With tens of thousands of titles released each year, tracking down the best upcoming indie games is a feat no one can achieve. I adore indie games and find myself adding at least ten to my Steam wishlist every week.
That’s why, in this list, the team has broken down all the games on the horizon that we’re most looking forward to. Each has something to it that resonates with us, with features we’re almost too excited to wait for. So, while there’s going to be a decent helping of games you can farm potatoes in from our dear Editor-in-Chief, you can be sure of the best picks you’ll find anywhere to guide you to the highest-quality games from smaller, lesser-known, and often solo developers.
**This list is updated monthly, and in our latest refresh we added the games launching in February 2025 that we’re most excited about**
Table of contents
February 2025
Check out the best indie games coming out in February 2025 below and wishlist them if they sound good to you.
Jump King Quest (John’s Pick)
- At a glance: Jump King, but with combat and multiplayer
- Release date: February 2025
- Platforms: PC (Steam Early Access), but probably everything else at 1.0 launch
Jump King is somewhat of a meme as an incredibly challenging game, especially among PlayStation trophy hunters. In it, your only task was to jump up through every screen, platform to platform, and make it to the top.
The trouble was, you could slip, miss, jump too high, or too low, and then fall all the way to the bottom or one of the extremely rare checkpoints. Jump King Quest is all this and more, packing in multiplayer, stop-motion graphics, and combat.
I can’t imagine Jump King being even more of a challenge, but this sequel is certainly trying to show me how, and I can’t wait to give it a try. I don’t relish the idea of multiple knights falling from the screen just before the end, though.
Wishlist if you’re ready to jump ever higher once more on Steam
Hollywood Animal (John’s Pick)
- At a glance: Guide a film studio the years and make it survive no matter what
- Release date: February 27, 2025
- Platforms: PC (Steam Early Access)
Hollywood Animal has been on a lot of radars for quite some time. It’s a simulation game in which you establish a Hollywood film studio and guide it through decades of filmmaking. Hoping it’ll survive everything time throws at it.
Making movies is the least of your worries, as there will be those who need something from you, and those you owe. You’ll make tough choices every day, the kind that must be kept behind closed doors lest they ruin your business.
This is a truly different kind of simulation game, one that could change your view of the genre if you let it. Honestly, don’t pass it up if this isn’t your style, because I think it’s everyone’s style.
Wishlist if you want to make some dreams come true while crushing others on Steam
Big Helmet Heroes (John’s Pick)
- At a glance: Medieval brawler with ridiculous knights
- Release date: February 6, 2025
- Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X/S & Nintendo Switch
I am extremely excited about Big Helmet Heroes. It just looks like good, old-fashioned dumb fun. I love the party game aesthetic it brings to the table with modern visuals and gameplay elements.
You’ve got four character classes to play as and dozens upon dozens of enemies to beat to death. This is a seriously silly game, though, and I suspect I’ll spend more time laughing at the muffled voices coming from each character than I will take anything in this title seriously.
Wishlist if bonking big medieval heads is your jam on Steam
Keep Driving (John’s Pick)
- At a glance: Atmospheric management RPG about life on an endless road trip
- Release date: February 6, 2025
- Platforms: PC
Keep Driving is my kind of management RPG. It’s set in the early 2000s, this is your first car, and you’re driving to a festival on the other side of the country. How you get there is up to you.
Each playthrough plonks you into a procedurally generated world and lets you be free. you can pick up hitchhikers, learn about their personalities and lives, take on odd jobs, and just enjoy the open road.
Of course, your car is going to start to fall apart, and that’s why you need to upgrade it or fix it now and then. The true beauty of this game is in the look back at where you’ve come from and how that journey went each time.
This is an endless way to make your heart ache for the road trips that really change you. Don’t skip it, don’t waste this chance for that feeling.
Get your endless driving groove on by wishlisting Keep Driving on Steam.
