What Indie hidden gems do you recommend?

Seytoux@lemmy.one to Gaming@beehaw.org – 54 points –

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.

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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've recently gotten cultist fever, would not have tried Cultist Simulator without the recommendation from Lemmy

Dredge is pretty recent but it definitely impressed me with how it conveyed fear/paranoia in an eldritch horror setting. The fishing was also pretty fun!

Definitely want to pick this up! Would you say it's worth full price or should I wait for it to go on sale?

  • 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 - 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.

Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead isn't really indie, it is straight up Open Source and a freaking good roguelike. The DDA variant focus heavily on the realism aspect of survival, but there are forks that try to gamefy it more.

There is also Rain World, which I am addicted for 3+ months now. It is also on sale, but before you buy it, know that you are going to die A LOT, but it really isn't a big issue; it's actually funny most times lol. Great lore too.

And one that I've rooted for a long time and I think flopped hard in its release is Below, but I very much still love it.

Also, one that I played for a bit last week and the soundtrack slaps hard is APE OUT.

How did I forget about Noita? This one is a masterpiece. Crafting a wand just to fucking obliterate yourself out of existence .3 seconds later is just chef's kiss. Also hämis.

  • CrossCode - Phenomenal action RPG. Combat is fast and explosive, dungeons are very obviously Zelda inspired but with way more puzzles. Packed with tons and tons and tons of sidequests, many of which put unique twists on the combat system to keep you on your toes. Make sure to grab the epilogue DLC.

  • FOOTSIES - Minimalist one-button fighting game, with rollback.

  • OneShot - Fairly reminiscent of Undertale, if you liked that you'll probably enjoy this too. And like Undertale I don't want to say too much, take my word for it and let it surprise you.

  • Petal Crash - Absolutely fantastic versus puzzler, and a perfect entry point into the genre. I wrote a very long review of how in love with this game I am, so I'm just going to link that.

  • Them's Fightin' Herds - Another great fighting game, been waiting a long time for this port to bring us up to a grand total of two good fighting games on Linux. Has a lot of really cool features like a big story mode with overworld exploration, a cute lobby system with cosmetics to collect and treasure chests to fight for, a dynamic music system that reacts to the fight, and even a semi-cooperative dungeon crawler mode. Has crossplay with consoles as well. Full review.

  • Ultimate Chicken Horse - Start on a nearly empty platformer map, each round everyone adds one object somewhere on the map then you all try to finish the level. Whoever finishes gets a point, plus bonus points for whoever finished first or collected coins that have been placed. Then you add another set of objects and repeat. Quickly becomes hilariously chaotic as you try to figure out how to balance screwing everyone else over while still making sure you can win, only to realize that after a few rounds you have all built a horrifying monstrosity. Has full crossplay with console versions.

  • Anything by Zachtronics - A bunch of different engineering puzzle games where you have to write code or build a machine to solve problems. Once you've solved the puzzle, you can see a histogram comparing your solution to everyone else's on a few different metrics, encouraging you to go back and try to optimize it further. I recommend Opus Magnum as the best entry point.

Aw, yeah! CrossCode is very <3 Also, several Zachtronics games are quite nice. Sad to see the end of them :-\

I love Zachtronic's games too. TIS-100 is one of my favourite games of all time

The Long Drive is a cursed game that is surprisingly addicting. Basically it's you, your car, and a 5000km road. That's it. The world is infinitely generated and you don't have to do anything you don't want to do. There's no end game so to speak, just you and the road, if you decide to follow it.

Noita is a very difficult roguelike where "losing is fun" except that it's not always, but many deaths are a learning opportunity, and I find myself starting over even on runs that I live for more than an hour. You have very few healing opportunities, and once your HP gets to 0 it's game over. The game is not fair, but sometimes RNGesus gives you the tools to be a god early on, and even then, it can still be easy to die. Even in full-on god tier runs, there are some things that the player cannot survive. Each playthrough is different, but the map gen is 'basically' the same each game. It's definitely worth your time.

