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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.

marlowe221 ,

Cloudpunk - A cyberpunk driving/walking simulator with a good story, great voice acting, LEGO-inspired graphics, and a Blade Runner inspired soundtrack. It’s dripping with atmosphere and I wish I could play it again for the first time.

lmbk ,

I liked this one a lot. Waiting for Nivalis to come out.

Blisterexe ,

The Witcher 3 (/s)

MamboGator ,
@MamboGator@lemmy.world avatar

Came here for this. My man Geraldo of Rivera.

konju376 ,

Why did I have to scroll down so far for le hidden gem?

hasnt_seen_goonies ,

Skator gator is a really fun 3d platformer. It has some time trials that I got into when I never care about things like that. It’s cute and controls very well.

nikita , (edited )

Gunpoint. Story based detective game where you solve a murder. Gameplay mechanics make you feel like a badass. You can pretty much finish it in a single sitting but its great.

Heat signature. A stealth based top down bounty hunter game with roguelike elements. Really well done. Made by the same guy that made Gunpoint.

Neo scavenger. A murder hobo roguelike with a surprisingly long storyline.

Super house of dead ninjas. Great fast paced platformer where you’re a badass ninja. Great to pick up and play in short bursts.

Fez. 2D exploration platformer with to change the perspective. Pretty chill and has a cool art style

More well known games that I’ll list anyway in case someones looking for some awesome ones:

Super meat boy

Project zomboid

FTL

Celeste

Crypt of the necrodancer

Enter the gungeon

Spelunky

Noita. Saw it mentionned in this thread and I am seconding this. Great game. But brutal as fuck.

Cave story. A classic. And it’s free.

Owlboy. Took the developer like 10-15 years to make. I’ve heard good things but I’m only just starting to play it.

Also pro tip: if you want more recommendations go look at what speedrunners are playing. People that spend that much time playing a single game over and over generally choose very good games to play.

Mog_fanatic ,

I haven’t played nearly all of these but the ones I have played are absolutely dynamite. I suspect this is a killer list

nikita ,

Thank you. I will say that I listed a lot permadeath roguelikes and not everyone is into those. They can be very frustrating.

NOPper ,

What a great list!

ventusvir ,

Good list. Also by ftl devs, into the breach

cafuneandchill ,

I remember doing a rather long play session of Fez, and by the end of it I had a massive headache from all the camera changes lol. 10/10 game tho

Funstuff ,

Plate up : a rogue like kitchen survival game can also be multiplayer , survive as many days as you can getting more customers but also more kitchen gadgets

Back back hero: rogue like dungeon delve with pack management and new story mode where you rebuild a town .

Both are surprisingly addictive and consume my dreams

B0NK3RS ,
@B0NK3RS@lemmy.world avatar

Ostriv, an 18th century city building game. I believe it is just the single developer based in Ukraine.

Live For Speed, this one isn’t quite “hidden” but is overlooked by many as it is not on any storefronts. Sim Racing history and still going strong today with the 3 original devs.

ShaggySnacks ,

Where The Water Tastes Like Wine - Ever play ToeJam & Earl? This game has the same core game loop. You’re on a treasure hunt, unlike ToeJam & Earl where you are trying to find spaceship parts. In Where The Water Tastes Like Wine, you meant to collect stories and then share stories with major NPCs. The stories that you collect and share, change over the course of the game. The soundtrack is also really good.

Splattercat did a video on the game.

This game isn’t for everyone. It’s a very, niche game.

Zoomboingding , (edited )
@Zoomboingding@lemmy.world avatar

Pick your favorite genre:
What The Golf? - A wild and hilarious mini golf game
Miasmata - A horror/cartography game… you heard me right! You have to use the intuitive in-game triangulation system to create your map and find your way around an island while being stalked by a creature as you search for a cure to your mysterious ailment
Rain World - 2D Metroidvania where you’re a little slugcat in a post-apocalyptic world filled with dangerous predators and lethal rainstorms
Diaries of a Spaceport Janitor - Life sim where you’re a janitor in a bustling Star Wars-esque spaceport living on the edge of poverty and dreaming of more
One Shot - Emotional story-driven game in a similar vein of Undertale
Night in the Woods - Not that hidden, but I absolutely love this one. Narrative life sim about someone returning from college to their Appalachian hometown and mysterious things are going on
Dreamfall Chapters - Adventure game that spans a sci-fi dystopia and fantasy world with many interconnections
Grow Home - 3D platformer where you’re a little robot growing giant beanstalks to return to your spaceship
There Came An Echo - Tactical strategy shooter you control only with your voice

ivanafterall ,
@ivanafterall@kbin.social avatar

I've never heard or seen anybody else mention Suzerain. It's like a choose-your-own-adventure political strategy game, which is pretty unique. You are the new leader of a fictional nation wrestling with corruption. Your decisions will affect the outcome. Game is only $6 on Steam right now and is well worth it.

Also worth mentioning Ostriv, a beautiful city-builder in which you build an 18th Century Ukrainian village, complete with individual little villagers wearing their villager clothes. It's lovely and made by ONE GUY, as best I can tell? Also, last I saw, the entire game was somehow under 1 GB, if I remember correctly. It's absurd.

