Recommendation engine: Downvote any game you've heard of before
1y 9mon ago by lemmy.world/u/Katana314 in games
This might be a slightly unusual attempt at a prompt, but might draw some appealing unusual options.
The way it goes: Suggest games, ideally the kind that you believe would have relatively broad appeal. Don't feel bad about downvotes, but do downvote any game that's suggested if you have heard of it before (Perhaps, give some special treatment if it was literally your game of the year). This rule is meant to encourage people to post the indie darlings that took some unusual attention and discovery to be aware of and appreciate.
If possible, link to the Steam pages for the games in question, so that anyone interested can quickly take a look at screenshots and reviews. And, as a general tip, anything with over 1000 steam reviews probably doesn't belong here. While I'd recommend that you only suggest one game per post, at the very most limit it to three.
If I am incorrect about downvotes being inconsequential account-wide, say so and it might be possible to work out a different system.
In Grotto, you play the role of a soothsayer living in a cave who is occasionally visited by members of a tribal society living nearby. They come to you with problems, and they want you to present your opinion, but you can't speak. You have access to constellations of stars, which each hold different meanings, and you must present your answers in the form of a single constellation, which the petitioners are left to interpret.
You'll feel a bit of frustration as your intended message is missed completely in favor of something that the petitioner wanted to hear, and the same constellation might mean different things to different people, but that's just part of the game. The story unfolds around you and its progression is communicated to you only through the explanations your petitioners give for their visit. Each is a uniquely unreliable narrator, so what you believe is for you to decide.
Two endings, and an interesting story with some occasionally unexpected consequences that might make you feel bad, so if a game giving you a case of the sads is unappealing, maybe take that into consideration.
fantastic game by the makers of Laika, check out their whole ludography
Ooh, I'll play.
Final Profit: A Shop RPG is an RPG about a deposed elf queen who opens a humble shop and slowly advances through the ranks of the Bureau of Business with the eventual goal of defeating Capitalism from within. It's unique. It has some incremental game like mechanics, and can get a little repetitive in the mid-game, but it has a surprisingly compelling story and a lot of unfolding mechanics that keep it interesting all the way through.
Roughly a 30 hour playthrough with many endings, NG+ and some optional challenge modes that remove or change some of the most obvious strategies for advancement, so if you finish it and still want more, you can play through again with a somewhat different experience.
I really can't handle the RPGMaker look of it.
I'm willing to give it a try though
It's unfortunate that RPGMaker games have such a consistent and distinct aesthetic, it's really obvious when a game was made with the engine, and a lot of the reviews mention it, too.
That said, this is definitely one of the best RPGMaker games I've played. They really stretch what's possible with it. Can't get away from that look, though.
I think the To the moon series hides the fact that it's RPG Maker rather well
Definitely another great one!
The worst part is, there are certain ways a top down spritework game can look unique, and even put some personality on the characters. But the classic NES RPG look just seems so arcadey and wrong to me.
Man this made me feel guilty downvoting. Great game, a real surprise packet for me, think I got it in a Humble Bundle and tried on a whim and had a great time.
Think it’s an Aussie dev (single person?) too, and still getting pretty frequent large content updates
The dev is also very responsive! I left a (positive) review with some critical feedback and they commented on it very quickly and had a bit of a dialog with me about the comments I'd made; they ended up revising the Steam page based on review feedback (mine and others), too, which made me want to support them even more!
Occult Crime Police is a fantastic free offering for those looking for a bit more Ace Attorney. It mostly follows the gameplay of Ace Attorney games, in which you investigate murder scenes involving strange, paranormal phenomena, and then discover contradictions in people's witness accounts to uncover the culprit. It's a bit easy, but maintains some great humor and charming animation production value.
This is SOLID GOLD holy shit
edit: OKAY I FINISHED THE FIRST CASE ABSOLUTELY PLAY THIS
Continuing this in the same thread as it's a bit topical:
Are you a fan of Love Live! School Idol? Me neither! I basically knew nothing about it at all. Regardless, Gyakuten Live is an incredibly detailed cutesy Ace Attorney style game, in which the characters of the show gather for "school trials". Though you may need to put up with a cutesier all-girl cast, and the stakes are much lighter and involve things like stolen possessions rather than murder, the mysteries end up having a surprising number of twists and even some heartfelt motives at the end. Features a fully custom soundtrack and LOTS of custom artwork, matched with some traditionally silly Ace Attorney humor.
So far, THREE cases are available, and each features a different prosecutor. The game's page lists plans to continue up to 6 episodes.
In ItchIO's standard, the game is "name your own price" - so you can choose to download it for free. It's unlikely to come to Steam since it technically infringes on an anime/manga without permission.
One more coming if my AA recommendations are well received.
Adding one more to the Ace Attorney spinoff block:
Tyrion Cuthbert: Attorney of the Arcane is a well-written fan spinoff of the AA formula, taking place in a fantasy universe where magic is real, but mostly the domain of the nobility. Trials are a form of theatre, where the nobility knows how to tip the scale, but your mentor knows how to tip them back.
It introduces some very enjoyable mechanics, in which knowledge of each spell's effects and conditions constitutes its own evidence. Tyrion bears his own magical ability that lets him view the thoughts of witnesses. He is also accompanied by the defendant of his first case, a mercenary-mage named Celeste, who gets a lot of investigation banter with Tyrion, much like Maya and Phoenix.
Five cases in all, and none of them are shortened crapshoot cases, nor is there a downer ending; all the major threads conclude with satisfying endings, and the developer hopes to make a sequel from the world they've built.
Oh, and as is common for AA games, take a listen to "Eye of Horus", the game's equivalent of the "Objection!" theme when Tyrion nails a contradiction. The game's soundtrack as a whole has some real bangers, for both the high points and the emotional pulls.
I don't have any suggestions but I do like this prompt and I see a lot of games I've never heard of
I don’t either but this is such a great discussion. I’ve come across quite a few interesting sounding games here. Thanks OP.
Magnetic By Nature is a 2D platformer where you are generally using either attract or repel mechanics. I came across this game on the PAX East show floor, and it really wowed me. I may be one of only a few hundred people who ever played it. There's a bonus chapter, after the credits, that was kind of bullshit, but the 7 or so hours of gameplay before it was fun, challenging, and unique. Initially available for like $15, it's now down to $1, and it's a steal at that price.
A first person scifi FPS-RPG. Developed in Ukraine. Very unique experience wrapped inside of a concept that's been done before. High slavjank tolerance required.
Quest Master. Mario Maker meets Zelda dungeons, done well. It deserves way more attention than it's currently getting, and it's pretty fun with huge potential despite being early access.
This looks rad!
On a similar note I Wanna Maker which is more or less Mario Maker but free and tonnes of developer created and user created levels to play through.
Oh, that is great. I have fond (painful) memories of I Wanna be the Guy, and this seems right up my nostalgia alley.
I like this stuff and I wanted to get either this or Super Dungeon Maker.
But kinda hard to pick a side since they both look like they have overlapping small communities. And games like this, communities are the only reason to play.
Pick Quest Master. The developer is extremely active and responsive to community feedback and requests. There's even weekly content updates.
Sold.
Moonlight Pulse (83 reviews)
Metroidvania with character-switching
This 2D platformer metroidvania has memorable characters and very cool worldbuilding. You switch between characters to match their abilities to the right situations. They live on a living, planet-sized creature and are fighting off the parasites that are slowly killing their creature-planet. You'll swim through its blood vessels and explore its organs.
It's not super long—I finished the story in 9 hours. It's just about the right length to satisfy.
Copy Editor: A RegEx Puzzle Game
It's a word-puzzle game that incrementally teaches you how to use Regular Expressions (RegEx) to find & replace text. Some of the puzzles add silly restraints for you to work around, and the game has charming NPC coworkers that introduce each challenge.
Ah yes, a game that taunts me about my shitty regex-fu.
After a decade, I don't think I'll ever remember how to regex without a cheat sheet.
