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15 Australian And New Zealand-Made Games To Have On Your Radar In 2025

Treat your wishlist to these upcoming bangers from ANZ developers

With every year that goes by, and in the face of this hungry, growing chasm of an industry that swallows creativity in the name of capital, it’s the wonderfully rich and diverse cohort of developers across Australia and New Zealand that consistently surprise and delight with their output. 

ANZ studios, solo developers, and collaborators have been doing amazing things with no signs of stopping, something that’s evident in our constantly growing and changing list of upcoming local games. Now, as is tradition, we wanted to kick off the year by highlighting just a short list of some of the titles we’ve firmly got our eyes on. This is by no means an exhaustive list, with plenty of games we’ve already called out in the past or hope to cover in the future, but take a look at what we’ve picked out below to whet your appetite for another year of Trans-Tasman bangers.

Allogloom

Developer: Galactic Ghosty | Publisher: Galactic Ghosty
Platform: PC | Release: TBA | Wishlist

We’re big fans of point-and-click adventures here at WellPlayed, so it’s no surprise that New Zealand’s Galactic Ghosty caught my attention with its weird, hand-drawn tale of dark humour and charming characters, Allogloom. Nora must journey through the remains of Gruesome Grove, solving puzzles and chatting with strange monsters and animals in order to bring the residents of her sleepy town home. This one definitely isn’t for kids though, with the potential for some creepy good times mixed amongst its mysterious tones.

Mark Isaacson

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Big Walk

Developer: House House | Publisher: Panic
Platform: PC | Release: 2025 | Wishlist 

From the makers of Untitled Goose Game comes a markedly different, although equally silly-looking,  adventure titled Big Walk. Big Walk is a cooperative online “walker-talker” where you and your buddies play as geometrically designed bird (?) people who explore a beautifully rendered natural open world. The game seems mostly about chatting and hanging out with pals Hill, Beach, and Fireside, but also contains puzzles that urge you to sharpen your communication with each other and playfully explore your world. Big Walk should release sometime this year so don’t forget to make some friends beforehand!

Josefina Huq

Cyber Paradise

Developer: DDmeow Games | Publisher: DDmeow Games
Platform: PC | Release: 2025 | Wishlist

Cyber Paradise impressed me back at PAX Aus 2023, a pixel art fever dream roguelite with a heartfelt story filtered through its addictive combat mechanics. The two-person team at Melbourne-based DDmeow Games has since continued to evolve its neon slice of life towards a full release hopefully this year. The game follows the story of Hayley and her quest to uncover the mysteries of a computer-simulated reality where every memory fragment you discover rebuilds Hayley’s life one bit at a time.

Mark Isaacson

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Denari

Developer: Astronaut Diaries  | Publisher: Astronaut Diaries
Platform: PC | Release: TBA | Wishlist

From New Zealand developer Astronaut Diaries, Denari is an isometric action game where players play as a young boy named Taiu who must save his village from an invading empire. To do so, Taiu will engage in hack-and-slash combat, use telekinetic powers bestowed upon him by the spirits, and redirect enemy attacks to damaging effect. I’ve gone hands-on with Denari a couple of times at PAX Australia and its colourful cartoon art style and tight gameplay loop make it a standout every time.

Zach Jackson

Design & Conjure

Developer: Tiny Kiwi Games | Publisher: Tiny Kiwi Games
Platform: PC | Release: 2025 |  Wishlist

Design & Conjure is a witchy, cosy room decorating game with elements of puzzling sprinkled in. Doesn’t that sound like exactly what you want to come home to at the end of a rough day at work? You follow a young witch named Dalia in a low-stakes quest to fix up her hometown, where she has just returned after university. To restore its natural beauty you’ll take part in plenty of cleaning, decorating, puzzle solving and “help[ing] magical creatures affected by the mysterious corruption”. The combination of Design & Conjure’s story mode filled with colourful characters and meditative decorating gameplay sounds like a recipe for pure bliss. This adorable little adventure is currently being developed by the New Zealand devs at Tiny Kiwi Games and I’m looking forward to a hopeful 2025 release after seeing it at PAX Aus 2024.

