2025 Indie Game Awards Marked By Surprising Upset

Over the weekend the 2025 Indie Game Awards were held, and contrary to what everyone assumed going in, I guess we’ve finally found an award Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 can’t win. Even though it actually won it for a few minutes.

Clair Obscur was nominated for both Game of the Year and Debut Game, two awards it initially took…and then, a day later, the IGA took those awards back and gave them to the runners-up. Why? Because the IGA said there was AI in the game.

You’d think if there was AI slop in Clair Obscur, we would have heard about it by now. That’s because there isn’t any slop. There technically were temporary textures in the game rendered by AI within its first few days of release, that were then patched out with the final, human-crafted ones. But apparently that was enough to disqualify the game.

As you might imagine, this is a controversial development. The use of AI is a moral issue for many, but the question of where The Line is still drives heated debate within the anti-AI crowd itself. The IGA’s position is more on the hardline, absolutist side. If AI even touched the game at any point, it’s verboten.

I’m worried people are going to hear this news and think Clair Obscur was MADE with AI, which it was definitely not. The artistry on display in that game could never be slopped out and no one should be led to believe it was. IGA’s ruling, however, could leave that impression for people who get their news from headlines.

Game of the Year instead went to Blue Prince, and Debut Game was awarded to Sorry We’re Closed, the latter being a first-person survival horror game with retro aesthetics. Sorry We’re Closed was actually free on the Epic Games Store yesterday. We probably should have said something about that. If you go today, though, the free game is Paradise Killer, and that’s quite awesome.

Here are the 2025 Indie Game Awards nominees and their winners.

Game of the Year nominees

• Absolum – Dotemu, Guard Crush Games, and Supamonks
• and Roger – TearyHand Studio
• WINNER: Blue Prince – Dogubomb
• Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector – Jump Over the Age
• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 – Sandfall Interactive
• Consume Me – Jenny Jiao Hsia, AP Thomson, Jie En Lee, Violet W-P, and Ken “coda” Snyder
• Hades 2 – Supergiant Games
• Hollow Knight: Silksong – Team Cherry
• Keep Driving – YCJY Games
• Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo – Pocket Trap

Achievement in Accessibility nominees

• Abiotic Factor – Deep Field Games
• Barista – YofiAsi
• Calm the Storm – Ludic Lemur
• WINNER: Peak – Team PEAK
• Spray Paint Simulator – North Star Video Games
• Squeakross: Home Squeak Home – Alblune

ANZ Indie Game Award nominees

• Abiotic Factor – Deep Field Games
• Hollow Knight: Silksong – Team Cherry
• Mars First Logistics – Shape Shop
• Proximate – Cain Maddox
• Tempopo – Witchbeam
• WINNER: The Drifter – Powerhoof

Bite-Sized Game nominees

• Carimara – Beneath the Forlorn Limbs – Bastinus Rex
• FlyKnight – Wabbaboy
• Many Nights a Whisper – Deconstructeam, Selkie Harbour
• The Dark Queen of Mortholme – Mosu
• this game will end in 205 clicks. – insertdisc5
• WINNER: Time Flies – Playables

Black Voice in Gaming nominees

• Advent Neon – CryoGX
• WINNER: Altheia: The Wrath of Aferi – MarsLit Games
• Sorry We’re Closed – à la mode games
• Spirit Swap: Lofi Beats to Match-3 To – Soft Not Weak, LLC
• Sunken Stones – Spritewrench
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tactical Takedown – Strange Scaffold

Community Management nominees

• Consume Me – Jenny Jiao Hsia, AP Thomson, Jie En Lee, Violet W-P, Ken “coda” Snyder
• Date Everything! – Sassy Chap Games
• Ikeelya – ALL DAY ALL NIGHT
• WINNER: Peak – Team PEAK
• Soulstone Survivors – Game Smithing Limited
• Strange Scaffold – Strange Scaffold

Debut Game nominees   

• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 – Sandfall Interactive
• Discounty – Crinkle Cut Games
• Fretless – The Wrath of Riffson – Ritual Studios
• ILA: A Frosty Glide – Magic Rain Studios
• WINNER: Sorry We’re Closed – a la mode Games
• Tyrant’s Realm – Team Tyrant

Emotional Impact nominees

• Afterlove EP – Pikselnesia
• WINNER: and Roger – TearyHand Studio
• Don’t Get Your Hopes Up – Krish Raghav
• Henry Halfhead – Lululu Entertainment
• Wanderstop – Ivy Road
• Wednesdays – Pierre Corbinais, The Pixel Hunt, exaheva

