Topic: indie games
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Top Xbox Game Pass Games to Play in 2025
Xbox Game Pass in 2025 offered a compelling library, highlighted by standout independent games and a diverse range of experiences from RPGs to puzzle adventures. Notable new titles included **Avowed**, a focused fantasy RPG with flexible combat, and **Keeper**, an inventive puzzle-platformer with...
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NPR Staff's Top Game Picks for 2025
The past year was defined by critically acclaimed and creative independent games, with standout titles and sequels from smaller studios rivaling major publishers. Major console manufacturers like Nintendo and PlayStation secured notable successes with new hardware releases and exclusive, cinemati...
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Palworld Boss Skips AAA Games, Calls Them 'Overwhelmingly About Graphics'
Pocketpair's John Buckley champions indie games for their innovative gameplay and willingness to experiment, contrasting them with AAA titles he feels often prioritize graphics over engaging mechanics. The creative freedom in indie development, unburdened by corporate pressures, allows for unique...
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Indie Shooter Escape From Duckov Beats Battlefield 6 on Steam
Escape From Duckov, an indie shooter with duck-themed combat, has surpassed the blockbuster Battlefield 6 in concurrent players on Steam, highlighting how innovative gameplay can overcome large marketing budgets. Despite Battlefield 6's strong launch with over 747,000 players, Escape From Duckov ...
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Why Demonschool's Release Date Shift Was Essential
Indie developers face intense challenges in funding and visibility, exemplified by Necrosoft Games delaying Demonschool to avoid competing with Hollow Knight: Silksong, highlighting the strategic decisions needed for a successful launch. Demonschool, a tactical RPG with social simulation elements...
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This indie game's 'game over' music is so good it got its own teaser
The indie game **Mindwave** is generating buzz for its *WarioWare*-inspired, rapid-fire micro-game format and a surprisingly catchy synth-funk game over screen theme. It builds on the micro-game genre by incorporating a more substantial, story-driven narrative throughout its chaotic gameplay, as ...
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Top 8 Steam Deck Games of 2025: Must-Play Picks
The Steam Deck excels with a curated selection of portable-friendly games, including standout indie titles and polished sequels that perform well on the hardware. Highlighted games span diverse genres, from the addictive genre-mashup *Ball x Pit* and the strategic RPG *Clair Obscur: Expedition 33...
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Developers Reveal Their Favorite Games of the Year
Developers highlighted a diverse range of 2025 games, from chaotic co-op climbing in *Peak* to the profound narrative and dynamic world of *Ghost of Yotei*. Several praised games for innovative mechanics and structure, such as *The Hundred Line*'s bold narrative subversion and *Type Help*'s cleve...
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Nostalgia for iPhone Gaming's Golden Age
The Simogo Legacy Collection compiles seven foundational mobile games from 2010–2015, showcasing the studio's early creative diversity from arcade twists to atmospheric adventures. These games are unified by a distinctive artistic vision and meticulous craftsmanship, with every detail from mechan...
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Steam Sale: Grab This Post-Balatro Deckbuilder for Just $2!
Steam's Tiny Teams sale offers deep discounts on indie games, featuring standout titles like *Aces & Adventures* for $1.99, running until August 14th. *Aces & Adventures* combines poker mechanics with RPG elements, while horror fans can explore *Pager* or the co-op ghost-hunting sim *Phasmophobia...
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Silksoon Release Overwhelms Major Gaming Platforms
Hollow Knight: Silksong's launch caused major digital storefronts like Steam and Nintendo eShop to crash due to overwhelming player demand. The highly anticipated sequel is priced at only $20, leading other indie studios to delay their releases to avoid competition. The release has revitalized in...
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Why Games Like Silksong Delay Launch: The Battle for Visibility
The surprise announcement of Silksong's release date on September 4 has prompted several competing games to delay their launches to avoid being overshadowed. Developers face significant risks when launching near a major title, as competition for visibility extends to press coverage, streamers, an...
