Townscaper, a pleasant game where you build up a small island town, is available now on Nintendo Switch and PC.

During IGN’s Gamescom Awesome Indies showcase, Raw Fury and developer Oskar Stålberg announced that Townscaper is ready to play right now on select consoles. You can check out the lovely new trailer below.

Townscaper is being described as a town-building toy and it’s clear why. Drag-and-drag-and-drop idyllic, Nordic-inspired buildings to form your own personal little haven on the sea.

There is no story, no levels, just the ability to build a beautiful town however you want. This is meant to be a tranquil experience, so pick up some building blocks and start crafting away until you build your perfect sea village.

Stålberg developed Townscaper as a follow-up to this Viking RTS Bad North. Quite the change of pace from pillaging rival islands to building them.

Townscaper was originally released on PC but will take advantage of the Switch’s touchscreen for more ways to play.

For more, check out our full Gamescom coverage for news, trailers, reveals, and more.

Matt T.M. Kim is IGN's News Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.

City Block Builder, a new sim set in Los Angeles circa the 1950s, will soon be available via Early Access. Tentworks Interactive announced that it will be headed to Steam in September.

Described as a "mashup of deep tycoon management games with large-scale city building elements," City Block Builder sets it apart from other city-building sims by zeroing in on commerce. It casts the player as an ambitious entrepreneur who runs several businesses in Los Angeles just after the conclusion of World War II.

City Block Builder will allow you to decorate your business as you see it, choose the movies that play at your cinemas, and pick the menus at your restaurants. Your ultimate goal will be to build a bustling entertainment in the heart of a retro LA.

City Block Builder was first announced back in March. It is being developed and published by Tentworks Interactive, an India-based studio dedicated to resurrecting the tycoon and city-builder genre.

"We saw a chance to really build a tycoon/management game that could put both our tiny studio and India on the map," the studio says on its homepage. "We have now grown to a global team, with people from all around the world."

City Block Builder arrives on Steam Early Access on September 22. This new is part of our ongoing coverage of Gamescom 2021. Head to our Gamescom 2021 hub to see the rest of the event schedule and everything announced so far.

Kat Bailey is a Senior News Editor at IGN.

City Block Builder, a new sim set in Los Angeles circa the 1950s, will soon be available via Early Access. Tentworks Interactive announced that it will be headed to Steam in September.

Described as a "mashup of deep tycoon management games with large-scale city building elements," City Block Builder sets it apart from other city-building sims by zeroing in on commerce. It casts the player as an ambitious entrepreneur who runs several businesses in Los Angeles just after the conclusion of World War II.

City Block Builder will allow you to decorate your business as you see it, choose the movies that play at your cinemas, and pick the menus at your restaurants. Your ultimate goal will be to build a bustling entertainment in the heart of a retro LA.

City Block Builder was first announced back in March. It is being developed and published by Tentworks Interactive, an India-based studio dedicated to resurrecting the tycoon and city-builder genre.

"We saw a chance to really build a tycoon/management game that could put both our tiny studio and India on the map," the studio says on its homepage. "We have now grown to a global team, with people from all around the world."

City Block Builder arrives on Steam Early Access on September 22. This new is part of our ongoing coverage of Gamescom 2021. Head to our Gamescom 2021 hub to see the rest of the event schedule and everything announced so far.

Kat Bailey is a Senior News Editor at IGN.

Blizzard and the Overwatch developers have announced it is changing the name of the hero formerly known as McCree. The hero was named after Blizzard employee Jesse McCree, who was previously lead designer on Diablo 4 but is no longer at the company.

In a statement on the official Overwatch Twitter account, the developers announced that it will change McCree's name to "something that better represents what Overwatch stands for." Furthermore, the developers announced that going forward in-game characters will no longer be named after real employees.

A message from the Overwatch team. pic.twitter.com/2W3AV7Pv6X

— Overwatch (@PlayOverwatch) August 26, 2021

McCree's name was taken directly from Blizzard developer Jesse McCree. However, McCree was one of three senior Blizzard employees no longer working at the company following California's lawsuit against Blizzard for widespread gender discrimination. When reached for comment, Activision Blizzard declined to specify whether McCree left the company or was fired.

Jesse McCree was a well-known senior developer, but in the ensuing investigations since the Activision Blizzard lawsuit, revealed that McCree was part of the "Cosby Crew" a group of developers who would host alcohol-fueled parties in the so-called "Cosby Suite."

The decision to change the character McCree's name is not the first instance of this happening in a Blizzard game following the lawsuit. A World of Warcraft NPC named after Blizzard developer Alex Afrasiabi also received a name change after it was revealed that Afrasiabi was also part of the Cosby Suite crew, and was specifically named in California's lawsuit for sexual harassment. Blizzard fired Afrasiabi in 2020 following an internal review of his actions.

