Indie games have long become a part of the eSports world as well. For instance, most of the reviews of BC Game state that the players can make wagers on professional indie game players and teams, just as they can on the major titles. According to experts from Cryptomaniaks, the interest in eSports among bettors has been growing in recent years.

Nivalis
Nivalis is an indie game developed by the German studio ION LANDS, known for its cyberpunk indie game Cloudpunk, which has a loyal fan base. Nivalis is somewhat similar to Stardew Valley, but set in a cyberpunk setting. In the game, you'll navigate a dark metropolis when you inherit your friend's noodle shop in the bustling dystopian city.

The game features night and day cycles, which affect the gameplay, and the weather is also a big part of the gameplay and the overall neon aesthetic. What starts as a noodle shop in the middle of the street can turn into a restaurant or a bar as you improve and meet a diverse set of characters.

Ages of Cataria
Ages of Cataria is another installment in the growing "cozy game" genre. Third Pie Studios produced it, and it's marketed as a "village story generator". The players manage both the farm and the local village, and the lives of the characters in the game.

It's a multiplayer game, meaning that you can trade and collaborate with players online. This is the part of the game that the fans are most excited about, since cozy games like this are best when they have a community of players.

Cairn

Cairn is a game from the French indie company The Game Bakers. It's best known for its 2021 romantic action-RPG Heaven and boss-rush Furi. The team is already highly praised in the indie game scene, but with each new title, they continue to push the boundaries of the genre.

That's the case with Cairn as well, which is described as a "survival climber". There are only a few games in this genre that you could compare it to, such as Celeste and Journey, and if it manages to capture the magic of climbing, we'll have another hit.

Deltarune Chapter 3 & 4
Deltarune, the successor to Toby Fox's smash-hit RPG Undertale, already has a huge following. It's supposed to be a seven-part epic, with the first part released way back in 2018. Chapter 2 came out in 2021, and it expanded both the character roster and the combat system.
Fans have initially been disappointed by the fact that it takes seven years to see the next installment, but the game now has a cult following, and most praise the third and fourth chapters for further expanding the lore.

Half Sword
Half Sword is a realistic game set in the world of medieval warfare. That's also its main hook, the realism that's rarely seen in sword-fighting games. For some players, the realism may be too much, not only because of the gore, but also because the battle mechanics and commands take a while to get used to.

The player is pitted against one to four opponents, wielding a wide array of ancient weaponry, including the usual suspects like maces, swords, and axes, but also the exotic, such as the billhook and the voulge. It's the debut title from Half Sword Games, available only for PC.

Mixtape
The Mixtape is very hard to define when it comes to genres. It's a narrative game about a group of high schoolers who listen to mixtapes and reflect on the last four years of their lives. It's very much tuned into the nostalgia for the 80s and youth that's defining pop culture lately.

Beethoven and Dinosaur produced the game, and it features a soundtrack including The Smashing Pumpkins, Iggy Pop, and The Banshees. It's available for PC, PS5, and Xbox.

Promise Mascot Agency
Promise Mascot Agency is a game from the Kaizen studio. They are famous for their debut game, Paradise Killer, and the fans have been waiting to see if they can repeat its success. Promise Mascot Agency is marketed as an "open-world mascot management crime drama RPG."
The protagonist is a disgraced Yakuza who collaborates with a crying tofu mascot. Reviewers describe the game as "absurdly fun," with the narrative and writing being seen as its greatest assets. It was also noted that the Nintendo version came out with a lot of glitches and spoiled the experience for many players.

Reanimal
Reanimal is a co-op horror game. The studio makes it behind Little Nightmares and Little Nightmares II. The game follows a brother and a sister going through a carefully designed and very scary open world. The aesthetic is minimalistic and heavily stylized. There will be a single-player and a multiplayer mode.

The production of Reanimal has gone through some issues, and there have been a few delays now. Some believe that the game will be released by the end of the year, but the chances of it are getting smaller. It will come out for all major platforms at once.

Slay the Spire 2
Slay the Spire was the best game in the card genre, at least until Balatro came out and took its place at the top. Mega Crit is now working on the sequel, and early access is expected to be available by the end of the year.

We know more about the technical side of the game than of the narrative one. There's a huge community of fans and players that are generating buzz for it, via live streams, trailers, and community building. The game will be cross-platform, and it won't use Unity as its engine.

Sleight of Hand
The only game on our list that's platform-exclusive comes from New Zealand-based RiffRaff Games. It's their debut title, and it will be available exclusively for Xbox. The game was described as a deck-building game with a Dishonored vibe. It features a quick animation style and a jazz soundtrack.

It's played in the third person, and it has a neo-noir aesthetic that's becoming a bit stale at the moment. The production has run into a few problems, and there's a chance that the release will be delayed until 2026. Single-player mode is the only available way of playing Sleight of Hand.