My favorite comment regarding Noita is still the top comment on YouTube to the launch trailer (the first trailer on the Steam store page.)

Basically the secret to becoming a master of this game is to learn how to resist the urge to do 90% of the things you see in this trailer.

Which has been at the top of the YouTube comments for a long time for good reason. I fucking love this game though.

My wallet hurts, but my steam library might be able to help.

  • The Dungeon Beneath is a turn based party building roguelite. Easy to understand but can get pretty challenging. Also the music slaps.

  • 20 Minutes Till Dawn has a spin on the Vampire Survivors formula that I quite enjoy. Merging the crazed progression of items and swathes of enemies, with a twin stick shooter.

  • Rodina was what I played when elite and nms were disappointing, and star citizen was still pretending to aim to deliver a final product. For a 1 person team, it really impressed me.

  • Get to the Orange Door is a rougelite spin on Titanfall 2 in a weird cyberspace world. The biggest missing feature is a grappling hook.

  • Sun Haven is a little buggy but a more rpg and combat focused Stardew Valley. I used to play a lot of rune factory 3, so I enjoyed it.

I tried to recommend some stuff I thought other people wouldn't have played, so I hope you enjoy!

The Messenger. Easily my favorite 2D platformer. It starts as a more modern and polished take on the original Ninja Gaiden games for NES, but it becomes so much more.

Inscryption. A rogue-like deckbuilder. You'd think that would make it similar to Slay the Spyre. But again, it becomes so much more.

I recommend both games any chance I have. They are very different, but both are better expecienced blind.

Yeah Inscryption is a great game, very unique and has some unexpected twists

noita PC - a rougelike witch Sim full of secrets.

Dead Cells everything - Flawless metriodvania rougelite

The Forgotten City PC, PS, XB - A short time loop game that is just fantastic. I think it started as a skyrim mod

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. :)

If you're into deck building Roguelites, Griftlands is an incredible game. It's developed by Klei who also made Don't Starve.

I really enjoyed Songs of Syx. It's a city builder and economy game, but with a lot of extra detail that you don't often see.

Distance is an arcade racing game with a neon cyberpunk aesthetic. And the main campaign has elements of horror.

It's one of the most unique games I've played - it's almost more of a platformer than a racing game. And the main campaign is worth the asking price alone, but there's 2 other campaigns, a bunch of standalone maps, a level editor with workshop support, a random track generator and multiplayer. Even as someone who really doesn't care for racing games, I absolutely adore this game, and it's criminally underrated.

Distance is genuinely my favorite racing(?) game ever. There are so many incredible levels on the steam workshop too. Nitronic Rush, the game that Distance is a not-really-sequel to is still free to download too if you play all that and still want more.

Cassette Beasts! It's a monster collecting game. It adds a lot to the genre (definitely not a clone) and the music is awesome. It got amazing reviews so I'm not sure how hidden it actually is, but I really enjoyed it!

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

Brotato is a fun, mindless game if you like bullet hell games. Omori is a funny, wacky rpg with some horror elements. Good story to boot as well!

It really feels whacky, but I'm gonna check some videos about it. The art seems really interesting

You're talking about Omori? Without getting into it too much there is a good mix of art styles. The soundtrack is neat as well!

These are all fast, violent and kind of similar to each other:

  • Broforce is a platformer with fully destructible levels where you save the world from Satan's terrorist army. It has more explosions than a Michael Bay movie.
  • Hotline Miami and its sequel are tactical top down games about shooting up houses. You die a lot but restarts are automatic so it's no big deal.
  • Katana Zero is like Hotline Miami if it was a platformer. You're a cyber ninja who can slow down time and reflect bullets with his katana. The story is interesting and very emotional.
  • Ghostrunner is Katana Zero but 3D.

katana zero goes on the wishlist :)

recently got completely addicted to a text-based Indie RPG called Roadwarden. The story and characters are incredibly rich and the gameplay is full of satisfying little moments of "oh, I have just the item for this!" or "another character told me this tavern keep doesn't appreciate jokes; I better get straight to business". I haven't beaten it yet, but I can't wait to see where it leads!