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Mewgenics: The Binding of Isaac Creators' Chaotic New Roguelike
Mewgenics is a deep, strategic turn-based roguelike that combines cat breeding with tactical combat, offering significant long-term planning and replay value. The core gameplay loop involves managing and selectively breeding cats at a home base to create genetically unique fighters, then leading ...
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Planet Centauri Devs Say Game is 'Cursed' After New Steam Bug
Planet Centauri's 1.0 launch was hindered by a Steam bug that blocked release notifications to wishlisters, reducing its initial visibility significantly. Valve offered a Daily Deal to compensate, but it coincided with Valve's major hardware announcement, which overshadowed the promotion and led ...
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Uncover Horror Gems in Steam's Halloween Sale
Steam's "Steam Scream IV" Halloween event is currently running, featuring significant discounts on a wide variety of spooky and suspenseful games, including overlooked older titles and indie horror experiences. The sale includes a broad range of games, from recent under-the-radar releases and inv...
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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Leads 2025 Golden Joystick Awards
The 2025 Golden Joystick Awards nominations are now open, with public voting available until October 31st, marking the start of the gaming awards season. Sandfall Interactive's "Clair Obscur: Expedition 33" is a standout nominee, competing in major categories like Best Narrative and Best Soundtra...
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Top PC Games to Watch in October
October's PC gaming lineup is rich with horror titles like "Little Nightmares 3" and "Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2", alongside indie scares and major franchise updates, catering to diverse player interests. The month is packed with gaming events such as PAX AUS, EGX, and Gamescom Asia, ...
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PC Gaming Show Tokyo Direct: All Games, Trailers & Reveals
The PC Gaming Show Tokyo Direct 2025 featured ten world premieres and over thirty games, including exclusive reveals and developer interviews, celebrating the legacy of the Tokyo Game Show. Highlighted games included diverse genres such as the zombie action of Killing Floor 3, the sci-fi adventur...
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Atari's Bold Move: Releasing a Metroidvania on Silksong's Launch Day
Hollow Knight: Silksong and Adventure of Samsara both launched on September 4, but Silksong attracted over half a million players while Samsara had a peak of only twelve concurrent players. Despite positive reviews and quality gameplay, Samsara was overshadowed due to poor marketing and unfortuna...
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Top 5 Hidden Steam Gems You Missed in August 2025
August 2025's Steam lineup features five standout hidden gems, offering fresh experiences from horror to cozy management sims for diverse player preferences. **Pager** is a surreal 1990s office horror game with a 1-bit art style, while **Is This Seat Taken?** is a quirky puzzler about seating ecc...
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Meet Stanley Baxton: BAFTA Breakthrough Star
Stanley Baxton, a solo game designer known for satirical, horror, and queer-themed interactive fiction, has been named a BAFTA Breakthrough star for his impactful work that challenges mainstream conventions. His selection validates the importance of representing marginalized communities and creat...
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Game Awards 2025: All Reveals, Trailers & Winners Live
The indie RPG **Clair Obscur: Expedition 33** dominated The Game Awards 2025, setting a record by winning Game of the Year and eight other categories, a major achievement for its modest budget and team size. The show featured major game announcements, including reveals for **Star Wars: Fate of th...
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Ball x Pit: The Underrated Roguelike Pinball Game That's All I Need
**Ball x Pit** is an indie roguelike pinball hybrid that offers a compelling, chaotic gameplay loop centered on shooting bouncing balls at waves of enemies, with a focus on mastering angles and physics for strategic damage. The game features deep customization through creative ball combinations a...
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Carolyn Petit's Top 5 Video Games of 2025
The article critiques the idea that universal acclaim can signal a lack of creative risk, using Hideo Kojima's reported concern about *Death Stranding 2*'s "too good" test results as a starting point to argue that the most resonant games are uniquely authored and challenging. It highlights severa...
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Top Games of 2025: The Ultimate Year in Review
2025 was a standout year for gaming, offering a diverse and memorable lineup of titles across blockbuster sequels and innovative indie games. Staff favorites included the atmospheric PvE shooter **ARC Raiders**, the introspective sequel **Ghost of Yōtei**, and the brilliant puzzle design of **Blu...
