Update: The Indie Game Awards Retracts Expedition 33’s GOTY And Best Debut Awards Due To Use Of Gen AI
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)
The Mohammad Fahmi Storyteller Award
- Maddy Thorson of Extremely OK Games, Ltd (Associated Game: Celeste, TowerFall Ascension)
Industry Impact
- Game Devs of Color, represented by Catt Small, Brian S. Chung, and Joshy Boykin
And that’s every winner of The Indie Game Awards 2025! Are there any surprises for you? Let us know in the comments below!