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.

The Return of the Obra Dinn is one of my favourite games. It's an indie game but quite well known so I'm not sure if it counts as a hidden gem.

I really liked The Case of the Golden Idol too, and its DLC.

You can see I like detective games haha..

Return of the Obra Dinn was such a crazy experience. I remember my first playthrough I got super stumped and resorted to walkthrough'ing my way through. But when I replayed it I promised myself not to use the walkthrough and ended up getting it almost completely perfect, although it did take ages to do.

Case of the Golden Idol is so good! DLC coming soon, too, I think! Can't wait to revisit that game.

Obra Dinn is one that I full on wish I could invoke selective amnesia so I could experience it again with fresh eyes.

If you haven't tried it already, some other good detective games are Pentiment and Disco Elysium. My fiancee and I love playing detective games cooperatively, always on the hunt for a new one.

Road 96 was really fun and the soundtrack was great.

undefined> e the recognition they deserve, need a bigger audience or you would like the community to try.

felt like a roguelike telltale game

Firewatch - recommend you wait for a sale but its a great story game that is on steam and gog and even native Linux

tabletop simulator - tons of card and board games that you can play with your friends if it exists it might be ported has native Linux

golf with your friends - great mini golf game to play with your friends similar to tower unite golf but better has native port

american/europe truck simulator - trucking game that real truckers say is the most realistic trucking game and they try to help with all issues and is even native Linux

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1641020/my_brother_lives_in_a_canyon - my brother lives in a canyon - great story game that is made by one person and it does not take long

Bloons tower defence 6 - tower defence game where you pop the bloons to defend your base

Noita. It's just so good. Easily in my top 5 games of all time.

Agreed 100%. I've put way too much time into this game and I haven't even scratched the surface.

OneShot is a simple and flawed game but the game it'll leave a strong impact if you let it. Highly recommend going into it FULLY blind.

If you like space, you should play Homeworld and its sequels. Incredible game.

If you like chill strategy, try Terra Nil, Islanders, and Terrascape -- they're all really fun and Terrascape has turn-based multiplayer!

If you like puzzle games like Myst, Cyan has Obduction and the slightly controversial Firmament, which I thought was a lot of fun. Quern - Undying Thoughts is in the same vein and feels a lot like Myst or Riven.

If you like Halo's multiplayer with an added Portal gun, try Splitgate. The developer isn't going to be adding more content as they are shifting focus to a new game, but it's still really fun.

If you like boomer shooters, try Amid Evil it feels like Quake, Unreal, and Hexen/Heretic. It'll get your heart racing for sure.

Thanks for the super complete answer, gonna be checking a lot of the listed games

I enjoyed my time in Splitgate, but after playing games like Insurgency and CSGO I have a really hard time with shooters having long TTK (fell off of Halo Infinite really quick for the same reason). I grew up playing Quake 2 so the idea of having to drop a full magazine to kill someone is frustrating to me

Also "DUSK" is really great and very similar to Amid Evil. I believe it's from the same publisher.

Hidden indie game - Homeworld.

Back before Gearbox, Homeworld was pretty indie and niche. I dunno if it's considered that any more, but I wanted to include it just on quality alone.

It's not indie by any means but I agree, if he's never played I guess old often feels like a modern indie title.

If you were ever a fan of Rollercoaster Tycoon, check out Parkitect. It's a phenomenal and fun themepark game!

Symphony of War: The Nephilim Saga

I'll say up front that it's a niche game and isn't for everyone. This is especially true because most of its aspects outside of the gameplay are pretty unremarkable. But if this is your thing, it's really your thing.

What makes it so special is that its core gameplay loop is a very satisfying meld of Fire Emblem and Ogre Battle - essentially a turn-based strategy RPG where you control semi-autonomous squads instead of individual characters. And if that description made you perk up just by reading it, you need to go buy this game ASAP.

