Leading Indie Games Featured at Game Con Canada 2025
If there’s one takeaway from Game Con Canada 2025, it’s that the indie gaming landscape continues to thrive. Once again hosted in Edmonton, Alberta, the event showcased a plethora of imaginative, inventive, and genre-blending games—many featuring the creative input of local talent from Alberta and Saskatchewan, as well as backing from major tech companies like ASUS. Whether your aim was to unearth hidden treasures or engage with the developers behind the games, the indie innovation available was abundant.
Indie games are celebrated for their diversity, and this year’s array demonstrated that each project brings something distinct. While significant unveilings like the newest trailer for Void Crew and Cronos: A New Dawn captured considerable interest, it was the indie titles that genuinely commanded the limelight on the exhibition floor.
In collaboration with Game Con Canada, we at CGMagazine were thrilled to present the second annual Game Con Canada Indie Game Awards! This year’s accolades encompassed five categories: Best Studio, Best Gameplay, Most Innovative, Best Art Style, and, undeniably, Best Indie Game overall. With such a wealth of talent on display, the selection process was challenging, but ultimately, only one winner emerged for each category. Here are the official victors of CGMagazine’s Game Con Canada 2025 Indie Game Awards!
Most Innovative: Highway Hijinks
Studio: Ode Software
Release: July 22, 2024
The creators at Ode Software astonished us with Highway Hijinks, an indie title that fuses an array of ideas that, on paper, shouldn’t fit together, yet after experiencing it, they harmonized spectacularly. The concept is straightforward: merging the death mechanics of a roguelike with the gameplay of an infinite runner, infused with a synthwave aesthetic, results in something irresistibly captivating.
The game is enjoyable, straightforward to dive into and grasp, and it lingered in our minds even as we navigated over 60 titles on the show floor. Although the concepts have appeared in other games before, Ode Software has blended them uniquely, ensuring they merit players’ attention. Coupled with numerous upgrades and challenges, this makes for a compelling recipe for a game deserving of this year’s Most Innovative Indie Game award from Game Con Canada.
Best Art Style: Grey Wake
Studio: Second Fiddle Studio
Release: Wishlist Now
Many impressive indie games featured at this year’s Game Con Canada, showcasing breathtaking visuals and distinctive concepts, but Grey Wake truly captivated us. Even for a game in development for only a few months, its simplistic art style conveyed the eerie solitude and appeal of the environment in an unexpected manner. It presented a game world rich in charm and style, offering a glimpse into the adventures that awaited exploration.
Delicate details, like the constellations visible as you moved forward in your boat, were subtle yet compelling elements that enriched the experience, making it something genuinely enchanting to observe. Even in its nascent form, we eagerly anticipate witnessing the evolution of the art style and concept as it progresses through development. In its current incarnation, it earns our Best Art Style accolade for this year’s Game Con Canada Indie Game Awards.
Best Gameplay: Gothic Hell: Survivors
Studio: KIB Games
Release: Wishlist Now
As we wandered through the diverse offerings at Game Con Canada, we were astonished by the sheer number of genuinely entertaining, engaging, and original titles. Amidst numerous captivating games, Gothic Hell: Survivors effortlessly distinguished itself from the competition. It introduced a fresh spin on the Vampire Survivors formula. The fully developed 3D environment presents new methods to face the various creatures eager to make you their next prey. Furthermore, it adds new dynamics by integrating missions and altering the mechanics of treasure chests.
The visuals, combined with the overall aesthetic the game aims to project, set it apart from the myriad of titles trying to replicate the Survivors gameplay style. Above all, it was simply enjoyable to pick up, play, and challenge yourself to see how far you could advance. While there are several elements that could use refinement, the achievements of the team at KIB Games with this title have us at CGMagazine eager for what’s next.
Best Studio: Moonspiregames
Game: Speechbound
Website: Moonspiregames
Moonspiregames claimed last year’s Most Innovative award for their educational RPG, Speechbound. This game is self-described as a “language learning RPG.” It incorporates all the mechanics of an RPG while combining them with a learning platform that encourages language acquisition in a way that feels engaging. Numerous language applications exist, but despite their presentations, they often come off as tedious, stripping the joy and enthusiasm out of the language learning process. What Moon