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Christie McQualter

Doggy Don’t Care

Developer: Rohan Nowell | Publisher: Rotub Games
Platform: PC | Release: 2025 |  Wishlist

What’s that saying? “When the owner’s away, the dog will play”? Well, anyway, in Doggy Don’t Care you play as a pug who gives zero fucks. You can run around your house, backyard, and more causing total destruction – be that smashing vases, flattening garden beds or peeing on every imaginable surface – all while collecting items to solve puzzles and earning badges from your feathered friends. I’ve been excited for this game since the first glimpses into its development, back when it was basically just a dog peeing simulator, so it’s safe to say that I can’t wait to get my hands on its full chaotic potential when it releases in 2025.

Christie McQualter

The Dungeon Experience

Developer: Bone Assembly (Jacob Janerka, Simon Boxer) | Publisher: A man they once met in the forest, he just put his finger to their lips to shoosh them, and then gave them the budget for the game
Platform: PC | Release: TBA | Wishlist

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Be prepared for the most immersive, most thrilling and most saxophone-driven first-person adventure through the depths of a Dungeon like no other. Be guided by a level 1 crab-turned-entrepreneur, brought to life by the mind behind 2017’s Paradigm, Jacob Janerka. If you were lucky enough to attend PAX Aus 2023 in Melbourne and came across The Dungeon Experience’s demo booth, complete with an introduction on an actual tape deck, you’ll know exactly the vibe to be found here. It’s utter nonsense, a simulation of a simulation built on cardboard and the dreams of NPCs that never quite broke into AAA.

Kieron Verbrugge

Game Over

Developer: Jake Houston | Publisher: Jake Houston
Platform: PC | Release: 11 April, 2025 | Wishlist 

Game Over is a solo-developer adventure RPG (rhythm-playing game). Music is central to both the narrative and mechanics, with rhythm-based battles, puzzles, and platforming set amongst a world full of completely diegetic music playing in towns such as Percusston and Brasshole. According to “independent third-party adviser”, a frog character named Micky Monkey Business, it’s better to play Game Over knowing as little as possible. As long as you’re into silliness and heaps of tune-based gameplay, you’ll want to get Game Over when it releases on April 11 this year!

Josefina Huq

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Incolatus

Developer: Funny Fintan Softworks | Publisher: Funny Fintan Softworks
Platform: PC | Release: TBA | Wishlist

Flashy first-person shooters are one thing, but an FPS that’s full of neon pink, faeries, and bright lights is another. The world of Incolatus stands head and shoulders above the vast majority of its contemporaries on looks alone, but there’s the promise of old-school action where speed is the aim of the game. The faster you go, the more damage you’ll do to your enemies and heal in the process, so there’s no time to stand around and take in the sights. Perth’s own Funny Fintan Softworks has been working on their girlypop-inspired shooter since 2020, and the more I see of it the more impressed I get. Here’s hoping we’re close to a 2025 release date, my trigger fingers are getting itchy.

Mark Isaacson

Letters to Arralla

Developer: Little Pink Clouds | Publisher: Little Pink Clouds
Platform: PC | Release: TBA | Wishlist/Demo

I can think of few better ways to represent the quintessential Aussie vibe in video game form than with a chill, beachy postie sim starring a bunch of fruit and veg with their bare buns on full display. Luckily, the folks at Little Pink Clouds have tapped into that very concept for Letters to Aralla. As a mail-delivering turnip on the titular, fictional island of Arralla, you’ll meet the eclectic locals, solve puzzles, deliver mail, and most importantly—read all of their mail. Yep, Australia Post might claim that snooping through people’s letters is “highly illegal” and “I’m immediately dismissed,” but on Arralla it’s not just allowed, it’s encouraged!

