Horror Game Finalists in GDC's 2025 Independent Games Festival

The Independent Games Festival takes place annually during the Game Developer's Conference in San Francisco. This year, it's being hosted March 19-21st, 2025. The IGF is the biggest annual celebration of indie game talent and it encourages innovation within game development as a medium and recognizes the best independent developers from around the world. There are hundreds of entries each year that are judged by a diverse, industry-leading group of industry professionals from mainstream video games, the press, independent gaming websites, previous winners, previous finalists, and more. Out of those hundreds of entrants, only a select few are chosen as finalists, even fewer are horror games. Here are the horror games finalists in this year's competition: 

Crow Country

Excellence in Visual Art, Honorable Mention

Created By SFB Games

About The Game: 

A survival horror game, where you'll test yourself against puzzles and riddles as you investigate the eerie tranquility of the abandoned theme park. Don't be deceived by the whimsical surroundings, something is awfully wrong in Crow Country.

As you unlock new areas, backtrack and discover more, you gradually piece together why Edward really shut down his park and where he mysteriously disappeared to. You've heard some pretty disturbing rumors, but they couldn't possibly be true…..right?

 

Hauntii

Excellence in Visual Art, Finalist 

Created By Moonloop Games/Firestroke

About the Game:

Hauntii is an adventure where players embody a naïve ghost on a journey to ascend beyond the afterlife. Accompanied by your angelic partner, you'll explore the intricately designed world of Eternity, solving challenges and collecting shimmering fragments of stars that reveal glimpses of your forgotten past. The game's core mechanic - the ability to "haunt"- allows you to possess and control almost anything in the environment, from creatures to objects, and even trees, making each encounter rich with creative possibilities.

 

 

Urban Myth Dissolution Center

Wings Award, Finalist

Created By Hakababunko

About the Game:

Join forces with the psychic Director of the Urban Myth Dissolution Center and solve various cases involving cursed relics, rental properties with shady histories, and dimensional anomalies. Monstrous oddities and otherworldly planes abound in this occult mystery adventure game!

 

 

Mouthwashing

Excellence in Audio, Honorable Mention

Excellence in Narrative, Honorable Mention

Seamus McNally Grand Prize, Honorable Mention

Created by Wrong Organ

About the Game:

Mouthwashing is narrative experience that takes place on courier ship in the middle of a long-haul trip through space to deliver cargo. The five crew members of The Tulpar are stranded in the empty reaches of space, shrouded in perpetual sunset. God is not watching.

 

 

Check out the IGF site to check out the other indie game entrants.