Now, if that description didn't immediately pique your interest, I'd check out some gameplay videos instead. Because it fills such an obscure niche, it's actually hard to know if you'll like this game just from a brief description. There's a good chance you've never played anything like this, and it will scratch an itch you never knew you had.

Fear and hunger is the most intense RPG-style horror game I have ever played. It's vile. It's fucked up. And it's honestly enthralling. Pay attention to the content warnings on the steam/itch page if you look it up, they're serious. It's like a game in the Berserk universe, but you're NOT Guts.

Here are some games I have not seen mentioned yet:

Valdis Story: Abyssal City
A 2D metroidvania, with the best combat in the genre. It has infinite combos, parrys, skill cancels, a magic system, and 4 characters that play fundamentally different. You get scores for the bosses, which really motivates me to learn the combat well beyond just finding one thing that works well. If you have any interest in sidescrollers, then this game is for you. Controller is required thou.

Zero Sievert
Ever wish that tarkov had a singleplayer mode? Well look no further, Zero Sievert is a top down extraction shooter, that is still in early access. But whats already on offer is really solid and a lot of fun. It has that tense atmosphere when you find something good and want to extract, without wasting massive amounts of your time.

Ollie Ollie World
A 2d skateboarding game with a unique control scheme, that has a very high skill ceiling. Its score chase, with online leaderboards, daily challanges, seasons, and so on. I like its music and artstyle a lot, but if thats not for you, you can check out the older entries in the series, that look not as 'out there'.

Lost Pig And Place Under Ground

An old-fashioned text adventure, one of the best ones I've played.

Pig lost! Boss say that it Grunk fault. Say Grunk forget about closing gate. Maybe boss right. Grunk not remember forgetting, but maybe Grunk just forget. Boss say Grunk go find pig, bring it back. Him say, if Grunk not bring back pig, not bring back Grunk either. Grunk like working at pig farm, so now Grunk need find pig.

Check it out

Gunpoint

S.P.A.Z.

Eufloria

Astroneer

Manifold Garden

Massive Chalice

The Pedestrian

Solar 2

Snakepass

Stacking

Super Kiwi 64

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.

I played the hell out of Slipways

Their slogan "Build vast trade empires, still be done in time for lunch" is on point here. You connect planets with different resources and different industries to an interconnected network in a (turnbased) race against the clock. Easy to learn and always great fun to cram into a 30min slot in your day.

I came here to recommend this one. Fantastic game, very unique.

This looks really good, great recommendation. I would love to see this on a handheld device.

Sounds like fun, added to my wishlist, partly waiting for a sale, partly waiting for time to play it

Spelunky HD

A roguelike platformer. While it lacks any meta-progression (like the similar Rogue Legacy games), the core platforming keeps me coming back again and again. The systems-based nature of the game keeps things fresh through many play-throughs.

Umurangi Generation

A photography game that's more cyberpunk than the game titled Cyberpunk. It gradually introduces you into its neon-soaked, Neon Genesis Evangelion-inspired world where humanity fights the good fight against kaiju.

::: spoiler spoiler Except the kaiju, born from global warming, have already won, humanity is doomed, and you're there to document the end of everything. The game takes a clear political position, inspired by the Australian bushfires and protests following George Floyd's murder in 2020, that neoliberalism and conservatism can't solve society-level issues, and will instead use the power of the state to sell non-solutions to delay or hide problems while violently stifling any real dissent. :::

Florence

A story of love, loss, and moving on.

I’ll say CrossCode. 2D hack-and-slash set in a futuristic MMO. Way too good, way too unknown for the genre that it is.

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

As a big metroidvania fan, I'd like to introduce a few of my favorites that go beyond the obvious choices like Hollow Knight and Ori (which of course are excellent). All of these are straightforward and while difficult, they don't focus on confusing menus or min/maxing statistics.

Astalon: Tears of the Earth: If you play one game on this list, play this one. You play as 3 characters, each with their own abilities, and can switch at certain save points. You die a lot and have to start over from the entrance every time, but the game gives you plenty of shortcuts and upgrades that you can quickly go back to where you were. The map is great to explore and there's a lot of content to keep you busy like a boss rush and new game+ modes with different characters.

Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight is a short but sweet experience. It's difficult but not unfair enough that you want to stop playing, the world map is well designed, and the pixel art is great.

Rabi-Ribi: This game looks like it was made for a very specific (horny) crowd, but there's a surprising amount of depth to the world and the bullet hell boss girls that inhabit it. It's an interesting mix of bullet hell and platformer that somehow makes up for the nonsensical story.

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.

One of my favorites over the past few years is Prey(2017) it was made under Bethesda so I wouldn’t say it’s underground, but It didn’t get the popularity and fan base it deserves. Essentially a open world (as open as a world can be in a giant space ship) that allows you to explore and fight creepy creatures. It also gives you multiple ways to solve the problems you face as well as Multiple endings and story branches to choose from. I played for 33 hours and it was so worth the price it was on sale, (wish I could remember) but it would also be worth $60 as well. It reminds me of a high polished Skyrim at certain points. Would highly recommend

Not sure if it counts as a hidden gem, but the last indie game that I played through and really enjoyed was Wandersong, a musical platformer where you interact with everything through song. The same dev also put out Chicory, which is like a playable coloring book, but I haven't had a chance to play that one yet.

Wandersong was really cute, I'll second the recommendation.

Chicory is great, I played it last year and I loved it! Highly recommend it.

Thanks for the great, great, great answers and recommendations everyone! Hope that all of you found a new game to enjoy, I sure have.

Ctrl Alt Ego

It's like a System Shock or Prey 2017 that has even less emphasis on "conventional" combat and more general problem solving. In some ways I feel like it's what you get if you grow an "immersive sim" out of a "puzzle" game like Portal instead of out an FPS or RPG.

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.

Ring Runner: Flight of the Sages is a 2D top-down space shooter with RPG text-adventure elements outside of the combat scenarios. I found it a super fun game with an insane amount of content. Probably over a hundred hours worth. There's a bunch of weapon and defense customization when it comes to combat, and there's probably thousands of varieties of ship you can build for whatever duty you need it to do.d

I believe if you play with a controller it has twin-stick controls, but on PC the controls are more like Elite: Dangerous or No Man's Sky, just in a 2D environment.

  • DemonCrawl: It's basically RPG Minesweeper, with hundreds of items that you can encounter as you work your way through 10 progressively harder levels. You could be an armored knight, a snooping detective, a fiery pyromaniac, or even a sneaky ninja. There are several dozen of classes that take your standard Minesweeper mechanics and subvert and reframe them entirely. If you like puzzle games, this one is worth playing.

  • Backpack Hero: It's an inventory management roguelike. Use your limited inventory to hold all the weapons, armor, consumables, and trinkets you need to reach the end and claim your prize. Don't forget to optimize the placement of your various items, so that they can all combo together. Different characters have different play styles, each with some mechanic that is partially or wholly unique to them. Is your backpack big, small, or filled with many pockets? Do you fight with totems, summon minions, or charm your enemies to your side? There's lots to see and do in what is possibly one of my favorite indie games of the past year. Highly recommended!

It's admittedly gotten a lot of shout outs with Diablo's release, but Grim Dawn. Just a super great old school ARPG with a fun multi class system. I think I made a mistake by letting it be one of the first in the genre I really got into, so it's kinda tough to find another one that competes.

Some games I recommend:

Alina of the Arena: A roguelike deckbuilder game. It has turn based tactical battles. There are lots of cards and builds you can try, but there is a fair amount of randomness to it. So you have to go with what you get.

Unreal Life: A really strange, surreal adventure game with a talking traffic light. Great visuals and music.

YumeCore: Just a short little game where you beat up people in a hospital. Why? Why not?

Flood of Light: Great little game with pretty much one core mechanic (direct lights). The Engliah translation isn't the best, but I really liked the atmosphere.

Brotato: Is it a hidden gem? I don't really know, but it is a fun "Vampire Survivor"-like game and a huge time sink. Great shop mechanic and large amount of characters and items.

