Ive been trying some indie developed games this past year, more than ever and I’m in awe what lone devs or small teams can accomplish.
So, what are some games that you think don’t have the recognition they deserve, need a bigger audience or you would like the community to try.
I myself for example have played Monster Sanctuary, which at this point I think is not that hidden anymore and played a rougelike game called Elona, haven’t played RimWorld or Dwarf Fortress but I might in the future.
Sorry if a similar post already exists haven’t checked.
- Ring of Pain is a great roguelike.
- Paradise Killer - Not actually sure how to describe Paradise Killer, but it’s one of my favourite games.
- The Red Strings Club - Interesting, short and sweet
- Stephen’s Sausage Roll - If you love puzzle games and can’t find any that are hard enough for you, it might be the best game ever made. Or the most infuriating.
And then a few that maybe aren’t that obscure by now, but I can’t not mention them
- A Short Hike - I think possibly the greatest small indie game of all time? Certainly one of my favourites.
- Baba Is You - less extreme puzzle game, but it’s also great.
- Inscryption - Just a great game, can’t say much about it without spoiling the experience
did you finish Ring of Pain? Because I’ve come to believe it’s impossible… You have to be realistic abolt these things
Yeah, I did both endings on all the difficulties, at least with the default starting item.
Also it’s surprisingly rare that someone actually recognizes my username, this is the first time in a while (Assuming your choice of words was not just coincidence)
As far as I could tell, the only way to succeed was by getting a specific set of items, which gave you a chance at freezing enemies… A crown, a smoke something and I don’t remember the last one. Feel free to give me a hint if you care to, I liked that game a lot and I would love to complete it
And yes, I recognize your user name! The owl ate the lamb after all ;)
I was terrible at the game before I accepted how important defense was. Previously I focused hard of attack power and speed, but then you’re too fragile for unexpected situations. That and much slower more considered pathing are very helpful. Look around at the rest of the level before you move or act because you might be backing yourself into a corner.
Your username is much more subtle
Edit: I decided to download the game again and do a run to see if I remembered how to play, and yeah I think my advice there is good. Carefully consider your moves before you make them, defense is very important. One thing that could help is to look up info about what to expect in a given path before going in to know if you can handle the type of stuff that you’ll find in there. Eventually (if you play enough), you’ll memorize them, but for example it can be very helpful to know that you’ll be against a bunch of exploding enemies if you go to the “Volatile” path.
Thank you (I’m starting the game right now armed with your advice). It seems I found a way to exploit the mechanics in such a way that I never really needed the defense (until the final stages, where I died every time), and so managed to ruin the game for myself. Well well, I’m serial cheeser, what can I say? I’ll stick to the narrow path from here on.
I love the sound design of this game. I don’t remember what they are called, but you know, the horrible bastards that give off some sort of squeaky balloon sound? Genius.
CrossCode! Incredible game, probably my favorite game of all time.
It’s so much more than it looks. The music is awesome, and in some powerful scenes, the story is driven forward with musical motifs that make the scenes hit that much harder.
The story is just… really good. I teared up a few times.
The characters are beautifully written and extremely memorable. By the end of the game, you really feel like you’ve been living with them.
People say they don’t like the puzzles, but the game comes with difficulty sliders and you can turn down things you don’t like.
You can get it on consoles, or, on Steam, and even GOG!
There is a DLC to this game. If you enjoy the game, DON’T SKIP THE DLC!!! It is THE ending to the game! Some might scoff at “oh wow they locked the story behind the DLC,” but no, trust me, it is well worth it. It adds a TON of content and is an extremely well put together finale to the epic story told in the game.
Crosscode is my favorite game of all time. It takes the best elements of retro games and creates an incredible experience from a beautiful combination. I said “eh, why not?” and got it on sale after seeing so many positive reviews and convincing recommendation videos and absolutely lived in it from beginning to end.
Gameplay: The gameplay is clean, the combat is fast and intuitive using both melee and ranged attacks that are extremely responsive, the special moves are insanely cool and I love figuring out the best ones to strengthen and set, I love switching elements on the fly with the push of a button to add things like fire and ice damage and how it all feels like second nature on a controller.
The puzzles get really clever and I was a big fan, mostly because figuring out the puzzles in the dungeons is simultaneously showing you ways to use new powers to manipulate your environment or attack your foes. Incredibly smart way to teach you the versatility of your powers by solving a dungeon puzzle instead of a boring tutorial. I will say that the first dungeon can start to drag, and the later dungeons can get really challenging, but that anytime I felt like I was spending too much time on something I’d just look up the Wyvern (he was one of the backers for the game and has been playing it since early versions) videos on Youtube to see how to solve what I couldn’t. No shame in asking for help, keep things fun before they just get frustrating if you’re like me, plus I needed to not waste too much time stuck on something because I was addicted to the story and needed to see what happened next! Which brings me to…
Story: The story pulled me in and just floored me. There were points where I had to pause just sobbing in tears, other times I had to pause to run around the room with joy. Go into it blind, it will pull you in!
