SXSW Sydney returned for its third yr this October, bringing the tech, movie, music, and video games competition to Australia as soon as extra. As at all times, this included a slew of impartial online game builders exhibiting off their newest tasks.
5 viral indie video games you did not know are from Australia
October is an enormous month for the Australian online game trade, with Melbourne Worldwide Video games Week and PAX Aus held the week instantly previous to SXSW Sydney. Happily, there have been nonetheless many indie builders who got here to indicate Sydney what they’ve to supply.
In no specific order, listed below are a number of the coolest indie video games we checked out this yr at SXSW Sydney 2025. Most are nonetheless in improvement, however there are just a few you possibly can already play now.
Mixtape
Mixtape from Melbourne-based studio Beethoven & Dinosaur will be the closest a online game has ever gotten to encapsulating an ’80s John Hughes film. The second title from the builders of The Clever Escape, Mixtape is a story journey recreation following three mates as they head to 1 final celebration, reminiscing about their time collectively as highschool involves an finish.
The cinematic gameplay proven within the demo made Mixtape really feel like stepping right into a nostalgic ’80s teen film, full with skateboards, shenanigans, and a terrific soundtrack. The sport options music from a slew of bands from the ’80s, together with DEVO, Roxy Music, Lush, The Smashing Pumpkins, Iggy Pop, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Pleasure Division, and The Treatment.
Mixtape is scheduled for launch in 2025 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Sequence X/S, and PC.
REAPRIEVE
Developed by five-person Melbourne studio 10PM Membership, REAPRIEVE follows Milo, a grim reaper tasked with deleting a soul’s “pointless” recollections whereas saving others. This job has been digitised right into a desk job, in order that slightly than wielding a scythe, Milo and his colleagues spend their days in entrance of computer systems, closing pop-ups and striving to win Worker of the Week.
REAPRIEVE‘s artwork route and themes appear barely harking back to the Persona sequence at first look. Nonetheless, 10PM Membership’s artistic director and narrative designer Althea Francisco instructed Mashable that the sport attracts extra inspiration from Severance‘s company setting and Papers, Please‘s difficult empathetic dilemmas. It could be your job to delete all of a soul’s blissful recollections, however is it proper?
REAPRIEVE is scheduled for launch in early 2027 on PC.
Psychotic Bathtub
Psychotic Bathtub is the sort of recreation that comes with a set off warning, and with good cause. This point-and-click recreation offers with heavy themes similar to suicide, loss of life, guilt, self-destruction, intrusive ideas, and escapism, prompting Switzerland-based developer natsha to warn in opposition to taking part in if any of those points set off you.
The sport follows a lady having a psychotic episode whereas taking a shower, which entails speaking to her rubber duck, ingesting wine, and pondering on the character of her towel. Gamers navigate her via her darkish ideas, deciding which of them she embraces and which of them she rejects on the way in which to certainly one of a number of endings.
Mashable High Tales
Although Psychotic Bathtub focuses on a fictional psychiatric dysfunction, the sport is meant to boost consciousness of psychological well being points. natsha has pledged to donate 50 p.c of the earnings from Psychotic Bathtub to psychological well being tasks. Nonetheless, it is vital to notice that it isn’t a therapeutic recreation, with gamers unlikely to stroll away comforted.
Psychotic Bathtub is deliberate for launch in 2026 on PC.
Manner To The Woods
Manner To The Woods has a protracted historical past. The sport first got here to consideration in 2015 when then 16-year-old Melbourne pupil Anthony Tan posted screenshots to Reddit, which have been observed and shared to Twitter by Sean Murray from developer Hi there Video games (creators of No Man’s Sky). Although its story and gameplay had not but been decided, Manner To The Woods garnered widespread curiosity, enchanting individuals with photos of a deer and fawn traversing a world devoid of people.
There have been a number of trailers and introduced launch home windows for Manner To The Woods within the decade since, together with an announcement at E3 2019 that it might come out the following yr. All of those launch dates have been missed.
Happily, the sport might lastly be near launch, particularly contemplating that Tan was assured sufficient to indicate it at SXSW Sydney this yr. Now working underneath the studio title onepixel.canine, Tan instructed Mashable that he expects to complete Manner To The Woods inside six months. Even so, no new launch date has formally been introduced.
A Week within the Lifetime of Asocial Giraffe
To individuals with social anxiousness, navigating society can typically really feel like an unsolvable puzzle. A Week within the Lifetime of Asocial Giraffe takes this a step additional, turning such dilemmas right into a point-and-click puzzle recreation.
Developed by Los Angeles-based Quail Button, A Week within the Lifetime of Asocial Giraffe follows the titular animal as he makes an attempt to run on a regular basis errands with out speaking to anybody. Sadly, the residents of Pleasant Metropolis are a number of the chattiest individuals round, and can instantly interact Asocial Giraffe in dialog the second they spot him. This causes his anxiousness to peak and his head to blow up.
As such, our shy-hoofed hero should fastidiously keep away from individuals whereas nonetheless making an attempt to attain his targets, resorting to ways similar to hiding behind obstacles and transferring gadgets to lure individuals elsewhere.
A Week within the Lifetime of Asocial Giraffe is scheduled for launch in early 2026 on PC.
Kabuto Park
Launched in Might, Kabuto Park is a brief, charming recreation about catching and battling bugs whereas on a summer time trip. Construct your staff of three bugs, degree them up, and undergo a gauntlet of sumo-style bug fights to win the title of Summer time Beetle Battles champion. It is principally like a extra chill, healthful model of Pokémon, solely less complicated and with actual bug species.
Created by French developer Doot Tiny Video games, Kabuto Park affords a comfy, fantastically illustrated bug-collecting expertise with over 40 cute bugs to catch. (In case you are involved, arachnophobes haven’t any have to worry — Kabuto Park is freed from spiders.) Completely different species have totally different stats and talents, and gamers may also purchase sweet to degree them up, incomes cash by successful battles or promoting surplus bugs. It is an addictive gameplay loop that is straightforward to settle into, offering a pleasing few hours of stress-free gaming for simply $US5.
Kabuto Park is offered now on PC.
Is This Seat Taken?
Is This Seat Taken? is a puzzle recreation which duties gamers with assigning seating to shape-based characters in varied chair-based places, similar to buses, cinemas, and eating places. Nonetheless, every character has totally different necessities. One might need to be close to a particular particular person, one other may need to keep away from individuals who stink (honest), whereas a 3rd might simply need a seat subsequent to a window. Gamers should subsequently transfer the characters round to discover a seating association which satisfies everybody.
The sport does have somewhat little bit of a plot, with an aspiring rhombus actor looking for confidence in a world dominated by squares and circles (and ending up in varied locales that includes seating alongside the way in which). Even so, it is actually the gameplay that’s the draw right here. Developed by Poti Poti Studio, which has members in each Belgium and Spain, Is This Seat Taken? was launched in August this yr.
Is This Seat Taken? is offered now Android, iOS, Nintendo Change, and PC.