Overwatch says there was a planned in-game story event scheduled for September that prominently featured McCree. But to integrate the character's name change into the story arc, the event has been delayed, and instead a new FFA map will be available this September.

The decision to no longer name characters after real-life developers will "help reinforce that we're building a fictional universe that is unmistakably different from the real world and better illustrates that the creation of OVerwatch is truly a team effort," the developers say.

You can read IGN's own extensive investigation into the working conditions at Blizzard, particularly for women and women of color whom the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing say were systematically denied equal pay and opportunity while facing sexual harassment from their peers and management.

Matt T.M. Kim is IGN's News Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.

Blizzard and the Overwatch developers have announced it is changing the name of the hero formerly known as McCree. The hero was named after Blizzard employee Jesse McCree, who was previously lead designer on Diablo 4 but is no longer at the company.

In a statement on the official Overwatch Twitter account, the developers announced that it will change McCree's name to "something that better represents what Overwatch stands for." Furthermore, the developers announced that going forward in-game characters will no longer be named after real employees.

A message from the Overwatch team. pic.twitter.com/2W3AV7Pv6X

— Overwatch (@PlayOverwatch) August 26, 2021

McCree's name was taken directly from Blizzard developer Jesse McCree. However, McCree was one of three senior Blizzard employees no longer working at the company following California's lawsuit against Blizzard for widespread gender discrimination. When reached for comment, Activision Blizzard declined to specify whether McCree left the company or was fired.

Jesse McCree was a well-known senior developer, but in the ensuing investigations since the Activision Blizzard lawsuit, revealed that McCree was part of the "Cosby Crew" a group of developers who would host alcohol-fueled parties in the so-called "Cosby Suite."

The decision to change the character McCree's name is not the first instance of this happening in a Blizzard game following the lawsuit. A World of Warcraft NPC named after Blizzard developer Alex Afrasiabi also received a name change after it was revealed that Afrasiabi was also part of the Cosby Suite crew, and was specifically named in California's lawsuit for sexual harassment. Blizzard fired Afrasiabi in 2020 following an internal review of his actions.

Overwatch says there was a planned in-game story event scheduled for September that prominently featured McCree. But to integrate the character's name change into the story arc, the event has been delayed, and instead a new FFA map will be available this September.

The decision to no longer name characters after real-life developers will "help reinforce that we're building a fictional universe that is unmistakably different from the real world and better illustrates that the creation of OVerwatch is truly a team effort," the developers say.

You can read IGN's own extensive investigation into the working conditions at Blizzard, particularly for women and women of color whom the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing say were systematically denied equal pay and opportunity while facing sexual harassment from their peers and management.

Matt T.M. Kim is IGN's News Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.

What does a fantasy world full of anthropomorphic creatures world look like in the aftermath of a climate crisis? Perhaps like Sandwalkers, a roguelike about trying to repair a desert world after a meteorological disaster makes most of it uninhabitable.

Revealed at Gamescom's Awesome Indies showcase today, Sandwalkers puts you in the shoes of the Mka tribe, a group that sends a new caravan of adventurers each decade into the meteorological mess outside of their home city in hopes that they'll be able to establish a new safe haven elsewhere on the planet.

As a roguelike, each caravan strives to get farther than the last, sending the memories of their journey back to the capital so that the next group can use them to their advantage as they fight off waves of hostile creatures or fight off enemies while also battling the elements.

Choices made by one caravan will impact future expeditions, and caravans can be made up of characters with different classes such as the archeologist or the hunter, each with different strengths.

Sandwalkers is coming to PC and Nintendo Switch at a later date.

There are plenty more games to check out in IGN’s full Awesome Indies showcase, as well as the rest of our coverage on Gamescom 2021 including news, trailers, new game reveals, and plenty more.

Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

What does a fantasy world full of anthropomorphic creatures world look like in the aftermath of a climate crisis? Perhaps like Sandwalkers, a roguelike about trying to repair a desert world after a meteorological disaster makes most of it uninhabitable.

Revealed at Gamescom's Awesome Indies showcase today, Sandwalkers puts you in the shoes of the Mka tribe, a group that sends a new caravan of adventurers each decade into the meteorological mess outside of their home city in hopes that they'll be able to establish a new safe haven elsewhere on the planet.

As a roguelike, each caravan strives to get farther than the last, sending the memories of their journey back to the capital so that the next group can use them to their advantage as they fight off waves of hostile creatures or fight off enemies while also battling the elements.

Choices made by one caravan will impact future expeditions, and caravans can be made up of characters with different classes such as the archeologist or the hunter, each with different strengths.

