Every two months, CGMagazine’s Indie Watch highlights must-see indie games that have captured the attention of players and critics alike. This edition focuses on titles released in April and May 2025, showcasing a wide variety of innovative, exciting, and genre-defining experiences across multiple platforms. From fast-paced action platformers to thoughtful puzzle games, immersive horror adventures, and relaxing cozy sims, this list celebrates the creativity and passion of indie developers pushing the boundaries of gaming.
Indie games often deliver some of the most refreshing and original experiences, and this latest Indie Watch selection proves no different. With detailed insights from CGMagazine’s writers, players can discover hidden gems like the Abathor – Ultimate Edition update, Finding Frankie, and even the beauty of Lushfoil Photography Sim. Whether you’re into roguelikes, RPGs, platformers, or simulation games, this list is designed to spotlight indie titles that deserve a place in your library.
Here is CGMagazine’s Indie Watch: Must-See Indie Games — April & May 2025
Abathor – Ultimate Edition Update
Developer: Pow Pixel Games
Update Launch: April 18, 2025.
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S
Played By: Philip Watson
Volgarr the Viking fans rejoice, there’s a new Viking-based action platforming game out, and it features local and online co-op for Contra and Sunset Riders fans alike. Abathor’s new update brings enhancements to overall gameplay and a new speed run mode for those who have already claimed victory over the title’s main narrative, which makes it a great candidate for our Indie Watch list.
Abathor features a traditional gameplay beat: run to the right while defeating adversaries using steel and excellently timed platforming. Weapon swings are tremendous and have real impact, and each character on the selection screen features a new method of gameplay, adding serious replayability to a straightforward experience.
Building on titles released before it, Abathor borrows from inspiration like Super Mario Bros 2 with multiple characters that feature varied gameplay, Castlevania with smooth and tight platforming sequences, and Metroid with a massive bestiary of varied enemy designs. Abathor injects a novel sense of exploration into a popular genre, and the new Ultimate Edition update is the ideal way to play Abathor.
Fans who love action platforming, fans who love Shovel Knight, or players who want a simple experience on par with other popular ‘run-to-the-right’ titles, will find a gem with Abathor, especially those who have to bring their little brother along to play, too.
Bionic Bay
Developer: Psychoflow Studio, Mureena City
Release Date: April 17, 2025
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5
Played By: Lane Martin
Bionic Bay is an extremely smart puzzle platformer that lives somewhere between moody indie darlings like Limbo or Hollow Knight, and thinky, mad science-driven puzzlers like Portal. Players are treated to some truly striking visuals as they bend their brains around new, inventive mechanics and eventually die doing something stupid.
It would be easy to write Bionic Bay off as just a puzzle game, and really, the game requires a lot of trial and error, but the thing that always stood out to me about it was how good the mechanics felt. All your standard running, jumping, and dashing feels great to do, always prompting players to eek out another inch from their already daring leaps, but the introduction of things like teleports or gravity shifts just makes everything sing. There are plenty of levels in the campaign already, but the online leaderboards will really have players coming back, and that’s why it makes our Indie Watch list.
Conquest Dark
Developer: Eldritch Sword Games
Release Date: April 30, 2025
Platforms: PC
Played By: Philip Watson
If you’re like me, Vampire Survivors has taken you hostage since its release. If you’re also like me, that same reason is why Conquest Dark may have appeared on your radar. Eldritch Sword Games’ Conquest Dark takes the gameplay of Vampire Survivors and puts it on a 3D plane for roguelike players to throw attempts at. Conquest Dark takes place 237 years after the in-game world — referred to as “the Black Planet — nearly survived annihilation from undead armies hellbent on ending humanity. It’s up to the player to enact Dark Rituals to take the fight back to the undead hordes that brought civilization to its knees.
Conquest Dark throws the player behind the POV of a chosen champion, on a world map of many different challenges to face and conquer. While Conquest Dark is still in early access, there are still many generated maps for players to lose hours on and challenges to reign supreme over. After choosing a champion, players can then make their build in line with options other roguelikes have deployed. As waves of enemies come at you, you must build resistance and strength to fight back against the onslaught of what feels like a never-ending zombie menace.
