DISCOVER WHAT’S NEXT…
HUNDREDS
OF GAMES
Explore hundreds of playable indie and retro games from the world, from in development prototypes to finished releases, all available to play, discover, and discuss with developers
CREATORS &
COMMUNITY
Meet the developers, artists, and creators behind the games. Join talks, panels, and informal chats, connect with fellow players, and be part of a welcoming community built around gaming
What's On
Ashens will be doing Ashens things
Main Stage // 14:00
Test your gaming knowledge at the Did You Know Gaming? Quiz!
Packed with surprising trivia, deep cuts, and legendary facts from across gaming history, this live quiz is perfect for players of all ages. Expect big laughs, fierce competition, and prizes for the sharpest minds in the room
Main Stage // 16:00
You awake to find yourself in a Dark Room! Yes, everyone’s favourite interactive live comedy adventure where the audience becomes the hero!
Guided only by voice and imagination, you’ll face absurd challenges, impossible choices, and unpredictable outcomes. Fast, funny, and completely unique, it is a chaotic crowd favourite that always steals the show
Main Stage // 18:30
Experience the hauntingly beautiful music of Lucia La Rezza, whose cinematic compositions blend emotion, atmosphere, and powerful storytelling
Known for her work across games and live performance, Lucia brings sweeping melodies and immersive soundscapes to DGF for a truly unforgettable musical experience
Main Stage // 20:30
Join The Spriters Resource and get hands on with the craft behind classic and modern pixel art
Learn techniques, tips, and tricks from experts who live and breathe sprites, and discover how some of your favourite game visuals are brought to life one pixel at a time.
Pixel Zone // All Day
Celebrate the very best of independent games at Debug’s very own Indie Game Awards, hosted by Josh Strife Hayes
Join us as we honour standout developers, unforgettable experiences, and the creativity that defines the indie scene. Expect live announcements, special guests, and a showcase of games that truly deserve the spotlight!
Made possible thanks to the generous sponsorship of GameMaker
Main Stage // 20:00
Musical comedy meets nineties nerdery
Main Stage // 18:00
Get ready for High Scored, the live band bringing classic and modern video game soundtracks to the stage
From retro favourites to contemporary hits, they transform iconic game music into an electrifying live performance that celebrates gaming culture
Main Stage // 15:00
Illustrator Duncan Gutteridge, perhaps best known for producing the European artwork for Sonic the Hedgehog 2, will be gracing the Main Stage to tell stories from his career whilst drawing a brand new piece!
Main Stage // 12:00
Playable Games
FUTURE CLASSICS
This exhibit celebrates games we believe will be remembered for years to come
These are the standouts of today that feel destined to become the touchstones of tomorrow, whether through innovation, storytelling, technical achievement, or pure creative ambition
Paper Trail is a top-down puzzle adventure about leaving home, set in a foldable, paper world. You play as Paige, a budding academic, leaving home for the first time to pursue her studies. On the journey, you learn to fold the world, merging two sides to solve puzzles, explore new areas and uncover long-lost secrets.
Build the ultimate cat army through tactical breeding and send them into deep, challenging turn-based adventures. Draft abilities, collect items, and manipulate genetics across generations in this roguelike tactics game from the creators of The Binding of Isaac and The End is Nigh.
You’re shipwrecked on a lost mythical island. As backpacker Alex, you must befriend the forgotten gods of Greek mythology and restore their memories. Explore the dynamic island and its story sandbox to build new friendships, solve the mystery and save the gods.
Task Time is a Gameshow inspired competitive party game where 8 friends dive headfirst into 6 rounds of unpredictable tasks and physics-fuelled chaos, to finish top of the leaderboard. From (some of) the people that worked on Gang Beasts and Fall Guys, this is your new favourite friendslop.
Axyz is a retro gravity switching puzzle game that asks the player to use their environmental and spatial awareness to beat every level. Soak in the vaporwave, switch gravity, collect tapes, and more in this tribute to 90s puzzle games.
Pieced Together is a cozy scrapbooking game that takes you on a heartfelt journey about friendship and getting older. Sort items, solve gentle puzzles, and decorate the scrapbook as you uncover the story piece by piece.
