One of the things I really enjoy is unique, interesting or out-of-the box game design. It doesn’t have to be AAA game, it doesn’t have to be a perfect game, it can be pretty rough - but if it has a mechanic or design element that is somehow unique or original, I’m instantly in love with the game.
The problem is that such games do not usually get a lot of exposure, since it is after all a niche. And that is really a shame - in the past few years the most fun had with video-games was playing such smaller and shorter indie games with something unique or pretty clever, where I can obsess over the design and more importantly - get inspired. That leads me to my question - are there any communites or blogs or content curators that are about this kind of smaller, maybe unpolished, but original games? Or what games would you recommend that would fit into this description? I don’t mind if it’s a 5 minute experience. It’s ok if it’s more interactive art than a game.
To better illustrate what I’m looking for, I’d compare it to modern art - the kind where you get a single colored square on a canvas. I never got it, and it always felt just weird - until I had to start doing flyer design and started researching and reading about composition, space and all that stuff. And now I see there’s so much going on even on a picture with a single line, that it’s really interesting to think about why the square is where it is, and what kind of composition rules was he working with.
And I think it’s the same for game design - sometimes you see a clever mechanic or design on otherwise really ugly and unpolished game, and it still gets you inspired and thinking.
I understand that my question is a little bit vague, so I’ll give you a list of some games I consider unique, some of them are well known, some of them not-so-much:
Immortality - you probably know about this one, but a game where the plot twist is discovering a hidden game mechanic, you could’ve done all the time? And the fact that you watch three movies at once in random scene order is also a really good experience.
Against the Storm - I really like how they solved the issue with management sims - that they tend to get boring once you set everything up, by making it a roguelike.
Different Strokes - an online persistent collaborative museum of art, where you can either leave a new painting, or edit someone’s else. Each painting can be edited only once, so there are always two authors of a single piece.
Sayonara Wild Hearts - I really like the idea of making what’s basically an interactive music album. While the game design isn’t anyting that interresting, the focus on music is cool - there should be more music albums with video-games instead of video-clips.
Project Forlorn - Again, not really a game - this time I think there’s no actuall gameplay, but it’s the best interactive music album presentation I’ve ever seen. And again - I like the idea of exploring music and games together.
Playdate - Not exactly a single game, but rather a console - but the idea behind giving you a game per day (which is I think how it started, they may all be available now looking at it) sounds amazing - which I’d also consider a game design (or rather, experience design?).
Baba is You - Another probably well known game, but the puzzle mechanic is just mindblowing.
Before Your eyes - In this game, the main mechanic is that you go through the memories of someone who has just passed away, but the time advances every time you blink - physically blink, because the game can use your camera. That is such a clever idea, that it definitely fits onto this list.
Nerve Damage - This is my favourite recent discovery. The game is trying so hard to be uncomfortable to play, with it’s main design build around just being unplayable. But it somehow works and once you get into the flow, it’s such an unique experience.
So, does anyone has some recommendations about where to look for more experimental games? A curated list, blog would be awesome - since clicking through pages of games on itch.io is pretty hit and miss. Also, feel free to share some of your favourite unique design or experimental experiences and games!
Factorio - the factory sim game part is fairly standard but the pollution mechanic is really neat. The more you build, the more you pollute, which feeds the monsters which attack your factory. It’s self balancing.
Hardspace shipbreaker - the physics are damn close to real, within reason. You have a tractor beam and a laser saw. You break down space ships into salvageable bits. Voice acting is superb.
Terra Nil - most sim factory games have you exploit natural resources to achieve a goal, ruining the area in the process. This is the opposite. You’re planting and reforesting, trying to undo the devastation. It’s the anti Factorio.
In Other Waters and Scanner Sombre were some cool takes on how to present the player with game information. Mu Cartographer might also fit here but I haven’t played it yet.
Return of the Obra Dinn is another massive success for a unique game.
Maybe not quite weird enough but I found A Highland Song to be a pretty unique take on 2D exploration. Also just a great game.
and if you want to play a completely different game in every way by the same developer, the beginner’s guide is a short story game I would consider a work of art. It definitely is unusual as far as games go and it makes you feel things. It is best played completely blind on information.
Braid is a puzzle platformer divided into several sections, where time functions differently in each section and you have to figure out how to use it to solve the puzzles. It’s very well designed and (as I remember it) the puzzles can be quite challenging.
Heaven’s Vault: Language translation point and click adventure game.
Project Hospital: A great hospital sim. You can even diagnose the patients yourself!
Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin: A japanese RPG/brawler with a (very detailed) rice farming simulator as the way to gain XP to level up.
Warsim: The Realm of Aslona: A text based kingdom manager / adventure game. Full of quirky details and humor.