Super Auto Pets has replaced Hearthstone for me, it's fantastic.

I can't really recommend this because its more or less a dead multiplayer beta that's not even legitimately available anymore but Shattered Horizons was a microgravity first person shooter that was really cool. So, uh, if there are any indie devs in this chat, uh, please steal this dead idea!

eastward: topdown-zelda like. gameplay wise, though it's quite easy. the story is charming, with all the quirkiness from earthbound, although the main plot is actually more akin to the last of us 1, for some reason, or at least it kinda felt like that to me. the visuals are absolutely gorgeous, as is the soundtrack.

phoenotopia awakening: an action rpg-metroidvania mishmash, and a surprisingly large one at that. if you're into challenging and backtrack heavy games, this one does the job very well.

crosscode: this one's been mentioned a bunch on this thread, and there's also been a post here about it a day or two ago, but i'll still mention it because it's just that good. another topdown-zelda like, but keep in mind that i've seen it described as a puzzle game masquerading as an rpg, which may be a more apt description.

Superflight

Really engaging game with a short, easy to understand mechanic. It's fun just to put on and fly around for a bit every now and then.

Ooh, I love finding obscure indies. There are an awful lot of games on Steam and Itch and other platforms that are amazing experiences, but that almost no one has ever played or even heard of for one reason or another.

One of my recent favourite zero-budget indies is Sally Can't Sleep, a strange first person platformer with a lot of focus on fun, versatile, and exploitable movement mechanics. The dev sacrificed visual polish for quantity and style, so the game has a lot of interconnected levels with a big variety of different mechanics and visual styles - it's a really good example of how much a solo developer can accomplish.

Another one is Worlds, which is a 3D stealth-shooter-platformer-adventure? I like it for the same reason as Sally Can't Sleep, it's ambitious and creative, and you can really feel the developer pushing against their limitations to release something that punches far above its own weight.

Also, both these games are very cheap, even at full price!

Don't sure if it's exactly hidden but for me Dungeons III (and 2) has been unexpectedly fun. It takes everything that made Dungeon Keeper and it takes a level higher. Pretty fun game.

If you liked Hades, play Ember Knights. It’s in early access but I legit put 6 hours in my first session cuz it scratched that Hades itch juuuuuust right

Kenshi - a brutal, and sometimes janky squad free roaming game. I have far too many hours in that.
Pulsar - Lost Colony - Fun game if you have a few friends around. Pretend to be Captain Kirk - except chaos.
Rimworld -- Dwarf Fortress lite
Dwarf Fortress - Grand daddy inspiration for most other games
Torchlight - Diablo
Project Zomboid - All your top down zombie hunting dreams come true
Carrier Command - Drone carrier warfare
Nebulous Fleet Command - The Expanse.

Does X4 count as Indie?

Wow you named nearly every game I was gonna recommend! My only addition would be Shadow Empire. It's a 4x game set on a post apocalyptic planet that is procedural generated. The game has terrible graphics and a brutal learning curve but it's a blast and has wonderful role-playing elements as well as good strategy.

I'll pick the two that I think are the most criminally overlooked:

Vagante is a co-op roguelike platformer that combines Spelunky and Dark Souls. The Spelunky influence is obvious right down to a few of the biomes, and the combat is committal in the way that Dark Souls combat is. Really, you could replace Dark Souls with a lot of different RPGs inspired by D&D, but Dark Souls also captures the combat and the way the difficulty is tuned, as well a slight nod to the series with a bonfire between levels. Due to the way loot drops over the course of a run, it actually scales remarkably well between 1-4 players, as the loot is finite, and you're finding ways to split it among your party or, as a solo player, stack yourself with the best stuff so that you stand the best chance alone.