Although the onscreen graphics are still being worked on, it’s impressive what Eldritch Sword Games accomplished with character builds. Players can choose between warrior builds, archery, and even magic that has raucous explosions, wiping away undead with finesse. Magic and bigger melee skills are visually impressive, and Conquest Dark goads the failed champion to try again, similar to the titans of the roguelike genre.
Fans familiar with Binding of Isaac and Vampire Survivors will find a must-play in Conquest Dark, and as a bonus, the title works incredibly well on Steam Deck—all bonuses for our Indie Watch list.
Finding Frankie
Developer: SUPERLOU
Release Date: April 14, 2025
Platforms: PC, Xbox Series X|S
Played By: Philip Watson
It has been a long time since Mirror’s Edge Catalyst dropped, and as fans near the decade mark with no new titles in the series, other indie developers like SUPERLOU have picked up the torch dropped by Faith Connors and developed new parkour-based games. This is where Finding Frankie slots in, a mixture of half parts Mirror’s Edge and Poppy Playtime, that somehow works.
After winning a secret invitation to a contest inside Frankie’s branded cereal, you are brought to what appears to be an abandoned shopping mall filled with a sinister atmosphere. While initially your character is meant to win against two other contestants in a parkour game show, events take a turn to the horrific side when your opponents are brutally maimed by an animatronic akin to Five Nights at Freddy’s. More like five nights at Frankie’s.
What was meant to be a fun event turns into a tense, sweaty crucible of running down tight corridors in search of switches to escape each room. This occurs while Frankie is chasing you, begging for a taste of the player’s flesh. Smart level design and equally smart control schemes make Finding Frankie a found gem in the Indie space that any fan of tense horror would be into.
Lushfoil Photography Sim
Developer: Matt Newell
Release Date: April 15, 2025
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S
Played By: Lane Martin
Lushfoil Photography Sim may, in fact, be the chillest, coziest game I have ever played in my life. I’ve played your Stardews, your Cooking Mamas, and even a litany of virtual pet simulators. Nothing has been as relaxed and serene as Lushfoil Photography Sim. In it, players set off to a number of beautiful locales with a professional camera and just explore the visually stunning landscapes and see what they can see.
There is a little bit of guidance, mind you, but not much. As players explore, they may find some photos on a bulletin board with the suggestion that they recreate them themselves. They may find a boat to explore the lake, or a drone camera, or even a crappy old digital camera that can take some really gnarly shots.
Explore, take pictures, spot some wildlife, and soon enough, new areas will open up, with opportunities for more stunning vistas, a perfect fit for our Indie Watch list. If you’ve ever wanted to get out into the world with just00 a camera to take in the sights, you really owe Lushfoil Photography Sim a look.
Oddventure
Developer: Infamous Rabbit
Release Date: Apr 3rd, 2025
Platforms: PC
Played By: Jordan Biordi
Oddventure is a bit of a…strange game based largely on its inspiration and certainly its name. Upon seeing it, you may have believed it was an evolution of the unofficial Mother 4 fangame, which changed its name to Oddity. But despite the visual inspiration from the Mother series, Oddventure is distinctly its own due in large part to the way its combat is structured.
In some ways, it plays like a more straightforward Undertale where players are able to choose whether to kill or spare any enemy they face. However, what sets it apart is the Oddventure’s unique “Mood” system, where how you choose to use non-violent skills can affect not just your enemies, but allies as well. It adds a really interesting layer to combat, where every decision needs to be considered thoughtfully since it might affect how you proceed in different ways.
Add to this a dark sense of humour and a distinct maturity that runs under the more playful aesthetic, and you’ve got a game that seems like a lot of others, but is unlike anything you’ve played.
PixelShire
Developer: Kappa Bits
Release Date: May 8th, 2025
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 5
Played By: Jordan Biordi
I was surprised when I was gearing up to play PixelShire for the purpose of this list. CGM’s Dayna Elieen pointed to the game’s Steam page, and it was sitting at a Mostly Negative reviews. Personally, I don’t put much credence in user reviews and with almost no critical reviews for it, I needed to see it for myself and…it’s fine? It’s a pretty standard first-attempt at a farming sim that maybe veers a bit too closely to Stardew Valley—at least in terms of visuals—but like they say, “imitation is the most sincere form of flattery.”
