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What are some hidden indie gems nobody knows about?

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.

Colour_me_triggered ,

They are hidden, so I don’t know about them. Sorry I couldn’t be of more help.

TipRing ,

Shadow of the Forbidden Gods - a strategy game where you play as the ancient cthonic entity waking up because the stars are right. Set in a fantasy world where the forces of good slowly become aware of the coming apocalypse and attempt to forestall your return. You have to get past the janky UI and some dreadful AI art, but the gameplay is unique and satisfying.

KingThrillgore ,
@KingThrillgore@lemmy.ml avatar

Signalis

Antichamber

Cave Story

The Beginner’s Guide

Uplink

Hypnospace Outlaw

Exit Fate

The Red Strings Club

Oolite

LocoRoco (not an indie gem but forgotten)

jacksilver ,

Upvote for Antichamber.

Toribor ,
@Toribor@corndog.social avatar

Hypnospace Outlaw is hilarious and perfectly captures the weirdness of the early Internet.

Also don’t forget to talk to your kids about the dangers of shonking.

Cybersteel ,
@Cybersteel@lemmy.world avatar

Black Souls 2

Razupaltuf ,

Null Gravity Labyrinth for everyone who likes labyrinths

Seasoned_Greetings ,

Dominions (Dominions 6 just came out, but it’s an iterative game so try 4 or 5 first)

So it’s like civilization and battle simulator had a baby, where armies are managed by the unit and there are simulated battles of thousands.

But all the civs are loosely based on different existing mythologies and there’s a crazy complex magic system

Oh, and you get to create a god that you can totally battle with.

If you like civ-like games, it’s a really unique and satisfying twist on the genre with an incredible amount of sheer depth.

kby ,

LBreakout[1] is the best Arkanoid clone, period. There has been many attempts by Taito (or Square Enix by proxy) to reboot the franchise but each of their releases just flopped terribly because they keep removing features that people come back to Arkanoid for (the latest PC release, Eternal Battle, has no level editor). In similar vein is Apotris[2] (whose developer is being hunted by the Tetris Company like a fugitive the last few months) is the greatest iteration of Tetris IMO, and it is open-source and developed by a one-man team.

[1] lgames.sourceforge.io/LBreakoutHD/[2] akouzoukos.com/apotris

ActionHank ,

Sebil Engineering has a really fun mechanic I’ve never seen before. Its like those Hot Wheels tracks you always wanted as a kid but your parents never got you, but even better. I guess its a traffic control game? Anyone have other examples of these?

ICastFist ,
@ICastFist@programming.dev avatar

Doesn’t look like it offers the chance to build a “hot wheels track”. Feels like that idea of bridge constructor, but applied only to angles of roads

ActionHank ,

True, its not the best description of it. I was trying to land on something that would resonate with the type of person i thought it might appeal to, without fully explaining the thing. Maybe I failed lol.

Yeah there’s no track building. Each stage is a physics puzzle where you’re at some section of road, and there’s an infinite stream of cars. You’re allowed to make crude adjustments to verts on the road, in attempt to get the stream of cars to drive to some goal. The puzzles are very satisfying, and even when you’re not at a solution, its just fun watching the wagons fly into whatever direction your road positioning happens to take them.

Also its truly independent in the strict sense of the term. Solo dev, no publisher. Not that I have anything against small publishers.

AVengefulAxolotl ,

Shadows of doubt is a sandbox detective game. You are a detective and you have to solve crimes, which are totally randomized. What makes this interesting is that the world does not stop:

  • the NPCs actually have daily routines
  • the murderer might not stop killing
  • you can talk with anyone
  • and so much more

It is truly a sandbox! I havent played it too much yet, but i feel if i really start playing it, then i will skip going to bed!

Zahille7 ,

I bought that game a while back, but I couldn’t get into solving anything. Maybe I was just playing it wrong or something.

ICastFist ,
@ICastFist@programming.dev avatar

I mean, if Josh from Let’s Game it Out fucked around nonstop in almost every possible way and still “solved” a case, I doubt you could be playing the game wrong 😆

Invidious linkie - invidious.baczek.me/watch?v=ckmPfn-KCGg

metiulekm ,

Phoenotopia: Awakening – an amazing metroidvania-related game. Relatively more popular than the other games I list, but is honestly one of my favorite games of all time.

Vision: Soft Reset – a metroidvania, but you can travel backwards and forwards in time and this really matters for gameplay.

Bombe – Minesweeper, but instead of solving the puzzles manually, you create rules (“if there is a cell with the number N and there are N empty cells around it, mark them all as mines”) which the game applies automatically.

SOLAS 128 – a puzzle game where you redirect signals in a huge machine, just a great experience if you like puzzle games.

yamanii ,
@yamanii@lemmy.world avatar

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.

AngryCommieKender ,

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.

yamanii ,
@yamanii@lemmy.world avatar

The games are in english and they talk about japanese indies all the time though.

AngryCommieKender ,

Weird. IDK

ICastFist ,
@ICastFist@programming.dev avatar

Unciv for Android. It’s basically Civilization 5, but FOSS.

Shoutout to Iji, too. Amazing soundtrack and lots of replayability. It’s an old game by now, but it’s also free. Sidescrolling platformer, killing is optional.

Assault Android Cactus. Dunno how well known the game is, but it’s one of the best twin stick shooters/bullet hell I’ve played, with the android girls full of charm.

TwilightVulpine ,

I was going to say Iji. Such an amazing game, it’s like the 2D version of an immersive sim. I wish there was a remake only so the dev could make the money they rightfully deserve.

johannesvanderwhales ,

I recommend Nex Machina if you enjoyed that one.

ICastFist ,
@ICastFist@programming.dev avatar

Uh, which one? I mentioned 3 games

johannesvanderwhales ,

Sorry, Assault Android Cactus. The formatting in my app made it look like two separate comments when I was skimming quickly.

MonkderZweite ,

Universim.

GoofSchmoofer ,
@GoofSchmoofer@lemmy.world avatar

Mindustry

Seasoned_Greetings ,

Oh this is a neat game I’ll just build this little gun turret and oh my god 14 hours have passed

GoofSchmoofer ,
@GoofSchmoofer@lemmy.world avatar

yes I’ve lost hours on that game

TunaLobster ,

I’ll toss 2 mobile games on the list. Desert Golf and Golf on Mars. No ads. No stupid paid trinket nonsense. Just a couple bucks for the game and a very chill and casual 2D golf game.

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