The 2026 Tribeca Festival announced its official games program on Tuesday, marking the festival’s 25th anniversary year. This year’s slate features 12 selections that are eligible for the Tribeca Games Award, which honors an unreleased game that exemplifies phenomenal storytelling and innovation in interactive experiences. The games gallery will host free playable demos of this year’s selections exclusively at Manhattan’s Pier 57, which will be open to the public from June 10-14. This year’s program features numerous world premieres, including the musical mystery There Are No Ghosts At The Grand and Lofsöng, an art-driven narrative experience where players explore vast brutalist landscapes.
“Over the years, the games program has been an early champion of titles that have gone on to critical acclaim and deeply resonate with players,” said Casey Baron, Tribeca Festival’s senior programmer of film and games. “This year’s selections reflect that legacy, showcasing the incredible breadth and ambition of storytelling in games today. I’m excited to continue to grow that vision in this new capacity.”
Attendees can also take part in several events and talks, including “Luminaries: Dan Houser’s Absurd Ventures,” in which Rockstar Games co-founder Dan Houser and his longtime writing partner Lazlow will discuss the evolution of storytelling beyond video games. “Control Resonant: Beyond the Oldest House,” will feature an in-depth discussion between the upcoming game’s creative director Mikael Kasurinen and Nia DaCosta, who won Tribeca’s lauded Nora Ephron Prize in 2018 for her film Little Woods. This year’s Festival also includes an Immersive project called Escape The Internet: Part 2, from director Lucas Rizzotto. It blends cinema and gaming through live audience interaction to create a new genre of live entertainment.
Past Tribeca Festival Official Selections for Games have included numerous award-winning titles, such as Blue Prince, Dispatch, Despelote, Venba, Sable, NORCO, Mixtape and many more. In the past five years alone, participating titles have received 165 nominations and 35 wins across major industry awards worldwide.
Below, you’ll find this year’s official selections and more details about the Festival’s gaming programming for 2026.
2026 Tribeca Festival Games Selection
Milktooth Project (United Kingdom)
Developer: Milktooth; Publisher: PopAgenda
World Premiere. Milktooth is a UK-based independent games studio built on a shared ambition: to make you laugh before breaking your heart. The studio is currently developing its unannounced debut title.
Demi and the Fractured Dream (United States)
Developer: Yarn Owl; Publisher: 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)
Developer & Publisher: UrbanFox
North American Premiere. A paper airplane ventures into a vast world of darkness. Drifted is a narrative-driven platformer.
Forever Ago (Germany)
Developer: Third Shift; Publisher: 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)
Developers: Authentic Remixes, Fat Raccoon; Publisher: Acclaim Games
North American Premiere. 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?
Lofsöng (Italy)
Developer: Unrelated Games
World Premiere. Lofsöng 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.
Rebounder (Canada)
Developer: ThirtyThree; Publisher: Aggro Crab Games
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)
Developer: Exnilo Studio; Publisher: 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)
Developer: Lichthund S.A.; Publisher: Team17
New York Premiere. Rockbeasts is a rock & 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)
Developer & Publisher: 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)
Developer & Publisher: 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)
Developers: Selkie Harbour, Deconstructeam; Publisher: 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.
2026 Tribeca Festival Immersive Project
Escape The Internet: Part 2 (United States of America, Brazil)
Location: AMC 19th St. East 6 – AMC 02
Date/Time: Thursday, June 4 at 5:30 p.m. | Sunday, June 14 at 2:30 p.m.
World Premiere. From legendary creator Lucas Rizzotto, Escape The Internet is a new genre of gaming that shatters the 4th wall and brings audience interaction to the next level as you and hundreds of strangers must work together with your phones to escape the A.I. apocalypse. Experience wild interactive set pieces, uncover the secrets of the people sitting next to you and evade monsters in a deep mystery full of colorful characters. Time is of the essence: every audience member is infected with terminal brainrot and can be possessed by an algorithmic demon at any moment. Your future, and the future of the entire internet, is at stake.
2026 Tribeca Festival Games Special Events
Bold Choices: The Rise of Maximalist Aesthetics
Location: Storytelling Summit – Tribeca Festival Hub at Spring Studios
Date/Time: Friday, June 12 at 5 p.m.
Following years of a minimalist wave threaded through different industries and artistic mediums, maximalism feels abundant again. There will always be space for all the forms, but how do bold and distinct aesthetic decisions create a singular tone? What does that mean for the kind of art and experiences we explore?
Control Resonant – Beyond the Oldest House
Location: SVA Theatre
Date/Time: Friday, June 12 at 8:30 p.m.
After Jesse Faden goes missing following the events at The Oldest House, her younger brother Dylan takes center stage wielding the Aberrant and shouldering the burden of saving a twisted Manhattan. Join Creative Director Mikael Kasurinen (Quantum Break, Control) in conversation with Tribeca alum Nia DaCosta (Hedda, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple) as they discuss the craft, mechanics, explorations, and inspirations poised to make another breathtaking experience in the highly anticipated Control Resonant.
Worldbuilding Through Sound and Design
Location: Storytelling Summit – Tribeca Festival Hub at Spring Studios
Date/Time: Saturday, June 13 at 11 a.m.
Whether a blood-pumping metal guitar crescendo adds shockwaves to a boss battle, or the quick theme highlights a new buff or collectable, music and sound design takes entertainment to new heights. Join representatives from the Tribeca 2026 Games Official Selections to discuss the intricacies of implementing sound alongside design and gamebreaking interaction to create visceral experiences.
Luminaries: Dan Houser’s Absurd Ventures
Location: Storytelling Summit – Tribeca Festival Hub at Spring Studios
Date/Time: Saturday, June 13 at 3 p.m.
Dan Houser, co-founder of Rockstar Games and the creative force behind Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption, now leads the storytelling-driven company Absurd Ventures. Since its launch, Absurd has expanded across mediums with projects including the chart-topping audio series A Better Paradise, the bestselling comic American Caper, and new animation and video-game worlds in development. In this conversation, Dan Houser and his longtime writing partner Lazlow explore their approach to worldbuilding and the evolution of storytelling beyond video games alongside several of Absurd’s key partners from Dark Horse, Smilegate, and more.
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