Every Winner Of The Indie Game Awards 2025, Including Game Of The Year

Update, 12/22/25:

A day after The Indie Game Awards 2025 ceremony, where Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 won the coveted Game of the Year award, the team behind the show, Six One Indie, has announced that it has since retracted that award due to developer Sandfall Interactive’s use of generative AI in the game. Six One Indie has also retracted Clair Obscur’s Best Debut award for the same reason.

As a result, the games in second place for those two awards are now the winners, meaning Blue Prince is the Game of the Year for The Indie Game Awards, and Sorry We’re Closed is the Best Debut winner.

“The Indie Game Awards have a hard stance on the use of gen AI throughout the nomination process and during the ceremony itself,” a statement from Six One Indie reads. “When it was submitted for consideration, representatives of Sandfall Interactive agreed that no gen AI was used in the development of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. In light of Sandfall Interactive confirming the use of gen AI on the day of the Indie Game Awards 2025 premiere, this does disqualify Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 from its nomination.”

Game Informer has updated The Indie Game Awards 2025 results below to reflect these changes.

The original story continues below…

Original story, 12/19/25:

The incredible team over at Six One Indie held its inaugural awards-only ceremony, The Indie Game Awards, last year, and the team returned to do the same last night! Game Informer was on the jury for its various awards, and after an awesome ceremony last night celebrating the year’s best indies, we have a list of every winner.

So, without further ado…

Every Winner From The Indie Game Awards 2025

Below, we’ll list each category and every game nominated. The winner will be listed in bold lettering.

Achievement in Accessibility

Abiotic Factor
Barista
Calm the Storm
Peak
Spray Paint Simulator
Squeakross: Home Squeak Home

African Indie Game Award

Bru & Boegie Get Da Milk!
Finding FAther
Flibbius McDoogle and The Mysterious Flying Machine
IKEELYA
Metavoidal
Stick It To The Stickman

ANZ Indie Game Award

Abiotic Factor
Hollow Knight: Silksong
Mars First Logistics
PROXIMATE
Tempopo
The Drifter

Bite-Sized Game

CARIMARA – Beneath the Forlorn Limbs
FlyKnight
Many Nights a Whisper
The Dark Queen of Mortholme
this game will end in 205 clicks.
Time Flies

Black Voices in Gaming Award

Advent Neon
Altheia: The Wrath of Aferi
Sorry We’re Closed
Spirit Swap: Lofi Beats to Match-3 To
Sunken Stones
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tactical

Community Management

Consume Me
Date Everything!
IKEELYA
Peak
Soulstone Survivors
Strange Scaffold

Debut Game

~~Clair Obscur: Expedition 33~~
Discounty
Fretless – The Wrath of Riffson
ILA: A Frosty Glide
Sorry We’re Closed
Tyrant’s Realm

Emotional Impact

Afterlove EP
and Roger
Don’t Get Your Hopes Up
Henry Halfhead
Wanderstop
Wednesdays

Gameplay Design

Absolum
Ball x Pit
Dawnfolk
Hades II
Hollow Knight: Silksong
Keep Driving
Look Outside
Öoo
Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo
The King is Watching

Innovation

Blue Prince
FREERIDE
Gas Station Story
PBJ The Musical
Ruffy and the Riverside
Taria & Como

Latin American Indie Game Award

Adventure of Samsara
despelote
Kulebra and the Souls of Limbo
Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo
Taria & Como
Tormented Souls 2

Music

Everhood 2
Herdling
Rift of the NecroDancer
SONOKUNI
Sword of the Sea
Wheel World

Narrative

Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector
Consume Me
Promise Mascot Agency
The Drifter
The Roottrees are Dead
The Séance of Blake Manor

Solo Development

Lushfoil Photography Sim
Megabonk
NAIAD
Spilled!
Tall Trails
Vile: Exhumed

Southeast Asian Indie Game Award

Afterlove EP
Artis Impact
Glyphica: Typing Survival
SEDAP! A Culinary Adventure
Urban Jungle
Whisper Mountain Outbreak

Visual Design

30 Birds
Artis Impact
Cat Detective Albert Wilde
Eclipsium
Mashina
Slime Rancher 2

Women-Led Indie Game Award

Cabernet
Duck Detective: The Ghost of Glamping
Gemporium: A Cute Mining Sim
Spilled!
Urban Myth Dissolution Center
White Knuckle

Game of the Year

Absolum
and Roger
Blue Prince
Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector
~~Clair Obscur: Expedition 33~~
Consume Me
Hades II
Hollow Knight: Silksong
Keep Driving
Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo

Community Picks

Best Action Game: Hades II
Best Adventure Game: Hollow Knight: Silksong
Best Horror Game: R.E.P.O.
Best Interactive Fiction: Date Everything!
Best Multiplayer Game: Peak
Best Puzzle Game: Blue Prince
Best Role Playing Game: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Best Simulation Game: Schedule 1
Best Strategy Game: The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy
Best Survival Game: Abiotic Factor
Community Game of the Year: Hollow Knight: Silksong

Signature Awards

Here are various Signature Awards given to receipients throughout the ceremony.

Indie Vanguard Class of 2025

Chantey (Developer: Gortyn Code)
Neon Knives (Developer: Cookiecrayon)
Seasonala Cemetry (Developers: Gabby DaRienzo, Kait Tremblay, Jen Costa, Nina Wong, halina heron, Mobeen Fiktree, Jacqueline de Leon)
HYPERBEAT (Developers: Alice Bottino, Chancellor Wallin)
Wildwood Down (Developers: Crashable Studios)