed strong promise.

HypurrX

This logo is from an alpha build; more updated graphics to follow.

This game is something that reminds me of two older games that the younger generation probably hasn’t really encountered yet. That would be Star Fox and Wipeout, both games that involve piloting and shooting, but with a bit of a twist in each genre.

HypurrX is at the core of it all, a top-down shoot-’em-up (SHMUP) experience that mixes in a few gimmicks to keep the gameplay active and fresh. Giving you some form of enemy variety not only in what you’re shooting at, but also in how you’re shooting and dodging during your gunfight. Seeing the classic barrel roll was something I was expecting, considering its inspirations, but I was a bit surprised by the turret mode they incorporated into the action. I haven’t really seen a part where you’re navigating through traffic except having to dash through gates quickly, but I think the polish of the gameplay is already promising on its own. It’s roughly not even a year into development, so I’m expecting to see large improvements in its future iterations.

Find out more at their website: https://hypurrx.com

Machine Gun Knight

Hark back to the days of simple arcade mobile games, like Jetpack Joyride, Temple Run, and dare I say it, Subway Surfers. These are games that rely on procedural generation, simple mechanics, and the player’s twitch reflexes to get the most out of their respective runs.

This game is played with you descending a seemingly endless tower. You shoot, jump, float around enemies, and collect coins to gain upgrades. The retro visual style already lets on how simple the game wishes to be, and thanks to that, it’s easy to decipher the game and how the controls feel just right. I wasn’t able to descend much further than what felt like level 2 thanks to my not understanding what floor traps were, but it’s the kind of game you’d like to play in quick sessions, thanks to its simplicity and how easy it is to instantly understand the game.

Maybe with a bit of humor, given the game’s premise, and maybe some fitting music, it could capture a bigger audience.

You can try the game for free here:

https://soyabird.itch.io/machine-gun-knight

Strik9

Full Disclosure: I do know the developers behind this game. But aside from maybe helping them pitch ideas early on and testing out their builds, I’m not involved in its development. 

Vampire Survivors meets Necrodancer, that’s my immediate thought when I see this game. 

Hitting attacks to the beat of a song’s rhythm isn’t exactly a new concept. But this is probably the first time I’ve seen it be used to take out armies upon armies of what look like enemies that are composed of cyborg rats, where you are stacking points and score multipliers as you play well. It’s kind of like 2000s-era rhythm games where stacking your score as high as you possibly can is the point. Only this time, you’re also dodging giant rockets, shooting at an ever-growing number of enemies, and gathering score boosters while managing skills to use like you’re playing Patapon. There are so many ideas being melded into one game here and how they’re taking on the challenge of synthesizing and balancing it all.

Clearly, I like the game, but you can judge it for yourself as they have a Steam demo available, which links directly from their website (link below):

https://basikagames.com/strik9/

Now, if you’re wondering “hey, why only 3 games?”, is because to be honest, the other ones that were fairly impressive were also pretty crowded, it took me an entire day to even get HypurrX free to try out. I think this should be a clear indicator to exhibitors, developers, and organizers that they’ll probably need more than one unit to demo their games now. At least for the ones that are gaining some traction. There were definitely at least a few more games out there that I was hankering to try, but could never find their respective booths free enough to go in and try out.

At any rate, PGDX did well to feature so many talented and promising game developers this year. They also went beyond the digital plane and had some tabletop and card games featured in their area, which I was able to at least skim through. With great attendance, a lot of games to try, and even offers to check out from the larger publishers, I think PGDX is coming to be a promising event to come back to in the years to come.