Indie Game Awards 2025 - The Winners

One game from GSA won an award at the 2025 Indie Game Awards (IGAs): Time Flies by Playable from Switzerland was awarded the prize in the Bite-Sized Game category. The game, which is published by Panic, is a little adventure about our limited time in this world.

All the other nominees, from Germany, Switzerland and Austria, went home empty-handed. These were 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; Duck Detective: The Ghost of Glamping (Women-Led Indie Game Award) by Happy Broccoli Games; PBJ The Musical (Innovation) by Philipp Stollenmayer; Ruffy and Ruffy and the Riverside (Innovation) by Zockrates Laboratories.

Selected by the IGA Curation Jury, the Signature Awards saw Maddy Thorson (Extremely OK Games, Celeste & TowerFall Ascension) win the Mohammad Fahmi Storyteller Award. The Industry Impact award went to the organisation Game Devs of Color (Catt Small, Brian S. Chung, Josh Boykin). The Indie Vanguard Class of 2025 comprises Chantey (Gortyn Code / Gortyn Code), Neon Knives (Cookiecrayon / Cookiecrayon), Seasonal Cemetery (Gabby DaRienzo, Kait Tremblay, Jen Costa, Nina Wong, Halina Heron, Mobeen Fikree, and Jacqueline de Leon / Gabby DaRienzo), Hyperbeat (Alice Bottino and Chancellor Wallin / Dreamware Media), and Wildwood Down (Crashable Studios / Crashable Studios).

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.

Below is a list of all the winners and nominees. Winners are listed at the top of each category and are highlighted in bold.

Game of the Year

• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Sandfall Interactive / Kepler Interactive)
• 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)
• 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

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

African Indie Game Award

• Stick It To The Stickman (Free Lives / Devolver Digital)
• 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)

ANZ Indie Game Award

• The Drifter (Powerhoof / Powerhoof)
• 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)

Bite-Sized Game

• Time Flies (Playables / Panic)
• 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)

Black Voices in Gaming Award

• Altheia: The Wrath of Aferi (MarsLit Games / Neon Doctrine, Game Seer Publishing)
• Advent Neon (CryoGX / CryoGX)
• 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

• Peak (Team Peak / Aggro Crab, Landfall)
• 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)
• 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

• and Roger (TearyHand Studio / Kodansha)
• Afterlove EP (Pikselnesia / Fellow Traveller)
• 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

• BallxPit (Kenny Sun / Devolver Digital)
• Absolum (Dotemu, Guard Crush Games, Supamonks / Dotemu, Gammirror Games)
• 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

• Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo (Pocket Trap / PM Studios, Inc.)
• Adventure of Samsara (Ilex Games / Atari)
• despelote (Julian Cordero, Sebastian Valbuena / Panic)
• Kulebra and the Souls of Limbo (Galla / Fellow Traveller)
• Taria & Como (Poppyseed Studio Inc, JuVee Productions / Poppyseed Studio Inc, JuVee Productions)
• Tormented Souls 2 (Dual Effect / PQube)

Music

• Rift of the NecroDancer (Danny Baranowsky, Alex Moukala, Jules Conroy, Josie Brechner, Sam Webster, Nick Nausbaum / Brace Yourself Games, Tic Toc Games / Klei Publishing)
• Everhood 2 (Cazok, KM_EXP, Stewart Keller, Lewmoth, Chris Nordgren, CatGod, Beat Tape, Dancefloor Is Lava, INFX / Foreign Gnomes)
• Herdling (Joel Schoch / Okomotive / Panic)
• 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

• Tall Trails (Brady Soglin / Brady Soglin)
• Lushfoil Photography Sim (Matt Newell / Annapurna Interactive)
• Megabonk (vedinad / vedinad)
• Naiad (HiWarp / HiWarp)
• Spilled! (Lente / Lente)
• Vile: Exhumed (Cara Cadaver / DreadXP)

Southeast Asian Indie Game Award

• Artis Impact (Mas / Feuxon)
• Afterlove EP (Pikselnesia / Fellow Traveller)
• 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

• Urban Myth Dissolution Center (Hakababunko / Shueisha Games)
• 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)
• White Knuckle (Dark Machine Games / DreadXP)