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.
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
This was my Diablo. Indeed very dumb, but fun in a weird way. downvoted because I already played it though!
Damn, I remember that game being included as a bonus in an old magazine CD with lots of RPG Maker 2000 stuff
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
CrossCode, great characters and great story. Really good game.
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.
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.
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.
