Gamescom 2025: The 20 Best Upcoming Indie Games You Need to Play

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Ignacio Weil

Gaming - August 29th 2025, 22:00 GMT+2

Cropped Hollow Knight Silksong — Hollow Knight: Silksong

All it takes is a few seconds of Hornet in motion to remember why this Metroidvania sequel sits at the top of so many indie game wishlists. The needle-and-thread moveset shifts the pace toward aggressive, acrobatic play, letting you vault, sting, and cancel in ways that reward bold positioning over turtling. Exploration leans into layered verticality and tangled shortcuts, the sort of map design that sparks late-night “one more route” experiments. Boss fights feel more like duels than walls, with patterns that invite patience, then punish hesitation – exactly the tightrope fans love. Audio does the quiet heavy lifting: hushed ambience and lyrical motifs that make every new biome feel storied and strange. Expect a more quest-driven structure, expanded tools, and that trademark sense of mystery that encourages you to read between the ruins. It looks familiar yet feral, a refinement that refuses to play it safe even as it honors the original. If your 2025 plan involves precision, discovery, and a little stubborn joy, this is the indie game to circle in permanent marker. | © Team Cherry.

Cropped ZERO PARADES — Zero Parades

There’s an irresistible promise in the phrase “espionage CRPG,” and this one leans into it with style: a haunted spy story where conversation can be as dangerous as combat. You play as Hershel Wilk, a brilliant operative nursing old failures, and the design invites you to weaponize charm, doubt, and contradiction. Choices don’t simply open doors; they leave echoes, and those echoes talk back when you least expect it. Writing skews literary without being precious, stitching surrealism into statecraft so your moral choices land with extra sting. Systems favor “fail forward” outcomes, nudging you toward messy, very human improvisation rather than save-scumming perfection. Visuals go painterly and off-kilter, a mood that lets paranoia feel beautiful and brittle all at once. It’s the kind of story-rich indie game that will dominate group chats, because every player’s version of the truth ends up a little different. Expect hard decisions, softer hearts, and long walks with your conscience after the credits. | © ZA/UM.

Absolum

File this under “arcade brawler meets modern roguelite,” then bold it: the pitch clicks the instant fists start flying. Combat has that Guard Crush snap – clean hitstop, readable tells, the sweet hum of a combo that just keeps going – while Supamonks’ animation pours style over every swing. The rogue-like structure adds branching routes and buildcraft, letting you sculpt a run that feels uniquely yours. Co-op isn’t an extra; it’s a catalyst, because nothing bonds friends faster than tag-team juggles and a risky door everyone insists is fine. Enemies escalate in clever, teachable ways, so your playbook grows without turning into homework. A lush soundtrack pushes the tempo, matching the hand-drawn color pop frame for frame. It’s a throwback and a step forward at once – tight, expressive, and tuned for “one more run” until the sun peeks in. If you loved learning the dance steps in classic belt-scrollers, this is the indie action game that hands you a bigger stage. | © Guard Crush; Supamonks; Dotemu.

13 Z The Zodiac Trials — 13Z: The Zodiac Trials

Imagine a mythic tournament where every stance switch feels like a new sentence in your combat poem – now imagine doing it with friends. This roguelike action game marries swift movement with modular abilities, encouraging you to weave elements, cancel windows, and risk-reward gambits into custom rhythms. Silhouettes and telegraphs are deliberately bold, so spectacle never sacrifices readability. Co-op trials transform mastery into choreography, the kind of breathless run where someone yells “trust me” right before the clutch save. Progression favors experimentation: new augments change not just damage numbers but decision-making, nudging you toward fresh lines. Boss arenas double as classrooms, teaching through momentum rather than tooltips. It’s fast, expressive, and proudly replayable – an indie game built for players who treat combat like a language. If you crave depth that lives in your hands rather than a spreadsheet, the road to the 13th Zodiac is calling. | © Mixed Realms Pte Ltd.

Denshattack!

Some pitches are so clean they practically shine: ride a souped-up train like a trick pro and turn the rails into your playground. Momentum is the star, with routes designed for daring lines, risky transfers, and a gratifying “I can squeeze one more combo out of this” loop. The tone is retro-futurist and a little mischievous, blending Saturday-morning energy with competitive swagger. Level goals encourage mastery without gatekeeping, letting perfectionists and curious dabblers both feel clever. Boss encounters twist traversal into set-piece problem solving, so style points and survival share the same rail. It’s the kind of arcade-bright indie platformer that makes you narrate your own highlights under your breath. Expect speedy restarts, tight inputs, and a soundtrack that begs for headphones. If you’ve ever wished your favorite skate game could also blow a whistle, tickets please. | © Undercoders

