Submitted 17 hours ago by Elevator7009@lemmy.zip to games@lemmy.world
Given the swathes of posts about bad behavior from big companies, I figure we could counterbalance that with some positivity about stuff the smaller guys made that often costs us less too.
FlyKnight and ATLYSS, I think. Kinda retro but actually really good and very affordable.
Check out frog fractions!
One of my all time favorites right now is Brok The Investigator.
It’s a game by French company COWCAT Games that is describes as a point and click beat’em-up game. Has lots to do because there are multiple endings. It has a free visual novel made to essentially showcase a vn engine that can be used to make BTI fan games or your own creations and has an upcoming DLC (apparently only gonna be $9.99) that focuses more on the combat side of the game.
It’s currently available on PS4/5 (vita planned but scrapped), xbox (don’t know if they mean one and series x/s or just series), switch, steam, itch(dot)io, and even epic if you hate yourself.
Lethal Company. It was developed by one person, yet it outsold Call of Duty. It trended from 2023 to 2024, but I still play it at least weekly. A couple Lethal Company clone games have come out and some say one (R.E.P.O) is better, and graphically I would say yes, but nothing quite matches Lethal Company’s charm.
Bro yes. That game is so good. Wish I could get my friends to play more often lol.
Probably Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. All the older Indy games weren’t that great but this new one is really good.
Dude, The Fate of Atlantis was awesome. Don’t you be crapping on my LucasArts point and click adventure games
Probably gotta be https://fractalsoftworks.com/
[youtu.be/acqpulP1hLo](the video that hooked me)
Hey, you might want to know that the item in brackets comes first and the link comes second. I see the raw link and the item in brackets, instead of what you probably intended: to have the item in brackets be a clickable link.
[Starsector](https://fractalsoftworks.com/) will produce what you want.
The Cat Lady and the other games from Harvester Games 👀
I’ve not seen many RPG maker games mentioned here, so i’ll do my part. These are a lot of my favourites through the years:
There are also a lot of them that i’ve not played but i’ve watched full playtroughs of, like IB, Hello Charlotte, Lisa, … and most recently The coffin of Andy and Leyley
One game i would also like to add is Rain World, which is a 2d survival platformer, a bit challenging, but i would argue it’s also a “metroidbrania” if you know the genre, games that have knowledge as gates rather than keys or power-ups like metroidvanias. Some notable examples are Outer wilds or Return of obra dinn, who others have already mentioned
Celeste is really good. So sad that the “Sequel Game” from the Devs got chanceled.
Finding Paradise is absolutely an amazing game. Would absolutely recommend a blind playthrough of it, or at least a no-commentary walkthrough if nothing else.
Outer Wilds
Disco Elysium
Inscryption
Carto
Spiritfarer
Pyre
Minimetro and Cultist Simulator are my go to “comfy” games, but cultist simulator really does get you feeling like you’re chasing a mad eldritch horror when playing at times. It’s deliberately obtuse and odd, and then a revelation of the truth takes you over and you push on beyond your wildest expectations.
Slay the Spire and Hollowknight have both been mentioned enough in other posts in case anyone reading this is somehow unaware of either of them.
Faster than Light and Into the Breach are both excellent games. FtL is rng mitigation and crisis control par excellence. ItB is basically chess, and you play out the turns as best you can. It’s rewarding, but once you get good you need to ramp up the difficulty somewhat to keep it fun.
For me it’s Rimworld
Balatro. It’s a great Maths game.
Hollow Knight
I love it so much that I can’t finished, I always stop when I’m about to fight the final boss. I just don’t want it to stop.
Maybe when Silksong came out I finish it once and for all.
Hollow Knight isn’t exactly over when you finish the story. There are more flights, especially Godhome. If you can beat all that you’re an incredible player.
Factorio.
Honourable mentions:
You might like !factorio@lemmy.world
For me, FTL: Faster than Light still hasn’t been topped. *Hades II might get there, though. Disco Elysium, Ikaruga, and Papers, Please are also high on the list.
FTL!!! And yeah, PP is awesome and so unique!
Here are the ones that don’t get uninstalled from my potato box:
Sable
Ion Fury
Torchlight
Ziggurat
Baba Is You
Edritch
Fez
Plunge
Valley
Into The Breach
Journey
(Disclaimer: some are very old, some may not be indie, eh, I did my best.)
With the amount of content the main game of Baba Is You comes with, alongside the level editor and custom modded level packs people have made for it, would 100% recommend it.
FTL: Faster Than Light
The Multiverse mod expands the game dramatically, and is, if anything, better than the base game; I highly recommend it.
It does add a lot of very good playable content, but the quality and tone of the writing is a departure from the main game. Some find it a deal breaker.
Oh damn didn’t know about this
such a great non traditional roguelike with sooo much replayability.
