2025 has started off great for indie games. Between the Slow Game Club rolling in full force and the multitude of games shown at Steam’s Next Fest, this feels like a year where they can carry the load. Over the last few weeks, I’ve been putting a little extra into my search for games that hit me dead in the chest. The two I’ve chosen to highlight here are games that I believe have the potential to put that Balatro-sized crater in the industry.
‘Aerial_Knight’s DropShot’ is an indie ‘mission: impossible’ scene and i need it
Thirty seconds and a Bluesky post. That is literally all it took for Aerial_Knight to sell me on this game. A First-Person Shooter that limits how much you can shoot, Aerial_Knight’s DropShot tasks you with being the first one to the only parachute in the air as you race your opponents to it. I can’t wait to see how this plays. The concept of a free dive as you take opponents out at speed, Burnout-style while racing them to a life-saving parachute really does feel fresh out of an action movie.
This is the kind of stuff we can only get from an indie dev. According to the game’s webpage, each round lasts 45-60 seconds, which lends itself well to multiple sessions as well as some pretty wild social clips depending on how gameplay shakes out. DropShot doesn’t have a release date yet, but I’ll have my eye on this all the way up to launch. And I’ll definitely be giving his other work a shot.
‘tossdown’ has invoked some big names, but might just be able to back that up
I found out about this indie game today while scrolling Bluesky and came across a very simple post, “Hey Bluesky. Would you play this game?” I clicked into it, hit the Steam page, and saw what the dev Fer Factor described as “Crazy Taxi meets Jet Set Radio.” Now those are both games that I have a tremendous love for. Especially Jet Set Radio, but that’s a conversation for another day.
Tossdown, just on look alone, is exactly what Fer Factor says. But I see more. I see Vampire Survivors, Paperboy — I see the best of those old Newgrounds flash-based runners. What this game makes me feel is what kept me distracted in my high school Tech Ed classes. It looks fun and the type of thing that would have you passing the controller around with some friends. So, my answer to Fer Factor’s question is an emphatic, Ice Cube in Friday: YES. Tossdown is slated for release in 2025.
THIS IS HOW WE WIN, HOW WE GROW
These are just two of the indie games that I’ve come across in my searches. There are an insane amount of games in my wishlist that I want to play and highlight. We keep pounding the table for the indies because that is where the creativity in the industry is allowed to flourish. I can’t imagine how many AAA devs would love to pull out whatever insane ideas are floating around in their heads, but can’t because no one wants to “take a risk.” But who would have thought a Solitaire roguelike would take off the way it did? Or a social deduction game with cute but monstrous characters? Or a pixel-based auto-attack game that threw enemies at you at an increasingly crazy clip? The passion of these indie devs is evident, and I can’t wait to see how these games shake out.
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