The mobile game ‘Drifting in Time – Korean Idle RPG’ developed by indie game developer Tukan Project and ‘Pixel Mercenaries’ developed by two-person indie development team Ensoul, K-indie games armed with unique planning and meticulous development, were selected as excellent games (functionality, indie) for the second half of 2025 by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Creative Content Agency, proving once again the potential of the Korean indie game scene.
Time travel through history, “Drifting Through Troubled Times – Korean History Idle RPG”
Game Introduction
“Drifting Away in Time” is a unique idle RPG set in Korean history. It depicts three engineering students, swept away by the tides of history and transported back to the past, embarking on a spatiotemporal adventure with the help of historical figures to return to the future.
The game uniquely reimagines historical events and figures, offering players the pleasure of learning about Korean history while simultaneously providing an immersive gaming experience. The automated hunting system facilitates easy progression, and strategic team building utilizing each figure’s unique abilities is a key element of the game’s enjoyment. The addition of strategic elements, along with the ability to recruit and develop various historical figures as companions, has been praised for achieving both historical knowledge and gameplay enjoyment.
Introduction to the development team
The Tukan Project, which developed ‘Drifting Away in Nanse’, is a two-person development team founded by two representatives (An Gyeore and Ko Yongseong) with liberal arts backgrounds. It is even more noteworthy that it was created by developers with liberal arts backgrounds, rather than typical game developers.
The Tukang Project has proven its prowess by winning awards in succession, including the G-Rank Challenge Seoul Award, the Game of the Month selected by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Creative Content Agency, and the One Store July Best Beta Game, in recognition of its unique gameplay that incorporates Korean history into the game. CEO Ko Yong-seong expressed his gratitude to users once again, saying, “We will do our best to create an even more interesting game based on user feedback.” CEO Ahn An-rye said, “It was not an easy path to create a game based on Korean history, but I feel great pride. Without being complacent, we will become a light in the indie game world based on the support of our users.”
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.twokang.historydriftgoogle&hl=ko
Pixel Mercenaries, a dot-themed battle-collecting RPG
Game Introduction
“Pixel Mercenaries” is a dot-themed battle collection RPG where players collect and develop a variety of mercenaries. Through diverse mercenary combinations and skill strategies, players can create their own unique mercenary squad.
The game’s retro dot graphics evoke nostalgia while faithfully capturing the fun elements of a modern collectible RPG. The core gameplay involves training a variety of mercenary characters and strategically combining them to engage in battle. Officially released through the Google Play Store, the game has been receiving a positive response from users with various launch-related coupon events.
Introduction to the development team
“Pixel Mercenaries” is a mobile game painstakingly prepared by a two-person indie development team. Despite their small size, they possess a high level of focus, deep understanding of development, and agility, leading them to dedicate themselves to post-launch stabilization and bug fixes. They have relentlessly strived to create a high-quality game.
Despite being a two-person development team, the team’s capabilities are evident in the fact that they have faithfully implemented the core elements of a collectible RPG, such as character collection, training, and strategic battle systems. They have also been actively responding to user feedback since launch and have been steadily working to improve game quality, making them a promising new development team whose future endeavors are highly anticipated.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.zc.collection
A Bright Future for Korean Indie Games
“Drifting Away in Nanse” and “Pixel Mercenaries” each stood out in the market with their distinctive themes of Korean history and dot graphics, as well as their proven styles. Above all, both games were developed by small teams of two or three people, making them stand out and established themselves in the current gaming market, where even mid-sized companies struggle to guarantee success.
Professor Jeong Moo-sik of the Game and Film Department at Gachon University, who has consistently advised numerous indie teams through the Korea Creative Content Agency’s Creative Talent Commercialization Support Program, said , “As the idle market has become more sophisticated recently, the importance of trendiness, that is, concept, is being emphasized more than the sophistication of the system, that is, well-made,” and highly praised the challenges and achievements of talented new indie developers.
“Also, for indie to establish itself in the market, consistent experience in genre game development and launching, and solid teamwork that can utilize the strengths of a small number of elite members are most important. In the case of Nanse Drifting and Pixel Mercenaries, both teams are experienced teams that possess teamwork, perseverance, and even tenacity that surpasses established developers,” he said, once again emphasizing the formula for success in indie games.
The market establishment of ‘Drifting Away in Nanse’ and ‘Pixel Mercenaries’ is a case that proves that if you have an understanding and sense for the genre, even indie games can make competitive games and survive, as it is intertwined with the recent severe management difficulties and loss of competitiveness crisis of small and medium-sized game companies.
In particular, the fact that the Tukan Project of ‘Drifting in the Turbulent World’ is comprised of developers with liberal arts backgrounds shows that the barrier to entry in game development is lowering, and that developers with diverse backgrounds can create games with their own unique colors.
The selection of these two games as Game of the Month is a symbolic example of the growth and development of the Korean indie game industry, and it is expected that more creative indie games will emerge in the future.