Stardew
Pushing the definition but I started when it was still in beta… Minecraft has gotten hundreds and hundreds of hours put into it.
Terarria and Starbound are both really good and scratch that same itch as Minecraft. Core Keeper is another one that has some of that feel and I ended up really enjoying.
Surprised I haven’t seen it mentioned but Cave Story was made by one guy doing everything… and everything in it is immaculate. It’s still free for the original version as well.
Stardew Valley is awesome and restarted a genre.
Crypt of the Necrodancer is awesome, and well worth checking out… also goes on sale really cheap.
Pacific Drive is a fun one to check out. If you’re from the PNW, it will hit even more.
Really enjoyed Stray. Worth grabbing on a sale.
OwlBoy was a delightful game with a lot of character.
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night was a really nice return to form if you like IgaVanias.
If you like roguelites then you owe it to yourself to check out Enter the Gungeon (isometric) as well as RoboQuest (fps).
If you want a game that’s beautiful, with emergent story and is hard af… definitely check out Rain World.
Is Black Mesa still considered indie? It’s how I would recommend anyone play Half-Life 1 these days.
Rusty’s Retirement… isn’t so much a game… sorta… but yeah… check that out.
I enjoyed Rusty’s Retirement, glad to see someone else has played it. (I do count idlers as games.) Cute little desktop idle/incremental game.
Crumble A speedrunning platforming game, where you play as a blob with a tongue. Pleasant experience to play through while learning, while absolutely balls to the walls insane when actually speedrunning
Cyberpulse Twin-stick arcade neo style virus slamming game. Great control precision, challenging and colourful. The right thumbstick pressing might take a bit of getting used to.
Pseudoregalia Such a fun old school platformer. Big bunny girl MC for some reason but SUPER FUN and satisfying movement mechanics and the world is built well enough for the mechanics. A few hour long game, unless you look everything up.
Actually going to put some indie demos here I played this weekend, that I really enjoyed: Half-Sword Physics based medieval combat game. Reminds me of Exanima but instead of 2.5D, you can play Half-sword in 3rd or 1st person, which is really fun. Can have full gore or turn the gore completely off.
Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon First person (potentially later also 3rd person) RPG, very much in the vein of Elder Scrolls or Dark Messiah of Might & Magic. Really enjoyed the demo, it takes place on the tutorial island/dungeon. Going to buy the full version when it releases, because there seems to be a save wipe for 1.0.
Bloodthief Reminds me of Neon White and Ultrakill having an even more indie baby. Seemed to be pretty simple and good speedrunning platforming fun.
Shape of Dreams 2.5D action RPG roguelike. Very pretty and gameplay feels good. Didn’t play it quite enough yet, only thing I kinda disliked was the amount of cooldowns on abilities.
9Kings Small town defense game with waves of enemies led by other kings attacking your kingdom. Really enjoyed this one. Demo isn’t too difficult, even when I am really bad with these type of games.
RKGK (RAKUGAKI) 3rd person platforming game, where you bring some colour to the world with your graffiti. Very fun movement and popping colours. The dialogue isn’t necessarily for me but the gameplay felt really fun.
Unbeatable Colourful rhythm adventure game, style is grear and soundtrack slaps.
Shadow Empire. Best 4X wargame ever. 400 page rulebook included. Realistic logistics and planet generation 6000 years in the future!
I think I have that on my GOG account, I’ll have to check later. Also currently on sale there, too, super cheap
Dwarf Fortress. Not even just my favorite indie game, but favorite game ever.
Balatro
Obra Dinn
Here are a few, hopefully they aren’t mentioned yet:
Some of these might be AA, it’s hard to tell the difference sometimes. I have plenty more where that came from. :)
Valheim. Bought it late January and already got almost 400 hours on it. Play it vanilla first then modded. I played it with friends, beat final boss on Day 997, we took our times, building and all along the way. Then I started over solo with x3 resources, no raid, and move metals through portal. I just wanted to see if I could solo all game and today I just finished basically everything. So right now, I’m just collecting resources for gears and buildings. Going to make few houses across the map.
I am having a lot of fun with Timberborn and Big Ambitions.
Timberborn is a colony builder where you are in control of beavers. You have to survive between times of good water, bad water, and no water.
Big Ambitious is a business sum in new York make by the same person who made Startup Company.
I rarely play platformers and really enjoyed Celeste
Same but with spelunky 2
In my thirst for difficult games, I 100%'d it. Took more than a 100 hours but still the most fun I’ve had mastering a game to that level of expertise
Dungeons of Dredmor! Just a really solid, straightforward roguelike with a ton of stuff and a cheeky sense of humour.
Slay the Spire
urandom@lemmy.world 5 minutes ago
Kerbal space program (the first one) And The Long Dark
Can’t really decide which I like more, and they are vastly different