Haha I’m totally not doing this just to find and play a great underrated indie game. ^^

  • Vida_E_Bela@lemmy.one
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    1 year ago

    Hollow Knight and Vampire Survivors are the ones that managed got me hooked in the last few months

  • thegiddystitcher@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    If anyone reading this thread hasn’t played it, imma give no further information but just…go play Outer Wilds, ok?

  • Zuse@feddit.de
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    1 year ago

    Factorio. The factory must grow
    And Deep Rock Galactic. For Rock and Stone

  • knokelmaat@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    A Short Hike is simply delightful. I just started playing it and it feels so genuine and kind, just a cute and happy little game!

  • wispikat@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    So many.

    Hollow Knight, Celeste, Outer Wilds, Subnautica, Stardew Valley, Slay the Spire and Zachtronics games likely need no introduction. Then there’s also…

    Bug Fables. Incredibly satisfying Paper Mario-like which has thrived into its own thing.

    Baba is You/Environmental Station Alpha, hempuli games. The former you’ve likely heard of, a logic Sokobon with truly mindbending puzzles deeper within (and a level editor!! god, I could gush about level editors for hours). ESA is an older hempuli metroidvania. If you’re a fan of that genre, it’s among the best.

    Caves of Qud – the best true roguelike IMO. It has so much flavor.

    Slime Rancher [2], my beloved serotonin game.

    Against the Storm, really well polished citybuilder that emphasizes the first few hours of citybuilding. It’s a bit hard to explain here, but I’d suggest looking into it if you’re a fan!

    Symphony of War: The Nephilim Saga, my personal favorite tactical RPG.

    I could go on but I gotta draw the line somewhere…

    • friendbot@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      wow! I’m glad you mentioned Symphony of War! It is such a great game— I found the squad formations super satisfying.

    • frogmouse@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      Stardew Valley is fantastic! (I’ve put almost 1,000 hours into it according to steam) Was always a great escape from life when i was feeling overwhelmed.

  • Pigeon@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    I can’t give favorites out of everything - too many to choose from, all too different from each other! But some I really like include:

    The My Time at Portia / Sandrock games. Super chill crafting life sims for relaxing. Critically, you can increase the length of the day for more chill (in sandrock at least, can’t remember if portia has this too).

    Hollow Night

    The Sea Will Claim Everything. Left of center folks, especially if you fondly remember Freddie Fish and Putt-putt, in particular should play this. It’s like an indie, wordily philosophical version of those types of games but for adults. It has so much whimsy, and you can click on everything and anything and get a unique little bit of description or animation. I love it so much but don’t recommend it often enough.

  • Demondice@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    This is a weird one, because I think the title of the game is putting people off as it’s nowhere near as popular as it should be. However, please give me a chance here to convince you to try it.

    Intergalactic Fishing.

    You don’t actually need to be into fishing games to enjoy it. The fishing, although about as addictive as most good fishing minigames, is only a small portion of the game.

    It also revolves around a similar style of exploration to some space games, such as No Man’s Sky and Elite Dangerous. While progressing through the storyline you will gain access to undiscovered lakes with their own unique species of fish, and information collected about these lakes can be sold.

    Catching fish gives you information about that fish’s likes in terms of lure, along with a few other attributes. You can then use this information to design a lure to suit it. This becomes a puzzle game, as lures are designed by arranging squares on a grid. Factors such as “shininess” and “noise” are infkuenced by putting more blocks near the edges, or leaving more holes and forming irregular shapes.

    It’s primarily a sandbox game, but there is a short storyline. Once finished though, the game opens up into an addictive endgame that I don’t want to spoil. Tournaments and contracts are a nice diversion throughout the game and can also net you (sorry for the pun, but fish puns are hard to avoid) a decent amount of cash.

    It’s quickly become one of my favourite games of all time.

    • ErisShrugged@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      I looked at this thoughtfully a while ago and decided that my baseline level of interest in fishing qua fishing was too low. I’ve at least thrown it on the wishlist now, thanks for the info.

    • ErisShrugged@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      Hey again, you’ll probably need a minute to remember making this post, but I saw Intergalactic Fishing was on sale in the Steam Summer Sale, so I went ahead and bought a copy. This lives up to everything you’ve said - I very much enjoy the gameplay of messing with the lure puzzle minigame and collecting information on all the fish in any given lake, and I’m absolutely wanting to catch Just One More Fish.

      …I guess I’m hooked.

      Thanks again!

    • HarvesterOfEyes@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      I have no interest in fishing but your description sold me on the game. Especially the exploration part and comparison with space exploration games like No Man’s Sky and Elite Dangerous.

      In short: wishlisted :).

  • Gyrotoxism@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    If you like open source gaming, Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead.

    Turn based zombie (and other creatures) survival game with very intricate crafting mechanics. It plays in the same style as a classic roguelike (think stuff like Pokemon Mystery Dungeon) when it comes to movement.

    Anything in the game can be broken down into components, and most things can be built back up from those components. The vehicle building system is also very solid, you can make a fully customized hybrid car with remote turrets, a horse-pulled shopping cart, or anything in-between.