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January 2026's Hottest Game Releases
January 2026 features a surprisingly strong and diverse lineup of video game releases, including major sequels and innovative independent titles, setting an exciting tone for the year. Key anticipated releases include a sequel to the action-RPG *Code Vein* and the experimental perceptive reality ...
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2025's Weirdest Games Defy a Single Defining Title
2025 was defined by a remarkable diversity of creative and experimental games, with widespread innovation making it difficult to single out one title as the year's definitive experience. While the award-winning *Clair Obscur: Expedition 33* was a major success, many standout titles like *Blue Pri...
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Top-Rated PC Games of 2025: Metacritic's Best Picks
The 2025 PC gaming landscape was exceptionally rich, featuring highly-rated titles across genres from major sequels like *Hades 2* to innovative indie adventures. A curated list based on aggregate critic scores highlights the year's standout games, serving as a trusted guide to top experiences. A...
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December's Most Anticipated PC Game Releases
December 2025 offers a curated mix of new game releases, including horror titles like *Sleep Awake* and *Routine*, alongside unique adventures such as the rhythm-action *Unbeatable* and the demonic skateboarding game *Skate Story*. The month features key industry events like the PC Gaming Show: M...
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Sandfall Interactive Dominates 2025 Golden Joystick Awards
Sandfall Interactive's *Clair Obscur: Expedition 33* dominated the 2025 Golden Joystick Awards, winning six awards including Studio of the Year and matching Larian Studios' 2023 achievement. The game received accolades for its storytelling, visual design, and soundtrack, with actors Jennifer Engl...
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Director's Inspiration for Exit 8 Came from Watching Players
The film "Exit 8" expands a minimalist video game into a cinematic narrative by blending interactive tension with storytelling depth, creating an unsettling yet immersive experience. Director Genki Kawamura drew inspiration from universal urban anxieties and player reactions to develop characters...
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Defiant Dev Launches Game Same Day as Silksong
Hollow Knight: Silksong and Fling to the Finish are both launching on September 4, though they target different audiences and genres. Fling to the Finish is a cooperative racing party game focused on physics-based fun and teamwork, contrasting with Silksong's metroidvania style. The game supports...
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Summer Game Fest 2025: All the Biggest Announcements Live
Summer Game Fest 2025 featured major game announcements, including long-awaited sequels and new IPs, with trailers and release dates generating excitement. Highlights included "Resident Evil 9: Requiem" (2026), "Game of Thrones: War for Westeros" (2026), and indie titles like "Mina the Hollower" ...
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Mewgenics Sells 150,000 Copies in 6 Hours, Recoups Dev Costs
Mewgenics sold over 150,000 copies in six hours, instantly recouping development costs and topping Steam's sales charts, outperforming the initial launch of *The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth*. The game's launch was bigger than any *Binding of Isaac* expansion, with a peak of nearly 66,000 concurrent...
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PlayStation's Longest State of Play Ever Just Announced
The upcoming PlayStation State of Play on February 12th will be its longest-ever showcase, featuring over an hour of reveals from PlayStation Studios, third-party partners, and indie developers. The event's timing, following a major independent announcement for *Horizon Hunters Gathering*, has fu...
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Geoff Keighley Explains The Game Awards' Trailer-First Focus
The Game Awards deliberately combines major game announcements with its awards ceremony, using exclusive trailers to attract a large global audience that then sees the winners. This model creates a symbiotic cycle where the spectacle boosts viewership, which in turn amplifies recognition and sale...
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Ex-Nintendo Staff Reveal Why "Nindies" Name Was Dropped
Nintendo has officially retired the popular marketing term "Nindies" for its indie games, despite its initial popularity and internal support. The term was removed due to legal concerns that blending "Nintendo" with "indies" could weaken the company's trademark protection. This highlights a confl...