Never heard of it, and sounds awesome, regexes are the sort of things that need lots of practice to be good at, a game seems like a great way to keep the skill alive
Calcium Contract is a boomer shooter with a pretty unique rewind feature. Humorous with old school feels, but for a modern time. It’s a one man project.
The Masterplan is a true heist game. You know that fantasy of playing out a heist from Heat? This is that game. It's top down, and you control all of the members of the crew. You pick your time to initiate the heist, you hold up people at gunpoint, you prevent them from being a hero, and you try your best to get out with the best score that you can. It's a real bummer that this team never got to make another game.
Cozy Space Survivors is a short (few hours) cozy survivor-like indie game with pixel graphics. A run is only ten minutes, so it works also for people with not too much time. It is developed by a single person and it is his first release.
I've bought so many Survivor games and many are so bad.
This one looks like it's trying something unique. I'll take it for a spin.
What are your picks of the genre?
I’ve also tried a whole bunch, my favourite is probably Rogue: Genesia, I really like the challenges and metaprogression over some of the other titles I’ve tried
Simple premise is basically Minesweeper, but all the puzzles are handcrafted with some neat designs and concepts that will stretch your puzzle solving to the limit. Also importantly, no guessing required to solve and it’s dirt cheap for the amount of hours of puzzles you get!
Piggybacking off of this comment, if you happen to enjoy Minesweeper, I recommend:
No guessing is required to solve any puzzle either, despite some variants seeming completely impossible.
Fun fact: There's an achievement for stumbling across a level with a conpletely empty starting board, without any spaces being revealed to be mines or non-mines. Yes, that can be solved without guessing.
Fun fact 2: I'd argue there are more than 14 variants.
Cannon Brawl is a unique kind of RTS where it's sort of like StarCraft meets Worms. You need to expand something like "the creep" from the Zerg in StarCraft in order to build, but you can also destroy the terrain under your opponent like in Worms. I kid you not when I say this has been one of my go-to local multiplayer games for a decade, and it rules.
This is the first comment I've found talking about a game I've played. Had a lot of fun playing cannon brawl it feels wrong to downvote your comment.
ECHO (2017)! It's an indie game with AAA-feeling production quality from a tiny Danish studio that sadly went bankrupt after the game only sold a few thousand copies. I played it during lockdown on an old recommendation from MetaFilter and it has since become one of my favorite hidden gem titles.
You play a bounty hunter named En (voiced by Game of Thrones star Rose Leslie) who wakes from hibernation when her spaceship arrives at a legendary artificial planet said to hold the secret to resurrection and eternal life. When she arrives on the surface, she soon discovers that its interior is a vast, abandoned baroque Palace, straight through to the core. As she wanders the infinite halls guided by her witheringly sarcastic AI London (voiced by Nicholas Boulton), she is surprised to find the Palace generates hostile clones of herself that hunt her down and copy her actions in a unique spin on the stealth genre. Gameplay consists of trying to navigate through various beautiful, byzantine concourses, collecting artifacts and unlocking elevators that lead deeper into the secret at the heart of the planet.
You may or may not enjoy this based on how you feel about stealth games with minimalist combat, but for me the challenging adaptive gameplay combined with the evocative score, compelling voice acting, intriguing story, and gorgeous environmental/sound/UI design made this a really nice surprise. (And while the studio might be dead, I'm really hoping the plans to turn it into a movie eventually rise from development hell.)
This is an incredible game I highly recommend, but I had to downvote because rules
When a publisher goes bust, who gets the money from game sales after that point?
The Black Pool is a game I decided to try recently. It reminds me a lot of Returnal in terms of visuals and gameplay, but I don't expect the story to evolve much beyond the initial "kids lost in the woods trying to get home."
It's a 4-player roguelike where you get to choose random elements to slot into different abilities, namely a Primary, Secondary, and AOE attack as well as a jump, dodge, and once-per-world 'rally' buff. Each element makes the ability act differently, like a light primary is a slow charging piercing laser while wind is a projectile with knockback, and you also get to upgrade your elemental abilities after each stage you clear. I'm only about an hour into it so far, but I definitely think it deserves a little more than the 29 player peak it got right after it launched.
I think this is the only thread where I actually haven't seen any of the games before.
Another game I enjoyed was The Eternal Castle (remastered). It's a remake of a game from 1987. The animation is great and the visual style is really cool.
Gridworld - a simulation game made up of a grid, as the name suggests. You can control the size of the grid, and what spawns in it. The core of the game are these tiny creatures that each take up 1 square. They have varying nodes on them that represent traits and abilities. Under the hood the game says these have to be "wired" correctly by the neural network to make a creature act right. So basically you let this thing run for hours and eventually get little square creatures that eat plants and maybe each other to live.
Return Fire was a head-to-head military shooter, with a choice of four different vehicles of destruction, and is played split-screen on PC with one keyboard. I think I only ever had the demo but it was fantastic.
This was the 3DO game.
Pioneer is a great remake of the original Elite Space Sim.
It simulates the entire galaxy (core systems are hand-built, everything else procedurally generated), allows landing on planets, trading, combat, etc.
It features the original game's Newtonian physics, so actually arriving safely at your destination is a challenge in itself, similar to flying in Kerbal Space Program. But the HUD gives you all the info you need for that.
Oh, and it's fully open source and moddable.
Isn't it a remake of elite ii? Oolite is more like elite 1
Sulphur Nimbus: Hel's Elixir, a $6 (currently) game on itch.io. It started from the idea of an MLP fangame, but early in development evolved into an original setting.
This is a 3D physics platformer adventure with an unhindered flying character. Your hippogriff, Sulphur Nimbus, is an aerial photographer aboard a cargo ship, which is passing a mysterious atoll on the way to their destination. The crew want you to get pictures of the island, which has a castle that's been abandoned for decades. Unfortunately, after flying over there, a nasty storm builds up and you get zapped by lightning. After a flashback tutorial on how to fly, you wake up on the island shores, your wing is injured, and you have to run to safety, finding out this place is dangerous... so dangerous a resident dogicorn (like a hippogriff, but it's half dog and half unicorn instead of half bird half pony) has to rescue you when a lovecraftian horror tries to take you down into presumably Hel. Waking up in a castle room, your wing is healed, and you can fly again.
Now the game begins. Clear the boss monsters and rout them out of this island, area by area. Break the curse that binds you to this island. Find out what happened here.
What's unique about Sulphur Nimbus is the movement. Running, fighting, and jumping has physics to it, allowing for some parkour stuff to be possible, like running up steep inclines and wall jumping. Flight is realistic. There are no arbitrary limitations, other than a regenerating "flap" stamina. If you can get enough speed to take off, and if there's enough room to maneuver, you can fly. Level designs include lots of caves and enclosed spaces, but also lots of open areas, so being able to fly is a requirement to get through it, while also a challenge. While the game is designed for kb and mouse controls, honestly, a gamepad works very well with this game and is preferred. It also is cross platform, as it is made in java, and includes Windows, Mac, and Linux. The source code is on sourceforge and allows you to build the whole game yourself if you are so inclined.
There's no other platforming adventure game that attempts this, and I have tried every "become birb" game out there. They all are either bird simulators or use flight as a fast travel, but not as a core gameplay mechanic like this.
Taiji (906 reviews)
Nonlinear discovery-based puzzles
If you liked the puzzle design of The Witness, you'll enjoy Taiji as more of that but with scenic pixel art.
Instead of a linear sequence of tutorials and puzzles, Taiji is open-ended. You can wander wherever you want, solve the puzzles you stumble upon, and ultimately discover this place's secrets. Sometimes you find a puzzle that you don't understand, so you'll just have to leave it for later, when you've learned more puzzle mechanics. It's like a metroidvania but gated by knowledge instead of abilities.
All the puzzles are built on grids of tiles that you can turn on or off. There are no tutorials; you have to figure out the puzzle mechanics on your own, hinted by environmental details.
