Which indies did you discover and would love more people to know about?
I’ll start: The Pale Beyond. Not sure if it’s a hidden gem tbh, but it’s such a good story rich game. I laughed, I cried and felt the characters struggles. If you like story rich games/ choices matter, check it out.
Andor’s Trail is a foss roguelike with a twist that it’s story based, something quite rare in this genre.
Immortal Life is a farming game but with a Wuxia twist where you can use chinese magic to help you do your chores and there’s a twin stick combat inside the dungeon. What surprised me was seeing the game selling well on steam, but never seeing a single article about it, strangely common with chinese indies over here.
I would imagine that most articles about Chinese Indie Games are written in Mandarin, so it’s unlikely you’d see them without the ability to read Chinese.
Parkitect - an amazing RCT spiritual successor with cute graphics, some new mechanics (covering operational buildings and logistic routes). I have 100+ hours in it with my wife. It’s such a chill experience.
Nine Parchments - its a dual stick isometric shooter with wizards and elemental spells from the creators of Trine. Great co-op, unlockable characters/spells and creative mechanics. You can combine elements and the spells affect everyone, so for example a poorly placed healing spell can restore enemies health, or a misplaced fireball can hurt fellow players. Great fun!
Wildermyth - turn-based rpg with multiple characters and bite-sized modular quests and random encounters. The storytelling is simply amazing and each campaign plays out over a certain amount of time. The heroes age, retire, their kids can become adventurers as well. They can fall in love, compete, or based on the player’s choices even become other creatures or die heroic deaths which will also change how the story plays out. The art style is really nice and unique. I had many hours of fun with this one.
Ouroboros - an RPGmaker game where the protagonist is trapped in a looping simulation and tries to escape without alerting his captors. Short and sweet, perfectly executes the power fantasy of being a hyper competent rational character who’s gone completely emotionally numb after living for thousands of years. It’s an adult game and features some sex scenes but they’re not important and I think they can even be turned off. It goes on an 80% discount every steam sale.
Receiver is pretty good. You have to clear the slide, and remember to count bullets, did your own jams, and otherwise it makes shooting more of a simulation rather than an arcade.
They released two games. The first was just a game jam thing they threw together that established the core mechanics. The second was much more fleshed out and polished.
If I’m not mixing something up, they also created Overgrowth (third-person action platformer with rabbits beating up wolfs). And in order to distribute it without messing with third party services, they’ve created Humble Bundle. They sold it to some company later but for a long time it was them putting together the bundles.
Distance - an arcade racer that plays like a good 3D sonic game, has a cryptic story, and has elements of horror. Completely bonkers combination but it works super well.
Thumper - another very fast paced game, but also a rhythm game. The devs label it as “rhythm violence” and it fits. The music is percussive and ambient, mostly consisting of the sounds of you slamming through turns and hitting the a button with ferocious intensity. Levels can take well over 30 minutes.
The Beginner’s Guide - might be more well known but imo this is a must play for anyone who does anything creative. It’s a two hour walking sim, but I feel like it’s a story best told as a game.
DUDE did you also attend Digipen (camps or real classes)? Nitronic Rush was the fuckin shit and Distance was a massive graphical upgrade. Also hard to deny how great multiplayer is as an addition.
Treasure Adventure Game, maybe? I believe it’s free, though there’s a paid remake of it named Treasure Adventure World now.
Cutesy “kid goes on adventure” 2d platformer with sailing and some Metroidvania-y or Zelda-y factors. Cute pixel art and the music is very well done.
Antichamber is hidden gem or simply forgotten? I don’t know how much attention it got in its time.
It’s a puzzle platformer but I was feeling my brain bend the whole game. And at the same time I never felt like the new mechanic was explained too little or something was artificially dragged out. Very good design.
Antichamber is great. Feels like a completely different universe with its own set of rules you need to discover. Also really interesting to see a puzzle game with an almost metroidvania-like progression, with the gates being your own knowledge of the mechanics.
the Skyrim total conversion mod, Enderal: Forgotten Stories, blew me away, and it’s free if you own Skyrim. Even has its own installer and game page on Steam.
Their earlier game Nehrim: At Fate’s Edge is also worth a play. It runs on the Oblivion engine so it’s a little dated graphically, but story- and gameplay-wise it holds up fine.
Griftlands doesn’t get as much attention as I think it deserves. It’s everything Slay the Spire offers, but better. With plot and characters and two decks to balance.
I bought it discounted because i remember that i have seen it before. I really did not expect it to be this good. The world, the storyline and the combat are just awesome. Highly recommended!
Levelhead is a fantastic mario-maker esque platformer. The official campaign is a little over 10 hours long and is pretty good but its main draw is its incredible level editor and infinite number of quality levels online. I can’t recommend it enough. Sadly it never got as popular as it should have but there’s still a massive backlog of online levels to play.
