Every year, many talented independent game studios release amazing games, and 2025 was particularly strong. The Game Awards recognizes outstanding titles annually, including contenders for Game of the Year. Last year saw several studios create some of the best games in recent memory, with ten studios receiving significant praise. Below is a list of those studios, known for their excellent 2025 releases, presented in alphabetical order by game title.
1) Guard Crush Games & Supamonks
Guard Crush Games and Supamonks teamed up to create Absolum, a highly-rated beat-’em-up with roguelike features. Released in October 2025 on all major consoles and PC, the game takes place in the world of Talamh, where players battle an evil king and his army, the Crimson Order. Players choose from a variety of characters and classes, each with unique skills and abilities. Throughout each playthrough, they can also equip rituals to further enhance their character’s power. Absolum marks the debut title for French studio Supamonks, who handled the game’s artwork and animations.
2) TearyHand Studio
TearyHand Studio, a Japanese game developer known for its story-driven games, is releasing and Roger in 2025, and it’s a perfect example of their style. The game focuses on a touching story about a young girl who wakes up in an unfamiliar place. She’s looking for her father, but instead finds a stranger. Frightened, she sets off on a journey, and players guide her as she tries to figure out what’s going on. The game’s graphics are simple but striking, using a minimalist style to powerfully convey emotions – something very few games achieve.
3) Dogubomb
In 2025, a solo developer named Tonda Ros released Blue Prince, a challenging puzzle adventure game with roguelike features. It took eight years to create! The game takes place in a constantly shifting mansion of 45 rooms, and your mission is to discover the elusive 46th room. You’ll need to solve puzzles and piece together the mansion’s story to succeed. Inspired by Christopher Manson’s puzzle book, Maze, Blue Prince is a real brain-teaser. It launched on major consoles, PC, and macOS in April and September of 2025.
4) Jump Over the Age
In 2025, one of the most acclaimed indie game sequels was Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector. Many of the original Citizen Sleeper team returned to create this follow-up, which picks up the story after the events of the 2022 game. Set in an asteroid belt, the game centers around androids called “sleepers” who are forced to work for a powerful corporation. Players take on the role of a damaged Sleeper with amnesia, striving to escape and find freedom. Starward Vector was developed and released on all major platforms in January 2025, building on the success of the first game.
5) Sandfall Interactive
Among the many standout indie games of 2025, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has quickly become a favorite. Developed by the French studio Sandfall Interactive, the game is a role-playing adventure set in a fantastical version of France’s Belle Époque era. Players take on the role of volunteers on Expedition 33, tasked with stopping a mysterious force that’s slowly erasing people based on their age – and the age limit is getting lower each year. The gameplay combines strategic turn-based battles with fast-paced quick time events, all experienced from a third-person viewpoint. Released in April, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 had already sold over 5 million copies by October.
6) Jenny Jiao Hsia, AP Thomson, Jie En Lee, Violet W-P, and Ken “coda” Snyder
One of the most talked-about indie games of 2025, Consume Me, had an unusual origin. It didn’t come from an established studio, but started as a student project by Jenny Jiao Hsia at the NYU Game Center. She collaborated with AP Thompson and others, each bringing their unique skills to the development. The game is a calming yet engaging exploration of daily life, inspired by Hsia’s own experiences, and focuses on managing a character’s daily schedule. Players complete various minigames representing their tasks, all organized within that schedule. It’s a rare game that manages to be both incredibly relaxing and genuinely entertaining.
7) Supergiant Games
For over 15 years, Supergiant Games has been creating acclaimed video games. In 2025, they released Hades II, a sequel to their hugely popular 2020 hit, Hades. The sequel has proven even more successful, quickly becoming one of the year’s best indie games and selling almost 3 million copies since its September release. Hades II expands on the story of the first game, introducing new goals, items, weapons, and special powers. Currently, the game is available on PC, macOS, and Nintendo Switch, where it’s receiving widespread praise and dominating the competition.
8) Team Cherry
Team Cherry, the Australian game developer, first gained recognition with their 2017 game, Hollow Knight. They followed up with a highly anticipated sequel, Hollow Knight: Silksong, in 2025. Silksong begins after the character Hornet is captured and taken to a new land called Pharloom. Players explore this unfamiliar kingdom, overcoming challenging platforming obstacles and using a variety of abilities to advance. Originally planned as downloadable content for Hollow Knight, the game grew into a complete standalone sequel during its development.
9) YCJY Games
If you enjoy road trips, you’ll want to check out Keep Driving, a new indie game from YCJT Games. Created by Josef Martinovsky and Christopher Andreasson, development on this game started back in 2016 and it finally launched on PC in February 2025. Keep Driving blends several game types – resource management, adventure, and RPGs – into one experience. You’ll take a road trip where you pick up passengers, deal with tricky drivers and rough roads, and much more. It’s a game that’s both calming and captivating, offering a lot of fun with each playthrough.
10) Pocket Trap
2025 saw a lot of platform-adventure games, but Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo by Pocket Trap stands out as the best. Created mainly by Henrique Lorenzi, with contributions from Henrique Caprino, Rodrigo Zangelmi, and Leonardo Lima, the game deliberately evokes the feeling of classic titles like the original The Legend of Zelda. Players explore a large city from a top-down perspective, battling enemies with a yoyo. It’s a game with a deep story and detailed world, featuring four distinct districts and over 1,000 screens packed with challenges and hidden secrets.
What indie game released in 2025 did you enjoy the most? Share your thoughts in the comments and join the discussion on the ComicBook Forum!
https://comicbook.com/gaming/news/great-unknown-indie-games/embed/#
Read More
- Ashes of Creation Rogue Guide for Beginners
- Best Controller Settings for ARC Raiders
- Meet the cast of Mighty Nein: Every Critical Role character explained
- Netflix’s One Piece Season 2 Will Likely Follow the First Season’s Most Controversial Plot
- Avatar 3 Popcorn Buckets Bring Banshees From Pandora to Life
- Eldegarde, formerly Legacy: Steel & Sorcery, launches January 21, 2026
- Bitcoin’s Wild Ride: Yen’s Surprise Twist 🌪️💰
- Fishing Guide in Where Winds Meet
- The Guild: Europa 1410 announced for PC
- Wednesday Season 2 Completely Shuts Down Fans’ Biggest Hope
2025-12-25 18:21