Best of Gaming — February 2026

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Article
David Heinemeier Hansson·16w
Cloud gaming is kinda amazing
Cloud gaming has matured significantly, following the same trajectory as music and video streaming. NVIDIA's GeForce NOW service now delivers impressive performance, especially with the new native Linux client. For local networks, combining Apollo server software with Moonlight client enables streaming from a high-end gaming PC to any device in the house with zero perceivable lag, allowing ultra-settings gameplay on lightweight laptops while keeping them cool and power-efficient.
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Article
80 LEVEL·13w
Stop Killing Games Is Launching Official NGO
Stop Killing Games, the campaign led by Ross Scott fighting to prevent developers and publishers from making games permanently unplayable, is formalizing into an official NGO. The move aims to enable long-term counter-lobbying, legal pressure, and global expansion. The campaign is set to meet with the EU Commission, and the issue reportedly has majority support in the European Parliament. If successful, EU players could retain the ability to play games even after publishers discontinue support.
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Article
GamesIndustry.biz·14w
Mewgenics tops 1 million copies sold in just one week | News-in-brief
Roguelike Mewgenics sold over 1 million copies in its first week, reaching a concurrent peak of 115,428 players on Steam during its debut weekend. Separately, Brazilian indie studio Devcats has launched a publishing arm to support cozy and wholesome indie games, with its first published title being Feline Forensics and the Meowseum Mystery. Devcats plans to offer marketing, localization, music, and game direction support to indie developers, while contributing a portion of profits to animal welfare causes.
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Article
80 LEVEL·15w
Check Out Witchbrook, Cozy Pixel-Style Game with Magical Vibes
Witchbrook is an upcoming cozy pixel-art life simulation game where players attend a magical witch college in the seaside city of Mossport. The game features character interactions, seasonal events, magical skill development through classes and assignments, and various activities like shopping, crafting, and dating. It supports co-op multiplayer for up to four players and is scheduled for release in 2026 by developers Chucklefish and Robotality.
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Article
Game Developer·13w
Hades devs: accidentally inventing a subgenre was 'surreal'
Supergiant Games' Greg Kasavin and Amir Rao reflect on how Hades accidentally spawned the 'Hades-like' subgenre of roguelikes. Speaking at the 2026 DICE Awards after winning Best Action Game for Hades II, they describe the experience as 'surreal'—they saw themselves as simply making their own spin on an existing genre, not inventing a new one. Key innovations like run-based storytelling, a home-base hub between runs, and narrative-driven character interactions became a replicable template adopted by games like Spiritfall, Curse of the Dead Gods, and Sworn. Both developers emphasize that the subgenre label emerged entirely from player reception after Early Access, not from any deliberate design intent.
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Article
It's Foss·14w
Someone Just Made an Immutable Gentoo-Based Distro Tailored for Gaming
matrixOS is a new immutable, atomic Linux distribution based on Gentoo, created by the original Sabayon Linux developer. It uses OSTree for atomic upgrades and follows an "emerge once, deploy everywhere" philosophy, building packages once and distributing binaries to avoid repeated compilation. The distro targets gaming and homelab setups with pre-configured Mesa and NVIDIA drivers, SecureBoot support, btrfs filesystem with zstd compression, and includes Steam, Docker, Flatpak, and Snap out of the box. Available in three variants (Bedrock, GNOME, and Server), it requires UEFI to boot and is currently a hobby project not intended for production use.
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Article
80 LEVEL·16w
This Ghibli-Style Farming Simulation Is About to Enter Early Access
Starsand Island, a Ghibli-inspired farming and life simulation game from Chinese studio Seed Sparkle Lab, launches in Early Access on Steam February 11 at 9:00 AM PST. The game offers a peaceful seaside experience with farming, animal interactions, island exploration, and character-driven mysteries. Two editions will be available: Standard Edition at $27.93 and Deluxe Edition at $41.93, each including different cosmetic content sets.
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Video
YouTube·14w
3 years of game development in 8 minutes
A solo indie developer shares three years of progress on Isisle Goblin, a Terraria-meets-Stardew Valley game where players fight humans as a goblin, explore destructible worlds, and build towns. Recent updates include swimming mechanics with animations for all armor sets, a custom level editor to replace Unity's laggy tilemap system, a new underground floor with procedurally generated terrain and handcrafted points of interest, inverse kinematics for spider enemies, and new livestock. The developer seeks community feedback on cover art options, comparing approaches from similar games like Terraria's sprite art versus stylized character renders.
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Article
GamesIndustry.biz·16w
Indie game film adaptation Iron Lung earns $21.5 million on opening weekend
The film adaptation of indie horror game Iron Lung earned $21.5 million on its opening weekend, landing at #2 in the US box office. Created by YouTuber Markiplier (38.2 million subscribers) with a $3 million budget, the film demonstrates the transmedia potential of smaller game properties. The original 2022 game by David Szymanski sold approximately 310,000 copies on Steam. Other indie horror game adaptations including Dredge and Poppy Playtime are currently in development.
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Article
GamesIndustry.biz·13w
"It needs to cooperate fairly, and it's clearly not." Why Valve is facing a £656m day in the UK courts
Digital safety campaigner Vicki Shotbolt is leading a UK class action lawsuit against Valve, seeking up to £656 million in damages on behalf of consumers. The case, brought by law firm Milberg, centers on two key claims: that Valve's 30% revenue share on Steam constitutes excessive commission that inflates game prices for consumers, and that Valve's price parity requirement prevents developers from selling games cheaper on competing storefronts. A UK court recently ruled the case must proceed to trial despite Valve's objections. Shotbolt acknowledges there's no guarantee developers would pass savings on to consumers if Valve reduced its cut, but argues the price parity clause is the critical mechanism that locks in high prices across the market.
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Video
Unity·14w
10 weeks dev time, 10 million copies sold…
A game developer reflects on the unexpected viral success of their game, which sold 10 million copies after just 10 weeks of development time. The growth was driven by organic word-of-mouth as players invited friends and shared the experience, exceeding all initial expectations.
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Video
Code Monkey·13w
No one is going to STEAL your Game Idea, unless...
Indie developers often fear that sharing their game ideas will lead to theft, but this fear is largely unfounded. Every developer already has more ideas than they can build, and a bare idea without execution detail has little value. The only real-world scenario where copying occurs is when a game becomes massively successful — like Thronfall — and even then it's a clone of the finished product, not a stolen pitch. For most developers, obscurity is the far greater threat. The practical advice: talk about your game openly, build an audience early, and don't let secrecy sabotage discoverability.
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Article
80 LEVEL·15w
Mewgenics, Turn-Based RPG with Cats, Has Launched
Mewgenics, a turn-based roguelike tactics game where players breed cats and send them into strategic battles, launched on Steam. Created by Edmund McMillen and Tyler Glaiel (The Binding of Isaac), the game features over 1,000 unique abilities across multiple classes, 900+ items, and genetic manipulation mechanics. The game recouped its development budget within three hours of release.
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