Kieron Verbrugge

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Mixtape

Developer: Beethoven & Dinosaur |  Publisher: Annapurna Interactive
Platform: PS5/Xbox Series X|S/PC | Release: 2025 |  Wishlist

From Beethoven & Dinosaur, the Melbourne-based developer behind psychedelic platformer The Artful Escape, Mixtape is a heady teenage dream. With an air of Life is Strange or The Perks of Being a Wallflower and an iconic 80s soundtrack including Joy Division, The Smashing Pumpkins, Iggy Pop and more, Mixtape will take you on a journey back in time as a group of 90s teens head to a party on their last night of high school. On the way, the friend with a “strange, almost cosmic talent” for creating mixtapes that can “bend others to [their] will” takes them on a surreal trip down memory lane. Watching the trailer immediately transported me back to the pleasantly delusional mindset of a teenager and while this adventure is set before my time, I have a feeling it’s going to bring back many fond memories of teenage delinquency.

Christie McQualter

Pie in the Sky

Developer: Monster Shop Games  | Publisher: Indie.io
Platform: PC | Release: 2025 | Wishlist

As most of my friends know, I love magpies (the bird, not the AFL team), so the idea of playing as one of Australia’s most feared and loved aerial menaces is exciting, and Monster Shop Games’ Pie in the Sky is set to let me live that fantasy. This old-school arcade game will have you terrorising civilians, divebombing cyclists, stealing food, and nurturing your offspring all in PS2-style graphics. Now that sounds like a game worth warbling about.

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Zach Jackson

The Phantom

Developer: Art of Play  | Publisher: Art of Play
Platform:PS5/PS4/Xbox Series X|S/Xbox One/Switch/PC | Release: 2025 | Wishlist

If you’d told nine-year-old me after watching Billy Zane’s The Phantom at the cinema in 1996 that in the future I’d be playing a retro-style beat-em-up of The Phantom, I’d have gone to heaven in that moment. Which is pretty much how I felt when Melbourne’s Art of Play announced its very own The Phantom last year. Based on a story endorsed by King Features Syndicate (the production house behind the purple suit), The Phantom sees the Ghost Who Walks alongside companions Diana Palmer and Devil the Wolf as they embark on a mission to take down the Singh Brotherhood. It features hand-drawn comic book-style 2D visuals and classic beat-em-up gameplay, which can be played in co-op, so you and a mate can slam evil together on PC and consoles in 2025.

Zach Jackson

ShelfLife: Art School Detective

Developer: Fnife Games | Publisher: Fnife Games
Platform: Switch/PC | Release: TBA | Wishlist

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Playing as first-year student and charming art-psychic Johana Pathrose, you must “investi-date” suspected art killers in ShelfLife: Art School Detective. Set against a fitting pop-art style, you enter artworks to uncover secrets, decide to confront or kiss suspects, and follow clues in order to solve the case of the gallery massacre before time runs out! Goofiness, creativity, and queerness lay at the heart of ShelfLife, with shifts in art styles and dialogue that solidify its mysterious vibes. Admittedly, I have no idea when the game releases, so its place on this list is more aspirational.

Josefina Huq

Toroa: Skycall

Developer: Atawhai Interactive | Publisher: Atawhai Interactive
Platform: PC | Release: TBA | Wishlist

I’ve played my share of relaxed, ‘cosy’ flight sims in the past, but there’s something special about Toroa: Skycall. Maybe it’s the Pacific Ocean setting rooted in Te ao Māori  (the Māori worldview), or the gorgeous soundtrack composed with Māori instruments, or it could just be the prevalence of loud-mouthed gulls and penguins in desperate need of lessons in communication. I first saw this game in a presentation at last year’s excellent Freeplay: Parallels event and haven’t stopped thinking about it since. Heartfelt, hilarious, beautiful, and culturally rich are the best words I can muster for Toroa: Skycall.

Kieron Verbrugge


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And that concludes our list. Of course, there are many more titles worth keeping an eye on and no doubt more will pop up throughout the year, but we hope you’ve found a couple new titles to add to your Wishlist. Let us know what games caught your eye or if we’ve made any glaring omissions in the comments or on social media.

Written By WellPlayed

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