The Triple-I Initiative's debut showcase was full of great games. Personally, I am madly in love with "Slay the Spire 2," but I am also looking forward to the unexpected announcement of "Rogue Prince of Persia." Silksong fans, however, are less pleased.

Some background: the successor to the indie metroidvania Hollow Knight, Silksong, was announced in 2019. After a full five years of waiting for scraps from Team Cherry's table, hope shone on the horizon after Silksong was unveiled at an event dedicated to games to be released within the next 12 months, but that simply was not the case.

Silksong did not appear at the Triple-I Initiative, but that doesn't matter. The community now says that during the showcase countdown timer, a sarcastic loading screen hint asked, "What is the name of the Metroidvania in which this long-awaited insect will appear?

Cue understandable freakout on the game's subreddit: "Code Red ...... I repeat, Code Red: ...... This is not a drill". Unfortunately, it is. Here's the reaction:

Meanwhile, on Twitter, the community is flooding the showcase tweets with shouts of "Skong". Skong" is a compound of "Silk" and "Song," a sound one might make after being hit in the head with a large brick.

Look, I get it. The wait was painful, and it could be read as cynical behavior to put the name of the game on the waiting screen and then not make it happen. However, I would like to point out that almost every other loading screen message was delivered with the Triple-I tongue firmly affixed to its cheek:

Either these loading screens are a bit or trying to learn something new about ancient Egypt and video game history either that they are.

When lost in a sea of waiting for a sequel to your favorite video game, it's easy to look for a port in the storm, but gently offer some perspective: projecting five years of hope onto a jokey "loading screen hint" at an indie game showcase was probably a bad I think it was an idea.

Unfortunately, there is no specific release date for "Silksong" yet, but given that it was supposed to be released last year, the wait may be coming to an end. Perhaps.