Someone else mentioned Distance and I agree. It’s a futuristic racing game with some horror elements. The campaign is short, but there’s a great amount of levels in the workshop. The multiplayer modes are also pretty fun if you can grab a few friends (there’s split-screen too).
Inkbound is launching from early access soon and while I wouldn’t say it’s the greatest roguelike out there, it’s a lot of fun and very unique. It’s essentially a co-op turn based RPG where you and other players play all your turns at the same time. I’ve played a lot of singleplayer too and the game feels well balanced there.
Voxelgram is Picross 3D for PC. Must-have for people who like nonograms.
Hmmm… how about the Rusty Lake games? They’re weird. Or maybe Milk Inside a Bag of Milk Inside a Bag of Milk? Adventure puzzler and VN respectively.
I probably have a few more if I think about it. My friend and I randomize my steam list to decide things to play and there were quite a few interesting ones I got from who knows where-- bundles and bundles.
And they’re also linked. It’s a really cool rabbit hole to go down. Definitely recommend them to people who are into games with some meta elements to them!
A Robot Named Fight - “Metroidvania roguelike focused on exploration and item collection. Explore a different, procedurally-generated labyrinth each time you play and discover randomized power-ups to traverse obstacles, find secrets and explode meat beasts.”
Links: Steam - Website (It is also available on Switch, link on website)
I have almost 500 hours of playtime and still go back to it every now and then. Really awesome game with superb music, graphics and feel.
What’s extra cool is that the lone developer open-sourced the game code, available here: OpenARNF on GitHub
Sadly I’ve yet to see any mods, spinoffs or anything else come from it.
I had a great time with a couple card battlers last year, Cobalt Core and Nitro Kid.
Cobalt Core has a similar presentation to FTL, with a turn-based format instead. Plenty to do in it, great soundtrack, charming writing.
Nitro Kid is on a more traditional 2D grid with an isometric viewpoint. It appealed greatly to my love of 80’s settings, but I’d wait for a sale as it’s thin on content.
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Andor’s Trail is a foss roguelike with a twist that it’s story based, something quite rare in this genre.
Immortal Life is a farming game but with a Wuxia twist where you can use chinese magic to help you do your chores and there’s a twin stick combat inside the dungeon. What surprised me was seeing the game selling well on steam, but never seeing a single article about it, strangely common with chinese indies over here.
I would imagine that most articles about Chinese Indie Games are written in Mandarin, so it’s unlikely you’d see them without the ability to read Chinese.
The games are in english and they talk about japanese indies all the time though.
Weird. IDK
Parkitect - an amazing RCT spiritual successor with cute graphics, some new mechanics (covering operational buildings and logistic routes). I have 100+ hours in it with my wife. It’s such a chill experience.
Nine Parchments - its a dual stick isometric shooter with wizards and elemental spells from the creators of Trine. Great co-op, unlockable characters/spells and creative mechanics. You can combine elements and the spells affect everyone, so for example a poorly placed healing spell can restore enemies health, or a misplaced fireball can hurt fellow players. Great fun!
Wildermyth - turn-based rpg with multiple characters and bite-sized modular quests and random encounters. The storytelling is simply amazing and each campaign plays out over a certain amount of time. The heroes age, retire, their kids can become adventurers as well. They can fall in love, compete, or based on the player’s choices even become other creatures or die heroic deaths which will also change how the story plays out. The art style is really nice and unique. I had many hours of fun with this one.
I love Wildermyth. I really need to check it out again :)
I’ve had so much fun in Wildermyth. Definitely recommended.
Ouroboros - an RPGmaker game where the protagonist is trapped in a looping simulation and tries to escape without alerting his captors. Short and sweet, perfectly executes the power fantasy of being a hyper competent rational character who’s gone completely emotionally numb after living for thousands of years. It’s an adult game and features some sex scenes but they’re not important and I think they can even be turned off. It goes on an 80% discount every steam sale.
For the record, every game by that dev is incredible. One of them is still being worked on but should be finishing this year, and that one is free.
Receiver is pretty good. You have to clear the slide, and remember to count bullets, did your own jams, and otherwise it makes shooting more of a simulation rather than an arcade.
They released two games. The first was just a game jam thing they threw together that established the core mechanics. The second was much more fleshed out and polished.
If I’m not mixing something up, they also created Overgrowth (third-person action platformer with rabbits beating up wolfs). And in order to distribute it without messing with third party services, they’ve created Humble Bundle. They sold it to some company later but for a long time it was them putting together the bundles.
It’s a little off-topic, I know
Distance - an arcade racer that plays like a good 3D sonic game, has a cryptic story, and has elements of horror. Completely bonkers combination but it works super well.
Thumper - another very fast paced game, but also a rhythm game. The devs label it as “rhythm violence” and it fits. The music is percussive and ambient, mostly consisting of the sounds of you slamming through turns and hitting the a button with ferocious intensity. Levels can take well over 30 minutes.