FIRST LOOK
Experience games still in the making, straight from the minds of their creators
These works-in-progress offer a rare glimpse behind the curtain. Now’s your chance to play them early, share feedback, and witness indie creativity in real time!
A mainstay of Debug showcases, Heir of the Dog is a darkly comedic Victorian adventure where man’s best friend becomes his greatest curse. Set in a gothic world of gaslight and cobblestones, you play a gentleman who transforms into a beastly hound whenever the moon rises.
To survive, and perhaps reverse your fate, you must prowl fog-soaked streets, sniff out clues, and uncover the truth behind your mysterious affliction. Blending macabre humour with slapstick chaos, it is a hand-drawn tale of manners, madness, and metamorphosis.
An exciting action-platformer inspired by the style of 90s animation. Fight your way through a handcrafted, pixel art world, recruit allies to power up your gameplay and enjoy cool combat moves in a thrilling adventure packed with action and charm.
You are a sorcerer seeking to fulfil a magical ritual to summon an ancient dead deity. Cast mystical domes, explore fantastical realms and meet a peculiar cast of characters in this stylized PS2-inspired action-platformer!
Crisis Island is a fast paced, top down, pixel art, twin-stick shooter that takes inspiration from Time Crisis, Shock Troopers, and 80s action movies!
The evil Martillo de la Justicia has taken the President's daughter hostage... and strapped her to a nuke! Only special agents Claire Savage and Anya Cain can successfully infiltrate their base on the dreaded Isla del la Libertad, rescue the President's daughter and avoid nuclear catastrophe!
A narrative-driven choice game set in a bleak dystopia. Maintain a balance between the corrupt demands of the ruling party and the desperate needs of the people. Gain wealth, collect taxes, or aid the suffering—this will determine the fate of your street in this oppressive regime
OUTCLAW is a third person action adventure about herding cats through the stars. A five eyed cat, a horde of gloopy shadow kittens, and a mystical twilight world await you in Outclaw - the debut minion management action adventure from Moss Monkey Games!
Push blocks, build words, and duck with your friends. Stack challenges to buy upgrades and improve your chances in this word action roguelike. Quack, waddle, and unleash the chaos of ducks!
Sleepytime Village is the story of a workaholic father who makes one wrong choice too many and becomes trapped in a children’s storybook reality, haunted by the residents of Sleepytime Village, its formless narrator and visions of his childhood. What is the Village and what does it want from him?
Ink Strings is a zen-like puzzle adventure game about connecting the dots... and so much more. Explore the mysterious hand-painted world of the Conjured Isle, unravel the bitter-sweet tale of the Ink King, and discover hundreds of satisfying and surprising puzzles along the way.
Decend by yourself or with friends down into the old fighting tunnels under France. Search for old equipment and complete objectives for king and country… but mostly to keep the oxygen pumps on. Earn your freedom through careful subterranean strategy or chaotic run-and-gun gameplay.
A point-and-click parody of Les Miserables. Part 'Monkey Island', part 'Allo 'Allo, Less Miserables aims to do for 'Les Misérables' what 'Life of Brian' did to The Bible. Vive la révolution!
A chaotic 1–8 player party game where you chase and chomp your friends, now with tournaments! Perfect for families, friends, and couch multiplayer nights.
Reality Drift is a roguelike racing game where your choices matter. Race through a series of strange worlds, choose upgrades for your car and decide which track will be next - your decisions are just as important as how you drive!
Book of Abominations is a Lovecraftian-inspired monster taming JRPG. Capture and battle adorably grotesque Eldritch horrors in snappy turn based combat, explore a mysterious, moody yet vibrant world, and unravel the secrets within the book!
Explore a vast nostalgic World battle dark Forces and restore balance this game is packed with Adventure mystery and the kind of charm.
Find over 500 hidden dogs and items across 15 levels - all set in a charming English countryside village! Help Labby find his friends for a special mission in this cozy, hand-drawn hidden object adventure.
Only a tiny spider can save the world in this web-swinging roguelike. Swing into action and transform a fuzzy friend into a powerful paradox to stop time from being frozen in amber. Build a thread of items from the past and future which connect for crazy combos!