Duskfade

Here’s a 3D action-platformer that understands the magic of momentum: moves that chain, routes that tempt, and secrets positioned just out of reach to start friendly arguments. Combat is snappy without crowding the platforming core, giving you tools to clear space and then get back to the fun part – flow. The tone flirts with fairy-tale mystery, but readability stays crisp, so you can parse a busy scene at a glance. Checkpoints and restarts are respectful of your time, yet the level design keeps whispering, “bet you can do it cleaner.” Progression favors traversal upgrades that open new lines through familiar territory, a subtle nudge toward mastery. It’s bright, brisk, and surprisingly layered once you start shaving seconds and stringing movement tech. Expect a satisfying loop for speed chasers and a generous welcome for new players. This is one of those indie games that sneaks up on you and becomes comfort food. | © Weird Beluga Studio

Rebounder

If you love precision platformers that make failure feel like feedback, pull up a chair: the core loop is built on detonating your own opportunities. You lob volatile orbs, bounce off their blasts, and stitch those tiny explosions into midair routes that look impossible until they aren’t. Stages are dense with “aha” contraptions – elevators, cannons, thorns, timing gates – that teach by daring you to improvise. Tight inputs and fast restarts keep you in the pocket, while optional challenges cater to speedrunners and score chasers alike. The art direction channels indie-zine pulp and retro sci-fi, a grainy charisma that fits the scrappy toolkit. Little character beats add warmth without slowing the tempo, so personality shows up between attempts. Before long you’re inventing trick lines just to see if your hands can cash the check your brain writes. It’s compact, kinetic, and extremely replayable – the kind of indie platformer that turns “five minutes” into a whole evening. | © ThirtyThree Games.

Hyper Light Breaker

Co-op roguelite structure meets moody sci-fantasy vibes in a world built for reckless exploration and stylish escapes. After launching in early access to mixed reviews, the team did the healthy thing: listen, fix fast, and keep shipping meaningful updates. Movement remains the quiet headline – glides, dashes, and tool-assisted climbs that make curiosity feel powerful – but the patches have tightened combat flow, clarified systems, and sped up the “down, regroup, go again” loop. Buildcraft aims for expressive over fiddly, so choices feel interesting under pressure rather than buried in menus, and each update has added toys that open new routes through danger.

Group play still creates that wonderful chaos where someone wanders off to chase loot and somehow returns in time for the hero shot, only now the edges are smoother and the pace sings. It’s heartening to watch an ambitious early-access project turn feedback into fuel, and the trajectory points toward something genuinely special at 1.0. Count us firmly in the “thrilled for the final product” camp, where optimism is earned one patch note at a time. If your favorite indie games pair style with systems and reward momentum, this one belongs on your wishlist. | © Heart Machine.

RECUR — Recur

There’s a quiet elegance to this puzzle-adventure: mechanics that loop back on themselves, spaces that unfold like a magic trick, and a narrative that trusts you to notice what changes. Each new tool teaches by use, not lecture, so understanding arrives as a pleasant jolt rather than a checklist. The art direction is warm and tactile, which makes even the trickier rooms feel inviting instead of antagonistic. Puzzles escalate by layering ideas, turning simple rules into acrobatic brainwork without losing clarity. A gentle soundtrack cushions the “almost there” moments that define the genre’s best runs. It’s reflective without being sleepy, clever without being smug, and just the right amount of strange. Expect to think sideways, retrace with purpose, and smile when the last piece clicks. If you collect smart, soulful indie puzzlers, make room for one more. | © kaleidoscube

WILL Follow The Light — Will: Follow The Light

This story-driven adventure swirls folklore, family, and a luminous art style into something that feels both intimate and mythic. Moment-to-moment play favors gentle exploration and environmental puzzles, the kind that teach you to read light, shadow, and silhouette like a language. Characters arrive sketched with empathy, and the script trusts pauses as much as punchlines, giving emotional beats room to breathe. Each new area reframes the theme with fresh mechanics, so variety arrives as texture rather than whiplash. The score moves softly but with intent, helping scenes land without underlining every line in neon. It’s the cozy side of indie gaming done right: thoughtful pacing, a clear heart, and just enough mystery to keep you leaning forward. Expect a tidy runtime with plenty to chew on afterward. If you keep a list of narrative indies to savor on a rainy weekend, pencil this near the top. | © TomorrowHead Studio