Taiji was waaaaay harder than the Witness for me personally, but great choice. The vibe and music and what not is super chill also
definitely scratches the same itch more than games like the talos principle. there's like one group it completely fails to properly tutorialize imo, and one that kind of falls short (although having played the witness will make your assumptions more accurate i think). other than that it's a brilliant game.
This one isn't super new, but Druidstone. It's a story based tactics game with some RPG elements and it's just excellently done. I've never heard anyone else mention it and I think more people should know about it.
Thanks for doing what I didn't have time to!
Also available on GOG for those who prefer.
It was pretty good, but I got stuck on an annoying mission and dropped it. Really wish that dev had just made grimrock 3, but I respect not wanting to do the same thing over and over...
I always like to give a mention to Your Spider. There are very few reviews (one of which are mine), but the game definitely deserves more attention.
Solo indie dev mashup of Risk of Rain, Helldivers, Vermintide, etc with its own soul and style of knights with guns. Dev is very active in the discord and takes feedback and actively plays with the small community the game has garnered.
I played the demo on a whim during a next fest expecting a janky joke of a game to laugh at but a decent and fun game caught me by surprise. It’s been improved and updated quite a bit since then.
The Last Sovereign (NSFW) is an 18+ RPGmaker game. The basic premise is this: What if you had a setting with a bunch of hentai tropes lumped together and played straight, with no porn logic or stupid characters?
You play as a middle aged, very competent army veteran who gains the powers of an incubus, and reluctantly uses them with the aim of making the world a better place, slowly developing a harem of well realized, cool characters along the way. There's sex scenes, obviously, but you very quickly forget all about them as you are plunged into an underdog story where you have to manage your fledgling armies + resources and have to constantly make tough decisions.
It speaks volumes that this is the only game in the comment section I have to downvote
This item is currently unavailable in your region
Piss off Steam, this sounds hilarious
The game is free, you can also get it on the author's blog or through itch.io
f95zone has it almost certainly, if not, request it in a request thread, done.
works for pretty much any NSFW title ;)
I’ve got it already from the itch.io page the other user posted. But thanks!
AAAAXY. AAAAXY is a nonlinear 2D puzzle platformer taking place in impossible spaces. You can take a walk on a Möbius strip, try to find the platform with your train at the train station, and play a piano that makes the Shepard tone. It will be a bit confusing at first, but I promise it will eventually get fun.
It's not on Steam, but it's available for download on the website for free. Linux, Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS. Also on F-Droid and FlatHub. give it a try im begging you
A short 2D Collectathon in the style of 5th Generation games of the genre. Jump into a 2D world and explore, solve puzzles and overcome challenges to collect gears to take you higher. A beautiful art style and soundtrack make me wonder why this wasn't talked about more when it came out earlier this year
Maize, a point and click/walking simulator/puzzle game about a secret military project to create sentient corn. Quite possibly the silliest game I've ever played.
Link doesn't seem to work for me because the parentheses breaks the link.
Here's the steam link for anyone else
That's weird. The link should be to the Wikipedia entry but thanks for making a steam link too!
Tin Can is a space survival simulator, where you are trapped in an escape pod after the loss of your ship. There are a few systems in your escape pod, and each system has components you need to look after. Your pod regularly flies through astoroid fields & other space phenomena that break these component parts forcing you to repair, replace or do without the systems keeping you afloat.
Downvoting per the rules, as I spent months obsessed with this game, having notes with the codes open on my second screen. Excellent game.
I did mention in the rules, if it was good enough to actually be your game of the year, you can make an exception. (I’m trusting that doesn’t mean we see Baldur’s Gate 3 on top or something)
I don't think it was my GotY, but still an excellent game
Requisite downvote, but also mention that the devs of Tin Can are about to start alpha testing of their multiplayer sequel named Space Chaos.
It's a Block Pushing Game is a sokobanlike from the creator of Baba Is You. It's relatively short but has multiple novel mechanics. I enjoyed it enough to create a curses client for it.
PS: If you like Baba Is You, Hempuli publishes multiple new games per month, mostly clever sokoban-likes, at https://hempuli.itch.io/
Azimuth is a metroidvania game, and something of an homage to the previous greats of the genre (Super Metroid in particular). You will need to pilot your ship, explore the inside of the planet, fight enemies, overcome obstacles, and uncover the storyline piece by piece. Azimuth features a huge game world to explore, lots of little puzzles to solve, dozens of weapons and upgrades to find and use, and a wide variety of enemies and bosses to tangle with.
It is open source and available for Windows, macOS, and Linux.
Concluse is an atmospheric horror game which features puzzles, outstanding cutscenes, and something a little twisted..
This one is free! Unfortunately a lot of my niche games are horror, not sure how broad of an appeal that is, but hopefully there's some horror fans here :^)
Encased is a CRPG, heavily inspired by the classic Fallout games, bringing it's mechanics into the modern age. It's story is based on the classic book "Roadside Picknick" (known for being the inspiration of the Stalker series) and is very well written. It has a story narrator, similar to the Divinity: Original Sin games and a very in depth character creation. At the start you choose a department of a research company to work in, which will change the way you interact with many characters, adding some replay value. Anything more I could say would be a spoiler, but the entire beginning (first half to one hour) is an absolute banger.
It's my favorite indie game of the last few years and at the time of writing this, it is currently 90% of on steam, an absolute bargain
I may have to try it again some day. I thought the story and world was interesting and engaging. I played without guides and despite trying to explore and do everything while following the main story line, I soon found myself extremely underleveled to enemies. I thought it was hilarious that each person in the game is assigned a color based on their role in the colony so sometimes you meet someone who is introduced a being "a black"
Your description got my attention, so I opened the steam link to consider buying it and... Hey, it was already in my library!
It is also currently on sale, for historic low price.
God I love this game! Have done since a bought it a few years back.
Spheres of Chaos is an old asteroids based game that really ups the ante on trippyness and cool sounds
I should warn you though that it is very flashy, so epilepsy warning is in order
Lorn's Lure (currently demo only, releases in 3 weeks)
An android is led through a vast structure by a glitch in his visual system. Lorn's Lure is an atmospheric narrative first-person platformer with novel climb-anything mechanics and modernized retro 3D graphics.
Our Adventuring Guild doesn't look like much on its cover but it scratches all the management sim and tactics RPG urges that I enjoy, while also having some surprisingly cute writing (while still mainlining the classic fantasy RPG themes)
Picked this one up on a whim from a summer sale discovery queue and it's been such a delightful surprise! I'll second scratching the RPG and tactics itch, just wish I had more free time in my life right now because the game is turn based crack for me.
Bonus points for being a Unity game which makes it technically moddable (even if the developer has no plans of adding official support for it).
Throwing in Tactical Breach Wizards, because it just came out and has very similar trun based tactics vibes, but with more sarcastic/ absurd humor that you'd expect from Heat Signature or Gun Point (on account of being from the same developer).
Scratch that, there's an entry further down: https://lemmy.world/comment/11991845
Aw yeah! This is where my knowledge of absurdly good but extremely niche games comes in. I think I'll make multiple replies to this comment.
Think enter the gungeon combined with superhot, but simplified a lot. It's a turn based bullet hell, and an excellent arcade game playable in the browser.
EDIT: I'd also like to take this oppurtunity to talk about flashpoint. Flashpoint is a massive archive of basically every flash game and animation, and you can even play them again.
However, in addition to flash projects, I also noticed that flashpoint also archives HTML/HTML5 games... but only a subset of them. Although flashpoint's primary purpose still is as a flash archive, it can also be used as a curated list of HTML5 games.
Here is a website that lets you search the flashpoint database
A simple but elegant io game. You are a ball, and you want to knock other balls to the ground.
One thing I like is that rounds in small, 4 person lobbies, rather than the massive worlds of other io games. Although you can't really make friends, you can know personas, and it's more personable.
Learn the pleasures of loving another human, and the pain of being a programmer — at the same time!
This site has a few high quality browser games. The one I come back to is X Type, a bullet hell shoot-em up that has ever expanding enemy ship sizes, and never ends. It gets hard fast.
I also like Xibalba, which is a Doom/Wolfenstein style game playable in the browser.
The creator also did a rewrite of quake in 13 kb of javascript
That guy’s seriously talented!
Among the things he’s made, he’s also made some really nice, easy to understand, high-speed compression formats (QOI/QOA), as well as a public domain mpeg decoder.
I’ve used all three for various projects and I’d highly recommend that most software developers check them out. If only for the learning experience.
A short questionaire game that demonstrates the difficulties of poverty.
Spent
This game hurts, got a bit of water in my eyes. Hit me in feeling bruh.
Addictive arcade game about archery. Reminds me of flappy bird, not in the raw mechanics, but in the way they are both addicting in the same manner.
Fun arcade bullet hell survivors (think vampire survivors) type game. Dodge bullets, and survive as long as you can.
A webgl/browser based 3d dungeon crawler with proceduraly generated levels.
Also by double speak games, and open source gridland is a variant on the match 3 style. During the day phase, you accrue and store resources, and build stuff. During the night phase, you fight.
Gameboy roguelike that is simple, but very elegant.
Sadly, since romhacking went down, I don't think it's possible to find the translation patch for it, unless they uploaded it to the internet archive.
Open source idle game, playable in browser. No clicking, just watching numbers go up.
A wonderful and life changing experience.
I like to link it without the ending title, like https://store.steampowered.com/app/1944240/ because it's funnier when people can't see the game title in the link.
Gameboy puzzle game. Very high quality.
Always love to see Mole Mania get some love. One of Shigeru Miyamoto’s earliest titles he worked on also
A fnaf fangame that is close enough to feel like fnaf, but has a twist: Every single level also involves a puzzle. While trying to survive enemies fnaf style. Although I've never played this game, I LOVE watching it on Twitch. I like to call it "Human's can't multitask: The Game".
Fork of the older warsow, open source movement shooter. Think quake.
Sadly, it seems to be dead on steam.
Simple bike racing game, although the player is very fragile, which adds some difficulty. Playable in browser.
All the maps are user created content.
Open source idle game, but not quite. It eventually expands beyond watching numbers go up, into a sort of roguelike, where you can wander the world and collect stuff. And die. Die a lot.
A Dark Room was where I first saw the symbol used to represent the player character.
this game is really fun
Absolutely obligatory, the simply named "The Game" is a work of art, and truly a life changing experience. You'll never think about things the same after experiencing "The Game".
If I am incorrect about downvotes being inconsequential account-wide, say so and it might be possible to work out a different system.
Wouldn't "upvote if you have never heard of it" accomplish the same thing?
I guess it would depend on people reading and following the instructions, instead of just upvoting games they like. Maybe that's a bit much to ask. :P
It can be hard to encourage people to only do this for the obscure - and can sometimes lead to moments of "Witcher 3 / Factorio Unknown Indie Darling" moments. The dream is for threads like this to not contribute to successes that are already basically "lightning in a bottle", but focus attention where developers haven't seen so much of it.
Yep nailed it.
One of the reasons I hate reddit gaming communities is if you recommend games, the top five comments on all of these threads are always the damn same.
Fair points, but I can't participate in this thread because I'm on an instance that doesn't allow down votes. The up vote solution is at least a bit more inclusive
Wait, I thought that only applies to communities on that instance, not to a case like this, where you are on another instance? Are you using an app or a browser based way to access the fediverse?
I don't have downvote arrows in either my browser or Jerboa on Android.
This thread is very nice great idea op
Wouldn’t “upvote if you have never heard of it” accomplish the same thing?
That is also what is happening.
Copy Kitty: https://store.steampowered.com/app/349250/Copy_Kitty/has a demo
Fun elimination platformer. If you wish Kirby did more with the power mixing from Kirby 64, you'll probably like it.
Toodee and Topdee (559 reviews)
Puzzle platformer/block pushing hybrid
The 2d platforming world and top-down world have smashed together. You control one hero from each dimension, who share the same space in the levels. You switch between platformer and top-down modes and must get both characters to the goal. The boss levels are hard but very cool, combining action and puzzles.
Also features local 2-player co-op and a generous assist mode.
That looks really cool!
It's fun. Way too hard sometimes but I think that might have been the point.
Down voting it but it's a good recommendation for those that like puzzle platformers like Super meat boy or the best parts of hollow knight.
The whole things just a massive labor of love from a relatively small indy studio. At one point it was an RPG Maker game that was delightfully well polished in terms of story, art, and environment. After the devs got tired to rpg maker limitations, they ported the whole thing to Unity and re-released it as a free Enhanced Edition update. Childhood me played the shit out of GBA Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and it very much scratches that JRPG itch.
I found this game a few years ago after playing a remake on Pico-8. The premise is youre an unhoused person who just got out of jail, and you have to collect cans and change, find work, get an education, and a nice job, all while avoiding several hazards like muggers and the IRS.
I found it surprisingly addictive and very fun.
Underhero is a RPG. There is (bad) 2D platforming and an interesting blend between turn based and real time battles with decent amount of player expression, but I find most interesting the writing and scenarios you will find yourself in during the game. You play as an Underling after the Hero has an unfortunate accident after all, and while technically a silent protagonist, all entries in the journal/hint system/to-do list are just brimming with personality.
I swear I first saw this game in list of "Paper Mario-likes", but I can't find a single video with that topic that mentions it, and now I realize that it only has like 600 reviews on steam.
It's basically capitalism as a game, but for the Genesis/Mega Drive era it was a surprisingly fun game. When I was a kid I played this before I even knew what McDonalds was, and many people I know thought I was crazy when I talked about a game I played where you collected the Golden Arches while being guided by Ronald McDonald on an environmental quest.
Evochron Legacy if you want a space game that also lets you fly down onto planet's atmospheres, with the appropriate air drag limiting your max speed.
I should probably try playing it again sometime, it's very rough around the edges, but can be fun for people that enjoy ship piloting in space.
Had to downvote but it really is an awesome game. Great physics and combat, universe, politics and economics.
Guess it's more well known than I'd thought!
I've had this game on my wishlist for years. Maybe time to take another look.
If you're looking to kill a couple hours and love puzzle games, give 20 Small Mazes a go. I really enjoyed the variety.
Best of all, it's free.
RTS. Kind of reminds me of the ground comabt from Star Wars Empire at War crossed with Starship Troopers. Command a squad of space marines tasked with battling an overwhelming alien horde. Pretty fun campaign (if a bit of a predictable story), plus an endless mode. Not exceedingly difficult, but definitely challenging enough to make you think tactically and keep you on your strategic toes. Somewhat limited replayability makes the sticker price hard to recommend (unless your bread and butter is RTS), but it regularly goes on sale for less than $5, which it is absolutely worth!
Reminds me of Creeper world except faster paced and more dynamic.
Cleaning the System is a platformer where you jump through levels as some kind of pogo stick. The movement is really fun and if you bounce well you can build up a lot of momentum, which lends itself to speedrunning.
There is also a free version of it from the GMTK game jam where it placed very well
Achron
A RTS with time travel. You can actually send troops and orders in the past to change the outcome of the battle.
https://youtu.be/b6YYWCW1wVs?si=UfuVQX0j4c8fFIkZ
It's a shame it never got big. The time travel mechanic is awesome.
Sadly, downvoting this based on the rule…
It did pop up in my feed when it was in development. I think the time travel is neat in concept but just becomes too hard to wrap one’s head around - and from what I remember, the core RTS elements were a bit lacking.
The core RTS is very standard like the first command and conquer. The visual were a bit lacking not becaus ugly but hard to differentiate between untis when in the heat of battle. The single player mission is like a large training. And I kept getting destroyed by the AI even on easy.
I might give it a try again to play with my son, now that he is old enough. It's really the time travel that should be revived by a bigger or more experienced studio. Lots of potential in there.
Also pissed that the Linux version never made it to Steam, now that Proton is a thing I forgot to check it again.
Bopl Battle is a hilarious party game for up to 4 people. The rounds go really quick so it's a great game to play with friends when you have a limited amount of time, but the fun doesn't wear out fast either.
Had to downvote, but the game is great. I play it with my kids and it is reliably hilarious. There are so many interactions that something surprising happens with amazing regularity.
I meet with 3 friends online every 2 weeks to discuss nerd stuff and play some video games together after, and bopl battle has been great for that.
Astalon: Tears of the Earth. Really fun 8-bit roguelite metroidvania where you swap between characters to access different parts of the dungeon.
Mobmania https://store.steampowered.com/app/2099220/Mobmania/
It's an Bullet Heaven game like Vampire Survivor. You can play online with up to 4 Friends and every Character has it's own Skills. The Game is still in Early Access but it gets Updates regularly.
Golf Club Nostalgia(917 Reviews)
This is a game that isn't here for the game play. I think if you are paying at all attention to the boring dystopia, or climate collapse communities then this will hit in a way that is hard to define.
Its a golf game. Simple, could be played on a phone really, but you have to have the sound on for this one.
You are a member of the elite refugees who have fled to Mars and only return back to Earth to use the husk of a planet for a round of golf. And your companion is a lone radio broadcast from Mars of what they have left, which is stories and the rare music that was saved.
The combination of overwhelmingly good world building and consistent vibe even down to the level names and journal entries hits like a train and made me cry at least a couple times.
It made me feel nostalgiac for a world that has not yet come to pass and is a great on sale pick.
A small and simple semi-idle frog collecting game where you simply collect rare frogs and let them generate buckaroos so you can collect rarer frogs. There's a free demo that got me hooked to occasionally logging on and collecting more frogs.
Well of Souls was a little primordial mmorpg I got in a 100 games CD a while back. I used to have tons of fun making a custom character from sprites and seeing how far I could get. When I played it never felt mmo ish as it was already pretty empty.
NandGame is a browser puzzle game, where you start of by building basic logic gates from relays and progress from there all the way trough processor design to compiling high-level languages. It does not hold your hand too much, but the invidual puzzles progress so incrementally, it feels almost magical how easily you learn to build computers and compilers.
Globulation2 brings a new type of gameplay to RTS games. The player chooses the number of units to assign to various tasks, and the units do their best to satisfy the requests. This allows players to manage more units and focus on strategy rather than on micro-management.
It's actually quite old and has gone through stretches of inactivity, but appears to be kept in working order in its git repo, and recently has been getting maintenance patches.
Hex based rouge like deck builder. If we're taking indy gems, this one's probably a nice Amethyst. Not quite the most polished (the game kind of just throws you in without much of a tutorial and the story's pretty bare bones), but overall a solid B. If Slay the Spire and Into the Breach are your jams it'll be right up your alley.
D-Day Normandy is a Quake 2 total conversion mod that is a standalone game. Our website is currently reduced to a forum, but we hope to get that back on track soon. The admin is currently unavailable... Anyways, WW2 FPS from around 2000. Class-based, objective or fraglimit (or both in some maps). Runs on everything these days. We have a couple servers worldwide, more info on ddaydev.com.
The first game I ever completed and the first time I left a review for a game. The music, the atmosphere, the design, everything blew away. It was freeware from back in 2006. Made by a guy called Nifflas. It's a sidescrolling platformer where you are an intelligent bouncing ball. I still think about it to this day.
Nexus: the Jupiter incident. It is a now a bit old tactical space combat game with a big focus on the narrative. It's awesome, but I never see it mentioned anywhere.
God how badly do I want to see a remaster/remake. So under rated. With a bit more fleshing out (It's a pretty short, pretty linear experience) it could easily compete with the mechanics in Homeworld.
Ha, "bit old" indeed.
For my it's Bone's Café.
Imagine overcooked but where you kill and use your customers as ingredients and can raise skeletons from the dead to automate as your chefs and servers. It's overall a very well put together game, especially for one with 240 reviews (total)
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1739070/Bones_Cafe/
I haven't played it couch co-op but the solo play has been really enjoyable
Spin Rhythm XD is a highly enjoyable rhythm game where you spin a wheel with two colors and match them with the beats on the game's rhythm track.
Here's a description from Steam:
Enter the Rhythm Dimension. A homage to classic arcade rhythm games (Guitar Hero, DDR), with a modern aesthetic and soundtrack. Match colours and beats, spin, tap, flick and flow through the juiciest beats in the universe. Supports multiple control styles including MIDI DJ gear on Steam!
Edit: at the time of writing this, I didn't realize that this game had 3.5K reviews on Steam, but literally nobody I asked knew about the game, so I guess it kinda counts.
Megabyte Punch is a side scrolling fighting game where you build your robot with different parts salvaged from fought robots that give you different abilities and powerups.
It is a super fast, casual game that you can bang out in a few nights. It has a pretty good electronic soundtrack, boss fights feel weighty even if they are relatively simple.
One of my favorite games as far as just fun and de-stressing!
Dink Smallwood is an old fantasy role playing game. It has a small community that makes mods for it. It's really dumb but it's free to play and very short if you have nothing better to do.
edit: Wow! I didn't realize a lot of people here know this game. That's actually cool.
Dude I loved that game back in the day. So many great mods for it too
Damn, I remember that game being included as a bonus in an old magazine CD with lots of RPG Maker 2000 stuff
This was my Diablo. Indeed very dumb, but fun in a weird way. downvoted because I already played it though!
Bugvasion TD (9 reviews)
It's a charming little tower defense game where you fight bugs with very fun abilities. I also play tested it so I may be a tad biased but I think it's underated and fun :3
I recommend Scavenger SV4 It's a very unique game where you send a rover down to a planet to grab what alien artifacts you can before your radiation exposure gets past the point it can be treated. You can bolt some of them onto your rover to make it better and send it down again. It also has several hundred different endings that are decided by how much radiation you absorbed and how much loot and what loot you brought back.
Minishoot Adventures is a twin stick shooter with a 2D Zelda-style map.
Voices of the Void a free (likely while it's in pre-alpha) light simulational game about receiving outer space signals and recording them to sell. You use the currency to clean up, upgrade, and decorate your small facility while moving around the Swiss forest valley you're in to repair and upkeep the satellite dishes that make the operation function.
It sounds very purely simulational, but there are a lot of secrets and interesting signals that are more than signals. It's also an Unreal engine game, but features a lot of Source engine love, for example the art style is reminiscent of Half-Life 1, all of the sound effects are EXTREMELY Source game nostalgic, and there's crouch jumping.
Goated game. I enjoyed so much and it has tons of replayablity.
Semi-Rogue-like RPG, flee away from the darkness on the leftside of the screen, try and defeat demonlord and save the world. (Multiple endings)
One of my favorite games ever, guy made his own engine.
It does have design flaws, don't get me wrong. But this is is really novel and has enough content to get somewhat deep into it.
Eventually you start seeing the same things but for essentially a one man team it's really impressive.
To me, Ctrl Alt Ego is not well known enough. It is an immersive sim in the style of Prey. You play as a robot roaming a station, where your Ego (like a spirit) can pass into and control all sorts of objects to solve puzzles, evade, control or kill enemies. The graphics aren't impressive (it was made by a 2-person team) but the gameplay is so interesting and the story is surprisingly compelling and funny!
Don't know about broad appeal, but Corn Kidz 64.
Requires a controller, looks like an N64 title, and controls like one as well. Isn't as long as some games, but it's long enough that I got hours out of it before finishing. Heard of it from someone on Lemmy a long time ago.
Has 1140 Steam reviews, so I figured it's just barely above the 1000 reviews.
HyperRogue has 352 reviews. It is a rogue like that is played on a hyperbolic plane rather than a euclidian one.
If you're not familiar with hyperbolic geometry, don't be fooled by the videos. It has the illusion of looking like it is on a sphere in many of the videos. It's not! Also, you don't need to be some master of hyperbolic geometry to play. I don't really understand it but can still play the game well enough.