    The game has a pretty big focus on realism, there’s concepts such as sound and smell which determine how you are detected by creatures. I remember reading about a user on the community discord server who researched the properties of bug chitin because they wanted to change the giant bugs you can fight in the game.

    The biggest downside is that it’s pretty obtuse to get into if you have no experience with similar games. Movement is most efficiently done using the numpad, as the 1,3,7,9 keys work as diagonals. Most keys on your keyboard perform a separate action (e.g. ‘e’ to examine, ‘t’ to throw, uppercase ‘E’ to eat etc.). You’ll find yourself checking the controls often. Similarly, there’s basically no tutorial. Or more specifically, there’s no way to make a good tutorial for how much you can do in the game. The mechanics are all so diverse and so deep that the only realistic way to learn about them is either trial and error, or asking questions on the community discord server.

    That being said, it’s one of the best sandbox games out there. And it’s free, so why not try it?

    • lamentforicarus@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      I got this game for free from somewhere (probably one of those Epic giveaways) thinking I would play it once and never again. Instead, I got so invested. I was sure the type of survivability in it would get to me, but I enjoyed that it never became overwhelming. Well, it did, but not in a bad way lol.

  • madception@lemmy.one
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    1 year ago

    Base - building survival games : Don’t Starve Together

    Deckbuilding games : Griftlands

    Fighting deckbuilding game: Fights In Tight Spaces

    Card survival games : Stacklands

    Idle games : Paperclip (browser based)

    Puzzle games : Glass Masquerade and sequel

    Movement based FPS: Mirror’s Edge and sequel

    Visual Novel RPG: The Life and Suffering of St. Brante (?kinda forget this game name)

    • Maerman@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      Sir Brante is fantastic. 10 out of 10, would get beaten to death by my grandpa again.

  • Ethereal87@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    Alright, not much to go off of but I’ll try based on my playtimes and exclude some very popular games.

    • Cook Serve Delicious (1, 2, or 3, my wife and I have probably 400h between the two of us). A fast moving cooking game that tests your dexterity. If you want to understand the flow of the game, I personally recommend trying CSD1 on an iPad if at all possible since the touch controls help you understand the flow of the game, then once you know the flow, you add in a keyboard or controller in CSD2 or 3. 3 is my personal favorite.

    • Cassette Beasts (51h). Pokemon always has a special place in my heart and I’ve bounced off other games that try to emulate it. Cassette Beasts hooked me with their creature designs and awesome soundtrack.

    • Zero Sievert (33h, Early Access). I haven’t messed around with the big name extraction shooters like Tarkov or Hunt, but the appeal of a single player third person top down extraction shooter with a pretty cool style surprised me at how much I enjoyed it. The only reason I put it down was to save up for whenever it eventually releases.

    • Heat Signature (31h). Very run based, but the whole idea is you have to infiltrate ships all over the galaxy and accomplish your assigned objective on that ship. Maybe you need to hijack it, maybe you need to capture/kill someone, there’s a lot of options. The fun really came with weird scenarios where you’d have to find unusual answers like breaking a window to launch yourself into space with your target and get scooped up by your ship, or hack the turrets and lure the enemies into a kill box.

    • Griftlands (18h). Card game similar to Slay The Spire where you build up your deck and get progressively more powerful against more dangerous enemies. The part I thought was cool is you can try to negotiate with your enemies just as easily as fighting them. Negotiation has it’s own separate deck you can boost up over time.

    • Everhood (12h). A weird exploration and rhythm game with some good humor injected. I can’t even really tell you what exactly happened since it’s been a minute since I played it, but all I know is it got really philosophical and after it ended, I felt almost hollowed out at how beautiful/profound it was.

    • Antichamber (11h). A portal-like game that plays with spatial puzzles and navigating an ever shifting labrynth.

    I could list out a ton more, I love these smaller and weirder types of games, but hopefully something sounds good!

    • icanmakesound@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      Antichamber was fantastic. Can’t speak highly enough of that game. Scratched the portal itch perfectly, just wish there was more of it.

      • Ethereal87@beehaw.org
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        1 year ago

        I know! I tried re-playing it on my Steam Deck recently and I just struggled to make the controls feel good, but I have debated re-installing it on my PC and diving back into it!

    • ErisShrugged@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      I despise stealth in video games, and Heat Signature is the only game with stealth elements I have ever unequivocally enjoyed. Very glad to see it getting some attention here.

  • RedEagle@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    Jalopy is such a neat game! Steam recommended it to me after playing my summer car.

    My current favorite is project zomboid. It’s become my default suggestion when someone asks for a good survival/zombie game just because of how intricate the in game mechanics are. Not only that, it has a massive community of players and modders who are constantly adding to and updating workshop content.

    Multiplayer with friends is a blast also.

    • wagesof@links.wageoffsite.com
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      1 year ago

      I know it’s an unpopular opinion but I think multiplayer kills a lot of what makes zomboid good. Half of why I love the game is that you’re alone in the apocalypse.

      • RedEagle@beehaw.org
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        1 year ago

        Totally understandable! I generally keep a single player save that I take more seriously and host a multiplayer server when I’m wanting something more entertaining. I’m looking forward to the npc update for the game. I think it’ll add considerably more depth to my RP saves.