Gameplay Design nominees

• Absolum – Dotemu, Guard Crush Games, Supamonks
• WINNER: BallxPit – Kenny Sun
• Dawnfolk – Darenn Keller
• Hades 2 – Supergiant Games
• Hollow Knight: Silksong – Team Cherry
• Keep Driving – YCJY Games
• Look Outside – Francis Coulombe
• Öoo – NamaTakahashi, tiny cactus studio, Tsuyomi
• Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo – Pocket Trap
• The King is Watching – Hypnohead

Innovation nominees  

• WINNER: Blue Prince – Dogubomb
• FreeRide – Flightyfelon Games Inc.,
• Gas Station Story – enzi
• PBJ The Musical – Philipp Stollenmayer
• Ruffy and the Riverside – Zockrates Laboratories UG
• Taria & Como – Poppyseed Studio Inc, JuVee Productions

Latin American Indie Award nominees

• Adventure of Samsara – Ilex Games
• Despelote – Julian Cordero, Sebastian Valbuena
• Kulebra and the Souls of Limbo – Galla
• WINNER: Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo – Pocket Trap
• Taria & Como – Poppyseed Studio Inc, JuVee Productions
• Tormented Souls 2 – Dual Effect

Music nominees

• Everhood 2 – Cazok, KM_EXP, Stewart Keller, Lewmoth, Chris Nordgren, CatGod, Beat Tape, Dancefloor Is Lava, INFX
• Herdling – Joel Schoch
• WINNER: Rift of the NecroDancer – Danny Baranowsky, Alex Moukala, Jules Conroy, Josie Brechner, Sam Webster, and Nick Nausbaum
• Sonokuni – Don Yasa Crew
• Sword of the Sea – Austin Wintory
• Wheel World – Johnny Jewel, JOON, Orion

Narrative nominees   

• WINNER: Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector – Jump Over the Age
• Consume Me – Jenny Jiao Hsia, AP Thomson, Jie En Lee, Violet W-P, Ken “coda” Snyder
• Promise Mascot Agency – Kaizen Game Works
• The Drifter – Powerhoof, Dave Lloyd
• The Roottrees are Dead – Evil Trout Inc.
• The Séance of Blake Manor – Spooky Doorway

Solo Development nominees

• Lushfoil Photography Sim – Matt Newell
• Megabonk – vedinad
• Naiad – HiWarp
• Spilled! – Lente
• WINNER: Tall Trails – Brady Soglin
• Vile: Exhumed – Cara Cadaver

South African Indie Game Award nominees

• Bru & Boegie Get Da Milk! – MIKDOG
• Finding Father – Studio Bo
• Flibbius McDoogle and The Mysterious Flying Machine – Unsigned Double Collective
• Ikeelya – ALL DAY ALL NIGHT
• Metavoidal – Yellow Lab Games
• WINNER: Stick It To The Stickman – Free Lives

Southeast Asian Indie Game Award nominees  

• Afterlove EP – Pikselnesia
• WINNER: Artis Impact – Mas
• Glyphica: Typing Survival – aliasBLACK
• Sedap! A Culinary Adventure – kopiforge
• Urban Jungle – Kylyk Games
• Whisper Mountain Outbreak – Toge Productions

Visual Design nominees

• WINNER: 30 Birds – RAM RAM Games, Business Goose Studios
• Artis Impact – Mas
• Cat Detective Albert Wilde – beyondthosehills
• Eclipsium – Housefire
• Mashina – Talha and Jack Co, J. King Spooner, Talha Kaya
• Slime Rancher 2 – Monomi Park

Women-Led Indie Game Award nominees

• Cabernet – Party for Introverts
• Duck Detective: The Ghost of Glamping – Happy Broccoli Games
• Gemporium: A Cute Mining Sim – Merge Conflict Studio
• Spilled! – Lente
• WINNER: Urban Myth Dissolution Center – Hakababunko
• White Knuckle – Dark Machine Games

Indie Vanguard Class Selections  

• Chantey – Gortyn Code
• Neon Knives – Cookiecrayon
• Seasonala Cemetry – Gabby DaRienzo, Kait Tremblay, Jen Costa, Nina Wong, Halina Heron, Mobeen Fiktree, Jacqueline de Leon
• HYPERBEAT – Alice Bottino, Chancellor Wallin
• Wildwood Down – Crashable Studios

The Mohammad Fahmi Storyteller Award

• Maddy Thorson – Extremely OK Games, Ltd.

Industry Impact Award

• Game Devs of Color – represented by Catt Small, Brian S. Chung, and Josh Boykin