SXSW Sydney returned for its third year this October, bringing the tech, film, music, and games festival to Australia once more. As always, this included a slew of independent video game developers showing off their latest projects.
October is a big month for the Australian video game industry, with Melbourne International Games Week and PAX Aus held the week immediately prior to SXSW Sydney. Fortunately, there were still many indie developers who came to show Sydney what they have to offer.
In no particular order, here are some of the coolest indie games we checked out this year at SXSW Sydney 2025. Most are still in development, but there are a few you can already play now.
Mixtape
Mixtape from Melbourne-based studio Beethoven & Dinosaur may be the closest a video game has ever gotten to encapsulating an ’80s John Hughes movie. The second title from the developers of The Artful Escape, Mixtape is a narrative adventure game following three friends as they head to one last party, reminiscing about their time together as high school comes to an end.
The cinematic gameplay shown in the demo made Mixtape feel like stepping into a nostalgic ’80s teen movie, complete with skateboards, shenanigans, and a terrific soundtrack. The game features music from a slew of bands from the ’80s, including DEVO, Roxy Music, Lush, The Smashing Pumpkins, Iggy Pop, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Joy Division, and The Cure.
Mixtape is scheduled for release in 2025 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.
REAPRIEVE
Developed by five-person Melbourne studio 10PM Club, REAPRIEVE follows Milo, a grim reaper tasked with deleting a soul’s “unnecessary” memories while saving others. This task has been digitised into a desk job, so that rather than wielding a scythe, Milo and his colleagues spend their days in front of computers, closing pop-ups and striving to win Employee of the Week.
REAPRIEVE‘s art direction and themes seem slightly reminiscent of the Persona series at first glance. However, 10PM Club’s creative director and narrative designer Althea Francisco told Mashable that the game draws more inspiration from Severance‘s corporate setting and Papers, Please‘s challenging empathetic dilemmas. It may be your job to delete all of a soul’s happy memories, but is it right?
REAPRIEVE is scheduled for release in early 2027 on PC.
Psychotic Bathtub
Psychotic Bathtub is the kind of game that comes with a trigger warning, and with good reason. This point-and-click game deals with heavy themes such as suicide, death, guilt, self-destruction, intrusive thoughts, and escapism, prompting Switzerland-based developer natsha to warn against playing if any of these issues trigger you.
The game follows a woman having a psychotic episode while taking a bath, which involves talking to her rubber duck, drinking wine, and pondering on the nature of her towel. Players navigate her through her dark thoughts, deciding which ones she embraces and which ones she rejects on the way to one of multiple endings.
Mashable Top Stories
Though Psychotic Bathtub focuses on a fictional psychiatric disorder, the game is intended to raise awareness of mental health issues. natsha has pledged to donate 50 percent of the profits from Psychotic Bathtub to mental health projects. However, it’s important to note that it is not a therapeutic game, with players unlikely to walk away comforted.
Psychotic Bathtub is planned for release in 2026 on PC.
Way To The Woods
Way To The Woods has a long history. The game first came to attention in 2015 when then 16-year-old Melbourne student Anthony Tan posted screenshots to Reddit, which were noticed and shared to Twitter by Sean Murray from developer Hello Games (creators of No Man’s Sky). Though its story and gameplay had not yet been determined, Way To The Woods garnered widespread interest, enchanting people with images of a deer and fawn traversing a world devoid of humans.
There have been several trailers and announced release windows for Way To The Woods in the decade since, including an announcement at E3 2019 that it would come out the next year. All of these release dates have been missed.
Fortunately, the game may finally be close to launch, especially considering that Tan was confident enough to show it at SXSW Sydney this year. Now operating under the studio name onepixel.dog, Tan told Mashable that he expects to finish Way To The Woods within six months. Even so, no new release date has officially been announced.
A Week in the Life of Asocial Giraffe
To people with social anxiety, navigating society can sometimes feel like an unsolvable puzzle. A Week in the Life of Asocial Giraffe takes this a step further, turning such dilemmas into a point-and-click puzzle game.
Developed by Los Angeles-based Quail Button, A Week in the Life of Asocial Giraffe follows the titular animal as he attempts to run everyday errands without talking to anyone. Unfortunately, the citizens of Friendly City are some of the chattiest people around, and will immediately engage Asocial Giraffe in conversation the moment they spot him. This causes his anxiety to peak and his head to explode.
As such, our shy-hoofed hero must carefully avoid people while still attempting to achieve his goals, resorting to tactics such as hiding behind obstacles and moving items to lure people elsewhere.
A Week in the Life of Asocial Giraffe is scheduled for release in early 2026 on PC.
Kabuto Park
Released in May, Kabuto Park is a short, charming game about catching and battling bugs while on a summer vacation. Build your team of three insects, level them up, and go through a gauntlet of sumo-style bug fights to win the title of Summer Beetle Battles champion. It’s basically like a more chill, wholesome version of Pokémon, only simpler and with real bug species.
Created by French developer Doot Tiny Games, Kabuto Park offers a cozy, beautifully illustrated bug-collecting experience with over 40 cute insects to catch. (In case you’re concerned, arachnophobes have no need to fear — Kabuto Park is free of spiders.) Different species have different stats and abilities, and players can also buy candy to level them up, earning money by winning battles or selling surplus bugs. It’s an addictive gameplay loop that’s easy to settle into, providing a pleasant few hours of relaxing gaming for just $US5.
Kabuto Park is available now on PC.
Is This Seat Taken?
Is This Seat Taken? is a puzzle game which tasks players with assigning seating to shape-based characters in various chair-based locations, such as buses, cinemas, and restaurants. However, each character has different requirements. One may want to be near a specific individual, another might want to avoid people who stink (fair), while a third could just want a seat next to a window. Players must therefore move the characters around to find a seating arrangement which satisfies everyone.
The game does have a little bit of a plot, with an aspiring rhombus actor trying to find confidence in a world dominated by squares and circles (and ending up in various locales featuring seating along the way). Even so, it’s really the gameplay that is the draw here. Developed by Poti Poti Studio, which has members in both Belgium and Spain, Is This Seat Taken? was released in August this year.
Is This Seat Taken? is available now Android, iOS, Nintendo Switch, and PC.