BmeBenji ,

It’s old enough that I can’t attest to how hidden it was/is, but Superbrothers: Sword and Sworcery is likely the greatest 3 hours I’ve spent in a single videogame. It’s chock-full of confidence and style and atmosphere. The story is nothing unique but the presentation is everything. Pixellated graphics contrasted with vivid sound design and a glorious soundtrack. I love everything about it.

slin ,

Hypnospace Outlaw

Mirodir ,

In decreasing popularity (estimated by me):

  • Creeper World: A mix of tower defense and rts (with pause function) against a ever expanding goo called creep. The fourth installment is 3D and the next one will be a side-view spinoff.
  • Tales of Maj’Eyal: Quite popular among the people who are into traditional roguelikes, but I very very rarely see it mentioned outside that community. It’s definitely the (nearly) traditional roguelike I put the most time into thanks to its class/ability system that bridges the gap between roguelike and turn based rpg really well.
  • The Captain: Technically not indie as it was published by Tomorrow Corp (of World of Goo/Little Inferno/etc. fame) instead of the devs themselves. A mix between old school point and click game, but as a highly episodic space adventure. You travel from planet to planet on an overarching mission and each planet has its own interactive short story. Some are longer, some are very short and you never quite know what you’ll find before you land. All of the short stories have multiple endings depending on how you tackle the moral dilemmas it throws at you.
  • Infinity Wars actually released before the rise of Hearthstone and also before the popular Avengers movie of the same name. It is to this day one of my favorite digital TCGs, and I played so many of them. Before I get into the main thing that I love about it, I wanna mention that every single card’s base version (colorless) is free, anyone can build any deck for free the moment they pick up the game and be 100% competitive with everyone else. The only thing they monetize is bling. Unlike in most mainstream TCGs both players do their turns at the same time in secret, once they both lock in, their moves play out. This gives way for some insane mindgames and outplays that eclipse those in any other TCG I’ve played. It is a bit rough around the edges, so it might be more of a “hidden diamond in the rough” than a hidden gem.
  • Bombernauts is a really fun party game. To sum it up in one sentence: “Imagine if Bomberman was a platform fighter.” If you have friends to play with it, buy it on a sale, crank powerup drops up to the max (they stack, which took us hours to figure out), maybe download a mappack and I’m sure you’ll have a blast if the trailer looked any fun to you. There’s virtually no chance to play it with strangers through as it is super dead.
  • Lastly I wanna give a shoutout to Clonk. Clonk is (or was) a 2D sidescrolling game-series that is visually reminiscent of Lemmings. The gameplay is a sort of mix between Minecraft or Terraria (predating it by many many years) and very very very low-pop RTS. It’s a mission based game where you control around 1-3 Clonks (the lemmings) and has full online multiplayer support. The missions can range from “build a base in this active volcano”, “take out the enemy team’s castle”, “win this wizarding duel” to “build a bridge across this canyon”. What made it truly unique was the community and community creations though. It was created with the explicit purpose to be customizable and users made many, many different maps and modes. It was to me what Minecraft was to the kids in the generation after me (without all the content creators, of course). Some people made an entire RPG in it. Others made what was essentially Among Us, just to give you an idea. Sadly the spiritual open source successor Open Clonk could never recapture the magic for me, and I guess I’m not alone in that because it pretty much died around 5 years ago. If I could make one game popular overnight, it would be Clonk. It did warm my heart to see that some of the celebrated custom map/mode creators from back then ended up getting into gamedev. One of the games developed by someone I remember from back then is Vintage Story.

Holy fuck I rambled a lot about Clonk and I still feel like I’d have so much more to say but this isn’t the most fitting thread for that.

voodooattack ,

I loved Clonk back in the day. Discovered it from the falling sand craze a long time ago and I still have fond memories of it.

ooli ,

shoutout to nice explanation and link. I’m like 5k hours into Tales of Maj Eyal, and confirm it is excellent, especially after unlocking the adventurer, which allow to combine any of the 100+ skill trees.

I will try Infinity war, seems up my alley and less grindy then MtG

Contramuffin ,

Hacknet. You play as a novice hacker who investigates the disappearance of a character by hacking into other people’s computers to gather information.

The hacking mechanic is fairly realistic and requires you to use the terminal a lot, so it really makes you feel like a hacker. Pretty short and sweet game, and the soundtrack is pretty good as well

marlowe221 ,

I bought that game and haven’t started it yet. But your description of it makes me want to do it now!

cafuneandchill ,

Oh, I really love Hacknet! Played the main game and the DLC. Discovered it one day while browsing Rémi Gallego’s (aka The Algorithm) discography, and found out that he did some tracks for the OST

ExtraMedicated ,

I’ve mentioned these before and I’ll do it again:

  • Exanima - Read about the features. This one is more impressive than the screenshots make it look (at least for me).
  • Lunacid - I love the visual style and atmosphere of this. I also enjoyed Lost in Vivo by the same developer.
  • Praey for the Gods - This one is for anyone who’s looking for more games like Shadow of the Collossus.
  • The Upturned - A cartoony horror-comedy game with a great sense of humor.
  • Withering Rooms - The story is interesting and the atmosphere is great.
  • Your Spider - This one is possibly my favorite indie horror game.
cafuneandchill ,

Just recently started Lunacid, and I’m having a blast. I’m a fan of dungeon synth and its subgenres, and I"ve been looking for a game that has those vibes for quite some time. This one seems to fit the bill quite a bit. And I also have wanted to check out King’s Field, but was afraid that it might be too dated to be enjoyable; Lunacid seems like a fresh take on that dungeon crawler style of gameplay. The only thing the game lacks imo is a dedicated pause button

jerkface ,
@jerkface@lemmy.ca avatar

From The Depths – very deep large vehicle design and combat game, prepare to happily lose months of your life

Barotrauma – help crew a submarine under the command of the captain to perform missions in an alien open world. fun multiplayer with good in game VOIP

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