In truth, PixelShire feels a lot like a combination of Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing: New Horizons. While there’s a fairly robust farming system within the game, it also gives players a lot of terraforming options for almost all of the town, with customization options being unlocked later. It succeeds at being a cute, chill farming simulator with its own unique ideas. While the game is certainly rough around the edges and makes some unique stylistic choices, the developers have been committed to fixing it to getting players an experience true to their original vision; this is what landed it on our Indie Watch list.
REPOSE
Developer: Bozó Attila Bertold
Release Date: April 3rd, 2025
Platforms: PC
Played By: Jordan Biordi
The moment you boot up REPOSE, it hits you with a foreboding sense of dread right in the title screen. Once you enter, the atmosphere begins to weigh deeply on you, pulling you deeper into both its metaphorical and literal abyss. REPOSE caught my eye in the same way that World of Horror did—not simply for its MS-DOS styled graphics, but how its setting and tone seemed to evoke the work of Junji Ito.
The feeling of existential dread runs through the entire experience. You are an unnamed explorer tasked to delve deep into a subterranean labyrinth in search of oxygen tanks. It looks and plays similarly to an old-school PC dungeon crawler but with a bit of a catch—not only do players need to watch out for enemies, but they have a limited number of steps they can take before they die. It creates a constant sense of tension as you wander through the dark, worried about not only the creatures that lurk in the dark, but literally every step you take.
And what makes this terrific experience even more intriguing is a mysterious narrative that questions the motives of the company employing you, and the disappearance of the person you came before you. It’s not often a horror game captivates me in such a way that it instills a feeling in me that makes me both scared to continue, but unable to stop.
Skin Deep
Developer: Blendo Games
Release Date: April 30, 2025
Platforms: PC
Played By: Lane Martin
I can’t stop playing Skin Deep. That’s the new game from developer Blendo Games, who seem to have been quiet for the past decade. Well, the developers of Quadrilateral Cowboy and Thirty Flights of Loving are back at it, now with cats in spaaaace! Skin Deep is an immersive sim where players will crawl through vents and sneak up on guards to rescue the crew (who are all cats) of various space ships when they become targeted by nefarious pirates. In between missions, players can exchange emails with the various cats they’ve saved, play a few mini games, and try to figure out why the pirates seem to be gunning for them, specifically.
Skin Deep is the kind of game that seems like a weird punchline to a joke nobody told at first, but as the game progresses, players will find a litany of increasingly wild mechanics. For instance, early in the game, you might learn that throwing a box of pepper at an enemy will send them into a sneezing fit, giving you the leeway you need to pounce on them and bash their heads into numerous things. After that, it’s flammable hand sanitizer, planters of ragweed, and the constant search for a way to dispose of these pirates’ still living heads.
Skin Deep is a crazy ride from start to finish and certainly something worth checking out, which is why we are recommending it on our Indie Watch list.
The Horror at Highrook
Developer: Nullpointer Games
Release Date: May 1, 2025
Platforms: PC
Played By: Lane Martin
It seems that the owners of the prestigious Highrook estate have gone missing, likely due to some dealings with some dark gods, fumbling about with forbidden sciences, or angering a vengeful spirit or two. In The Horror at Highrook, players will guide a cadre of inquisitive interlopers through the property to suss out what happened and hopefully not fall victim to similar misfortunes.
Gameplay emulates a board game with a large and expanding board, cards for virtually everything (Including the local cat who does as she pleases but may let you pet her), and various procedural tasks to complete. If you ever played Weather Factory’s Cultist Simulator and wished it had just any guidance whatsoever, The Horror at Highrook is your game.
Luckily, The Horror at Highrook plays a little more in-depth than your standard tabletop experience; in fact, it’s a bit more akin to a legacy game. Each character has their own reasons for being there, and their own missions to complete within the house, whether it is helpful or not. The simple gameplay is engrossing, and one more round will quickly dovetail into twenty minutes, thirty, then several hours as you unfurl the dark past of the house’s former occupants and come to grips with your own fate.
