a loose network of indie game makers decided cozy games had enough festivals. so they made their own.
i was scrolling through what indie devs are posting this week and landed on a Steam page for a game where you play as a worm doing remote finance work. You are physically a worm, squirming across a keyboard to fill in spreadsheets and take calls. the demo alone has 98% positive reviews from 226 players. and the first thought i had was, who are the people who found this first, and where do they live online.
turns out this is part of something bigger.
there’s a loose community of indie devs who are done with farming sims and cozy cafe simulators, and this week they’re running their own festival to prove it. it’s called CHAOS Fest, it started May 25th 2026 and runs through may 30. it was put together by Josh Hassin, the founder of Look Mister — a San Diego studio — because he looked around at all the existing indie festivals and couldn’t figure out why every single one was celebrating soft, cute games and nothing else. his exact words from the press release: “we see lots of festivals promoting soft, cute, cozy games. those are fine and all… but i couldn’t stop wondering ‘where are the festivals that promote the weirder, louder, more brash games?’ from that idea, CHAOS Fest was born.”
the three games headlining it are worth knowing about.
Worming From Home is the worm finance sim by Zach Northrop, and yes it’s as absurd as it sounds, but it’s also genuinely sharp satire about corporate work culture. the demo launched January 30, 2026 and has been covered by GameSpew and gameranx, which for an indie is not nothing. full game releases Q3 2026.
GodsTV is from Melbot Studios, a Barcelona-based team. their Starbreeze publishing deal was cancelled in May 2025 — and they kept going anyway, fully indie. it’s a top-down co-op roguelike ARPG described by the devs themselves as “cartoon punk,” built around the satire of fame, TV shows, and influencer culture.
DeGen Rivals is Look Mister’s own 8-player kart-based battle royale, which means the people who organized the whole festival are also competing in it. the festival runs all week on X and TikTok, and wraps with an all-day Twitch marathon on may 30 with dev commentary, community play, and prizes.
the thing that’s actually interesting here isn’t just the games. what CHAOS Fest is doing is organizing a whole wave of devs around a shared feeling: “everything is too safe right now, we’re tired of it”, and building something real around that. The fact that Melbot showed up after losing their publisher funding makes it more interesting, not less.
They also picked a smart week. This overlaps with Summer Game Fest season, which means visibility they couldn’t have bought.
where to find them:
Zach Northrop / Worming From Home
Bluesky: @zachnorthrop.bsky.social
Website: zachnorthrop.com
Melbot Studios / GodsTV
Instagram: @melbotstudio
Website: melbot.es
Look Mister / DeGen Rivals / CHAOS Fest
X (CHAOS Fest + DeGen Rivals): @DeGenRivals
Josh Hassin X: @joshhassin
CHAOS Fest full lineup: chaosfest2026.com
source for CHAOS Fest: Games Press press release, May 22 2026
know a community doing something real that nobody’s talking about? drop it in the comments.