While most student projects look like "okay ideas for a portfolio," Candellum is a game that you will easily see one day on the Steam front page among the big indie hits. And honestly, it's not hard to see why it won the Pégase 2026 award for the Best Student Game in France.
Candellum immediately grabs attention with its completely bizarre concept. You play as a candle trapped in a huge wax factory where the flame means life. It's not just a visual gimmick but a core gameplay mechanic. You must steal wax from opponents to keep your own flame alive, which gives the entire combat system a constant sense of risk and aggressive play. There’s no camping and waiting for opponents.
That's exactly why Candellum looks the most interesting.
The combat resembles a mix of hack and slash, metroidvania, and high risk/high reward survival where you constantly balance between attacking and desperately trying to keep your candle from extinguishing in the middle of a fight.
The developer particularly emphasizes that gameplay changes depending on whether you are "lit" or "extinguished."
Visually, the game looks brutal. The whole combination of an industrial wax factory setting, dark corridors, and a small flame barely surviving gives off a huge Little Nightmares and Hades vibe, but it still has enough of its own identity to not feel like a copy of something we've already played.
The craziest part of the whole story is that Candellum was not made by a big AAA studio but by a team of students from the French school ISART Digital. We're not talking about some small tech demo, but a project that has already won one of the biggest French awards for video games.
And honestly, this is one of those games that immediately ends up on your wishlist as soon as you see the trailer.
Candellum does not yet have a release date, but it already looks like a potential sleeper hit for people who love atmospheric indie games, metroidvanias, and combat systems where one bad decision can quickly lead to disaster.
Play the Candellum Demo on Steam.
