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.
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.
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’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!
I’d personally recommend Rain World, although it has a reputation for being hard, and you’ll probably die a lot so this game has to be approached with patience
+1 for this game. Truly an incredible experience.
A bunch of my favorites have already been listed, so I’ll just mention the one that wasn’t: Antichamber, a first person puzzle game that’s probably somewhat like Portal in terms of how it requires you to rethink your assumptions about how space works, but it’s a very different game, both mechanically and in tone. I don’t want to give away too much, but it’s a mix of weirdly unsettling elements (although it is by no means a horror game), a design that’s actively trolling you in ways that will make you laugh, and mechanics revelations that will have you scream “Wait, I could have done that this whole time?!” It’s one of those games that I wish I could delete from my memory and play for the first time again.
The Westport Independent is a censorship simulator, in which you play as the editor of a newspaper, choosing which stories to run and how to edit them in order to avoid angering both the authoritarian government and political radicals who want to take them down, while also appeasing your journalists, who may get angry and quit if you censor their stories too much.
Retro 3D platformer in the vein of Banjo Kazooie.-
Oh man this was one of my first thoughts, too. Cheap, fun, and short enough that you could beat it in one sitting. I find myself enjoying cheaper bite-sized stuff like that lately.
UNSIGHTED: a great Zelda-like/metroidvania from my home country Brazil, with a bunch of cool ideas about how to traverse the world and dungeons, neat souls-like combat and an anxiety-inducing time limit mechanic. It’s set in an apocalyptic world where lesbian robots save the world with the power of love and incredible violence.
ZeroRanger: incredible shmup with awesome soundtrack, delicious anime-vibes, insanely-hard-but-fair gameplay and a surprisingly deep lore leans heavily on buddhist philosophy.
Dandara: another great metroidvania from Brazil. This one has an unique movement mechanic - you don’t walk, you almost-instantaneously jump between platforms. The setting is pretty unique, with lots of references to actual brazilian culture and history.
One Way Heroics: an addicting top-down roguelike where you can only walk right, lest you be consumed by the Impending Wall of Doom that’s coming from behind. Cooler than it seems.
Hacknet: a text-adventure-kinda-thing where you’re a hacker doing hacker things. The interface emulates some old 80’s systems and all your commands are actualy Linux commands. Also, the soundtrack slaps.
Hypnospace Outlaw: have you ever wanted to be a moderator forum from the late 90’s/early 00’s internet? Well, now you can.
20XX: Mega Man meets Rogue.
Wow I took a look at Unsighted and it looks really nice. ZeroRanger has been on my list for quite a while too.
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
Diaries 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 it has a reference to Spaceport Janitor and it made me SO happy when I realized that. :)
Road 96 was really fun and the soundtrack was great.
Everything - a zen game about everything, very chill
The Sexy Brutale - weird name, actually a fantastic time travelling LucasArts adventure style game
Neo Scavenger - ignore the graphics, this is a really in-depth turn based post-apocalyptic mini rpg where you will come to love plastic bags
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- 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 - (slightly) 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.
