Indie Game Awards 2025 full winners list

This year’s Indie Game Awards honored a host of independent titles, from Blue Prince to and Roger. Put on by collective Six One Indie, the show shined a spotlight on just how many high-quality indie games were released in 2025. Presenters included Celeste composer Lena Raine, co-founder of Thirsty Suitors studio Outerloop Games Chandana Ekanayake, and musician Chipzel.

Though it was a less sizable sweep than at The Game Awards, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 continued its winning streak, once again taking home the award for Game of the Year as well as Debut Game. Other games awarded included Peak, BallxPit, Rift of the Necrodancer, and more. This year, the Indie Game Awards also introduced the Indie Vanguard Class, a selection of five developers highlighted for making progress in the gaming industry.

The complete list of winners from the Indie Game Awards 2025 can be found below.

Game of the Year nominees

Image: Sandfall Interactive/Kepler Interactive

• Absolum – Dotemu, Guard Crush Games, and Supamonks
• and Roger – TearyHand Studio
• Blue Prince – Dogubomb
• Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector – Jump Over the Age
• WINNER: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 – Sandfall Interactive
• Consume Me – Jenny Jiao Hsia, AP Thomson, Jie En Lee, Violet W-P, and Ken “coda” Snyder
• Hades 2 – Supergiant Games
• Hollow Knight: Silksong – Team Cherry
• Keep Driving – YCJY Games
• Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo – Pocket Trap

Achievement in Accessibility nominees

• Abiotic Factor – Deep Field Games
• Barista – YofiAsi
• Calm the Storm – Ludic Lemur
• WINNER: Peak – Team PEAK
• Spray Paint Simulator – North Star Video Games
• Squeakross: Home Squeak Home – Alblune

ANZ Indie Game Award nominees

• Abiotic Factor – Deep Field Games
• Hollow Knight: Silksong – Team Cherry
• Mars First Logistics – Shape Shop
• Proximate – Cain Maddox
• Tempopo – Witchbeam
• WINNER: The Drifter – Powerhoof

Bite-Sized Game nominees

Image: Playables

• Carimara – Beneath the Forlorn Limbs – Bastinus Rex
• FlyKnight – Wabbaboy
• Many Nights a Whisper – Deconstructeam, Selkie Harbour
• The Dark Queen of Mortholme – Mosu
• this game will end in 205 clicks. – insertdisc5
• WINNER: Time Flies – Playables

Black Voice in Gaming nominees

• Advent Neon – CryoGX
• WINNER: Altheia: The Wrath of Aferi – MarsLit Games
• Sorry We’re Closed – à la mode games
• Spirit Swap: Lofi Beats to Match-3 To – Soft Not Weak, LLC
• Sunken Stones – Spritewrench
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tactical Takedown – Strange Scaffold

• Consume Me – Jenny Jiao Hsia, AP Thomson, Jie En Lee, Violet W-P, Ken “coda” Snyder
• Date Everything! – Sassy Chap Games
• Ikeelya – ALL DAY ALL NIGHT
• WINNER: Peak – Team PEAK
• Soulstone Survivors – Game Smithing Limited
• Strange Scaffold – Strange Scaffold

Debut Game nominees

Image: Sandfall Interactive/Kepler Interactive

• WINNER: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 – Sandfall Interactive
• Discounty – Crinkle Cut Games
• Fretless – The Wrath of Riffson – Ritual Studios
• ILA: A Frosty Glide – Magic Rain Studios
• Sorry We’re Closed – a la mode Games
• Tyrant’s Realm – Team Tyrant

Emotional Impact nominees

• Afterlove EP – Pikselnesia
• WINNER: and Roger – TearyHand Studio
• Don’t Get Your Hopes Up – Krish Raghav
• Henry Halfhead – Lululu Entertainment
• Wanderstop – Ivy Road
• Wednesdays – Pierre Corbinais, The Pixel Hunt, exaheva

Gameplay Design nominees

• Absolum – Dotemu, Guard Crush Games, Supamonks
• WINNER: BallxPit – Kenny Sun
• Dawnfolk – Darenn Keller
• Hades 2 – Supergiant Games
• Hollow Knight: Silksong – Team Cherry
• Keep Driving – YCJY Games
• Look Outside – Francis Coulombe
• Öoo – NamaTakahashi, tiny cactus studio, Tsuyomi
• Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo – Pocket Trap
• The King is Watching – Hypnohead

