The Indie Game Awards 2025 set for December 18
Game of the Year nominees include Blue Prince, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Hades II, Hollow Knight: Silksong, and more.
Six One Indie will host The Indie Game Awards 2025 on December 18 at 3:30 p.m. PT / 6:30 p.m. ET, the organization announced. The awards-only ceremony will honor achievements by independent games and developers in categories such as innovation, storytelling, artistry, and more. You will be able to watch it on YouTube and Twitch.
New to this year’s ceremony is the Indie Vanguard Class, a selection of five developers who “represent the future of the industry and stand among those paving the way forward for the indie scene,” as well as new regional and showcase-specific categories, curated by showcases such as Latin American Games Showcase, Women-Led Games, and Black Voices in Gaming. Viewers can also now submit their favorite independent games across a variety of genres for the new Community Picks segment.
The ceremony will feature 28 presenters, including Chandana Ekanayake, Lena Raine, Remy Siu, and Chipzel. Nominees were decided by a diverse panel of independent games showcase curators and industry experts, including Six One Indie, Latin American Games Showcase, Women-Led Games, Wholesome Games, The MIX, Black Voices in Gaming, Frosty Games Fest, Southeast Asian Games Showcase, Playtopia Festival, and The Indie Informer, and prominent voices from games journalism and content creation, such as Giant Bomb, Game Informer, GameSpot, Wanderbots, Steve Saylor, and noclip.
The nominees are as follows:
Achievement in 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
- Abiotic Factor (Deep Field Games, Playstack)
- Hollow Knight: Silksong (Team Cherry)
- Mars First Logistics (Shape Shop, Outersloth)
- PROXIMATE (Cain Maddox)
- Tempopo (Witchbeam, CULT Games)
- The Drifter (Powerhoof)
Bite-Sized
- CARIMARA: Beneath the Forlorn Limbs (Bastinus Rex, CRITICAL REFLEX)
- FlyKnight (Wabbaboy)
- Many Nights a Whisper (Deconstructeam, Selkie Harbour)
- The Dark Queen of Mortholme (Mosu, Monster Theater)
- this game will end in 205 clicks. (insertdisc5)
- Time Flies (Playables, Panic)
Black Voices in Gaming Award
- Advent Neon (CryoGX)
- Altheia: The Wrath of Aferi (MarsLit Games, Neon Doctrine, Game Seer Publishing)
- Sorry We’re Closed (a la mode games, Akupara Games)
- Spirit Swap: Lofi Beats to Match-3 To (Soft Not Weak)
- Sunken Stones (Spritewrench)
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tactical Takedown (Strange Scaffold)
Community Management
- Consume Me (Jenny Jiao Hsia, AP Thomson, Jie En Lee, Violet W-P, Ken “coda” Snyder, Hexecutable)
- Date Everything! (Sassy Chap Games, Team17)
- IKEELYA (ALL DAY ALL NIGHT)
- PEAK (Team PEAK, Aggro Crab, Landfall)
- Soulstone Survivors (Game Smithing Limited)
- Strange Scaffold (Strange Scaffold, Frosty Pop)
Debut Game
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Sandfall Interactive, Kepler Interactive)
- Discounty (Crinkle Cut Games, PQube)
- Fretless: The Wrath of Riffson (Ritual Studios, Playdigious Originals)
- ILA: A Frosty Glide (Magic Rain Studios, First Break Labs)
- Sorry We’re Closed (a la mode Games, Akupara Games)
- Tyrant’s Realm (Team Tyrant, Skystone Games)
Emotional Impact
- Afterlove EP (Pikselnesia, Fellow Traveller)
- and Roger (TearyHand Studio, Kodansha)
- Don’t Get Your Hopes Up (Krish Raghav)
- Henry Halfhead (Lululu Entertainment, popagenda)
- Wanderstop (Ivy Road, Annapurna Interactive)
- Wednesdays (Pierre Corbinais, The Pixel Hunt, exaheva, ARTE France)
Gameplay Design
- Absolum (Dotemu, Guard Crush Games, Supamonks, Gamirror Games)
- BALL x PIT (Kenny Sun, Devolver Digital)
- Dawnfolk (Darenn Keller, Astra Logical)
- Hades II (Supergiant Games)
