With the Steam sale running, this seems like a good time to try this thread again. We don’t often use the downvote button much in Lemmy, but the idea is this: Do your best to present game suggestions that no one has heard of before. If, in reading other people’s suggestions, you spot one that you’re familiar with, then put a downvote on it. Ideally, if the game is past a year old, it may have a discounted price during the Steam sale, and others will be able to check it out.
I’ve made this thread once before and it generated some good suggestions, but the rate of indie publishing on Steam has only accelerated with time, so it seems to be worth trying again.
Suzerain is an underappreciated, text-based, role-playing political simulator. I wish there were more games out there like it.
Quadrilateral cowboy.
first person cyberpunk logic puzzle game that tells a story without any words. Absolutely a blast and I wholeheartedly recommend it
Total Distortion is a point-and-click adventure that combines music video creation, business simulation, and surreal humor. Players build music videos, battle guitar monsters, and navigate a strange dimension, all in pursuit of earning $1 million.
Ah, I knew I’ve seen the title before. The game over music is perhaps more famous than the game.
I would have to downvote pretty much all of them.
I thought of another one. This is an odd one, because I think the dev is actually quite well known: it’s Yahtzee Croshaw, formerly of Zero Punctuation and now of Fully Ramblomatic. He’s made a number of games over the years, but one that almost nobody ever mentions anymore is Poacher. (Note: link is to Archive.org rather than Steam; I don’t think the game is available on Steam.) I didn’t actually beat this one, as it ramps up quite a bit in difficulty as it goes on, but the basic controls and whatnot are very nice, and the humor is great. Here’s Wot Rock, Paper, Shotgun Thought about it, since it’s a bit of a faff to actually install at this point and Archive doesn’t offer reviews and whatnot.
Man, I played all the way through the 5 Days a Stranger trilogy but never heard of that one.
Probably a bit late to the party, Reus 2: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1875060/Reus_2/
Lovely puzzle/god game with eco/environmental themes. Really fun to chase all the achievements as they encourage you to try different things.
Great on the steam deck too!
Huh, more known than I expected, I think I have plugged it a few times here before though.
I found the game through a review recommending it to “Paper Mario” fans, but that video was so obscure I failed to ever find it again. The platforming is jank, the story compares unfavorably to another game with the same first 2 syllables, and the switch port is terrible with its load times. But I like the combat system, and while it starts fairly generic, each area becomes more and more visually intersting. Also we play as a silent protagonist, but they still gave them so much personality in the form of a hint system notebook, most devs would do that as generic as possible to not confuse anyone but I love them for not doing that.
A true 7/10 game.
Project Gorgon or, as I like to call it, Project Gorgonzola. Its an indie MMO, but its possibly my favorite MMO and I play a lot of them. Its very unique feeling. Has a lot of jank, but also a lot of charm. Come play with me :3
I learned a shitload about geography and culture from an old board game called “Globetrotters”.
Little Rocket Lab - fun factory builder with Stardew valley vibes
Hellkind short artsy horror themed top down walking sim
Street Uni X is a really good action sports game of the Tony Hawk variety, but this time on a unicycle.
I’ve recommended this before, so it’s possible people will have heard of this from me, but Gateways by Smudged Cat Games is pretty great. It’s a puzzle platformer but it gets very, very complicated as you go on, especially once you unlock the ability to use all the different mechanics at once. It’s a pretty smooth learning curve up to that point, though.
While looking for the link, I found out it’s a sequel… but it’s game where you play as a gator going through short-ish 3D levels in order to get your stolen swamp deed back.
Rad Venture ( just a demo ):
For a demo, it requires a LOT of storage ( ~13GB ). It’s a demo with a ton of exoloration to be had in an open environment. But basically you play as a green Rayman like lizardy dude named Rad and go around finding collectable mcguffins. The start to the demo was a little constricting because it puts you in a tutorial-esque situation with a lot of invisible walls, but after that section, there’s quite a bit to explore. Good idea to turn settings down on a normal LCD Steam Deck. Figured that ine out real quick.
It’s a fast paced 3D platformer. You play as some sort of antivirus program cresture and you can jump on enemies to disinfect or do something like a standard spin attack. There’s rewards for beating a level quick, not taking damage, and for defecting and leaving all enemies alone. Pretty fun platforner, IMO.
Stationeers. It’s a game about managing a station on another planet. You have to manage things like the atmosphere composition and pressure, as well as temperature, while growing plants and mining/smelting metal. It’s a really cool game, with the refrigeration cycle actually functioning so you can build your own heatpumps.
It’s made by the team making Kitten Space Agency, which they want to give away for free. Last I heard, they’re losing money developing Stationeers too, but they’re fine with that and continuing anyway. The owner of the studio is the person who made the DayZ mod, and I guess he’s got plenty of money now and just likes making games they’re passionate about.