The Siege and the Sandfox
Developer: Cardboard Sword
Release Date: May 20, 2025
Platforms: PC
Played By: Philip Watson
As Ubisoft continues to push back the release date for Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake, indie studios have picked up where they’ve left off. First, the developers behind Dead Cells (Evil Empire) launched a 2D roguelike that made too much sense not to happen, and now, Cardboard Sword has picked up the mantle on a 2D Persia-like stealth title called The Siege and the Sandfox. The Siege and the Sandfox features everything fans could want from a new 2D Prince of Persia, including stealth, platforming, puzzles and the signature wall running ability, landing it on our Indie Watch list. The only thing missing is the prince himself.
After witnessing the assassination of the King, The Sandfox – known as the Kasha’i who comes from a line of protectors to the throne — is wrongfully accused of his murder and is thrown to the depths of the kingdom aptly called “Traitor’s Fall,” and your mission is to still protect the throne after the throne left you for dead. The Siege and the Sandfox features crisp platforming gameplay with tense stealth segments all on a 2D plane and all with gorgeous pixel visuals.
The reliance on puzzle solving is a huge strength for The Siege and the Sandfox, as the title forgoes typical combat-based gameplay in favour of putting out lit torches to confuse the enemy. These segments operate as puzzles testing the timing of the player, putting stress behind the sticks whenever a guard appears. Fans of stealth titles, Metroidvanias, Prince of Persia, and even pixel artwork-based titles will find something to love about The Siege and the Sandfox.
Tranquil Isle
Developer: Tom Daly
Release Date: Apr 18th, 2025
Platforms: PC
Played By: Jordan Biordi
If you’re familiar with my writing, then you’ll know I love a good cozy game, which is why so many end up on our Indie Watch lists. But as I’ve said multiple times, cozy games can’t substitute a lack of gameplay for the sake of “comfort.” Last time around, I got to experience the wonderful Merchant 64 that balanced its cozy trappings with a really satisfying buy/sell gameplay loop. This time, Tranquil Isle has done something I would’ve never thought of for a relaxing town builder: applying an arcade-style point system. I honestly couldn’t believe how captivating it was.
At its core, the idea is simple—players lay out buildings on an island in order to gain points towards a Milestone, which can reward them with different buildings. There’s an element of procedural generation with each island and building rewards being different with every playthrough, but the idea is to create an island as efficiently and strategically as possible. Buildings have buffs/debuffs depending on whether certain buildings are in their vicinity, so players need to make simple considerations if they want to grow as wide as possible, while still having an aesthetically pleasing island.
It’s the perfect blend of chill experience, while requiring enough consideration to be engaging. And for those who just want to build pretty islands, there’s a sandbox mode for a much more relaxing game. It’s proof positive that even cozy games need to engage players for a truly rewarding experience.
Wings of Endless
Developer: Isoca Games
Release Date: May 8th, 2025
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S
Played By: Jordan Biordi
I was initially drawn to Wings of Endless in large part to its resemblance to the kind of game you’d find on Newgrounds way back in the day. Back in the mid-2000s, there was no shortage of really fun 2D platforming Beat ‘Em Ups with really unique mechanics, and this seemed like a genuine callback to that style. However, while Wings of Endless’ experience is a little bit more straightforward, it displays a masterful understanding of the fundamentals of enjoyable gameplay.
Wings of Endless combines solid combat with an intriguing narrative and an expansive world that requires a solid degree of Metroid-like exploration, as players are given roadblocks and gain new abilities to progress further. And while I don’t love the inclusion of a Dark Souls-style stamina system in games like this, what makes the experience far more engaging is the way it blends both the Action and RPG styles. Its combat is punchy, fluid and extremely enjoyable, and made even better by the way players can switch between characters on the fly to extend combos. If you’re a fan of ARPGs that are retro-inspired but modern-designed, you definitely need to check this out.
Stay tuned for our next Indie Watch article, coming to you at the beginning of August for our June and July titles!
