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With dozens of games releasing on Steam every day, even the best can get lost in the shuffle. Early access in particular often suffers from exposure issues. When games are still in active development, it can be much harder to sort the great from the good and the gruesome. We’ve taken care of the guesswork and compiled a list of some of the most promising new games. We’ve got wizarding schools, deadly dodgeball, and even a Lovecraftian city sim to help you ring in the new year. Here are 10 early access games you should have on your “Most Anticipated” list going into 2025.
The Ranch of Rivershine
Barbie Horse Adventures might not have been GOTY material, but it sent my childhood self on a quest for the perfect horse game. Cozy Bee Games is galloping in the right direction with this equine life sim. In it you build your own horse ranch, caring and training for your horses. You can even enter into cross-country competitions. Of all the early access horse and ranch games to watch in 2025, The Ranch of Rivershine should top your list.
Ender Magnolia: Bloom in the Mist
Ender Lilies delivered a dark Metroidvania fantasy to rival that of Hollow Knight. Now the franchise is back with Ender Magnolia: Bloom in the Mist. It’s a bleak but beautiful post-apocalyptic world in which Humans and Homunculi struggle for survival. You play as Lilac the Attuner, on a mission to save the Homunculi in this 2D sidescrolling RPG. Between the painterly art and the thoughtful combat, it’s hard to know what to praise first.
Mind Over Magic
Leave your Quidditch brooms in the cupboard. We’re visiting a better school of magic. In Mind Over Magic you build your own school of witchcraft and wizardry. That includes recruiting teachers, customizing classrooms, and warding away the evil fog that threatens to overtake your academy. If you’ve longed for the perfect blend of Harry Potter and The Sims, Sparkypants’s enchanting colony sim is ready to cast its spell on you.
Beastieball
Played many creature-collecting turn-based volleyball RPGs? No? Let Beastieball be your first. At the game’s heart, it’s all about assembling, training, and battling your custom team of Beasties. Better yet, its aesthetic falls somewhere between Paper Mario, Pokemon, and a Saturday morning cartoon. It’s the kind of game that’s easy to recommend on vibes alone, but the depth to be found in these tactical combat cuties is the real MVP.
Worshippers of Cthulhu
Considering the quality of 2024’s catalog, early access games have a lot to prove in 2025. Worshippers of Cthulhu, the new Lovecraftian city builder from Crazy Goat Games, is up to the challenge. In addition to the usual challenge of constructing an efficient (and elegant) city, you’ll also be summoning eldritch entities, making blood sacrifices, and carving runes into the bodies into the bodies of your cultists. Better get those Elder Signs ready.
Critter Cove
Glitches and jank are the bread and butter of early access, understandable growing pains every WIP struggles with. Critter Cove has plenty of that, but this open-world town-building game is worth it. Sailing around, hunting relics in a mysterious archipelago? Farming and fishing? It’s got that. An outrageously deep character creator that lets you create whatever human (or fox-parrot-monkey hybrid) you want? It’s got that too.
Cursed Crew
Finding a hidden gem of a pirate game is always great. At a glance, Cursed Crew looks like Don’t Starve got a pirate DLC, but it’s a beast of its own. Staying afloat isn’t easy with dwindling rations, greedy pirates, and rampaging sea beasts. As the captain of this ragtag crew, however, that’s just what you’ll have to do. Cursed Crew is a crew management roguelike, so be ready to make tough decisions if you don’t want to walk the plank.
Trash of the Titans
As a fan of both Final Fantasy Tactics and Redwall, all I can say is “yes.” Trash of the Titans is a turn-based tactics game about defending your trash from invading rats. It’s also about eating trash to upgrade your team of possums, raccoons, and other dumpster denizens. Every level is a strategic puzzle, and you’ll need every bit of cleverness and magic you possess if you want to keep your garbage.
Beneath these cute retro graphics (and a mountain of stale bagels) there lurks a ton of tactical goodness. One of the most promising early access games of 2025 smells like garbage, and it’s Trash of the Titans. Happy snacking, dumpster divers.
Coffee Please
As wonderful as RPG epics are, sometimes you just wanna brew coffee. Whether you seek the challenge of memorizing orders in Challenging Mode or the cozy comforts of Relaxing Mode, Coffee Please serves up a double-shot of quality. OneTwoPlay’s casual life sim is about more than the life of a digital barista, however. You’ll also need to manage inventory, decorate your venue, and (of course) pet the cat. Time to brew some Joe.
STONKS-9800: Stock Market Simulator
’80s Japanese stock market simulator? Yes, please. Stonks-9800 is a chill text-based game about the dopamine rollercoaster of bar graphs and minigames. You’ll buy stocks, monitor markets, invest in real estate, skirt the letter of the law, and try not to stress yourself into a hospital bed. In case gambling on business futures isn’t enough for you, there’s also pachinko and horse racing. There’s hot competition amongst early access games in 2025, but I’d bet big on Stonks-9800 going up and up.
