It’s that time of year, folks, the time where the P2 crew sit around the proverbial campfire and argues over the highs and lows of the year. That’s right, it is award season. Join us as we take a look at what excited, surprised and disappointed us in 2025. It’s now our chance to cheer on the best games from indie studios.
The 2025 P2 Awards - Indie Game of the Year
Jess Zammit - Dispatch
On paper, Dispatch is everything I could want in a game. It has a strong narrative focus, a killer cartoon art style, a stellar voice cast, a mechanic based around ordinarily menial and/or office-based tasks, superheroes – it’s the whole package. So I was terrified that it wasn’t going to live up to the hype. Thankfully, there was no need for concern. This game is reminiscent of everything Telltale was at its peak, which feels like the biggest compliment I can give it. The performances are fantastic, and the story hits some solid (if somewhat predictable) beats, but the real strength is in the characters themselves. While some of them might not be the most original heroes, the amount of heart that bleeds out of each one of them makes them feel special and memorable enough despite it.
And the dispatching mechanic! What a joy! I feel like I should interrogate the fact that what I apparently enjoy doing with my spare time involves tasks that many would classify as ‘extremely stressful’ and ‘something you would usually require financial compensation to even consider doing’, but hey – we don’t need to dive into that right now. I love managing my little ragtag group of questionable criminals. Would they be ready to murder literally anyone at a moment’s notice? Yes. And maybe that’s part of the reason I love them. They feel like a real team, even in their lowest moments, and I would die for them. The reception to this game has been excellent, and it deserves every bit of praise it’s getting, which is why I am happy to give it the title of indie game of the year.
Stephen del Prado - Promise Mascot Agency
Huge shocker, right? Where’s the bugs with swords? Paradise Killer was one of my favourite titles of the year when I played through it, and I almost missed Promise Mascot Agency. It feels like a game tailor made for the sort of stuff I like; collectibles, theming, story-driven open world that’s only slightly too large and a bereft feeling when it’s all over. Kaizen Game Works aren’t interested in appealing to everyone, but it seems they are doing everything they can to appeal to me.
Shaun Nicholls - Peak
One of my friends got me into this, a way to kick back and have a few laughs when you want to game but didn’t want to deal with the franticness of Battlefield 6. Marooned on an Island, you and your stranded Scout brethren must navigate your way to the top of a mountain if you are to be rescued. While possible to play solo, Peak is very much a cooperative experience, sharing resources to keep everyone alive while dealing with the surprises that are bound to pop up when you are scaling a mountain with all the grace of a mountain goat on acid.
Matt Hewson - Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor
I liked Vampire Survivors. It was fun for quite a while, but then the magic wore off because there really isn’t a whole lot of purpose to it besides unlocking things. Well, Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor fixes that. Taking the fun dwarf crew from Deep Rock Galactic and injecting that sense of humour into a mission-based Survivors-like turned out to be a stroke of genius, and it has kept me coming back every single day since it came out.
There are, of course, a mountain of unlocks and upgrades, but the real fun comes from the progressively more difficult missions and sub-missions that litter each run. It seems like such a simple thing, but it’s a formula that has me at over 100 hours played. It may be a bit mindless, a bit simple, but it is the perfect antidote to a busy or stressful day. Don’t miss it, folks.
Paul James - Dispatch
It’s not my selection for the biggest surprise of the year, but also, it’s right there alongside my ultimate choice, but what Dispatch is, however, is the clearly best indie title that I’ve played this year. The sense of humour, the visual design of the characters and the world of Dispatch, as well as the dialogue choices, and of course, the dispatch mechanic itself, are all of the highest quality. Ad-Hoc Games have experience with the very best that old-Telltale used to create, but I could never have expected them to stick the landing as they have on their very first try. Dispatch is incredible, and you must check it out.
Tim Henderson - Look Outside
This was a pretty tight category, and the way I landed on my personal pick is certainly circumstantial. I mean, are we counting Expedition 33 here? I guess the entries of the other writers are answering that question at this very moment. Also, the emotional gut-punch of that game was perhaps one-upped by a late playthrough of Spiritfarer while I was travelling back in August.
I’m landing on Look Outside, then, a game that almost made me fall in love with it, but for a couple of design quirks that hurt the opening and ending moments. And those issues? The game has been patched up a bit since, so maybe they’ve been smoothed over some. I honestly don’t know. What I do know is that this is a pretty cool mix of console RPG, horror and survival game that nails its muted, sleepless headache vibe pretty well. It kind of slipped by barely-noticed, too, and it deserves a look if you want a smaller, more alternative horror option that will likely run on almost anything for the holiday break. Go on. Pull back the curtain.
Rob Caporetto - Sektori
Picking a game of the year means I have to be conscious of avoiding a recency bias, to make sure those gems released earlier in the year have a fair chance too. But sometimes, recency bias be damned, because one is just that damn good, it deserves the nod regardless, and Sektori is that game for me.
On the surface, it looks like another Geometry Wars-inspired shooter, but as you start peeling the layers back, its true genius emerges. From the dynamic level designs, shifting about to surprise you every so often, or the joy you get as you chain explosive strike attacks to start raising those multipliers. Or the absolute terror you get as a new boss materialises into view.
Getting into that flow state with Sektori feels incredibly rewarding. The pace is frantic, and the challenge gets ratcheted up ever so gently so it won’t totally overwhelm you, even at maximum intensity. That pace is helped by its high-energy soundtrack, which keeps you bouncing about as you’re blasting and dodging your way through its many challenges.
I know for many the twin-stick arena shooter may be pedestrian, but they’ve been the type of game that has been great for when I need to zone out when things get overwhelming. Sektori takes many of the ideas we’ve seen in past entries and not only puts its own spin on them, but it does it so much better than many of them, making it the biggest evolution to the genre for the 2020s.
Jenn Christodoulou - Peak
Peak is some of the most fun I’ve had with multiplayer gaming all damn year. It really shows that a game doesn’t need to have a huge budget or amazing graphics to be good. A solid, fun premise that is executed well is the core of what a game needs to be good, and that’s exactly what Peak has.
It also has a creepy zombie scout master that will eat you if you leave your friends behind. And a trumpet you can blow constantly that plays an annoying noise. Plus, you can hurl coconuts at your friends. It really has it all.
Jason Hawkins - Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo
Ever wanted to play as a person fighting against bad government and infrastructure with the soul of your aunt? No? Weird. Well, Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo is still an amazing game. A metroidvania where all your attacks and movement tech is based on yoyo tricks, you’ll be walking-the-dog across gaps and round-the-worlding to take down enemies.
The best part is that there’s just so much hidden cool stuff. Almost everything you wonder if something works, or if there’s something behind that wall, you’re rewarded for it. That included a challenging hidden dungeon. This game honestly just rocks the aesthetic and vibe.