THE LONGING: A very very slow paced point and click adventure game about waiting… for 400 days… in real time. Why not read some books while you wait, or come out of your little hole and explore the caverns outside?
Cultist Simulator: Run your very own lovecraftian cult, the card game!
Windward: A pirate sandbox akin to Sid Meier’s Pirates! Tried it on a whim when I got it in a bundle and got stuck playing it for 15 hours. Worth a try.
Shadows of Doubt: A procedurally generated detective simulator (in early access at the moment).
Ruinarch: A big bad simulator sandbox. You are the big bad. See that village over there? Make their lives miserable!
Ghost of a Tale: You are a mouse bard in a fantasy world of anthropomorphic animal people. You are imprisoned in the castle dungeons and need to escape.
Heat Signature: A space bounty hunter sandbox. Hijack a ship, kill your target, collect the package, throw yourself out the airlock, and pick yourself up by remote controlling your ship.
Intergalactic Fishing: You like fishing? Do you want to fish an unlimited amount of different fish in an unlimited amount of different lakes all over the galaxy? Look no further.
The Last Federation: You are the last surviving individual of a powerful species in a star system full of different species at different levels of technology. Your mission: unite the star system to save its people from annihilation. Will you be able to unite all of them, or will some species be eradicated for the greater good?
Songs of Syx: A fantasy city builder of grand proportions. Build your kingdom’s capital and fill it with hundreds or even thousands of individual people.
5D Chess with Multiverse Time travel: Are you good at chess? Well, everyone is on a level playing field when you introduce time travel and the multiverse.
Thank you! That is an amazing list, most of the games you are recommending I haven’t heard about, and it sounds awesome. I will add it to my backlog for sure!
Glad you liked it! Here is a bonus item I did not remember for my list:
Wilmot’s Warehouse
You are Wilmot, the (only) warehouse employee. You are tasked with storing items delivered to you, and retrieving items that people request from you. What are all these items and how do you organize them?
Who knows! Figure it out!
So many good ones in this list, cultist simulator will make you see the world through its game system afterwards, ghost of a tale is Soo damn cute and well done.
Expanding on 5d chess I’d recommend 4D toys, a sandbox that will open your mind to the 4th dimension
I’ve only played two of the games you mentioned, thanks for the list! Here are a few I thought were especially interesting and that I played somewhere recently:
Nuts - you set up cameras to track movements of squirrels to find their hidden stash; gameplay is placing cameras and reviewing footage
140 - platformer stripped to its roots; the novelty is the simplicity; honorable mention Thoth (same idea, but twin stick shooter)
Ys 1 - ARPG with bump combat, which I found very interesting
Death Squared - MP (2 or 4) puzzle game where moving one unit can move set pieces, so coordination is needed
Titan Souls - boss rush, but with 1HP for you and the boss
Gorogoa - abstract puzzle game
Donut County - you’re a hole
Fez - 2D puzzle platformer where the gimmick is it’s actually 3D, but you can only see one 2D surface at a time (rotate worpd mechanic)
And some you’re probably aware of:
Superhot
Doki Doki Literature Club
Oxenfree
Portal/Portal 2
Undertale
Thanks again for the list! I’m excited to see what others post too!
Edit: I just wanted to say thanks for the post! I found a ton of great games to try out, and I hope you got the same out of it. :)
I’ve been using the save button for that function quite a lot. So when you go to your history you can look at saves. Rather than comments. It helps differentiate between conversations I’ve had and things I want to return to
At least in Voyager app it’s very intuitive. The save buttons right there on every post
Crypt of the Necrodancer - Rhythm-based dungeon crawler
Forgot what it’s called but there’s a VR game where your hands are stuck in a box and you sit down and hold a controller that moves gadgets on the box to solve puzzles. Very fun, would recommend. There are optional rewards for being perceptive about your environment.
I don’t think I’ve seen these two mentioned so throwing them in.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/322450/FRAMED_Collection/
Framed has an amazing and creative use of comic panels that you rearrange to try and get to the right set that lets you move to the next page. However, putting them in the ‘wrong’ order gives very entertaining sequences and sometimes that’s exactly what you need to do to progress. I highly recommend the entire collection. I think it’s a near masterpiece of visual gameplay, with no dialogue at all (if I recall rightly) and even instructions all being visual indicators.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/224460/Contrast/
Contrast has an interesting puzzle mechanic where you have to transition between the 3D world of colours and 2D world of shadows to platform to the next location. It’s interesting to see how the shadows and lights can be used and the way the story unfolded through the game made good use of the medium.
I’ve also seen certain games here that I’ll be sure to add to my list.