The Beginner’s Guide - might be more well known but imo this is a must play for anyone who does anything creative. It’s a two hour walking sim, but I feel like it’s a story best told as a game.
Definitely a gem. So meta
DUDE did you also attend Digipen (camps or real classes)? Nitronic Rush was the fuckin shit and Distance was a massive graphical upgrade. Also hard to deny how great multiplayer is as an addition.
Nah I just found nitronic rush back in the day, and found out they were working on a follow up.
Treasure Adventure Game, maybe? I believe it’s free, though there’s a paid remake of it named Treasure Adventure World now.
Cutesy “kid goes on adventure” 2d platformer with sailing and some Metroidvania-y or Zelda-y factors. Cute pixel art and the music is very well done.
Antichamber is hidden gem or simply forgotten? I don’t know how much attention it got in its time.
It’s a puzzle platformer but I was feeling my brain bend the whole game. And at the same time I never felt like the new mechanic was explained too little or something was artificially dragged out. Very good design.
IMO it was better than Portals
Antichamber is great. Feels like a completely different universe with its own set of rules you need to discover. Also really interesting to see a puzzle game with an almost metroidvania-like progression, with the gates being your own knowledge of the mechanics.
I need to be in the right mood for it. But man is it a blast to play through
the Skyrim total conversion mod, Enderal: Forgotten Stories, blew me away, and it’s free if you own Skyrim. Even has its own installer and game page on Steam.
Their earlier game Nehrim: At Fate’s Edge is also worth a play. It runs on the Oblivion engine so it’s a little dated graphically, but story- and gameplay-wise it holds up fine.
Griftlands doesn’t get as much attention as I think it deserves. It’s everything Slay the Spire offers, but better. With plot and characters and two decks to balance.
I bought it discounted because i remember that i have seen it before. I really did not expect it to be this good. The world, the storyline and the combat are just awesome. Highly recommended!
Levelhead is a fantastic mario-maker esque platformer. The official campaign is a little over 10 hours long and is pretty good but its main draw is its incredible level editor and infinite number of quality levels online. I can’t recommend it enough. Sadly it never got as popular as it should have but there’s still a massive backlog of online levels to play.
Someone else mentioned Distance and I agree. It’s a futuristic racing game with some horror elements. The campaign is short, but there’s a great amount of levels in the workshop. The multiplayer modes are also pretty fun if you can grab a few friends (there’s split-screen too).
Inkbound is launching from early access soon and while I wouldn’t say it’s the greatest roguelike out there, it’s a lot of fun and very unique. It’s essentially a co-op turn based RPG where you and other players play all your turns at the same time. I’ve played a lot of singleplayer too and the game feels well balanced there.
Voxelgram is Picross 3D for PC. Must-have for people who like nonograms.
I know many of those words.
TL;DR you’ll enjoy it if you like casual puzzle games lol.
Voxelgram is a spiritual successor to an older game called Picross 3D. Picross 3D is a 3D version of a popular logic puzzle called Nonograms.
Hmmm… how about the Rusty Lake games? They’re weird. Or maybe Milk Inside a Bag of Milk Inside a Bag of Milk? Adventure puzzler and VN respectively.
I probably have a few more if I think about it. My friend and I randomize my steam list to decide things to play and there were quite a few interesting ones I got from who knows where-- bundles and bundles.
And they’re also linked. It’s a really cool rabbit hole to go down. Definitely recommend them to people who are into games with some meta elements to them!
There’s even a recent one that’s two player, I guess inspired by the We Were Here games. Which now that I think it it, also recommend.
My friend and I still say “My blood sugar is low” and “Owls” now as again as an inside Rusty Lake joke.
A Robot Named Fight - “Metroidvania roguelike focused on exploration and item collection. Explore a different, procedurally-generated labyrinth each time you play and discover randomized power-ups to traverse obstacles, find secrets and explode meat beasts.” Links: Steam - Website (It is also available on Switch, link on website)
I have almost 500 hours of playtime and still go back to it every now and then. Really awesome game with superb music, graphics and feel.
What’s extra cool is that the lone developer open-sourced the game code, available here: OpenARNF on GitHub Sadly I’ve yet to see any mods, spinoffs or anything else come from it.
I had a great time with a couple card battlers last year, Cobalt Core and Nitro Kid.
Cobalt Core has a similar presentation to FTL, with a turn-based format instead. Plenty to do in it, great soundtrack, charming writing.
Nitro Kid is on a more traditional 2D grid with an isometric viewpoint. It appealed greatly to my love of 80’s settings, but I’d wait for a sale as it’s thin on content.
Aquaria is a very expansive Metroidvania with great visuals, creative encounters, and excellent music. Certainly one of my favorites growing up.
From The Depths – very deep large vehicle design and combat game, prepare to happily lose months of your life
Barotrauma – help crew a submarine under the command of the captain to perform missions in an alien open world. fun multiplayer with good in game VOIP