Ratatan wins top honor at Bitsummit awards, while VGC crowns visual novel Digital Exorcist

Patapon spiritual successor, Ratatan, has received the top honor at Japan indie game festival BitSummit.

The crowd-funded rhythm action game, which will launch in Steam Early Access on July 25, was awarded The Vermilion Gate Award during a ceremony at BitSummit in Kyoto, Japan on Saturday.

James Mielke, BitSummit founder and head of the judging committee, said: “The crowdfunding campaign announced at 2020’s ‘BitSummit Gaiden’ drew strong support, and the project’s full trajectory—culminating in its presentation at ‘BitSummit the 13th’ ahead of a 2025 release—is impressive.

“Ratatan revives the indie spirit once present in Patapon, combining roguelike and rhythm elements with notable polish, and shows clear potential for lasting influence in the indie space.”

VGC is Bitsummit’s Western media partner and, as part of the awards ceremony on Saturday, VGC’s Chris Scullion awarded the VGC Award to the visual novel adventure Digital Exorcist by Cool Beans Productions.

“I’m a big fan of Hideo Kojima’s Snatcher and although there have been a lot of games that have that visual novel feel, this one is so funny – I was laughing out loud the entire time I was playing,” Chris said. “I instantly fell in love with the characters, and I can’t wait to see where the game goes from here.”

The games decorated in BitSummit’s main categories were:

Also honored during the ceremony was Dream Mayday, which received the Student Game Jam Award.

The following titles were recognized with sponsor awards:

BitSummit’s official media partners also presented individual awards to their top picks from the show floor. The winners were: