18 indie games to look forward to in 2025

2024 was an enormous yr for indie video games, with titles like Balatro, Animal Properly, and UFO 50 garnering industrial and demanding acclaim amid their AAA contemporaries. That momentum exhibits no indicators of slowing down in 2025, with extremely anticipated video games like Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector and Hyper Mild Breaker being launched in January, adopted by a slew of different thrilling new titles, like Pathologic 3, Wanderstop, and extra.

We’ve as soon as once more assembled a listing of a few of the indie video games we’re most excited for. From stealth-action deck builders and moody mountaineering sims to isometric roguelike shooters, there’s one thing for each kind of gamer and little doubt much more surprises ready within the months to return.

What indie video games are you most wanting ahead to in 2025? Drop them within the feedback.

Launch date: Jan. 14 (early entry)
Platforms: Home windows PC

Hyper Mild Breaker, the upcoming 3D co-op roguelike from developer Coronary heart Machine, has undergone a protracted and winding journey because it was first introduced again in 2022. The wait is nearly over, although, as the sport is about to make its early entry launch on Steam on Jan. 14.

Set many years earlier than the occasions of Hyper Mild Drifter, Hyper Mild Breaker permits gamers assume the position of a Breaker — a warrior tasked with rebuilding civilization within the wake of a cataclysmic conflict. As you discover the world of the Overgrowth, taming its many risks and rediscovering its many secrets and techniques, you’ll come head to head with highly effective adversaries generally known as the Crowns in your quest to defeat the Abyss King and restore peace to the realm. —Toussaint Egan

Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector

Launch date: Jan. 31
Platforms: Home windows PC

The brand new yr is kicking off proper when Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector is launched on Jan. 31. The follow-up to Bounce Over the Age’s text-heavy role-playing sport Citizen Sleeper appears to be like to broaden on the unique with its distinctive, dense science fiction lore. —Nicole Carpenter

Launch date: February 2025
Platforms: Nintendo Swap, PlayStation 5, Home windows PC

Morsels appears to be like like a sport for the weirdos, and I imply that in one of the best ways doable. It’s a creature-collecting roguelite that’s colourful, fast-paced, and to not be missed. From Furcula, a Toronto-based indie studio, Morsels doesn’t but have a precise launch date. —Nicole Carpenter

Launch date: March 11
Platforms: Home windows PC

Wanderstop is a comfortable farming simulator with a darkish facet — it’s what occurs when a talented swordsperson stops for a second to brew some tea. From the makers of The Stanley Parable and The Newbie’s Information, Wanderstop will probably be launched on March 11. —Nicole Carpenter

Launch date: March 31 (early entry)
Platforms: Home windows PC

Should you’re a fan of Cruelty Squad, the necrocapitalist nightmare sim developed by Ville Kallio, congratulations: their upcoming sport is correct across the nook! Described as a, “mecha FPS hybrid police and punishment simulator,” Psycho Patrol R places gamers within the position of an officer of the European Federal Police tasked with upholding regulation and order within the decayed state of Pan-Europa. The sport contains a semi-open world, with ranges designed to be explored on foot and throughout the cockpit of the participant’s V-Stalker, a bipedal warmachine with customizable weapons. —Toussaint Egan

Launch date: 2025
Platforms: Home windows PC, TBA consoles

Not solely does Cairn have attractive artwork and surroundings, however The Recreation Bakers’ climbing sport appears to be like to have deep, difficult mechanics that mimic the precise nature of the act. (It additionally has a very cool backpack for messily storing your obligatory gear.) It appears to be like prefer it’s Dying Standing, however heading upward as an alternative of throughout. —Nicole Carpenter

Launch date: 2025
Platforms: TBA

Yep, the extremely anticipated subsequent two chapters of Toby Fox’s Deltarune are anticipated to be launched in 2025 — over six years after the sport’s unique launch. The role-playing sport is exclusive as a consequence of its turn-based fight and bullet hell parts; Fox additionally lets gamers select peace or violence, identical to in Undertale. —Nicole Carpenter

Launch date: 2025 (early entry)
Platform: Mac, Home windows PC

InZoi isn’t the one life sim popping out this yr! Developed by a proficient workforce of designers led by Alex Massé, Paralives is a “doll home life simulation” that options a complicated character creator that not solely focuses on facial and physique options, but additionally customizable persona traits. Create your excellent dream home and information your characters’ lives in and round an expansive open-world city when it launches in early entry later this yr. —Toussaint Egan

