It’s going to be all killer, no filler, according to Evil Empire, the organizer of the independent game show: Triple-i Initiative Showcase.
Acclaimed developer and appreciator of independent games Evil Empire (Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse, The Rogue Prince of Persia, Brotato), is bringing back its bangers-only, no nonsense games showcase to fans around the world on April 9 for 45 minutes of back-to-back trailers. I spoke with the founders of Evil Empire, Benjamin Laulan and Bérenger Dupre at the recent GDC Festival of Gaming in San Francisco.
Viewers can catch gameplay reveals, world premieres and other announcements across 40+ games, including games they already know, love and have sunk countless hours into, and future titles that will claim even more of their time.
Over the last two years, the Triple-i Initiative Showcase brought updates and reveals for games like Katana ZERO, No, I’m not a Human, Vampire Survivors and Slay the Spire 2, and to reflect the ever-growing indie games industry across the world, this year’s show will bring even more exciting announcements.
That means eight exclusive world premieres, as well as partners like Klei Entertainment, TinyBuild and Devolver Digital making appearances to bring you, dear fan of games that are impactful, engaging and memorable, all the exciting updates on titles you are already looking forward to, such as Windrose, Dead as Disco, Risk of Rain 2, Alkahest, and Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse, and some others that are begging to be discovered.
Viewers can watch the 45 minute-long show on YouTube, Twitch, bilibili and Steam, as well as with co-streaming partners IGN, GameSpot and a number of the very best content creators.
The Triple-i Initiative showcase is run by developers for developers. Now in its third year, the not-for-profit initiative has seen year over year growth in the industry’s top global markets, its success attributed to an approach centered on content curated to a specific audience.
Focused on engagement and conversation on a global level, the all killer, no filler showcase has no unengaging fluff, no ads, no sponsors, no hosts. Evil Empire’s no-b.s. approach in 2024 and 2025 achieved high visibility for today’s best creative teams and 2026 is shaping up to be its biggest, best show to date.
In past years, the Triple-i Initiative Showcase has served as a launching pad for monumental titles like Katana ZERO, No, I’m not a Human, Vampire Survivors and Slay the Spire 2.
Evil Empire has recently announced two high profile projects, the first being the 10 million-selling Brotato and the second just recently with Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse.
Bérenger Dupre, cofounder of Evil Empire, said in an interview with GamesBeat, said the Triple-i Initiative Showcase is a big task that is in its third year, leaving the studio split between helping to promote indies and making its own games at the same time.
Origins
Benjamin Laulan, cofounder of Evil Empire, said the studio came to life in 2019 around the idea of launching downloadable content (DLC) for Dead Cells, the hit indie game from the small studio Motion Twin. Evil Empire used its own “ninja” skills to get the add-on content noticed and the game launched. Dead Cells launched in 2018 and sold more than two million copies in its first nine months. While the founders at Motion Twin moved on to new work, Evil Empire did the updates.
“We saw this as an opportunity to create our own studio,” Laulan said. “We could keep working on Dead Cells, and the original team could focus on their new game. And we had this big theory that we could do great things with Dead Cells. We created this kind of virtuous circle because, at that time, live ops wasn’t very common for indie games.”
That was the beginning of France-based Evil Empire, which started with a very small team. The first free DLC for the game came out in 2019. Across four years, Evil Empire released one new set of DLC per year, Laulan said. The team also did 20 major updates and Dead Cells grew to more than 12 million units sold worldwide. Motion Twin retains the rights.
“Thanks to all that work, we managed, you know, to stay sustainable as a studio and really put the foundations in place for Evil Empire,” Laulan said.
The Bordeaux-based company had discussions with Ubisoft to work on a rogue-lite version of the Prince of Persia, which released a few months ago. The company supported additional Dead Cells deals, including helping to make a board game and movie happen. Thnks to all of the work, the team at Evil Empire grew to 60 people.
But at some point, the studio wants to build its own intellectual property. And then it also got the idea for the Triple-i Initiative Showcase. The hope was to build a showcase for indies to draw viewers for indie content rather than to watch the shows of the big publishers and console companies.
“We decided to try to do once a year moment where our audiences, our shared audiences, our type of players, are watching this moment just for us,” Dupree said. “We were surprised because many studios felt it was a huge opportunity.”
The first show three years ago was a success.
“It was so fun to see cool trailers from cool games ahead of the announcement and to get free keys,” Dupre said. “We decided to stick to a formula. 40 minutes, back-to-back trailers, with no fluff.”
Now the showcase has a lot of support from developers around the world. There have been more than 300 submissions for only 40 slots. The team has a jury and curates the finalists who get to participate in the show. They chose April to do the show after GDC and before the Summer Game Fest and to be early in the year for showcasing new games.
Now Evil Empire has three different games in production at the same time, thanks to the success of its live ops business. Now it’s working on updates for Brotato, whose team is also moving on to new ideas.
The future of indies
As for indie games, the picture is mixed. There are some successful “triple-i” indie studios that are growing into bigger companies. But there are also a lot of games that are failing for lack of discovery, since there are more than 20,000 games on Steam.
“The larger trend is toward smaller games, smaller risks, and doing more games like throwing more balls into the air and hoping one will make the shot at least from publishers perspective,” Laulan said. “But you’re right say that discoverability is the main issue. There’s so much competition that is not just only a matter of good game or making an excellent game. It’s really about having something different.”
Dupre added, “You have to be the best, and you have to be super radical. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a good example. It’s the best JRPG we had in years. It’s tough, man, it’s stressful.”