October 2025 promises many great indie games. Bold roguelikes, atmospheric horror, and action-RPGs will stand out, even with all the big AAA releases. Here are our top 12 picks that show off the genre’s innovation. From pixelated adventures to multiplayer titles, these games are guaranteed to fill your backlog with excitement.
Shrine’s Legacy
Release Date: October 7, 2025
Platforms: PC
Genre: Action RPG
Shrine’s Legacy is an upcoming 2D action RPG developed by the small indie team Positive Concept Games. It is SNES-inspired and supports both singleplayer (with an AI friend) and local two-player co-op. The game also focuses on real-time combat, elemental puzzles, and a character-driven story with tough choices. Furthermore, set in the magical world of Ardemia, it features dungeon crawling, overworld exploration, and a strong equipment and progression system.
Kingmakers
Release Date: October 8, 2025
Platforms: PC
Genre: Strategy / Sandbox
Kingmakers is an upcoming action-strategy sandbox game that mixes third-person shooting with real-time tactics. Set in a time-travel narrative, the game involves modern weaponry clashing with medieval warfare. Using Unreal Engine 5, the game creates large-scale simulations. You play as an elite operative sent back to 1400 AD Great Britain to stop an apocalypse by changing history.
Absolum
Release Date: October 9, 2025
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch
Genre: Rougelite
Absolum is an upcoming side-scrolling roguelite beat ’em up set in the fantasy world of Talamh. You control rebel outcasts who are battling to reclaim magic from the evil Sun King Azra. Absolum is Dotemu’s first original game after years of reviving classic franchises. The game also blends classic arcade beat ’em up action with modern roguelite mechanics for high replayability, inspired by games like Golden Axe and Dead Cells.
Bye Sweet Carole
Release Date: October 9, 2025
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch
Genre: Puzzle / Adventure
Bye Sweet Carole is an upcoming 2D narrative-horror platformer that blends puzzles and adventure. Visually, it uses hand-drawn animation inspired by classic early 1900s Disney films, but mixes that with body horror and psychological tension. Interestingly, the game started as an unfinished Remothered prototype in 2020. Now, it tells a new Hitchcockian story focused on themes like bullying, feminism, and loss, all set during the women’s suffrage movement in early 1900s Britain. The gameplay avoids combat grinding; it focuses on exploration, quick-time events, and shape-shifting between a grim real-world orphanage.
Yooka-Replaylee
Release Date: October 9, 2025
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch 2
Genre: Platformer
Yooka-Replaylee is the definitive remastered, remade, and remixed edition of the 2017 3D platforming collectathon Yooka-Laylee, developed by Playtonic Games. It reimagines the buddy-duo adventure of chameleon Yooka and bat Laylee with double the content, improved visuals, refined controls, and new features for modern audiences. The game preserves the collectible-driven charm while addressing original criticisms like camera issues and pacing. Yooka-Replaylee also supports singleplayer, local co-op (for a second player controlling Laylee), and local multiplayer modes.
BALL x PIT
Release Date: October 15, 2025
Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S
Genre: Roguelite
BALL x PIT is a fast-paced, fantasy roguelite blending brick-breaking mechanics with ball-fusing, base-building, and survival elements, developed by solo creator Kenny Sun and published by Devolver Digital. You control a paddle-wielding treasure seeker, launching ricocheting magic-infused balls to battle hordes of enemies and bosses in a bottomless pit, while fusing orbs for synergies, recruiting allies, and constructing a home base. The game supports single-player only, with roguelite runs lasting 20-60 minutes for high replayability.
Lords of Ravage
Release Date: October 15, 2025
Platforms: PC
Genre: Tactical / RPG
Lords of Ravage is an upcoming dark fantasy tactical RPG with roguelite elements. You embrace the role of a villainous overlord, one of three unique Lords of Ravage, leading armies of minions to conquer kingdoms, forge dark alliances, and seek ancient artifacts to reshape the world in their image. The game flips traditional RPG tropes by casting you as the “final boss,” focusing on expansion, strategic turn-based combat, and non-linear storytelling driven by player choices.
Dispatch
Release Date: October 22, 2025
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5
Genre: Management
Dispatch is an upcoming episodic choice-driven adventure game blending superhero action, workplace comedy, and light strategy elements. It features motion-captured performances with an all-star voice cast including Aaron Paul, Jeffrey Wright, Laura Bailey, Travis Willingham, Matthew Mercer, MoistCr1TiKaL, Jacksepticeye, Alanah Pearce, and more. The game satirizes the superhero genre with The Office-style office politics and The Boys-esque dark humor, set in modern-day Los Angeles at the Superhero Dispatch Network (SDN).
Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault
Release Date: October 23, 2025
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5
Genre: Action / RPG
Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault is the sequel to the 2018 indie hit Moonlighter, an action-RPG blending roguelike dungeon crawling, real-time combat, and shop management simulation. It shifts to a vibrant 3D isometric perspective while expanding the core loop of fighting monsters, looting relics, and building a merchant empire. The game emphasizes replayability with procedural elements, over 120 relics, nearly 100 perks, and community-driven progression, drawing Hades-like roguelite depth to the shop mechanics.
Super Fantasy Kingdom
Release Date: October 24, 2025
Platforms: PC
Genre: City-builder
Super Fantasy Kingdom is a roguelite city-builder developed solo by Feryaz Beer under Super Fantasy Games, blending strategic base-building, resource management, and real-time defense against monster hordes in a retro-styled fantasy world. Published by Hooded Horse, it draws inspiration from games like Vampire Survivors for its chaotic combat waves and Against the Storm for its procedural rebuilding loop. You rebuild a ruined kingdom cycle after cycle, recruiting defenders and uncovering a mystery tied to endless rebirths.
Escape Simulator 2
Release Date: October 27, 2025
Platforms: PC
Genre: Puzzle
Escape Simulator 2 is the sequel to the 2018 best-selling escape room puzzle game Escape Simulator, developed and published by the Croatian indie studio Pine Studio. It expands on the original’s first-person puzzle-solving formula with more immersive environments, deeper mechanics, and improved community tools, supporting solo play and online co-op for up to 8 players. Built in Unity, the game emphasizes creative interactivity and replayability through custom room creation via an upgraded Room Editor 2.0.
Mina the Hollower
Release Date: October 31, 2025
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2
Genre: Action / Adventure
Mina the Hollower is an upcoming action-adventure Metroidvania game developed and published by Yacht Club Games, the studio behind Shovel Knight. You control Mina, a mouse-like inventor and “Hollower,” in a top-down isometric adventure emphasizing exploration, combat, and puzzle-solving across interconnected levels. The game blends tense platforming, boss fights, and a heartwarming yet chilling narrative.