Launch date: 2025
Platforms: Home windows PC

This whimsical prehistoric metroidvania casts gamers as a cave dweller separated from his household on an odd alien world. Scavenge for sources, tame the weather, and combat towards a slew of threats — together with carnivorous predators, rival tribes, and inscrutable extraterrestrials — as you wrestle to reunite with and shield your loved ones. —Toussaint Egan

Launch date: 2025
Platforms: Nintendo Swap, PlayStation 5, Home windows PC, Xbox Collection X

Kaizen Recreation Works, the U.Ok.-based developer behind 2020’s Paradise Killer, is again with a brand new sport that’s one way or the other much more unique and irreverent than its final. Promise Mascot Company is “the world’s first (and greatest) Open World Mascot Administration Crime Drama,” centered on Michi, a disgraced yakuza lieutenant exiled to a cursed city to whip a bankrupt mascot firm into form. Like Paradise Killer, there’s a touch of thriller thrown in, as you’ll even be tasked with uncovering the conspirators answerable for your exile. —Toussaint Egan

Launch date: 2025
Platforms: Home windows PC

Sam Eng’s Skate Story will probably be revealed in 2025 by Devolver Digital, although it was initially introduced with a 2023 launch date. Although there’s been no scarcity of cool skateboarding video games through the years, Skate Story appears to be like totally different, having gamers skate by means of hell. —Nicole Carpenter

Launch date: 2025
Platforms: Home windows PC, Xbox Collection X

Sleight of Hand is precisely the kind of sport that piques my curiosity: a third-person stealth-action deck builder a couple of hard-boiled non-public detective infiltrating a witch coven. Combining immersive sim environments with real-time stealth gameplay, Sleight of Hand is a trendy, noir-infused darkish fantasy that I’m desirous to get my palms on later this yr. —Toussaint Egan

Launch date: 2025
Platforms: Home windows PC

Developed by Finji (Tunic), Normal June is a third-person action-adventure à la Psychonauts that places gamers within the position of a younger woman who has the facility to speak with the spirits of the lifeless. Collectively along with her buddies, each alive and never, June should discover the coastal city of Fen Harbor and put a cease to an interdimensional anomaly that threatens to tear the material of existence itself aside! So yeah, no stress. —Toussaint Egan

Launch date: 2025
Platforms: Home windows PC

Bithell Video games returns to the universe of Tron, this time for an isometric action-adventure. Tron: Catalyst facilities on Exo, a resourceful program who’s hunted by the overlords of the Arq Grid for his or her possession of a mysterious capability that threatens the steadiness of the system. —Toussaint Egan

Launch date: TBA
Platforms: Home windows PC

“Hades meets Superhot” is one of the best ways to explain this new roguelike shooter. In Enter the Chronosphere, gamers assemble a ragtag crew of alien mercenaries to deal with the chronospheres — planet-sized dungeons which can be spreading throughout the universe, devouring complete galaxies of their wake. Inside every chronosphere, time solely strikes if you transfer, so each second counts as you mow by means of waves of enemies and peel again the layers of those ginormous megastructures. —Toussaint Egan

Launch date: TBA
Platforms: Home windows PC

Initially introduced in 2019, Hole Knight: Silksong has grow to be the white whale of the gaming neighborhood. Developer Crew Cherry delayed the extremely anticipated sequel in 2023, however it appeared doable it could be launched in 2024. That didn’t occur, however I’m nonetheless wanting ahead to a possible 2025 launch. —Ana Diaz

Launch date: TBA
Platforms: Home windows PC

The sequel to the 2019 cult basic Pathologic 2 sees gamers return to the City on the Gorkhon River, this time as Daniil Dankovsky, a charismatic physician obsessive about defeating dying. Tasked with saving the city from a plague inside 12 days, gamers must use a particular gadget to journey again in time to affect main occasions, reshaping the story and opening new pathways to succeed. —Toussaint Egan

Launch date: TBA
Platforms: Home windows PC

Hyper Mild Breaker isn’t the one Coronary heart Machine sport on the horizon. Introduced in 2024, Possessor(s) is a trendy side-scrolling journey sport the place gamers assume the position of a pair of characters who should navigate the interconnected sprawl of a destroyed mega-city within the wake of an interdimensional disaster. Anticipate 3D environments, superbly hand-drawn and animated characters, and fast-paced motion. —Toussaint Egan