- Hollow Knight: Silksong (Team Cherry)
- Keep Driving (YCJY Games)
- Look Outside (Francis Coulombe, Devolver Digital)
- Ooo (NamaTakahashi, tiny cactus studio, Tsuyomi)
- Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo (Pocket Trap, PM Studios)
- The King is Watching (Hypnohead, tinyBuild)
Innovation
- Blue Prince (Dogubomb, Raw Fury)
- FREERIDE (Flightyfelon Games, Future Friends Games)
- Gas Station Story (enzi)
- PBJ The Musical (Philipp Stollenmayer)
- Ruffy and the Riverside (Zockrates Laboratories, Phiphen Games)
- Taria & Como (Poppyseed Studio Inc, JuVee Productions)
Latin American Indie Award
- Adventure of Samsara (Ilex Games, Atari)
- despelote (Julian Cordero, Sebastian Valbuena, Panic)
- Kulebra and the Souls of Limbo (Galla, Fellow Traveller)
- Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo (Pocket Trap, PM Studios)
- Taria & Como (Poppyseed Studio Inc, JuVee Productions)
- Tormented Souls II (Dual Effect, PQube)
Music
- Everhood 2 (Cazok, KM_EXP, Stewart Keller, Lewmoth, Chris Nordgren, CatGod, Beat Tape, Dancefloor Is Lava, INFX, Jordi Roca, Foreign Gnomes)
- Herdling (Joel Schoch, Okomotive, Panic)
- Rift of the NecroDancer (Danny Baranowsky, Alex Moukala, Jules Conroy, Josie Brechner, Sam Webster, and Nick Nausbaum, Brace Yourself Games, Tic Toc Games, Klei Publishing)
- SONOKUNI (DON YASA CREW, Kakehashi Games)
- Sword of the Sea (Austin Wintory, Giant Squid)
- Wheel World (Johnny Jewel, JOON, Orion, Messhof, Annapurna Interactive)
Narrative
- Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector (Jump Over the Age, Fellow Traveller)
- Consume Me (Jenny Jiao Hsia, AP Thomson, Jie En Lee, Violet W-P, Ken “coda” Snyder, Hexecutable)
- Promise Mascot Agency (Kaizen Game Works)
- The Drifter (Powerhoof, Dave Lloyd)
- The Roottrees are Dead (Evil Trout Inc.)
- The Seance of Blake Manor (Spooky Doorway, Raw Fury)
Solo Development
- ANTONBLAST (Summitsphere, Joystick Ventures)
- Lushfoil Photography Sim (Matt Newell, Annapurna Interactive)
- Megabonk (vedinad)
- NAIAD (HiWarp)
- Spilled! (Lente)
- Vile: Exhumed (Cara Cadaver, DreadXP)
South African Indie Game Award
- 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)
- Stick It to the Stickman (Free Lives, Devolver Digital)
Southeast Asian Indie Award
- Afterlove EP (Pikselnesia, Fellow Traveller)
- Artis Impact (Mas, Feuxon)
- Glyphica: Typing Survival (aliasBLACK, Squeaky Wheel)
- SEDAP! A Culinary Adventure (kopiforge, Isolated Games Publishing, IndieArk)
- Urban Jungle (Kylyk Games, Assemble Entertainment)
- Whisper Mountain Outbreak (Toge Productions)
Visual Design
- 30 Birds (RAM RAM Games, Business Goose Studios, ARTE France)
- Artis Impact (Mas, Feuxon)
- Cat Detective Albert Wilde (beyondthosehills)
- Eclipsium (Housefire, CRITICAL REFLEX)
- Mashina (Talha and Jack Co, J. King Spooner, Talha Kaya, Judatone Studios)
- Slime Rancher 2 (Monomi Park)
Women-Led Indie Game Award
- Cabernet (Party for Introverts, Akupara Games)
- Duck Detective: The Ghost of Glamping (Happy Broccoli Games)
- Gemporium: A Cute Mining Sim (Merge Conflict Studio)
- Spilled! (Lente)
- Urban Myth Dissolution Center (Hakaba Bunko, Shueisha Games)
- White Knuckle (Dark Machine Games, DreadXP)
Game of the Year
- Absolum (Dotemu, Guard Crush Games, and Supamonks)
- and Roger (TearyHand Studio)
- Blue Prince (Dogubomb)
- Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector (Jump Over the Age)
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Sandfall Interactive)
- Consume Me (Jenny Jiao Hsia, AP Thomson, Jie En Lee, Violet W-P, and Ken “coda” Snyder)
- Hades II (Supergiant Games)
- Hollow Knight: Silksong (Team Cherry)
- Keep Driving (YCJY Games)
- Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo (Pocket Trap)
Watch the nominees announcement video below.