A Unique Strength: It’s crazy how real your companions feel, completely sells the feeling and idea of being in an MMORPG. Part of this is because of how effectively written your friends are, and part of it is the fact that they are capable of acting on their own and in no way require you to control or protect them. In that way it reminded me a lot of Elizabeth from Bioshock Infinite where you have a companion that, not only takes care of herself, but actually helps you and improves the gameplay in a way that it feels real lonely when they’re not around. I was emotionally invested in these people for sure.
I also like that it’s one of the few games these days to have a free playable demo. The demo is the short prologue at the beginning of the game. It’s fun but it greatly undersells things as it shows you some of the bare basics of melee combat. Learning the ranged attack system right after the prologue and then progressing into the range of the elemental abilities is where the combat shines. And finding out how big this world actually is adds more to it then a demo has a chance at conveying.
TL;DR 10/10 for Crosscode from me!
I got a decent ways into it and need to go back sometime soon. The puzzles and exploration (basically still a puzzle) are super daunting sometimes, but along with the story are really great.
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CrossCode - Phenomenal action RPG. Combat is fast and explosive, dungeons are very obviously Zelda inspired but with way more puzzles. Packed with tons and tons and tons of sidequests, many of which put unique twists on the combat system to keep you on your toes. Make sure to grab the epilogue DLC.
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FOOTSIES - Minimalist one-button fighting game, with rollback.
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OneShot - Fairly reminiscent of Undertale, if you liked that you’ll probably enjoy this too. And like Undertale I don’t want to say too much, take my word for it and let it surprise you.
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Petal Crash - Absolutely fantastic versus puzzler, and a perfect entry point into the genre. I wrote a very long review of how in love with this game I am, so I’m just going to link that.
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Them’s Fightin’ Herds - Another great fighting game, been waiting a long time for this port to bring us up to a grand total of two good fighting games on Linux. Has a lot of really cool features like a big story mode with overworld exploration, a cute lobby system with cosmetics to collect and treasure chests to fight for, a dynamic music system that reacts to the fight, and even a semi-cooperative dungeon crawler mode. Has crossplay with consoles as well. Full review.
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Ultimate Chicken Horse - Start on a nearly empty platformer map, each round everyone adds one object somewhere on the map then you all try to finish the level. Whoever finishes gets a point, plus bonus points for whoever finished first or collected coins that have been placed. Then you add another set of objects and repeat. Quickly becomes hilariously chaotic as you try to figure out how to balance screwing everyone else over while still making sure you can win, only to realize that after a few rounds you have all built a horrifying monstrosity. Has full crossplay with console versions.
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Anything by Zachtronics - A bunch of different engineering puzzle games where you have to write code or build a machine to solve problems. Once you’ve solved the puzzle, you can see a histogram comparing your solution to everyone else’s on a few different metrics, encouraging you to go back and try to optimize it further. I recommend Opus Magnum as the best entry point.
Aw, yeah! CrossCode is very <3 Also, several Zachtronics games are quite nice. Sad to see the end of them :-\
I love Zachtronic’s games too. TIS-100 is one of my favourite games of all time
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Brotato is a fun, mindless game if you like bullet hell games. Omori is a funny, wacky rpg with some horror elements. Good story to boot as well!
It really feels whacky, but I’m gonna check some videos about it. The art seems really interesting
You’re talking about Omori? Without getting into it too much there is a good mix of art styles. The soundtrack is neat as well!
You’ve already got a bunch of great suggestions, but I’ll throw my two cents in too. I think of these as indies or games that have a niche audience, but some of them probably have bigger teams involved.
- Outer Wilds. It’s a quiet, contemplative game about space exploration and seems unremarkable until you really start exploring and learning about the solar system you’re in. If you play it, go in blind. IMO it’s a perfect game.
- Pentiment. You play as a young artist visiting a Renaissance-era hamlet to work on your masterpiece. The game is gorgeous and thoughtful about the decisions the player has to make when spending time and influencing the narrative. Stayed with me long after I finished.
- Slay the Spire. Tightly-balanced deck builder rougelike. I’ve put untold hours into this one on maybe 3 different platforms?
- Wildermyth. Hard to describe this one–it’s like an interactive fantasy tale with characters that grow and evolve in ways you won’t expect, and dynamically told so no two stories are quite the same. Pretty solid combat mechanics, too.
- Undertale. Does Undertale count as relatively unknown? If so, Undertale.
- Case of the Golden Idol. Very good mystery game with a cool, novel mechanic for solving each mystery. Don’t let the aesthetic put you off.