Essentially, imagine a hexagonal grid. Now, replace some of those hexagons with septagons (7 sided). The further away you get from a point there will be way more tiles in the hyperbolic grid than the euclidian.
The UI is pretty bad, the menus are pretty icky. Those are my only real complaints.
The game is charming. It has.a very retro feel to it. The music reminds me of something of hear from an old school point and click game or RuneScape. The graphics are minimal but charming.
The mechanics are easy enough. You get hit and you die. Most enemies die in one hit. There are no weapons or stats. It's more like chess in a way. The game will also not let you accidentally move somewhere you'd die, so, yes, very much like chess with checkmates.
Because the game is so simplistic you can get into a flow state where you quickly move and attack enemies. It's very satisfying to play.
Hyperbolic bonus: Hyperbolica, a first-person walking simulator set in a universe with hyperbolic geometry. You do odd jobs and play games that explore the strangeness of this geometry. Also, there's a slight digression to explore spherical geometry as well.
Hyperbolica is much better than the rogue game
Tinykin
I know you said less than 1,000 reviews but this is at 1,500 so I think it just squeaks by.
This game for lack of a better description, adorable and over too soon.
Like a mashup of pikmim, Spyro 2, and Tony Hawk Pro Skater. It's got lots of fun platforming and new puzzle mechanics in an ever adding open world that is a true joy to traverse and cute silly little side plots that make for rather grand set pieces when it all comes together. I got 100% in 12 hours but also collect-a-thons are my jam and I was plowing through the game with grin on my face for everything but the platinum time trials.
Martha Is Dead is a grim psychological triller about twin sisters, set in Italy at the end of WW2. It's not about war, however. This game left me with deep emotions no other game could do. Heed the warnings given by authors, though. It may come too disturbing to some people.
Clanfolk, a (very alpha and also very playable) game that draws clear inspiration from Rimworld, but has a kind of tech progression that feels spiritually similar to bootstrapping a factory in Factorio, while being set in the Scottish Highlands.
Ignore that heretical work of The Guild 2/3 et co. Only the ORIGINAL is truly worthy.
Hidden and Dangerous
The original was fantastic and v2 built on that. Fantastic 3rd person WW2 tactical shooter. Haven't seen anything like it in over 20 years since.
A naval trade game about 1800's China from the Apple II. You won't believe it till it happens but I'll become addicted.
Children of a Dead Earth is a tactical space game with n-body Newtonian physics. This means that on the surface it is very similar to something like KSP, you can do things like orbit a Lagrange point. In addition, you can design all the parts of you spacecraft and weaponry down to the materials they use. If you can make a fuel tank made out of aerogel work with the laws of physics, then you can use it. For example, I made a coilgun that fires nukes which was devastating at close range but the low velocity of the nukes made them easy to dodge at long range and without any thrusters, they cannot course correct.
Archive.org mirror of the game download
I genuinely have NO clue if this game is known, but i suspect it mostly isn't.
It's Keyboard Drumset Fucking Werewolf! It's kinda like a music video, but it's a music video game 👉😏
It's a collaboration between 2000s indie weirdo darling gamedev cactus and Swedish synthpunk band Fucking Werewolf ASSO.
it's aggressively strange and moderately challenging, but I think it's just a goddamn delight and maybe you will too.
I you love puzzle games you need to try Can of Wormholes, over 100 handcrafted puzzle stages where every puzzle introduces a new idea or interaction, very underrated game.
Not a pc game but rather on mobile. It's a really solid fantasy CYOA game and (if you wanted to) play through the next set of story chapters completely for free as long as you meet the achievement requirements. Barring that, buying books (as the game calls it) has a rather fair price. Unfortunately the game is incomplete as the solo developer has sadly passed away, but what is here is great with a decent length since there's been years of book chapters. Genuinely a hidden gem that I discovered on a whim back early in highschool, and it's sad that I won't be able to see the end they envisioned, so with that in mind I'll be replaying this game again in the near future.
Out of Space a cozy co-op game similar to Overcooked but less chaotic.
I came here to write about this one... It gets chaotic once you're a 4 man team that doesn't know how to play the game :)
Eternum (warning: NSFW) is an adult visual novel that keeps touching me with every new update. It's completely free, and I can't help but think of the creator as a master of the genre.
The characters are all well written and (those who are meant to be) lovable. The story is interesting, compelling even, and the humor is often hilarious. When you go to the website, you might think "Porn game!!!", and not be entirely wrong, but Eternum is so much more. It's a story about love, friendship, and a mystery.
Setting: Orion moves back to the USA after a long time. In recent years, a video game called eternum has been gaining traction, that allows going into virtual worlds, think full dive VR like in Sword Art Online. I'd say about 60% of the story happens IRL.
I can only recommend this masterpiece of a visual novel.
Heaven's Vault is a game about archaeology and translating a dead language. You explore a unique solar system and discover ruins, in which you uncover artifacts, and bits of text. Through context clues, you translate the passages to uncover the storyline. It's not difficult, so if you're looking for a puzzle, this won't really do it for you, but it's more of a narrative experience. If you aren't sure about a word or phrase, you can give it a guess (based on assigning words from a collection of possible translations to specific symbols), and the game will remember that choice and let you slowly revise your translations as you find new text that rules out prior incorrect guesses. There's an interconnected storyline with multiple paths to follow, and a very unique world - haven't seen anything like it in other games.
The game has a NG+ mode wherein you start with all of your translations from the first playthrough intact, but, most of the bits of text are considerably longer and more involved, letting you use your prior knowledge to uncover more of the story and the lore of the world, which is also neat.
...well I feel really bad about downvoting this one, because it's a really good suggestion
Agreed. However, I believe it was included in a Humble Choice bundle at one point, so it may not be quite as obscure as what the OP is looking for.
Didn't know that! Was going based off of the review score; 1600 reviews in 5 years seemed pretty little-known. All the same, don't mind the downvotes - that's the point of the thread after all. :)
This sounds really interesting. I'm gonna put this on my wishlist in hopes it goes on sale or something. Can't justify $25 right now due to circumstances.
Never heard of it, but I own it so I'll install it.
This game is so unique and so fantastic.
If you enjoyed it, you might also enjoy Chants of Sennar! It's also about translating languages; it's more puzzle-oriented and less story-based; there's a story to uncover, but it's not as clear-cut and narrative driven. Still a great game, however!
A fun little 2000 era RTS with customisable mech chassis units/base building/multiple fighting levels per map (separate air/land/underground maps). In hindsight, it has a fiendishly difficult campaign which I remember it being a lot easier than I find it now...
Vangers is a postapocalyptic and fundamentally strange top-down driving/exploration/mystery/action-RPG.
It has a unique back story, hostile worlds and an intriguing and expansive vocabulary that helps tell the story. If you are the type of person that appreciates poetic neologisms because they get your brain going, guessing at the etymology and sucking up the layers of connotation, this is up your alley.
Even if you manage to complete the game, you'll be left wondering whether what happened was even meant to happen. It's sort of post modern with deconstructed words, rituals and behaviors all jumbled up and muddled together as a result of a great and important event that once had meaning to creatures that may no longer even exist.
It is actually a Skyrim mod but basically a complete game that just happens to be built upon Skyrim. It features full professional quality voice acting in German and English, new game systems inspired by the Gothic series, a setting separate from Elder Scrolls, and a story that gets close to the quality of Planescape Torment or Disco Elysium. I can't recommend it enough.
Rabbit and Steel - Cross between a bullet hell and roguelite with raid style gameplay. Requires very close co-ordination with your team to survive (up to 4 player co-op). Punishing but rewarding.
Surprised to see the downvotes (by which I mean, I'm surprised so many people know this, I'd never heard of it at all).
"Roguelike co-op game requiring close coordination" seems like a mega-fail by concept since I tend to think of co-op games as more relaxed. But, looking at gameplay videos, it reminds me of FFXIV raid mechanics in a simplified game format. I can see how that would appeal to some people.
