Indie Game Awards 2025 Nominations

Nominations for the 2025 Indie Game Awards (IGAs) have been announced. Games have been nominated in 18 categories, ranging from titles by well-established indie studios to those by solo developers and from specific regions. The 2025 IGAs will premiere on 18 December, starting with a countdown show at 3:30 pm PT / 6:30 pm ET. It will air on Six One Indie's YouTube and Twitch channels, as well as on IGN and GameSpot.

The nominees from Germany, Switzerland and Austria are: Time Flies (Bite-Sized) by Playable, Assemble Entertainment's Urban Jungle (Southeast Asian Indie Game Award) by Kylyk Games, Henry Halfhead (Emotional Impact) by Lululu Entertainment, Herdling (Music) by Joel Schoch and Okomotive, and Duck Detective: The Ghost of Glamping (Women-Led Indie Game Award) by Happy Broccoli Games. The nominees in the Innovation category are PBJ The Musical by Philipp Stollenmayer and Ruffy and the Riverside by Zockrates Laboratories.

The recipients of the following special categories (Signature Awards) for 2025 have been selected by the IGAs Curation Jury and will be announced during the ceremony. These are the Indie Vanguard, the Mohammad Fahmi Storyteller Award, and the Industry Impact Award. The IGAs are produced and organised by Six One Indie, a grassroots collective that focuses on making gaming showcases, awards and overall visibility more accessible for independent developers.

Game of the Year

• Absolum (Dotemu, Guard Crush Games, Supamonks / Dotemu, Gamirror Games)
• and Roger (TearyHand Studio / Kodansha)
• Blue Prince (Dogubomb / Raw Fury)
• Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector (Jump Over the Age / Fellow Traveller)
• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Sandfall Interactive / Kepler Interactive)
• Consume Me (Jenny Jiao Hsia, AP Thomson, Jie En Lee, Violet W-P, Ken "coda" Snyder / Hexecutable)
• Hades II (Supergiant Games / Supergiant Games)
• Hollow Knight: Silksong (Team Cherry / Team Cherry)
• Keep Driving (YCJY Games / YCJY Games)
• Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo (Pocket Trap / PM Studios, Inc.)

Achievement in Accessibility

• Abiotic Factor (Deep Field Games / Playstack)
• Barista (YofiAsi / YofiAsi)
• Calm the Storm (Ludic Lemur / Ludic Lemur)
• Peak (Team PEAK / Aggro Crab, Landfall)
• Spray Paint Simulator (North Star Video Games / Whitethorn Games)
• Squeakross: Home Squeak Home (Alblune / Alblune)

ANZ Indie Game Award

• Abiotic Factor (Deep Field Games / Playstack)
• Hollow Knight: Silksong (Team Cherry / Team Cherry)
• Mars First Logistics (Shape Shop / Outersloth)
• Proximate (Cain Maddox / Cain Maddox)
• Tempopo (Witchbeam / CULT Games)
• The Drifter (Powerhoof / Powerhoof)

Bite-Sized Game

• Carimara - Beneath the Forlorn Limbs (Bastinus Rex / Critical Reflex)
• FlyKnight (Wabbaboy / Wabbaboy)
• Many Nights a Whisper (Deconstructeam, Selkie Harbour / Deconstructeam)
• The Dark Queen of Mortholme (Mosu / Monster Theater)
• this game will end in 205 clicks. (insertdisc5 / insertdisc5)
• Time Flies (Playables / Panic)

Black Voices in Gaming Award

• Advent Neon (CryoGX / CryoGX)
• Altheia: The Wrath of Aferi (MarsLit Games / Neon Doctrine, Game Seer Publishing)
• Sorry We're Closed (à la mode games / Akupara Games)
• Spirit Swap: Lofi Beats to Match-3 To (Soft Not Weak, LLC / Soft Not Weak, LLC)
• Sunken Stones (Spritewrench / Spritewrench)
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tactical Takedown (Strange Scaffold / 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 / All Day All Night)
• Peak (Team Peak / Aggro Crab, Landfall)
• Soulstone Survivors (Game Smithing Limited / Game Smithing Limited)
• Strange Scaffold (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 / Krish Raghav)
• Henry Halfhead (Lululu Entertainment / 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 / Dotemu, Gammirror Games)
• BallxPit (Kenny Sun / Devolver Digital)
• Dawnfolk (Darenn Keller / Astra Logical)
• Hades II (Supergiant Games / Supergiant Games)
• Hollow Knight: Silksong (Team Cherry / Team Cherry)
• Keep Driving (YCJY Games / YCJY Games)
• Look Outside (Francis Coulombe / Devolver Digital)
• Öoo (NamaTakahashi, tiny cactus studio, Tsuyomi / NamaTakahashi)
• Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo (Pocket Trap / PM Studios, Inc.)
• The King is Watching (Hypnohead / tinyBuild)