- Return of the Obra Dinn. Another incredible mystery game where you are determining what happened to the crew of a ship that sailed into port with no one aboard.
- Papers Please. Simple mechanics that really make you FEEL like you’re -Spider-Man- an oppressed civilian in a fascist/totalitarian government.
- Disco Elysium. Another great mystery game, wherein part of the mystery is: what kind of person were you, and who are you now?
- Tunic. It’s like old-school Zelda but with more depth and some serious twists.
- Stanley Parable. It’s funny and fun.
- Tchia. It’s like Breath of the Wild if Hyrule was a real place and the game devs wanted you to love it as much as they do. Fun and charming in a big way.
- Season. Hard to describe and I haven’t finished it yet, but the opening stuck with me. It’s about what we remember and what we choose to forget.
- Hollow Knight. Does Dark Souls arguably better than Dark Souls. I was put off by the Dark Soulsness and the aesthetic, but once I got a few hours in I was fully hooked. Another perfect game.
- Deep Rock Galactic. Great fun mining valuables and fighting alien bugs with friends.
- 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim. A time-traveling anime story game with mecha combat.
- The Forgotten City. A time loop game where you are sent back to ancient Roman time.
- Nonary Games / Danganronpa. Both series are anime-inspired mystery games. If you want something that tries to be more cerebral and serious, Nonary is your ticket. If you want tongue-in-cheek violence, Danganronpa is the way to go.
- The Witness. A masterpiece puzzle game built on an incredibly simple core design. One of my favorite all time “a ha” moments came from this game.
- Citizen Sleeper. You are a synthetic being trying to survive on a space station and evade the megacorp that “owns” you. Your body is breaking down and you don’t know anyone, so you have to take it one day at a time and do what you can to survive. Clever mechanics and a really well told narrative.
That ended up being a lot more than I intended to share, but if this convinces anyone to give any of these games a shot, I think they’re in for a treat.
I don’t know if I’d call most of these “hidden”.
Outer Wilds, Slay the Spire, Undertale, Return of the Obra Dinn, Papers Please, Disco Elysium, Stanley Parable, Hollow Knight, Deep Rock Galactic and the The Witness are all award winning games that have massive recognition.
The rest of the list is great though, I think I’ll check out Wildermyth.
Thanks for the recommendations!
I suppose it depends how you think of “hidden”. In my mind, if you follow awards and gaming news, you’re already in a fairly small niche of well-informed gamers. To people who don’t stay on that pulse, marketing budgets and cultural moments can largely determine what’s known or not known. Most of these didn’t get much marketing, and few (like Undertale) had a cultural moment I was aware of. But I didn’t include games like Hades which I love but kinda thought got a bit of both.
Ultimately, of course, you’re right and I just took advantage of the question to list a bunch of my favorite games. 😂
You have excellent taste (in games and youtubers)! A ton of my favorites of all time are on this list (especially Citizen Sleeper, which hit me in ways that I didn’t expect at all). As someone similar:
Exo One: A chill game about rolling an alien space ship through insanely pretty worlds.
Dr. Langeskov, The Tiger, and The Terribly Cursed Emerald: A Whirlwind Heist: A free game a lot like The Stanley Parable, by the same developer.
Cultist Simulator: Completely defies description. A masterfully-written Lovecraftian survival exploration game, but it’s made of cards.
Torment: Tides of Numenaria: A great top-down RPG with a unique sci-fantasy universe and de-emphasized combat.
Forager: The methadone to Factorio’s heroin.
Black Book: Like Slay the Spire, but story-driven and based on Russian Folklore and history in the transition to industrialization.
Scorn: If H. R. Giger had been the art director on Amnesia, it would have looked like this.
Inscryption: Another incredible horror game with cards as the core mechanic. More great exploration and plenty of “what the fuck” to go around.
Uplink: On the older side, but holds up. A great light hacking game with solid mechanics and not too much excess complexity.
Jazzpunk: Probably the hardest I’ve laughed from a game since Portal 2.
The Last Door: A 2D point and click adventure with excellent music and atmosphere.
Primordia: A dark point and click about a world populated by robots. Has stuck with me for a long time, mostly because of the jaw-dropping pixel art and voice acting.
Darkside Detective: A point-and-click about investigating the supernatural. Absolutely hilarious.
The Old City: A dark and surreal walking simulator that stands on an incredible soundtrack.
Evergarden: A Chill match-3 puzzle in a soothing garden.
Astroneer: No Man’s Sky-esque, but focused on base building and engineering in a finite solar system.
Slime Rancher: The Chao garden, but a full game. A large world to explore with a diverse array of cute slimes to ranch.
Into the Breach: Not sure if this is too mainstream, but it’s a really awesome take on a tactics game. Fight aliens, but think more chess than Xcom.
