The year is not quite over yet, but as we head toward the end of 2025, we can already say it’s been a year packed full of great indie games. While there’s still time left for what could be some of our favorite games of the year to release, there have already been so many great picks at least a few are certain to have flown under your radar.
From puzzles to action games, here are the biggest indie games released in 2025 so far.
Hollow Knight: Silksong
Indies don’t get much bigger than this. The long wait for Silksong finally ended this year, with developer Team Cherry announcing a release date just two weeks before the long-awaited platformer launched. The Hollow Knight sequel is tougher and faster than its predecessor, which pushes combat way more to the forefront. Love or hate it, Silksong is a game that tests your skills and your patience, with a gorgeous world and thrilling combat as your reward.
Carimara: Beneath the Forlorn Limbs
Drawing inspiration from Normandy folklore, Carimara is a short game best played in a single sitting about unraveling a supernatural mystery. Set in and around a secluded cabin where an old woman has hired you to dispel the ghost in her evict, Carimara plays out mostly in conversations as you uncover the secrets behind the characters and objects that fill the home. The game only guides you toward a solution, relying on your own deductive skills to solve the mystery at its heart, with gorgeous art and evocative sound design to enjoy along the way.
Öoo
Created by Nama Takahashi, developer of ElecHead, Öoo is a simple but incredibly inventive puzzle platformer. You play as a caterpillar with two bombs for a body (your head and two bombs forming the Öoo shape of the game’s title), navigating the insides of a bird that’s just gobbled you up. By placing and detonating your bombs, you can destroy walls, cross gaps, and otherwise navigate the intestinal maze to find freedom. The joy of Öoo is seeing all the ways it can stretch its simple mechanics into one of the cleverest puzzle games of the year.
StarVaders
Drawing unlikely inspiration from Space Invaders, StarVaders is a turn-based tactical card game that has you defending Earth from an alien invasion. Each of its characters plays entirely differently with unique cards and mechanics for each and plenty to unlock along the way. StarVaders rewards unorthodox strategies and risky maneuvers more than playing it safe, especially in its tricky bosses, making it a blast to play, run after run.
Peak
Peak might be the most surprising hit of the year. Announced and released within a span of a few weeks, this silly cooperative climbing game has kept players hooked since launch. Developed mostly in the span of a month-long game jam, Peak features a new procedurally generated mountain to challenge every day, putting players’ teamwork to the test while making failure so hilarious that you might not even mind when you plummet into the center of a volcano.
Occlude
Solitaire might not seem like the most thrilling game, but Occlude shows that it can be under the right circumstances. Each stage of Occlude changes the rules of Solitaire, setting a unique win condition that you’ll only discover by playing. Using subtle hints provided by the movement of coins laid on the table, you’ll need to work out how to win each round, with a story of cults and supernatural rituals unfolding based on how well you play your cards.
Blue Prince
Blue Prince became a sensation and an obsession when it was released this year, burying layer after layer of puzzles under its roguelike map-building surface. By creating a mansion room by room each day, you lay out the map you’ll have to traverse to uncover all its secrets, most of which only become apparent after dozens of trips through the shifting house. Blue Prince turned its players into collaborators sharing information online to get to the heart of its toughest puzzles, making it a communal experience despite being single-player.