Innovation

• Blue Prince (Dogubomb / Raw Fury)
• Freeride (Flightyfelon Games Inc. / Flightyfelon Games Inc., Future Friends Games)
• Gas Station Story (enzi / enzi)
• PBJ The Musical (Philipp Stollenmayer / Philipp Stollenmayer)
• Ruffy and the Riverside (Zockrates Laboratories UG / Phiphen Games)
• Taria & Como (Poppyseed Studio Inc, JuVee Productions / Poppyseed Studio Inc, JuVee Productions)

Latin American Indie Game 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, Inc.)
• Taria & Como (Poppyseed Studio Inc, JuVee Productions / Poppyseed Studio Inc, JuVee Productions)
• Tormented Souls 2 (Dual Effect / PQube)

Music

• Everhood 2 (Cazok, KM_EXP, Stewart Keller, Lewmoth, Chris Nordgren, CatGod, Beat Tape, Dancefloor Is Lava, INFX / Foreign Gnomes)
• Herdling (Joel Schoch / Okomotive / Panic)
• Rift of the NecroDancer (Danny Baranowsky, Alex Moukala, Jules Conroy, Josie Brechner, Sam Webster, Nick Nausbaum / Brace Yourself Games, Tic Toc Games / Klei Publishing)
• Sonokuni (Don Yasa Crew / 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 / Kaizen Game Works)
• The Drifter (Powerhoof, Dave Lloyd / Powerhoof)
• The Roottrees are Dead (Evil Trout Inc. / Evil Trout Inc.)
• The Séance of Blake Manor (Spooky Doorway / Raw Fury)

Solo Development

• Antonblast (Summitsphere / Summitsphere, Joystick Ventures)
• Lushfoil Photography Sim (Matt Newell / Annapurna Interactive)
• Megabonk (vedinad / vedinad)
• Naiad (HiWarp / HiWarp)
• Spilled! (Lente / Lente)
• Vile: Exhumed (Cara Cadaver / DreadXP)

South African Indie Game Award

• Bru & Boegie Get Da Milk! (MIKDOG / MIKDOG)
• Finding Father (Studio Bo / Studio Bo)
• Flibbius McDoogle and The Mysterious Flying Machine (Unsigned Double Collective / Unsigned Double Collective)
• IKEELYA (ALL DAY ALL NIGHT / ALL DAY ALL NIGHT)
• Metavoidal (Yellow Lab Games / Yellow Lab Games)
• Stick It To The Stickman (Free Lives / Devolver Digital)

Southeast Asian Indie Game Award

• Afterlove EP (Pikselnesia / Fellow Traveller)
• Artis Impact (Mas / Feuxon)
• Glyphica: Typing Survival (aliasBLACK / aliasBLACK, Squeaky Wheel)
• SEDAP! A Culinary Adventure (kopiforge / Isolated Games Publishing, IndieArk)
• Urban Jungle (Kylyk Games / Assemble Entertainment)
• Whisper Mountain Outbreak (Toge Productions / Toge Productions)

Visual Design

• 30 Birds (RAM RAM Games, Business Goose Studios / ARTE France)
• Artis Impact (Mas / Feuxon)
• Cat Detective Albert Wilde (beyondthosehills / beyondthosehills)
• Eclipsium (Housefire / Critical Reflex)
• Mashina (Talha and Jack Co, J. King Spooner, Talha Kaya / Judatone Studios)
• Slime Rancher 2 (Monomi Park / Monomi Park)

Women-Led Indie Game Award

• Cabernet (Party for Introverts / Akupara)
• Duck Detective: The Ghost of Glamping (Happy Broccoli Games / Happy Broccoli Games)
• Gemporium: A Cute Mining Sim (Merge Conflict Studio / Merge Conflict Studio)
• Spilled! (Lente / Lente)
• Urban Myth Dissolution Center (Hakababunko / SHUEISHA GAMES)
• White Knuckle (Dark Machine Games / DreadXP)