Grind Survivors

If the words “horde survival” make your brain think auto-attacks and endless dopamine, this one still finds room to surprise with crunchy upgrade arcs and a clear sense of escalation. Runs snowball from scrappy to spectacular in minutes, inviting you to gamble on glass-cannon builds or turtle behind clever synergies as waves grow meaner. The power fantasy is real, but there’s restraint where it matters, so you’re still steering moment-to-moment rather than watching a math problem play itself. Meta progression feeds back into skill expression, adding just enough long-term goals to keep you chasing “one more unlock” after midnight. The presentation leans bold and readable – perfect for parsing chaos without losing style points – and the soundtrack settles into that productive trance where minutes evaporate. If you’ve been looking for a “Survivors-like” with intent, not just inertia, this is one to watch as it marches toward launch. Expect iterations, balance passes, and plenty of buildcraft chatter as the community pokes at every edge. It’s easy to pick up, greedy to master, and clearly built by folks who understand why this genre clicked in the first place. | © Pushka Studios

ROUTINE — Routine

Few sci-fi horror concepts hit as hard as “retro-future moon base” done with conviction, and this one breathes it: analogue monitors hum, chrome corners hide shadows, and every corridor begs the flashlight to stay just a little longer. Stealth and survival carry the day – there’s more dread than bravado – so small victories feel hard-earned and memorable. The design favors tension through uncertainty: limited tools, readable patrols, and just enough randomness to keep your second attempt from feeling like a script. Audio does half the storytelling, with creaks and distant thuds doing the ominous heavy lifting while the score underlines, never shouts. It’s deliberately paced without being plodding, trusting you to explore, double back, and piece the mystery together at your own speed. Expect careful improvements as release approaches – polish on AI temperament, save cadence, and the little UX touches that keep fear from turning into friction. Fans of moody, first-person dread are absolutely the target here, and the vision feels locked in. When the lights go out on that lunar outpost, you’ll swear the room got colder. | © Lunar Software

Cropped ROCKBEASTS — ROCKBEASTS

Band management is chaotic enough; add big hair, bigger egos, and a manager who’s one decision away from glory or a tabloid flameout, and you’ve got a recipe for delicious disaster. Choices ripple across relationships, gigs, and budget lines, so your carefully curated image can implode in a single bad quote – very on brand for the era it celebrates. The tone does a neat dance between satire and sincerity, letting you love the myth while laughing at it, and the presentation revels in mixtape aesthetics. Progress is rarely linear; you’ll juggle talent, drama, and cash flow while trying to ship an actual record, which is harder than the movies ever told us. Narrative systems give your bandmates real agency, so success tastes different depending on who you became to get there. It’s the kind of sim where you wind up telling stories about your save file like it’s a season of prestige TV. Expect hard tradeoffs, occasional heartbreak, and a playlist that refuses to leave your head. Stardom is optional; good stories are guaranteed. | © Lichthund

Light Odyssey

Every frame looks hand-polished, as if the artists were painting directly on the air, and the action follows suit with clean silhouettes and satisfying clarity. Combat slots into a brisk, stylish loop – read the tell, commit to the dash, and punish the opening – so even early encounters feel teachable and expressive. Exploration sprinkles micro-secrets everywhere, rewarding curiosity with materials, lore beats, and the occasional grin-inducing shortcut. Bosses are choreographed without being predictable, leaning on patterns you can learn rather than stat checks you can’t. It’s the kind of action-adventure that respects tempo: snappy fights, short downtime, and a strong sense of forward motion even when you wander. Expect a focus on readability over maximalism, which makes those moments of spectacle really sing when they arrive. The art direction does a lot of quiet storytelling, so you’ll pick up the world’s rules by noticing how it’s lit, textured, and framed. Put simply: elegant action with a painter’s eye. | © SSUN GAMES

Dead as Disco

Part beat ’em up, part revenge ballad, this one straps you into the boots of a fallen legend clawing back a spotlight that never stops burning. Fights hit to the rhythm in ways that feel playful rather than prescriptive, letting you choose between precision sync and messy, satisfying brawls. Levels play like gigs – tight, thematic, and punctuated with boss confrontations that double as character studies – so the campaign reads like a concept album in motion. The writing enjoys its theatricality but keeps a human core, making even the most extravagant stagecraft land with stakes. Progression shines when you lean into your style: cleaner chains for the purists, flashy crowd-pleasers for the showboats, and plenty of middle ground for the rest of us. It’s a rare action game that remembers performance is a dialogue, not a lecture – how the crowd “feels” your run matters. Expect a hearty soundtrack, punchy readability, and the occasional gut-check choice that reframes what “victory” looks like. One night to settle old scores sounds like plenty – until you’re out there under the lights. | © Brain Jar Games

The Remake of the End of the Greatest RPG of All Time

Meta-fiction done right feels like a magic trick, and this one leans into the illusion with gusto. You’re playing the “last hour” of a fictitious JRPG, complete with director’s commentary, a lovingly fake manual, and archival “footage” that doubles as clues. The deduction layer is the hook: comb through fragments, spot contradictions, and piece together what really happened in that missing classic that never existed. Presentation riffs on old-school RPG texture without relying on nostalgia, letting mystery drive the experience instead of pure parody. It’s playful, yes, but the investigation loop has teeth – you’ll want a notebook handy as the story tightens. Smart structure keeps you moving from aha-moment to aha-moment, never wasting a puzzle or a sentence. If you collect strange, high-concept indies, this belongs on the top shelf. Release timing is set for this fall, and the premise screams “cult favorite in the making.” | © Coin Drop Games.