Had a great deal of fun with this one and it's still getting updates!
the GDQ playthrough of this game should be required watching, it's beautiful and impressive
Severed Steel. F.E.A.R. meets Tron, plus a Mega Man arm cannon, plus the movement out of Titanfall. It's incredibly fun and satisfying to play, and it has an exceptional soundtrack (if you like synth).
Steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1227690/Severed_Steel/
Soundtrack: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1754220/Severed_Steel_Soundtrack/
I've always heard it described as Minecraft meets Primitive Technology. I would say that is quite accurate. Maybe some (optional) Don't Starve like elements where you have to worry about the temporal rift (sort of like insanity) and drifters (largely at night).
Technology progression is much slower than Minecraft. Also much more involved. Want a stone axe? You have to place a stone on the ground and use another stone to knap it into shape first. Make an iron shovel? You have to heat up the ingot first and then beat it into shape on an anvil. If you are too slow and it cools down you have to heat it up again.
Farming has 3 nutrient groups, so fertilizers and crop rotation is important.
Leather making is a multi step process of soaking hides in various liquids.
It has a built in and very extensive guide/wiki. It also has a native Linux build.
Sadly, it's not available on PC, but it is available on Nintendo Switch (US eShop page linked above) and PlayStation 4 (and PlayStation 5 through backwards compatibility).
It's a sci-fi game made by the creators of some games you might've heard of in passing (namely Dragon's Crown, Odin Sphere, Muramasa: The Demon Blade, etc.), Vanillaware. I can't go into any details about the game itself because of spoilers, but I will say it is quite simply the best and most uniquely told story I have ever seen in a game. It's a game you have to experience for yourself. You should go into it as blind as possible, too.
I will say the English dub of the game is also surprisingly good, considering it was recorded almost entirely in COVID lockdown. The Atlus West sound engineers (Atlus published the game in the west) must've worked some incredible magic to get it to sound as good as it does.
Space Station 14!
Rouge like turn based dungeon crawler. Certainly not new by any means, but still a pretty decent little dungeon crawler. The art is cute and the game is pretty simple to pick up, which makes it perfect for more casual play. That said if you're a completionist, it can get a bit repetitive, but nothing too hair-pulling. Probably not worth the full sticker price, but historic sales have knocked it down to $1.49, which is a nice balance between cheap and fun (took me about 28 hours to 100%).
Isn't it a pseudo rogue like? Like you (have to) upgrade your 'village'?
If it's the game I found it quite tedious(haven't voted up or down).
Yeah, probably. There is a village building/ upgrading component, but it doesn't have much of an impact on gameplay. It does get pretty tedious, especially if you're well versed in strategy. I mostly just figured I'd throw it out as a more casual one-shot to pick up on the cheap.
Twinsen's Little Big Adventure 2 Classic (aka LBA2 or Twinsen's Adventure)
You are Twinsen, a little tank-like controlled character that's about to go on an adventure to save his planet!
The tank controls may be getting a bit used to, but you can jump, roll to the side, hop backwards, etc, so you can apply some creativity to your movement. Shout out to the Magicball Network for staying alive all those years!
Go out there, meet a godess, defeat a dictator!
It is a game about building functional computer by combining logic gates. Game arranged in series of small puzzles to make it digestible for people without electric engineering degree like me. You slowly build new components, so you can use them later as higher level abstraction until you get to the point of having to program your own computer to solve further puzzles. If you curious how computers work, this game is a gem.
Avorion - In which you command and build a spaceship designed by yourself (or others on the internet). Soon you have AIs you command and space stations you own. The game allows you to lean as much or as little as you want into the fleet command and economy aspects. If you want, you can just pilot one big-ass ship and do it all alone.
I had a good amount of fun with this game, it's a shame I have to downvote it. It was a little difficult to get into at first, but I stuck with it and had a lot of fun. I chose to develop a big-ass ship like you speak of and eventually became a lumpy Death Star knockoff.
Oh no, avorion is getting down votes!
Seems it is better known than I thought!
Severed Steel is a single-player FPS featuring a fluid stunt system, destructible voxel environments, loads of bullet time, and a unique one-armed protagonist. It's you, your trigger finger, and a steel-toed boot against a superstructure full of bad guys. Chain together wall runs, dives, flips, and slides to take every last enemy down.
Downvoting due to rules, but this is a favorite of mine, the music is obscenely good, too
Unrelated question: did you manually copied and formatted the SteamDB/ProtonDB links, or did you use any add-on?
I manually searched for the SteamDB and ProtonDB links for this game on Google, copied the link, selected the "SteamDB" text in the comment textbox and pasted with the Ctrl+V shortcut. Same with game name. Lemmy did Markdown itself 🙃
Crab Champions is a fast paced PvE shooter with roguelike elements. You basically are a crab and fight through multiple waves of enimies. You collect loot to become stronger, and there are fun boss fights. It supports co-op multiplayer, and is made by a single indie developer.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/774801/Crab_Champions/
Linux compatibility is great: https://www.protondb.com/app/774801
From the depths for me is a vehicle building game that's targeted to whoever likes tuning little systems. Haven't seen anyone know of it besides in the community itself. It's a bit like toying around with Lego technic. There's also quite a few more obscure versions of it, but I put this one out because I like it best.
We Who Are About To Die
https://store.steampowered.com/app/973230/We_Who_Are_About_To_Die/
Physics based Gladiator roguelike. Work your way up, start fighting with boards dressed in rags in city crossroads for the amusement of peasants, and end a God of Blood fighting in gold in the Coliseum!
Or die along the way. You'll die a lot along the way :)
VoxeLibre, what started out as a Minecraft clone is now trying to go it's own way. Does what it says on the tin. Being not quite MC gives it something fresh, yet familiar imo.
Hoplite (puzzley turn-based mobile roguelike). Here's a review I found: https://toucharcade.com/2014/01/08/hoplite-review/
I don't like mobile games, but this one is really elegant. It respects you as a customer, unlike a lot of mobile games.
Haven't played in a while, but I really enjoyed it a few years ago.
Hoplite is good! I'm sorry I downbooped you
I guess this game is more well known than I thought
Veloren
Veloren is an action-adventure role-playing game set in a vast fantasy world.
Looks like "Cube World but actively maintained", could be interesting
A classic from Introversion. It's a bit older so it's gotten over the review threshold by now, but I'd wager it's relatively unknown.
Sanctum (and its sequel Sanctum 2)
It’s a tower defense where you also have guns and go fight alongside your towers as a first person shooter.
Both Sanctum and Sanctum 2 are worth playing and have slightly different vibes. Sanctum 1 is simpler while Sanctum 2 has more complex build crafting. Also Sanctum uses a square grid while Sanctum 2 uses a hexagonal grid, and Sanctum 2 has some tweaked enemy mechanics, including enemies that target destroy the towers or killing the players over just going for the core. I think Sanctum 2 tries to make the player feel more important instead of the towers being the main focus.
Chex quest. I got this game in a cereal box back in 1996. It defined my childhood.
Now they have an HD version on steam. 10/10 good times.
I prefer Brutal Chex Quest:
It's beautiful
Evoland 2 is an unique RPG, with its graphic style and gameplay changing as you progress through a deep storyline based on time travel.
For the record, you're getting downvoted as per OP's will, but this is a fantastic suggestion.
I did not realize this game was this well known! It has a super low player peak and at least last time I looked after I first played it years ago no big YouTube channels had a let’s play of it either.
I actually saw in one my channels both the first and second super interesting games!
You are Quote, an amnesiac robot. The world appear to have gone to shit and you don't know why.
It's a 2D sidescroller, which if I told myself, I would find immediately boring, but the animation, controls and story combined as just so good. It's so good.
Iron Lung. Everyone is gone. Every star, every planet and every moon. The only people left are those who were on spaceships and stations. With one exception: A moon is found, glowing in the light of a star that doesn’t exist and filled with an ocean of blood. Desperate for answers, the new makeshift government sends prisoners in submarines deep into this ocean with a simple task: make it to a hand full of coordinates, take the pictures and make it out alive. Did I mention it’s an ocean of human blood?
