There are hundreds of fantastic independent game studios pushing out impressive indie games every year. While each year is filled with tons of titles, 2025 featured some of the best. Every year, The Game Awards nominates a variety of titles considered for accolades, including Game of the Year. In 2025, several impressive studios published some of the best games seen in years, and ten studios were heavily favored for their games. These are the studios, all of which produced excellent games in 2025, and they’re presented in alphabetical order by their game titles.
Videos by ComicBook.com
1) Guard Crush Games & Supamonks
Guard Crush Games & Supamonks collaborated to release Absolum in 2025, and the game has not disappointed. Absolum is a beat-’em-up that incorporates roguelike elements and was released on all major consoles and PC in October 2025. Absolum is set in the world of Talamh, where an evil king leads his army, the Crimson Order. The player chooses a character and their class, each of which has different characteristics and abilities. Each run allows the player to equip rituals that improve their abilities as they progress through the game. The game is the first for Supamonks, which is a French studio responsible for the artwork and animations.
2) TearyHand Studio
TearyHand Studio is a Japanese developer that specializes in games with strong narratives. Its 2025 release, and Roger, certainly fits within the studio’s motif. The game is filled with emotive storytelling, involving a young girl who awakens in a strange situation. Expecting to find her father, she sees a stranger sleeping on the couch. She leaves, scared, and the player guides her on a journey down a twisting path to see where it leads. The visual elements are both basic and beautiful, conveying emotion through minimalism in a way few games could hope to emulate.
3) Dogubomb
In 2025, Dogubomb developed a puzzle adventure game featuring roguelike elements, titled Blue Prince. It took eight years to bring to life, and was created entirely by one developer, Tonda Ros. In Blue Prince, the player explores a mansion with 45 rooms that change every day. The goal is to find the 46th room, but to do that, you’ll have to solve puzzles and unravel the mansion’s lore. The game’s design was influenced by Christopher Manson’s book, Maze: Solve the World’s Most Challenging Puzzle, so be prepared for a thinker. Blue Prince was released on the major consoles, PC, and macOS in April and September 2025.
4) Jump Over the Age
One of the best indie sequels to come out in 2025 is Jump Over the Age’s Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector. Several of the previous title’s developers returned for the sequel, which continues after the events of 2022’s Citizen Sleeper. The game is set in an asteroid belt, where a corporation utilizes androids, known as “sleepers,” for manual labor. The player controls a Sleeper and must escape to gain freedom. It’s no easy task, as their body is damaged and they’ve lost their memory. Starward Vector was developed relatively quickly following the success of its predecessor, and it was released on all major platforms in January 2025.
5) Sandfall Interactive
Of all the amazing indie games to come out in 2025, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is widely considered to be one of the best. The role-playing game was developed by Sandfall Interactive, a French studio, which explains its setting in a fantasy version of France’s Belle Époque. In the game, volunteers embark on Expedition 33 to destroy the one responsible for annually erasing people above a specific age limit, which continues to decrease. Combat includes both turn-based mechanics and quick time events, while exploration is conducted in the third-person perspective. The game was released in April, and by October, it had already sold over 5 million copies.
6) Jenny Jiao Hsia, AP Thomson, Jie En Lee, Violet W-P, and Ken “coda” Snyder
One of the more interesting indie games released in 2025 wasn’t developed by an independent studio. Instead, Consume Me began life as a school project of Jenny Jiao Hsia’s during her studies at the NYU Game Center. She teamed up with AP Thompson and a few others to develop the game, with everyone contributing their specialty. The game is a day-in-the-life exploration that’s partly autobiographical and centers around the player character’s daily schedule. It features a plethora of minigames that take the player through their tasks, all of which are laid out on a schedule. It’s a game that is incredibly relaxing while remaining challenging and entertaining, which is a rare achievement in the industry.
7) Supergiant Games
Supergiant Games has been developing games for over 15 years, and in 2025, the independent studio released a sequel to its most popular title, Hades II. Hades was a remarkable success when it was released in 2020, and the sequel only upped the IP to new heights. It’s easily one of the best indie games of the year, having sold nearly 3 million copies since its release in September 2025. The game adds much to the lore established in the first, offering new objectives, items, weapons, and boons. As of writing, it’s limited to PC, macOS, and both Nintendo Switch consoles, where it’s killing the competition (and a bunch of underworld baddies).
8) Team Cherry
Team Cherry’s 2017 release of Hollow Knight put the independent Australian developer on the map. In 2025, they did it again, releasing the game’s first sequel, Hollow Knight: Silksong. The game picks up after Hornet is captured and sent to the land of Pharloom. The player must navigate through various areas of this unfamiliar kingdom, solving platforming puzzles and utilizing a range of tools, skills, and mechanics to progress. The game was initially intended to be a DLC for Hollow Knight, but it evolved during development into a full sequel.
9) YCJY Games
Do you love road trips? If so, YCJT Games’ Keep Driving is an indie title you should definitely check out. The independent studio’s game was developed by Josef Martinovsky and Christopher Andreasson, who began working on it in 2016. Nearly a decade later, they released Keep Driving on PC in February 2025. The game incorporates multiple genres, including resource management, adventure, and RPGs. Players embark on a road trip, picking up hitchhikers, navigating bad drivers and horrible road conditions, and more. It’s both relaxing and engaging, making for a fun experience every time you play.
10) Pocket Trap
There were numerous platform-adventure games released throughout 2025, but the best one is easily Pocket Trap’s Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo. Henrique Lorenzi primarily developed the game with help from Henrique Caprino, Rodrigo Zangelmi, and Leonardo Lima. The small group of developers tapped nostalgia by incorporating elements reminiscent of the original The Legend of Zelda and similar titles. The game’s setting is an expansive urban landscape seen in a 2D top-down perspective. As the name implies, the player fights enemies using their yoyo. The game is rich in lore and world-building, featuring four districts and over 1,000 screens filled with challenges and secrets to uncover.
Which indie studio do you think released the best game in 2025? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
Most Viewed
-
Image courtesy of Iron Gate and Coffee Stain -
Image Courtesy of Apple -
Image Courtesy of Marvel Comics