Sandwalkers is coming to PC and Nintendo Switch at a later date.

There are plenty more games to check out in IGN’s full Awesome Indies showcase, as well as the rest of our Gamescom coverage including news, trailers, new game reveals, and plenty more.

Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

Forza Horizon 5's Events Lab is a mode that gives players many of the tools the team at Playground Games had when designing in-game events. It's such an open-ended system, in fact, that it's making the team nervous, as they can't predict what players might make with it.

Speaking to IGN as part of Gamescom Studio, creative director Mike Brown was asked about the mode, and summed up the feeling internally: "We're very excited – a little bit nervous because you can create basically anything with it," he laughed. "There's real capacity to create modes that make absolutely no sense, and just confuse everybody that goes in there. But we have to hope that the creation algorithms that run the backend of the game don't surface to a lot of people."

That's just the feeling at launch, and Brown confirmed that more features would be added to Events Lab as time went on:

"[The tools] are based on the toolsets that we used to build the modes that are in the game. There are options that we have that we've not yet given to players, but this isn't the end for Events Lab – the feature that players get on Day 1 won't be the final form, as it were. As soon as players are saying, 'Hey, it would be really great if we could do this,' then we can just go and unlock that, and thoughout the Horizon 5 live program, we're going to be listening to those creators, and just responding and unleashing more power to them."

Events Lab gives players tools to create tracks and modes, with the scripting tools made massively open-ended in the new game. "It's not quite a full scripting langauge," explains Brown, "I'd stop short of calling it that, but it's very close. You create rulesets where it's, 'If this happens, then this other thing happens.' So when trigger occurs, action should happen. And you can combine these rules in ways that is kind of limitless."

Forza Horizon 5, now set in Mexico, arrives on November 9, and Xbox's Gamescom showcase showed off its absolutely wild intro event, which begins with you being helidropped into a volcano. Here's hoping we can do something like that in Events Lab, too.

Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Forza Horizon 5's Events Lab is a mode that gives players many of the tools the team at Playground Games had when designing in-game events. It's such an open-ended system, in fact, that it's making the team nervous, as they can't predict what players might make with it.

Speaking to IGN as part of Gamescom Studio, creative director Mike Brown was asked about the mode, and summed up the feeling internally: "We're very excited – a little bit nervous because you can create basically anything with it," he laughed. "There's real capacity to create modes that make absolutely no sense, and just confuse everybody that goes in there. But we have to hope that the creation algorithms that run the backend of the game don't surface to a lot of people."

That's just the feeling at launch, and Brown confirmed that more features would be added to Events Lab as time went on:

"[The tools] are based on the toolsets that we used to build the modes that are in the game. There are options that we have that we've not yet given to players, but this isn't the end for Events Lab – the feature that players get on Day 1 won't be the final form, as it were. As soon as players are saying, 'Hey, it would be really great if we could do this,' then we can just go and unlock that, and thoughout the Horizon 5 live program, we're going to be listening to those creators, and just responding and unleashing more power to them."

Events Lab gives players tools to create tracks and modes, with the scripting tools made massively open-ended in the new game. "It's not quite a full scripting langauge," explains Brown, "I'd stop short of calling it that, but it's very close. You create rulesets where it's, 'If this happens, then this other thing happens.' So when trigger occurs, action should happen. And you can combine these rules in ways that is kind of limitless."

Forza Horizon 5, now set in Mexico, arrives on November 9, and Xbox's Gamescom showcase showed off its absolutely wild intro event, which begins with you being helidropped into a volcano. Here's hoping we can do something like that in Events Lab, too.

Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

The dark fantasy action-platformer Blasphemous is getting a story-concluding update later this year, leading to a full sequel slated for sometime in 2023.

The Game Kitchen announced at Gamescom that it will release Wounds of Eventide later this year in December. This free DLC will unlock the true ending for Blasphemous, originally released in 2019.

But with the first Blasphemous set to conclude, the developers have begun work on a sequel. This direct follow-up to Blasphemous will carry the series when it is released sometime in 2023. You can check out the DLC trailer and sequel teaser below.

“We’re so excited to finally announce that we’ve started on a Blasphemous sequel, the community have shown so much love for the first game and we can’t wait to share more when we can!” says Game Kitchen in a statement.

But if the wait is long, fans can at least enjoy the upcoming Wounds of Eventide DLC which is described as the final installment and definitive end to the first Blasphemous.

Blasphemous is a 2D side-scroller that mixes intense action with light Metroidvania elements. IGN’s Blasphemous review praised the base combat mechanics and gorgeous world-design and pixel art but was sometimes bogged down by its ambition.

For more from this year’s Gamescom check out IGN’s full event coverage and schedule.

Matt T.M. Kim is IGN's News Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.