Cannon Brawl is a side-perspective RTS that combines StarCraft and Worms. Everyone has a buildable area that you expand with balloons sort of like expanding the creep as Zerg, but like Worms, you can destroy the ground beneath your opponent's feet. Each player controls a blimp that moves at a set speed, and that blimp needs to manually move to the structure that you want to use, such as the titular cannons. This keeps the game from being dominated by fast RPM while still allowing for controller-friendliness and plenty of depth. It's got same-screen and online multiplayer, and every time I break this game out, we're glued to the screen for hours, swapping loadouts and commanders for different strategies.

Sayonara Wild Hearts is an absolute gem. Perhaps not "hidden" since it did get a full physical release, but I don't see people talk about it. Game is like an hour long but it's absolutely worth playing. The portal of music games really.

Also shoutout to selfy collection. idk if it counts as indie but it's low budget for sure, digital-only release, and filled with engrish, but it's a lovely game and easily the best dress up game on switch.

Was hoping someone else would mention Sayonara Wild Hearts! Great game with a great soundtrack. I don't exactly feel the need to go back to it so much but it left an impression on me and I still listen to that OST a lot.

Yup. Not a game with a lot of playtime but it's a wonderful gem of a game.

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.

CrossCode! Incredible game, probably my favorite game of all time.

It's so much more than it looks. The music is awesome, and in some powerful scenes, the story is driven forward with musical motifs that make the scenes hit that much harder.

The story is just... really good. I teared up a few times.

The characters are beautifully written and extremely memorable. By the end of the game, you really feel like you've been living with them.

People say they don't like the puzzles, but the game comes with difficulty sliders and you can turn down things you don't like.

You can get it on consoles, or, on Steam, and even GOG!

There is a DLC to this game. If you enjoy the game, DON'T SKIP THE DLC!!! It is THE ending to the game! Some might scoff at "oh wow they locked the story behind the DLC," but no, trust me, it is well worth it. It adds a TON of content and is an extremely well put together finale to the epic story told in the game.

Crosscode is my favorite game of all time. It takes the best elements of retro games and creates an incredible experience from a beautiful combination. I said "eh, why not?" and got it on sale after seeing so many positive reviews and convincing recommendation videos and absolutely lived in it from beginning to end.

Gameplay: The gameplay is clean, the combat is fast and intuitive using both melee and ranged attacks that are extremely responsive, the special moves are insanely cool and I love figuring out the best ones to strengthen and set, I love switching elements on the fly with the push of a button to add things like fire and ice damage and how it all feels like second nature on a controller.

The puzzles get really clever and I was a big fan, mostly because figuring out the puzzles in the dungeons is simultaneously showing you ways to use new powers to manipulate your environment or attack your foes. Incredibly smart way to teach you the versatility of your powers by solving a dungeon puzzle instead of a boring tutorial. I will say that the first dungeon can start to drag, and the later dungeons can get really challenging, but that anytime I felt like I was spending too much time on something I'd just look up the Wyvern (he was one of the backers for the game and has been playing it since early versions) videos on Youtube to see how to solve what I couldn't. No shame in asking for help, keep things fun before they just get frustrating if you're like me, plus I needed to not waste too much time stuck on something because I was addicted to the story and needed to see what happened next! Which brings me to...

Story: The story pulled me in and just floored me. There were points where I had to pause just sobbing in tears, other times I had to pause to run around the room with joy. Go into it blind, it will pull you in!

A Unique Strength: It's crazy how real your companions feel, completely sells the feeling and idea of being in an MMORPG. Part of this is because of how effectively written your friends are, and part of it is the fact that they are capable of acting on their own and in no way require you to control or protect them. In that way it reminded me a lot of Elizabeth from Bioshock Infinite where you have a companion that, not only takes care of herself, but actually helps you and improves the gameplay in a way that it feels real lonely when they're not around. I was emotionally invested in these people for sure.

I also like that it's one of the few games these days to have a free playable demo. The demo is the short prologue at the beginning of the game. It's fun but it greatly undersells things as it shows you some of the bare basics of melee combat. Learning the ranged attack system right after the prologue and then progressing into the range of the elemental abilities is where the combat shines. And finding out how big this world actually is adds more to it then a demo has a chance at conveying.

TL;DR 10/10 for Crosscode from me!