The best indie games are…
These Indie Game Awards 2025 are organized by Six One Indie, which helps highlight independent titles. As a snub to the Future Class program which has been largely neglected by the Game Awards, this ceremony will highlight its “Indie Vanguard Class” with five talented people who represent the future of the independent scene and the industry.
The nominees here were decided by a whole bunch of independent industry collectives, such as Wholesomes Games, Latin American Games Showcase and Women-Led Games, as well as by certain press sites like Game Informer and GameSpot.
Here are the nominees for the 2025 Indie Game Awards in each category :
Better accessibility
- Abiotic Factor (Deep Field Games, Playstack)
- Barista (YofiAsi)
- Calm the Storm (Ludic Lemur)
- peak (Team PEAK, Aggro Crab, Landfall)
- Spray Paint Simulator (North Star Video Games, Whitethorn Games)
- Squeakross: Home Squeak Home (Alblune)
ANZ Indie Game Award (Best Australian Game)
- Abiotic Factor
- Hollow Knight: Silksong
- Mars First Logistics
- PROXIMATE
- Tempopo
- The Drifter
Best short game
- CARIMARA: Beneath the Forlorn Limbs
- FlyKnight
- Many Nights a Whisper
- The Dark Queen of Mortholme
- this game will end in 205 clicks.
- Time Flies
Black Voices in Gaming Award
- Advent Neon
- Altheia: The Wrath of Aferi
- Sorry We’re Closed
- Spirit Swap: Lofi Beats to Match-3 To
- Sunken Stones
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tactical Takedown
Community Management
- Consume Me
- Date Everything!
- IKEELYA
- PEAK
- Soulstone Survivors
- Strange Scaffold
Best first game
- Chiaroscuro: Expedition 33
- Discounty
- Fretless: The Wrath of Riffson
- ILA: A Frosty Glide
- Sorry We’re Closed
- Tyrant’s Realm
Emotional impact
- Afterlove EP
- and Roger
- Don’t Get Your Hopes Up
- Henry Halfhead
- Wanderstop
- Wednesdays
Best gameplay design
- Absolute
- BALL x PIT
- Dawnfolk
- Hades II
- Hollow Knight: Silksong
- Keep Driving
- Look Outside
- Ooo
- Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo
- The King is Watching
Innovation
- Blue Prince
- FREERIDE
- Gas Station Story
- PBJ The Musical
- Ruffy and the Riverside
- Taria & Como
Latin American Indie Award
- Adventure of Samsara
- despelote
- Kulebra and the Souls of Limbo
- Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo
- Taria & Como
- Tormented Souls II
Best soundtrack
- Everhood 2
- Herding
- Rift of the NecroDancer
- SONOKUNI
- Sword of the Sea
- Wheel World
Best Storytelling
- Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector
- Consume Me
- Promise Mascot Agency
- The Drifter
- The Roottrees are Dead
- The Seance of Blake Manor
Best solo developed game
- ANTONBLAST
- Lushfoil Photography Sim
- Megabonk
- NAIAD
- Spilled!
- Vile: Exhumed
South African Indie Game Award
- Bru & Boegie Get Da Milk!
- Finding Father
- Flibbius McDoogle and The Mysterious Flying Machine
- IKEELYA
- Metavoidal
- Stick It to the Stickman
Southeast Asian Indie Award
- Afterlove EP
- Artis Impact
- Glyphica: Typing Survival
- SEDAP! A Culinary Adventure
- Urban Jungle
- Whisper Mountain Outbreak
Best visual design
- 30 Birds
- Artis Impact
- Cat Detective Albert Wilde
- Eclipsium
- Mashina
- Slime Rancher 2
Women-Led Indie Game Award
- Cabernet
- Duck Detective: The Ghost of Glamping
- Gemporium: A Cute Mining Sim
- Spilled!
- Urban Myth Dissolution Center
- White Knuckle
Game of the Year
- Absolute
- and Roger
- Blue Prince
- Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector
- Chiaroscuro: Expedition 33
- Consume Me
- Hades II
- Hollow Knight: Silksong
- Keep Driving
- Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo
The evening will take place this December 18 and can be viewed on YouTube.