Ubisoft’s Prince of Persia 2008 has a unique atmosphere, design, combat, ambience and movement that sadly they did not continue but the game is beautiful at its fullest and really cheap now days
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Factorio - the factory sim game part is fairly standard but the pollution mechanic is really neat. The more you build, the more you pollute, which feeds the monsters which attack your factory. It’s self balancing.
Hardspace shipbreaker - the physics are damn close to real, within reason. You have a tractor beam and a laser saw. You break down space ships into salvageable bits. Voice acting is superb.
Terra Nil - most sim factory games have you exploit natural resources to achieve a goal, ruining the area in the process. This is the opposite. You’re planting and reforesting, trying to undo the devastation. It’s the anti Factorio.
A couple ideas:
In Other Waters and Scanner Sombre were some cool takes on how to present the player with game information. Mu Cartographer might also fit here but I haven’t played it yet.
Return of the Obra Dinn is another massive success for a unique game.
Maybe not quite weird enough but I found A Highland Song to be a pretty unique take on 2D exploration. Also just a great game.
If you havent already, stanley parable is a nice one, it is a game about making choises.
and if you want to play a completely different game in every way by the same developer, the beginner’s guide is a short story game I would consider a work of art. It definitely is unusual as far as games go and it makes you feel things. It is best played completely blind on information.
Hyper Demon - the camera is almost 360 degrees and in the trailers the gameplay seems unintelligible, until you play it for a bit
Braid is a puzzle platformer divided into several sections, where time functions differently in each section and you have to figure out how to use it to solve the puzzles. It’s very well designed and (as I remember it) the puzzles can be quite challenging.
+1 Heaven’s Vault. Gets you thinking in totally different ways.
Thank you! That is an amazing list, most of the games you are recommending I haven’t heard about, and it sounds awesome. I will add it to my backlog for sure!
Glad you liked it! Here is a bonus item I did not remember for my list:
Wilmot’s Warehouse
You are Wilmot, the (only) warehouse employee. You are tasked with storing items delivered to you, and retrieving items that people request from you. What are all these items and how do you organize them?
Who knows! Figure it out!
So many good ones in this list, cultist simulator will make you see the world through its game system afterwards, ghost of a tale is Soo damn cute and well done. Expanding on 5d chess I’d recommend 4D toys, a sandbox that will open your mind to the 4th dimension
Antichamber for a good old school mind bending puzzle game
Dude, I’m just super happy that Patientgamers is on lemmy, I really hope you find your game!
On that note, Gamepads has so many niche indie games that I think you will love
I’ve only played two of the games you mentioned, thanks for the list! Here are a few I thought were especially interesting and that I played somewhere recently:
And some you’re probably aware of:
Thanks again for the list! I’m excited to see what others post too!
Edit: I just wanted to say thanks for the post! I found a ton of great games to try out, and I hope you got the same out of it. :)
I’ve on my way to work but I’m commenting so I can come back and give you a list and see what everyone else suggests.
I’ve been using the save button for that function quite a lot. So when you go to your history you can look at saves. Rather than comments. It helps differentiate between conversations I’ve had and things I want to return to
At least in Voyager app it’s very intuitive. The save buttons right there on every post
Crypt of the Necrodancer - Rhythm-based dungeon crawler
Forgot what it’s called but there’s a VR game where your hands are stuck in a box and you sit down and hold a controller that moves gadgets on the box to solve puzzles. Very fun, would recommend. There are optional rewards for being perceptive about your environment.
That would be Statik Institute of Retention. Unfortunately it’s only for the first PSVR. I’m really disappointed they haven’t ported it to PSVR2.
Superliminal might be a good one for you, lot of perspective trickery and new ideas going on there.
Viewfinder
Superliminal
The vale: shadow of the crown
I don’t think I’ve seen these two mentioned so throwing them in.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/322450/FRAMED_Collection/ Framed has an amazing and creative use of comic panels that you rearrange to try and get to the right set that lets you move to the next page. However, putting them in the ‘wrong’ order gives very entertaining sequences and sometimes that’s exactly what you need to do to progress. I highly recommend the entire collection. I think it’s a near masterpiece of visual gameplay, with no dialogue at all (if I recall rightly) and even instructions all being visual indicators.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/224460/Contrast/ Contrast has an interesting puzzle mechanic where you have to transition between the 3D world of colours and 2D world of shadows to platform to the next location. It’s interesting to see how the shadows and lights can be used and the way the story unfolded through the game made good use of the medium.
I’ve also seen certain games here that I’ll be sure to add to my list.
Ubisoft’s Prince of Persia 2008 has a unique atmosphere, design, combat, ambience and movement that sadly they did not continue but the game is beautiful at its fullest and really cheap now days