2026 Tribeca Festival Games Program announced

by

The Tribeca Festival is celebrating its 25th year in 2026 and has revealed its official Games Program. This year’s program includes 12 games chosen for their creative storytelling and innovative gameplay.

Casey Baron is leading the program as Senior Programmer – a new position for him. He’s been a programmer with the Festival since 2022 and brings over ten years of experience from the games and film industries.

Casey Baron, the new Senior Programmer for the Tribeca Festival, expressed excitement about taking on the role during a significant year for the festival. In a statement, Baron highlighted the games program’s history of supporting critically acclaimed and impactful titles, and shared that this year’s selections continue that tradition by demonstrating the impressive range and creativity of modern game storytelling. Baron is looking forward to building on this success in their new position.

The featured titles are as follows:

  • Demi and the Fractured Dream (United States) – Developed by Yarn Owl and published by Annapurna Interactive. New York Premiere. In this enchanting action adventure, play as Demi and venture through the world of Somnus. Tackle dungeons filled with environmental puzzles, use your wide arsenal of attacks, spells, and tools to vanquish void monsters, and defeat the three Accursed Beasts of legend.
  • DRIFTED (Japan, Taiwan) – Developed and published by UrbanFox. North American Premiere. A paper airplane ventures into a vast world of darkness. DRIFTED is a narrative-driven platformer.
  • Forever Ago (Germany) – Developed by Third Shift and published by Annapurna Interactive. New York Premiere. Following a tragic stroke of fate, Alfred embarks on a journey north in search of redemption. In this single-player road trip adventure, you’ll travel to beautiful places, capture memories with your camera, meet interesting people, and even make some new friends.
  • Kidbash: Super Legend (Indonesia) – Developed by Authentic Remixes and Fat Raccoon and published by Acclaim. In this nostalgic roguelike action-platformer, awaken in a world of forgotten game characters as a hero with no memory of his past. After failing to save a nearby village from destruction, can you rise, rebuild, and rediscover the true meaning of being a hero?
  • Lofsong (Italy) – Developed by Unrelated Studio. World Premiere. Lofsong is a stunning art-driven narrative adventure game across deep time ages. Explore vast brutalist landscapes to uncover traces of meaning left in stone and sound, and build a bridge between what once was and what may still come.
  • Milktooth Project (United Kingdom) – Unannounced title developed and published by Milktooth. World Premiere. Milktooth is a United Kingdom-based independent games studio built on a shared ambition: to make you laugh before breaking your heart.
  • Rebounder (Canada) – Developed and published by ThirtyThree. World Premiere. Rebounder is a precision platformer set in a four-ink, pulp-print world. Grab, throw, bounce through an off-world worksite with trick-shot ricochets and fast retries. May induce speedrunning mania.
  • Rivage (Canada) – Developed by Exnilo Studio and published by Raw Fury. New York Premiere. Rivage is an immersive sci-fi puzzle adventure set aboard the A.R.E.S. space station. Wake up as Miranda, forced to explore and solve intricate puzzles to unravel the fate of your missing crew.
  • ROCKBEASTS (Poland) – Developed by Lichthund and published by Team17. New York Premiere. ROCKBEASTS is a rock-and-roll management RPG set in an alternative 90s America. This comedy-drama puts you behind the scenes of the music industry’s brutal reality, where every choice shapes your band’s journey from garage obscurity to stardom.
  • There Are No Ghosts at the Grand (United Kingdom) – Developed and published by Friday Sundae. World Premiere. Inherit a crumbling English hotel and restore it by day—while battling ghosts by night. With a sardonic cat, a talking power tool, and a twisting supernatural plot, this is a musical mystery unlike any other.
  • Truck-kun is Supporting Me From Another World?! (United States) – Developed and published by Strange Scaffold. New York Premiere. Inspired by the anime and manga subgenre of Isekai, Truck-kun is Supporting Me From Another World?! revels in absurdism while simultaneously grounding itself with sharp satire that reflects real life. Smash through objects at high speed to power up the corporate ladder climber in a dangerous medieval fantasy world.
  • Virtue and a Sledgehammer (Ireland, Spain) – Developed by Selkie Harbour and Deconstructeam and published by Devolver Digital. New York Premiere. In Virtue and a Sledgehammer, explore the remains of your hometown haunted by the android ghosts of your digitized neighbors. There won’t always be a clear path, so create your own by knocking down any structures that stand in your way.

From June 10th to 14th, the public can try out free demo versions of this year’s games at The Games Gallery, located at Pier 57.

The following special talks and events are also planned:

  • Luminaries: Dan Houser’s Absurd Ventures – Rockstar Games co-founder Dan Houser and his longtime writing partner Lazlow will provide their insights into the evolution of storytelling beyond video games alongside partners from Dark Horse and Smilegate.
  • CONTROL Resonant: Beyond the Oldest House – An in-depth discussion between Mikael Kasurinen, creative director of the highly anticipated CONTROL Resonant, and Tribeca alumna Nia DaCosta, who won Tribeca’s lauded Nora Ephron Prize in 2018 for her directorial debut, Little Woods.

The 2026 Tribeca Festival will include an immersive experience called Escape The Internet: Part 2, created by director Lucas Rizzotto, a Tribeca Festival alumnus. This project combines film and gaming, letting the audience participate live and creating a new kind of entertainment.

Read More

2026-05-13 06:15