Cabernet (John’s Pick)
- At a glance: 19th century visual novel where you play as a newly sired vampire and navigate high society
- Release date: February 20, 2025
- Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X & S
Have you ever wondered what a Jane Austen story would be like with a few paranormal twists? While we do have Pride and Prejudice and Zombies to help us realize that dream, the movie of which is actually incredible, Cabernet puts a much more subtle and author-appropriate spin on it all.
In this game, you play as newly sired vampire Liza in a 19th century Easter European insipred world. You’ve got to guide her through the usual goings on of high society while also navitaging the tricky trials that this particular brand of the undead face.
I’m talking, of course, about draining the blood from living souls. While the makeup of this era is going to do most of the work for you, there’s a careful balance to be struck between who you drain, how much you drain, and what you do when things go south.
I’ve been keeping an eye on this one for a while and could not be more excited to be getting it so soon into 2025. It’s simple in concept but devilishly complex when you delve into the details. Join me and revel in the impossible choices we must make together!
Wishlist Cabernet on Steam now if you don’t already have it marked down somewhere because it’s not one you’ll want to miss.
Afterlove EP (Cande’s Pick)
- At a glance: Heartstring-tugging, rhythm-tapping tale of love, loss, and moving on
- Release date: February 14, 2025
- Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X & S
In Afterlove EP, you step into the shoes of Rama, a musician with Valentine’s Day problems – his ex, Cinta, is haunting him.
The day unfolds texting friends to vent about not wanting to leave the house, then wandering Jakarta’s vibrant, hand-drawn streets, and, of course, nailing rhythm game classics: mashing and holding buttons to hit those sweet “Perfect!” notes.
The whole thing is styled like a manga doesn’t exactly help me stay chill, and the fact that it’s Mohammad Fahmi’s (of Coffee Talk fame) latest work only cranks up my need to play it.
There’s no universe where this game doesn’t end up as a must-play cozy indie, just like Coffee Talk. So do yourself a favor and get in on it early.
You can’t side-scroll through manga-styled Indonesia while pining for your ex on the bluest Valentine’s Day ever just yet – but you can wishlist Afterlove EP on Steam right now.
Lost Records: Bloom Tape (Cande’s Pick)
- At a glance: Choice-based game that thrusts you into an angst-filled journey through the 90s and beyond
- Release date: February 18, 2025
- Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X & S
Lost Records is pure ‘90s angst with a side of rebellion. You play as Swann, trying to juggle life, a punk band, and friends – SHOULD’VE PUT A RED LIGHT on those questionable decisions.
You’ll bounce between 1995 and 2022, unraveling secrets that still mess with them. It’s a mix of small-town weirdness, emotional reunions, and a killer riot grrrl – THAT YOU WERE GONNA BE A DRAG – soundtrack.
YOU THINK YOU’RE FUNNY, BOY?
Oh, that? Just Nora Kelly’s “See You in Hell,” the track these teenage girls start writing when they Bloom in ’95 and finish when they Rage in 2022.
Stream it now, but don’t forget: you can only Wishlist Lost Records until it drops on February 18.
While Waiting (Cande’s Pick)
- At a glance: Puzzle/comedy game that tests your patience
- Release date: February 5, 2025
- Platforms: PC
Optillussion, the creators behind While Waiting, have come to the groundbreaking conclusion that games aren’t supposed to be fun.
Entertain you? Feed your power fantasy? Nah.
Their philosophy is based around one core tenet: “You’ve gotta make them suffer.” They said that to me in an interview. No, seriously. Totally happened.
If you’re intrigued (or just enjoy self-inflicted agony), there’s a demo(n) on Steam where you can experience this chaos.
Expect exhilarating challenges like waiting for a bus, waiting for rain to stop, and the absolute pinnacle – waiting for a health timer to hit zero just to replenish in some random mobile game.
You can either twiddle your thumbs or keep yourself busy petting a dog at the bus stop, sipping coffee while it pours rain, or wading through the nightmare of mobile game currency menus, all while enduring endless ads.
Or you can just wait.
Quick question though – if I spammed ESC and ENTER to skip the tutorial in this waiting game, how utterly screwed would I be? Just asking for a friend.
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