Akupara Launches a New Indie Label For Games That Don’t Fit the Usual Boxes

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Akupara Games is expanding its publishing business, although its new label is not being built to chase the next enormous indie blockbuster. Kallisti Games is a service-first publisher focused on smaller retro-inspired, experimental and genre-driven PC games.

It will help developers with storefront positioning, distribution, marketing execution and business development while allowing them to retain control of their projects. Each title will receive its own three-person publishing team made up of industry specialists and executives.

Kallisti can still access Akupara’s wider resources, but the smaller structure is intended to ensure developers always know exactly who is working on their game. The label’s first project is AOKAKI from developer Concha Indigo. This pixel-art action platformer follows a disgraced, tokusatsu-inspired isopod ronin returning to a homeland ruined by war and occupied by the forces of an insect shogun.

Combat combines sword strikes, parries and deflections, with successful defensive moves building toward stronger counterattacks. Aokaki can also pogo from enemies, torches and spikes, dash through hazards and curl into a bouncing ball to solve puzzles and uncover secrets. Players will gradually upgrade the ronin while rebuilding the surrounding land.

An insect samurai who parries projectiles, bounces from spikes and rebuilds a ruined homeland feels like an appropriately unusual first client. Kallisti says it wants projects with personality, and AOKAKI certainly does not look short on that.

AOKAKI is currently planned for PC in Q2 2027, and a free Steam demo is already available. Akupara Games and Kallisti Games are now listed as its publishers.