Congrats team! You made it through the silly season, you’re well stuffed full of holiday cheer and yummy goodness and now you’re thinking about your 2025 New Years Resolutions. Well I hope that playing more amazing indies is on your list because we have 10 delicious ones to bring you into a new gaming year!

BOWLOUT

Release Date: January 8th

Developers: Sep Horsthuis, Quint Winter

Platforms: PC

“Defeat pins with rapid-fire bowling balls or powerful melee strikes to avoid getting guttered in this First-Person PvE Bowling game.” 

This looks like a lot of silly fun! Bowling already is a super fun competitive sport, but turning the carnage up to 11 by incorporating PvE gameplay and producing ‘rapid-fire’ combat makes me excited for this one!

Dreaming Isles
Release Date: January 14th
Developers: YawningDad
Platforms: PC

A farming life sim with high seas adventure. Grow crops, grow ammo, grow a backbone! Side with the Pirates or help restore Global Trade. Feed the islanders, forge relationships, find romance, and call people “scurvy dog”! Raise the mainsail, fire the cannons, and set sail for adventure!

Dreaming Isles seems like a big melting pot of different genres mixed together with some pretty cute mini games that encapsulates the mixture of these genres. I really love how the game seems to give the player autonomy by making it your choice whether you help pirates or be more ”civilised” and help global trade.

Blade Chimera
Release Date: January 16th
Developers: Team Ladybug, WSS playground
Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch

Explore a dark and sinister Osaka as the Demon Hunter Shin. Battle demons, regain lost skills, and uncover the truth of your forgotten past in this exciting occult-inspired cyberpunk metroidvania.

This gives off some real Katana Zero vibes. It’s super fast paced, with visuals that really capture that gritty Cyberpunk feel.

NEEDY STREAMER OVERLOAD: Typing of The Net
Release Date: January 21st
Developers: WSS playground
Platforms: PC

“NEEDY STREAMER OVERLOAD: Typing of The Net” is a typing game in which you enter internet lingo in a call-and-response format with a girl (OMGkawaiiAngel) who has a strong need for approval.

I love a typing challenge; probably because I’m so good at typing! But unlike traditional typing games that get you to type out paragraphs of text as quickly as you can, ‘Typing Of The Net’ gives a super kawaii anime equivalent. So instead of a block of text, you are given instead “200 super lit slang” to type out. Sign. Me. Up!

Dead Of Darkness
Release Date: 24th January
Developers: Retrofiction Games
Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox Series X

Dead of Darkness is a 2D survival-horror action-adventure. Investigate a mysterious island and unravel its disturbing secret. You’ll have to face grotesque creatures, hurdle deadly traps, solve puzzles, and most importantly, survive.

Set in 1985 England, this pixelated horror has a number of really exciting gameplay elements that devs Retrofiction have dubbed “cosmic horror influences” that will immerse you further in its world. For example, each enemy you encounter will take a toll on your mental health, meaning the lower your mental state the stronger your hallucinations will be. I love when horror games shine a light on the psychological impacts that their characters experience after they’ve experienced some super gnarly s**t.

The Stone of Madness
Release Date: January 29th
Developers: The Game Kitchen
Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S

The Stone of Madness is a real-time tactical stealth game set in an 18th-century Spanish Monastery. Five prisoners pool their skills and resources to face their phobias, stave off insanity, uncover the mysteries of the Monastery, and find a way to escape.

This game looks on the difficult side, as most RTS games are, but it is also super intriguing. Every action you make also has an impact on the character’s mental health, and if you’re not careful, they can spiral into violence or bouts of dementia meaning the stakes to make sure your prisoners survive their escape are super high!

Wren’s Resurgence
Release Date: 24th of January
Developers: Soliloquy Games
Platforms: PC

Wren’s Resurgence is a 2D action platformer where Wren must fight her way through the Yokai-infested lands in order to rescue her sister Swan. With the evil force’s tyrannical grasp on the island, it’s up to Wren to brandish her katana and bring peace back to the land.

There’s nothing cooler than playing a badass female protagonist who has to save someone they love. (Side note: I love how it’s her sister and not some useless dude that she’s saving as well, as we need more tales of different kinds of love!) Add the setting of Japan and the enemies being connected with Japanese mythology and this game may just be my most anticipated indie of Jan 2025! Made by a solo dev, there’s also a demo on Steam currently if you want to check out how the game plays.

Techno Banter
Release Date: 31st of January
Developers: Dexai Arts
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Switch

You’re the bouncer of the Green Door club, where every decision matters. Reject the unworthy of partying with clever retorts, explore a neon-lit city, and immerse yourself in the Berlin-like city’s underground techno scene. The beat is pumping—are you in?

As someone who dreams to be cool enough to be accepted into the Berghain having the opportunity to play as the person who makes the ‘worthy or not’ decision sounds pretty fun! Developers DEXAI ARTS are from Berlin so they are living in the world of Berghain/the Green Door so are therefore the best people to evoke the ‘bright neons, filthy streets and even filthier techno beats’ of the city.

Jumping Jazz Cats
Release Date: 31st of January
Developers: Le Catnip Collective
Platforms: PC

Play, race and hang with your feline friends in this online platformer party game! Purrfect your pussycat parkour as you sprint, jump, bounce, swing, skid and slide through a collection of collaborative and competitive mini-games set in a grandiose cartoon mansion. Get jumpin’, jazz cats!

An online/couch co-op game where you and your friends play as cats?! But wait…you can also customise your cats? This looks like a crapload of fun to try out on your next game night especially seeing as it supports 9 players online and 4 on split-screen.  I’m hoping this will be booted up at our next Checkpoint party as it looks like utter cute chaos!

Citizen Sleeper 2
Release Date: 31st of January
Developers: Jump Over The Age
Platforms: PC

A dice-driven RPG, in a human and heartfelt sci-fi world. You are an escaped android, with a malfunctioning body, a price on your head and no memory of your past. Get a ship, find a crew, and take on contracts while you navigate across the Starward Belt.

Dust off your dice as its time to head back into the Citizen Sleeper universe! Arguably the most anticipated indie of January 2025,  it’s been said to go deeper into its “RPG roots.” Can’t wait to see how it improves on the original and what choices devs Jump Over The Age have in store for players!

What a way to bring in 2025! Hope you have some down time to enjoy gaming over January and see you in February for our next indie list!