Ascension: Made by a former MTG pro player who was frustrated that the original was pay-to-win. Imagine MTG’s complexity with Dominion’s mechanics. The digital version is amazing. The physical version is a bit clunky because the mechanics can get pretty complex.
That got longer than I expected too lol. Thanks for these. I’ll definitely check out the ones I don’t kno.
I’ve recently gotten cultist fever, would not have tried Cultist Simulator without the recommendation from Lemmy
I’ll have to stick these on the old to-do list! Already played and love Cultist Simulator, Forager, Inscryption, Into the Breach, and Ascension. Thanks for the recommendations!
Dredge is pretty recent but it definitely impressed me with how it conveyed fear/paranoia in an eldritch horror setting. The fishing was also pretty fun!
Definitely want to pick this up! Would you say it’s worth full price or should I wait for it to go on sale?
I bought it full price and don’t necessarily regret it, but I’d say you could wait for a sale.
There’s a small (like 10%) sale right now for it on humble bundle!
The Long Drive is a cursed game that is surprisingly addicting.
Noita is a very difficult roguelike where “losing is fun” except that it’s not always, but many deaths are a learning opportunity. Each playthrough is different, but the map gen is ‘basically’ the same each game. It’s definitely worth your time.My favorite comment regarding Noita is still the top comment on YouTube to the launch trailer (the first trailer on the Steam store page.)
Basically the secret to becoming a master of this game is to learn how to resist the urge to do 90% of the things you see in this trailer.
Which has been at the top of the YouTube comments for a long time for good reason. I fucking love this game though.
I have the long drive but don’t like it much.
Appreciate the way your writing style lol thanks got the great answer
Thank you! I hope you check out these games.
I really enjoyed Songs of Syx. It’s a city builder and economy game, but with a lot of extra detail that you don’t often see.
My wallet hurts, but my steam library might be able to help.
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The Dungeon Beneath is a turn based party building roguelite. Easy to understand but can get pretty challenging. Also the music slaps.
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20 Minutes Till Dawn has a spin on the Vampire Survivors formula that I quite enjoy. Merging the crazed progression of items and swathes of enemies, with a twin stick shooter.
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Rodina was what I played when elite and nms were disappointing, and star citizen was still pretending to aim to deliver a final product. For a 1 person team, it really impressed me.
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Get to the Orange Door is a rougelite spin on Titanfall 2 in a weird cyberspace world. The biggest missing feature is a grappling hook.
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Sun Haven is a little buggy but a more rpg and combat focused Stardew Valley. I used to play a lot of rune factory 3, so I enjoyed it.
I tried to recommend some stuff I thought other people wouldn’t have played, so I hope you enjoy!
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I don’t know what’s considered a “hidden gem” so I’m just going to shout out all the indie games that I think are at least 8/10 and recommend:
Rimworld
Dead Cells
Dredge
Inscryption
7 Days to Die
Mount and Blade: Warband
Factorio
Mordhau
FTL: Faster than Light
Raft
Gunfire Reborn
Into the Breach
Hollow Knight
Dome Keeper
DUSK
Golden Light
Vampire Survivors
Void Bastards
Second Vampire Survivors. One of my favorite games ever.
noita PC - a rougelike witch Sim full of secrets.
Dead Cells everything - Flawless metriodvania rougelite
The Forgotten City PC, PS, XB - A short time loop game that is just fantastic. I think it started as a skyrim mod
+1 for Noita.
A lot of people are recommending it, I got to see what it is about!
Noita. It’s just so good. Easily in my top 5 games of all time.
Agreed 100%. I’ve put way too much time into this game and I haven’t even scratched the surface.
The Messenger. Easily my favorite 2D platformer. It starts as a more modern and polished take on the original Ninja Gaiden games for NES, but it becomes so much more.
Inscryption. A rogue-like deckbuilder. You’d think that would make it similar to Slay the Spyre. But again, it becomes so much more.
I recommend both games any chance I have. They are very different, but both are better expecienced blind.
Yeah Inscryption is a great game, very unique and has some unexpected twists
Stray
Inside
InscryptionDiaries of a Spaceport Janitor is one of my favorite indie games of all time. The city design really captures the feeling of wandering around an unfamiliar, large, bustling place. The diary mechanic at the end of the day is a great way to get in character, and I like that you can decorate the apartment. I did some light data-mining (mostly item info and dialogue strings), and I even have fridge magnets of some of the pixel art!
Depanneur Nocturne is also a great evening’s worth of exploration and vibes, but I mention it because I has a reference to Spaceport Janitor and it made me SO happy when I realized that. :)
If you’re into deck building Roguelites, Griftlands is an incredible game. It’s developed by Klei who also made Don’t Starve.