This game fucked me up that one night I played it alone. And no, it won’t take you longer. The dev literally says so in the description. About an hour. But it’s cheap and takes you on a crazy ride. By David Szymanski, the mad genius behind Dusk.
Just started playing Shapez 2. https://shapez2.com/
Hot damn, is that addictive.
Obligatory downvote but I enjoyed the first Shapez and this one looks way cooler, I'm excited to get into it.
A deck construction game where the cards you choose to put in the deck are the challenges you will face on your run. You unlock more cards by completing challenges on the cards you have.
You can skip the first one and play the sequel, it's more polished.
It's made by the Developer who made Gunpoint and Heat Signature (also amazing games if you somehow haven't heard of them BTW).
It's a turn based tactics/puzzle game where you command a squad of wizards with different magical abilities to dispatch a room full of enemies. A bit like Into the Breach but hand crafted scenarios, not procedurally generated.
It also has a fun story, character customisation, and ability unlocks. Almost every scenario has a bunch of optional extra goals, so you decide how hard you want to wreck your brain. Highly recommend it!
Edit: It seems people are aware of this one, I really thought it was a bit niche.
FWIW It was recently on the steam front page for me
I didn't know it was that developer. I've been excited to get it after reading reviews. To hear it's from the Gunpoint developer, I'm so on board!
Didn't one of the original devs die and his son "take over" for a last few polishing updates/as a memorial?
Or was that another "small" game series? 🙈
Yep, don't care, I'm up voting anyway. This game is well done. I loved Gunpoint, I loved Heat Signature, and I've been really enjoying this one. Writing, gameplay, graphics... I'm a fan, for sure. The whole Defenestration Trilogy is worth it.
Pizza Tower is a love letter to the Wario Land series, and from my experience, is a drug trip and a half for the sheer absurdity of the game. If you do pick this up, I recomend going in blind :3
CrossCode, great characters and great story. Really good game.
Sorry for the downvotes. Look at it in a positive way! Crosscode has hit a lot of popularity over the years to be so well known.
Absolutely love this game. It has all the energy of SNES games of my youth. It's one of the few games I've replayed after beating.
Downvoted.
This is a fantastic game. I haven't finished it; I screwed myself over by losing patience and skipping content near the end and wound up stumbling into the final boss so underpowered that I effectively softlocked myself. I should play this through again and stick to a completionist play style.
I like everything except the long, LONG dungeons full of puzzles. I suffer through them so I can experience more story and overworld gameplay, but they're a real slog for me. Similar problem to what I had with Fenyx Rising, actually.
Long, long puzzle dungeons that encourage you to race against the NPCs. I hated that mechanic so much, I never finished the game.
I didn't know that it was actually keeping track when I first played it, but once I read that it doesn't actually do anything, I was fine with continuing to ignore it.
Yeah, I might get back to it sometime. It is a mish-mash of so many video game tropes I love. It was just one particular instance where I forced myself through a dungeon as fast as I could, got frustrated with the boss and died a couple of times, finally made it, and wasn't fast enough to beat the NPC that just completely ticked me off and made me put it down. Those monk trial things really tested my patience for a bit there, too.
I turned the difficulty all the way down, and it's still not all that easy. I wouldn't have gotten very far if that option weren't there, though.
Same, that part was really annoying
An excellent example of storytelling elevating a game. The game play is a decent puzzle platformer, and the story is very charming.
Multiplayer platforming game where you're chained to up to three other people trying to escape Hell by climbing up, up, up. I've only played it 2 player, which was fun, and can only imagine how chaotic 4 player would be. Can be played solo, but I wouldn't recommend it.
EDIT: For once, I'm glad to see downvotes! Good to know it's gotten recognition.
Concord is a...nah, I'm just kidding. I've never played it, and I don't intend to. It has fewer than 1000 reviews though.
I only heard of it because no one played it
In a way, I do feel sad about that game. Big AAA offerings take a lot of time for a studio, and the reviews say there wasn’t too much wrong with the gameplay. When they first started development, they probably didn’t know how bloated the hero shooter genre would be.
A large part of what's wrong with Concord is the development time that it took, and I hope it serves as a cautionary tale to try to make game development leaner and more sustainable.
An open-source factorio like game. You can play it on PC or your phone, and it has a self hostable server that is relatively easy to setup.
Edit: I'm really glad to see this game is pretty well known!
Worth noting that this game was written as part of a game jam and was already amazing even just a few days into development. https://itch.io/jam/gdl---metal-monstrosity-jam/rate/140169
It's a dungeon management game from '97. You are an evil Keeper and control a dungeon where you need to build rooms and train your creatures to attack (or defend from) the good guys.
Nowadays people play KeeperFX which is the opensource remake.
Doom II
...wait don't downvote yet, you've gotta play it with the new ray tracing mod
jokes on you, I've heard of the raytracing mod
Curses! Looks like word got out faster than I anticipated, which makes me happy as a doom fan :)
Might I recommend Doom Infinite mod?
I'm blown away by its creativity
I saw this one in a yt vid of various mods and it looked great--adding roguelike stuff into Doom is so cool. I'll definitely give it a shot.
Spear of Destiny or Rise of the Triad would have been better picks
I'm just surprised everyone has heard of a mod that's like 2 weeks old.
It's the same game though
Yeah I prob should've posted one of the total conversion mods like doom zelda
Chess is a great strategy game that is played between 2 players with many fun variations available!
Heard of that one a few times
Nice.
It's a little known game from a small publisher originally located in Scotland.
The main premise is that you drive around a city as quickly as possible and go bowling with your cousin. Think Big Lebowski meets Driver. You can also play Pool and Darts in various locations around the town, and earn money doing small side jobs such as being a taxi driver or a paramedic.
I'm probably in the minority here.
After loving GTA 3 and Vice City and San Andreas, I strongly disliked GTA4. Story was fine, but they really went hard on terrible controls and boring missions.
GTA5 apparently "fixed it" by making the driving more arcade-like, but I forced myself to finish it to get to the ending. Flying was a bore. And again, boring missions.
Maybe I just like the more zany wacky open-world chaos that Just Cause, Mercenaries, or Saints Row provides.
The controls in GTA IV were realistic! Your car tyre would blip the curb and it would affect the stability of the car. Denting the car from every angle resulted in a uniquely deformed mesh that my god would still drive. Pedestrians would bounce off your bumper in unique and interesting ways. It was a simulation paradise.
In GTA V they changed all that, made it more midnight club and arcade-y as you said. You could literally decimate a crowd of people and they'd all die with the same canned animation. Cars would at most lose a door before considering deforming the whole mesh. It just felt dumbed down.
Saints Row is fun, but you play it once and then forget about it because there's nothing to do once you reach godhood. Mercenaries was great fun, and Just Cause was a physics funbox, I'll give you that
I'm completely with you here. I found it very restrictive coming from San Andreas.
GTA 5 crashed on my machine when I finally shelled out 30 bucks for it, because the torrented version crashed at a specific mission.
One of a handful of games I've actually returned.
I downvoted you per the rules, but thanks for that chuckle.
I mean, it's pretty well known 🤣
I've never heard of it but it sounds like an interesting indie game from some rockstar guy. I wish they gave him a bigger budget to build a topdown version set in London.
Minecraft (do your worst)
I see you are doing some downvote farmin' today!
Is a good game, especially with mods.
Gotta try everything once
Literally the only game I've heard of on this thread so far lol.
To shreds, you say?
How's his wife holding up?
Tell us some obscure mods
To be honest, I lost interest in Minecraft about 10 years ago, and never played with mods. I've seen some hilarious playthroughs on YouTube though, I really enjoyed the custom animations RubberRoss made.
Hexcasting is a cool minecraft mod about hex casting
Im not sure if its obscure, but hexal should be
Joke's on you, I even contributed to hexcasting
But how about the Infinity matter dominator sword mod? It contains some of the most convoluted and basically unachievable crafting recipes Ive ever seen, just scroll down and enjoy the ride