Humble Bundle is selling the Indie's Support for Venezuela Bundle, a charity collection of 12 indie games from Venezuela including VA-11 Hall-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action. The minimum price is $16.50, and the total value of the titles at full Steam price is 20,170 yen. Proceeds support relief for a recent major earthquake in Venezuela.
PARCO GAMES released Finding Polka, an interactive adventure by Japanese creative studio lidlocks, on Steam today, August 12, 2026. The game follows protagonist Frendy, who lives peacefully with his dog Jazz, as he searches for a dog resembling Polka, a companion from his childhood. Set in a world drawn with a ballpoint pen, players explore map areas while chasing Polka's figure, with optional mini-games such as mini golf, whack-a-mole, soccer penalty kicks, boat races, watermelon splitting, and volleyball. The game has no dialogue or words; characters convey emotions through facial expressions, gestures, and sound effects. Guest creators from the indie scene contributed, including HIPHOP group DON YASA CREW, known for SONOKUNI, who handled rap for insert songs and BGM, and Hiroshi Sawatari, developer of NeverAwake and Magical Princess, who directed the shooting game parts. Shoma, known for MotionRec, designed a stealth puzzle in the rocket factory section. The game is priced at 1,500 yen, with a 20% discount to 1,200 yen until August 25. Bundle versions with TOEM, Hidden through Time, and Lost and Found Co. are also available, and a launch trailer has been released.
The manga Magical Girl and Narco Wars, written by Yū Nomiya and illustrated by Merou Meiji, will end with its next chapter on July 21. The series launched on Shueisha's Shonen Jump+ in May 2025 and has three compiled volumes, the third releasing August 4. Nomiya recently started a new manga with artist Fuji on June 15.
The Korea-Thailand co-production BL drama Wooju Bakery will stream exclusively on FOD starting July 8, 2026. The sci-fi romance follows a bakery owner (Barcode Tinnasit) and a space prince (Jeff Satur) who crash-lands on Earth. The 8-episode series also stars Korean actors DION and Q, and Filipino idol group members Jayson and Alpha. Four episodes will be released weekly.
At NDC26, NC AI head Jang Han-yong presented Varco SyncFace, a generative AI system that produces facial animations from voice input. The technology aims to eliminate the manual post-processing and QA that existing solutions still require. Jang argued that facial animation is the next frontier after graphics and body motion capture, but current tools degrade with game-like acting and reverb, forcing costly manual fixes. Varco SyncFace targets production-ready output that needs no further adjustment.
At BitSummit PUNCH, Parco Games announced it will publish DEPERSON, a 2D psychedelic horror adventure by Turkish studio Error Thing. A playable demo was shown at the booth, and a fuller demo covering Chapter 1 is already available on Steam. The game follows Aaron, an amnesiac in a totalitarian state called Indriya, and uses fragmented visuals and unstable text to convey psychological unease.