Normal Fishing is a completely and utterly unremarkable fishing experience where everything goes exactly as expected, and there is absolutely - and I mean it when I say this - absolutely nothing to worry about.
RETRO WORLD
Step back into the pixel past with modern titles built for classic systems
From the NES to the Dreamcast and beyond, these developers are keeping vintage hardware alive, creating brand-new games that feel right at home on the machines that started it all.
UrbX Warriors is a fast paced arcade adventure built for the ZX Spectrum Next, pushing the hardware to its absolute limits while delivering pure one more go gameplay. Blending classic arcade design with modern polish, the game drops players into a neon soaked urban battlefield packed with intense action, tight controls, and constant pressure. Every run is about quick reactions, smart movement, and mastering its escalating challenge. The game is created by industry veterans Tony Warriner and Stoo Cambridge, who will both be in attendance at Debug Games Festival, giving players a rare chance to meet the creators and go hands on with the game.
Rush Rush Rally Reloaded is a fast-paced racing game in the classic top-down style. It is an upgraded version of Rush Rush Rally Racing, which was first released on the Dreamcast and promptly sold out.
The fast-paced gameplay with precise "twitch controls" provides an intense experience for up to 4 players.
Poor Deef, a bomb disposal robot, reluctantly finds himself on a journey to save his friends. A big bad boss has appeared, raining chaos and destruction on this once peaceful land.
Deef must rescue his friends while defusing bombs and avoiding hazards, as he progresses through each area towards a final explosive confrontation.
FLEA!2 is a challenging platformer with an intriguing back story. Play once again as Henry the Hyperactive Flea who just can’t stop jumping! Navigate the beasts, collect blood and rescue all the fleas.
Intrepid Izzy is an adventure with platformer and beat 'em up elements. Explore colourful levels to find all the treasures, especially the costumes that grant special powers. Use them to battle huge bosses and defeat the ultimate evil.
Roguecraft is a retro-inspired turn-based roguelike all about simplicity and fun. Explore procedurally generated dungeons with mysterious potions, scary chickens, and secret rooms waiting to be discovered.
Xenocider is a new 3D game for the Dreamcast which has players controlling a tough-as-nails cyborg named Xara as she navigates through savage worlds and blasts her way through civilizations.
Forget the licensed cars and sponsored wraps, Driving Strikers is full 3D arcade-style sports action. Take on players worldwide and rock out to a nostalgia-inducing soundtrack of noughties bangers!
Frequently Asked Questions
Is there food and drink on site?
A wide selection of food and drink will be available throughout the day, including vegan options, Thai food, pizza, burgers, cakes and pastries, and a range of snacks. Alcohol and soft drinks will also be available from our Checkpoint bar. You are welcome to leave and re enter the venue if you would like to explore other nearby options as well.
Is the venue accessible?
Accessibility is incredibly important to Debug, and we specifically chose the Norfolk Events Centre as our venue because of their strong commitment to accessibility, inclusivity, and safeguarding.
All areas of the venue are step-free and multiple wheelchair spaces are available within the auditorium. More information about the Norfolk Events Centre can be found on their website, but if you have any queries then the Debug team would be delighted to assist. Please get in touch using the details on our Contact Us page.
Is parking available at the venue?
There are lots of parking spaces at the Norfolk Events Centre and parking is absolutely free. There is no need to pre-book.
Can children attend the festival?
Children under the age of 5 do not require a ticket. Ages 5-16 require a Child Ticket, or can attend as part of a Family Ticket. Please note that all children under the age of 16 must be accompanied by a responsible adult.
How secure is the venue?
We take security at our events very seriously. Access to the venue is tightly controlled by professional venue staff, and all attendees, exhibitors, and crew are required to wear Debug lanyards at all times to help us ensure a safe and welcoming environment for everyone.
Can I exhibit my game or business at DGF?
We welcome applications from independent developers, studios, publishers, and gaming related businesses. To submit your game for consideration please use our Indie Showcase Form. For trading or exhibiting in the Trader and Artist areas, please get in touch via our Traders Form. Many Indie Showcase spaces are offered free of charge, with paid options available for larger businesses and commercial exhibitors.
Can I attend as press?
Passes are available for members of the press. Please email [email protected] with details of your publication.