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PlayStation Store's End of Year Sale: Over 4,000 Games on Sale
The PlayStation Store's End of Year sale is live until December 22nd, offering over 4,500 discounted games and add-ons. The sale features standout deals across genres, including bundles like Assassin's Creed and Borderlands collections, plus discounted recent releases. It highlights enduring clas...
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The Playdate: A Must-Have Indie Puzzle Console
The Playdate handheld console offers a focused gaming experience with a curated library of indie puzzle games, designed for bite-sized challenges and mental exercise without digital distractions. Lexgrid introduces a unique word puzzle format where players use clues and modifiers to find answers ...
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Top New Games Releasing in November 2025
November 2025 features major exclusives for the Switch 2 and a variety of inventive indie titles and blockbuster games like Call of Duty: Black Ops 7. The month includes highly anticipated adventures, brain-teasing puzzle games, and fresh takes on classic genres to cater to diverse player prefere...
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Fanatical's Scream Sale 2025: Best PC Games of the Year
Fanatical's Scream Sale offers significant discounts on a wide range of PC games, including major titles like Borderlands 4 and Silent Hill f, with legitimate keys redeemable on platforms such as Steam or Epic Games Store. Customers spending over $15 receive a free bonus game or coupon, repeatabl...
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Asia-Pacific Fuels Souls-like Game Boom
The Asia-Pacific region has become the central hub for Souls-like games, with Japan, China, and Korea leading in development, publishing, and player engagement, as evidenced by Steam data and a shift in focus from 2020 to 2025. Top-selling titles in the region include Black Myth: Wukong (20.3M un...
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Evercade Tomb Raider Bundles Are Back In Stock At Amazon
Evercade gaming hardware, including the handheld EXP-R and home console VS-R bundled with the Tomb Raider Collection, is back in stock at Amazon for $130 each after supply shortages and a price increase. The Evercade platform, developed by Blaze Entertainment, offers over 75 cartridges with retro...
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Play Top Games Free with Amazon Prime – Family Favorites Included
Amazon Prime members can now access a wide variety of games at no extra cost through the integration of Prime Gaming and Luna cloud services, playable directly via web browsers on multiple devices. The Luna service streams games without the need for a console or high-end PC, requiring only a stab...
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The Must-Play Nintendo Game of 2025
The year 2025 saw Nintendo's successful dual-console landscape, with the launch of the Switch 2 alongside the original Switch, leading to a diverse and exceptional array of games. Major releases included flagship titles like *Mario Kart World* for the Switch 2, acclaimed sequels such as *Hollow K...
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Play These Game Awards Nominees on Xbox Game Pass Now
Xbox Game Pass provides immediate access to acclaimed current and past games, offering a solution for players with overwhelming backlogs. Several standout nominees are highlighted, including *Ninja Gaiden 4* for its technical action, *The Outer Worlds 2* for its narrative RPG depth, and *Hollow K...
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Steam's First Black Friday Sale: Unmissable Deals Are Here
The first-ever Steam Black Friday sale is now live, offering significant discounts on a wide variety of games until December 1st. Notable deals include major price reductions on popular titles like Battlefield 6, Blue Prince, and horror games such as Silent Hill 2 and Doom: The Dark Ages. The Ste...
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Future Hollow Knight games will be standalone, says Team Cherry
Team Cherry plans for future Hollow Knight games beyond Silksong to be standalone experiences, not part of a continuous narrative. The developers prioritize creating games that coexist independently, focusing on artistic consistency over technological innovation with each release. Silksong has be...
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Unity's AI Tools & Runtime Fee Recovery Plan
Unity faced a severe crisis of trust in 2023 after proposing a Runtime Fee, leading to backlash, a CEO change, and many developers switching to competing engines like Godot. Under new leadership, Unity is refocusing on its core mission by improving multi-platform deployment tools, runtime perform...
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Valve's 256GB LCD Steam Deck Drops 20% for Autumn Sale
The 256GB LCD Steam Deck is now available at a 20% discount for $319.20, offering a compelling entry point into PC gaming handhelds with a complete package including the device, power supply, and case. Powered by a quad-core AMD processor comparable to the PlayStation 5, it handles a wide range o...
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