Innovation nominees

Image: Dogubomb/Raw Fury

• WINNER: Blue Prince – Dogubomb
• FreeRide – Flightyfelon Games Inc.,
• Gas Station Story – enzi
• PBJ The Musical – Philipp Stollenmayer
• Ruffy and the Riverside – Zockrates Laboratories UG
• Taria & Como – Poppyseed Studio Inc, JuVee Productions

Latin American Indie Award nominees

• Adventure of Samsara – Ilex Games
• Despelote – Julian Cordero, Sebastian Valbuena
• Kulebra and the Souls of Limbo – Galla
• WINNER: Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo – Pocket Trap
• Taria & Como – Poppyseed Studio Inc, JuVee Productions
• Tormented Souls 2 – Dual Effect

Music nominees

• Everhood 2 – Cazok, KM_EXP, Stewart Keller, Lewmoth, Chris Nordgren, CatGod, Beat Tape, Dancefloor Is Lava, INFX
• Herdling – Joel Schoch
• WINNER: Rift of the NecroDancer – Danny Baranowsky, Alex Moukala, Jules Conroy, Josie Brechner, Sam Webster, and Nick Nausbaum
• Sonokuni – Don Yasa Crew
• Sword of the Sea – Austin Wintory
• Wheel World – Johnny Jewel, JOON, Orion

Narrative nominees

Image: Jump Over the Age, Fellow Traveler Games

• WINNER: Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector – Jump Over the Age
• Consume Me – Jenny Jiao Hsia, AP Thomson, Jie En Lee, Violet W-P, Ken “coda” Snyder
• Promise Mascot Agency – Kaizen Game Works
• The Drifter – Powerhoof, Dave Lloyd
• The Roottrees are Dead – Evil Trout Inc.
• The Séance of Blake Manor – Spooky Doorway

Solo Development nominees

• Lushfoil Photography Sim – Matt Newell
• Megabonk – vedinad
• Naiad – HiWarp
• Spilled! – Lente
• WINNER: Tall Trails – Brady Soglin
• Vile: Exhumed – Cara Cadaver

South African Indie Game Award nominees

• Bru & Boegie Get Da Milk! – MIKDOG
• Finding Father – Studio Bo
• Flibbius McDoogle and The Mysterious Flying Machine – Unsigned Double Collective
• Ikeelya – ALL DAY ALL NIGHT
• Metavoidal – Yellow Lab Games
• WINNER: Stick It To The Stickman – Free Lives

Southeast Asian Indie Game Award nominees

Image: Mas

• Afterlove EP – Pikselnesia
• WINNER: Artis Impact – Mas
• Glyphica: Typing Survival – aliasBLACK
• Sedap! A Culinary Adventure – kopiforge
• Urban Jungle – Kylyk Games
• Whisper Mountain Outbreak – Toge Productions

Visual Design nominees

• WINNER: 30 Birds – RAM RAM Games, Business Goose Studios
• Artis Impact – Mas
• Cat Detective Albert Wilde – beyondthosehills
• Eclipsium – Housefire
• Mashina – Talha and Jack Co, J. King Spooner, Talha Kaya
• Slime Rancher 2 – Monomi Park

Women-Led Indie Game Award nominees

• Cabernet – Party for Introverts
• Duck Detective: The Ghost of Glamping – Happy Broccoli Games
• Gemporium: A Cute Mining Sim – Merge Conflict Studio
• Spilled! – Lente
• WINNER: Urban Myth Dissolution Center – Hakababunko
• White Knuckle – Dark Machine Games

Indie Vanguard Class Selections

Image: Crashable Studios

• Chantey – Gortyn Code
• Neon Knives – Cookiecrayon
• Seasonala Cemetry – Gabby DaRienzo, Kait Tremblay, Jen Costa, Nina Wong, Halina Heron, Mobeen Fiktree, Jacqueline de Leon
• HYPERBEAT – Alice Bottino, Chancellor Wallin
• Wildwood Down – Crashable Studios

The Mohammad Fahmi Storyteller Award

• Maddy Thorson – Extremely OK Games, Ltd.

Industry Impact Award

• Game Devs of Color – represented by Catt Small, Brian S. Chung, and Josh Boykin