THE SIGNAL Stranded on Sirenis — The Signal: Stranded On Sirenis

Survival with an extraction twist, a sentient planet that doesn’t want you there, and a protagonist who refuses to let that be the end of the story – clean pitch, strong vibes. You’ll craft tools, scout hostile biomes, and decide what to bring home each sortie, because greed and caution share the same backpack. The world-building is the star: strange fauna, shifting weather, and ruins that whisper at a bigger mystery without spelling it out. Combat is opportunistic rather than power-trip; reading the landscape matters more than mashing through it. Moment-to-moment choices – push deeper or peel off with what you’ve got – create natural drama without cutscenes. With Early Access on the roadmap and a public demo flagged for the near term, expect a steady cadence of tuning based on player feedback. If you love survival games that reward planning as much as daring, Sirenis will get its hooks in you. Extraction stories feel better when you earn the ride back. | © Goose Byte.

Bye Sweet Carole

A hand-drawn horror tale that looks like a lost cartoon reel and cuts like a razor, this sidescrolling adventure turns fairytales into warnings. You’ll sneak, sprint, and solve through ornate set pieces where every flourish carries menace, and every shadow feels just a step too close. The tone is theatrical – grand, baroque, a little bit wicked – but the design stays readable so tension comes from choices, not confusion. Character work is sharp, with performances that let fear, guilt, and stubborn hope share the stage without melodrama. Puzzles tend to teach by implication, rewarding a careful eye and a steady pulse more than brute-force trial and error. The soundtrack and sound design do a lot of quiet damage, pulling you into rooms you’re not quite ready to face. A firm fall date has sharpened anticipation, and the finish-line confidence shows. If “storybook nightmare” sounds like your lane, this is your next obsession. | © Little Sewing Machine.

Cosmo Tales

Retro-future swagger with a modern action-adventure core, this new IP plays like a love letter to ’70s sci-fi book covers come to life. The hook is dimension-shifting – flip realities to rewire traversal, reframe combat, and sneak collectibles out from under impossible architecture. Art direction is delightfully specific: chunky panels, bold typography, and color palettes that could headline a gallery wall. Encounters favor clarity and momentum, letting you improvise routes instead of grinding through stat checks. Narrative setup teases an episodic structure with a young hero and a chatty sci-fi ride, but the real star is how seamlessly exploration flows into action. Expect a generous slate of secrets and a pace that respects your time while still making detours irresistible. This one radiates personality – the kind that spawns fan theories and photo-mode threads in equal measure. Mark it down as a standout to watch in the coming year. | © Bohemia Interactive.

The Berlin Apartment

There’s something irresistible about a single space holding a century of stories, and this first-person narrative adventure runs with that idea. You’re hired to refurbish an old flat, then gently pulled through time as objects, repairs, and memories reveal who lived here and why it matters. Structure is tactile and meditative: open a cabinet, find a note, follow a thread – each small action nudges a larger history into focus. The writing treats the city as a character, letting political shifts and personal milestones echo off the same walls. Visual storytelling is understated but precise; light, texture, and clutter choices guide your attention without shouting. Pacing trusts curiosity over spectacle, which makes the emotional payoffs land all the harder. A clear fall date gives this a “ready to savor” aura, and it feels like the kind of game people recommend to friends who don’t usually play games. Thoughtful, grounded, and quietly ambitious. | © btf.

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From surprise world premieres to long-awaited updates, Gamescom 2025 served up an incredible spread of indie creativity. This roundup spotlights the standouts – from art-house experiments and story-driven adventures to stylish action and cozy time-sinks – that earned buzz on the show floor and across streams like Opening Night Live and Awesome Indies.

Whether you’re hunting your next short-and-sweet gem or a deep, replayable obsession, use this list to plan your wishlist and keep tabs on release windows. Expect a variety of genres, platforms, and tones – but a consistent throughline of smart design and strong creative voices. Let’s dive into the best upcoming indie games from Gamescom 2025 you won’t want to miss.