ID@Xbox Indie Selects for July 2026: Five Games Worth Your Summer

Microsoft's ID@Xbox team has revealed its five Indie Selects picks for July 2026, a curated monthly spotlight highlighting standout indie games available on Xbox and PC. The collection rotates weekly inside the Indie Select Hub, accessible through the Xbox Store and Xbox.com/IndieSelects.

Two games get detailed treatment in the announcement. Mina the Hollower, from Yacht Club Games, is a retro-styled 2D top-down action-adventure priced at $19.99. It casts players as Mina, a mouse navigating a cursed island full of enemies, traps, and bosses — drawing comparisons to Castlevania, classic Zelda, Ghost 'n Goblins, and Dark Souls. The ID@Xbox team describes it as old-school design — contact damage, heavy knockback, real punishment — paired with modern quality-of-life touches, varied biomes, and a lore-rich world. "Everything is earned in Mina the Hollower" is how one Game Genre Steward summed it up after repeated deaths. The second highlighted title is Realm of Ink by 4Divinity, a fast action-roguelite priced at $24.99. It combines fluid martial-arts combat with an ink-brush visual style, and its world reshapes itself each run, giving every session a fresh sense of discovery.

Yacht Club Games built its reputation on Shovel Knight, a similarly retro-inspired platformer that became a benchmark for indie homages to classic NES-era design. Mina the Hollower is a natural follow-up in spirit — same love of punishing old-school mechanics, same polish. Realm of Ink fits squarely into the crowded but popular action-roguelite space, where games like Hades set a high bar for run variety and combat expressiveness. The ID@Xbox Indie Selects program is Microsoft's ongoing effort to surface smaller titles that might otherwise get buried in a busy storefront.

The full July lineup includes three additional titles beyond Mina the Hollower and Realm of Ink, though the announcement was cut off before detailing them. All five are available now, with the Indie Select Hub refreshing every Wednesday with new themed spotlights throughout the month.