18 indie video games to look ahead to in 2025

2024 was an enormous 12 months for indie video games, with titles like Balatro, Animal Effectively, and UFO 50 garnering business and important acclaim amid their AAA contemporaries. That momentum reveals no indicators of slowing down in 2025, with extremely anticipated video games like Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector and Hyper Gentle 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 number 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 sort of gamer and little doubt much more surprises ready within the months to come back.

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 Gentle Breaker, the upcoming 3D co-op roguelike from developer Coronary heart Machine, has undergone an extended 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 a long time earlier than the occasions of Hyper Gentle Drifter, Hyper Gentle Breaker permits gamers assume the function 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 nose to nose with highly effective adversaries often called 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 12 months is kicking off proper when Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector is launched on Jan. 31. The follow-up to Soar Over the Age’s text-heavy role-playing sport Citizen Sleeper appears to increase on the unique with its distinctive, dense science fiction lore. —Nicole Carpenter

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

Morsels appears like a sport for the weirdos, and I imply that in one of the best ways potential. 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

For those who’re a fan of Cruelty Squad, the necrocapitalist nightmare sim developed by Ville Kallio, congratulations: their upcoming sport is true across the nook! Described as a, “mecha FPS hybrid police and punishment simulator,” Psycho Patrol R places gamers within the function of an officer of the European Federal Police tasked with upholding regulation and order within the decayed state of Pan-Europa. The sport incorporates a semi-open world, with ranges designed to be explored on foot and inside 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 Sport Bakers’ climbing sport appears to have deep, difficult mechanics that mimic the precise nature of the act. (It additionally has a very cool backpack for messily storing your crucial gear.) It appears prefer it’s Dying Standing, however heading upward as a substitute 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 attributable to its turn-based fight and bullet hell components; Fox additionally lets gamers select peace or violence, similar 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 12 months! Developed by a gifted crew of designers led by Alex Massé, Paralives is a “doll home life simulation” that options a sophisticated character creator that not solely focuses on facial and physique options, but additionally customizable character 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 12 months. —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 in opposition to a slew of threats — together with carnivorous predators, rival tribes, and inscrutable extraterrestrials — as you battle to reunite with and shield your loved ones. —Toussaint Egan

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

Kaizen Sport 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 chargeable for your exile. —Toussaint Egan

Launch date: 2025
Platforms: Home windows PC

Sam Eng’s Skate Story will probably be printed 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 totally different, having gamers skate by hell. —Nicole Carpenter

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

Sleight of Hand is strictly the kind of sport that piques my curiosity: a third-person stealth-action deck builder a couple of hard-boiled personal 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 desperate to get my palms on later this 12 months. —Toussaint Egan

Launch date: 2025
Platforms: Home windows PC

Developed by Finji (Tunic), Traditional June is a third-person action-adventure à la Psychonauts that places gamers within the function of a younger woman who has the facility to speak with the spirits of the useless. Collectively along with her associates, 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 strain. —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 skill 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 are spreading throughout the universe, devouring entire galaxies of their wake. Inside every chronosphere, time solely strikes if you transfer, so each second counts as you mow by 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 change into the white whale of the gaming group. Developer Group Cherry delayed the extremely anticipated sequel in 2023, but it surely appeared potential it might 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 demise. Tasked with saving the city from a plague inside 12 days, gamers should use a particular system 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 Gentle 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 function 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, fantastically hand-drawn and animated characters, and fast-paced motion. —Toussaint Egan