Come one, come all! Got a game that’s not AAA (or god forbid AAAA) but you loved anyhow? Welcome to show and tell. Talk about your favorite, why people should play it, and what you love most about it. And yes, I’m aware this may just be end up being 25 comments about stardew valley.
I want to start by recommending Kingdom, a series with relatively simple (but elegant) graphics and side scrolling tower defence style gameplay. It doesn’t sound like much but the presentation encourages this beautiful sense of exploration of mechanics. Amos Roddy did the music, which tells you just how much I love the soundtrack I didn’t even have to look up his name. There are a few games, but I specifically recommend Kingdom: Two Crowns as it includes co-op and has some nice style options (European, Japanese, and more comprehensive Norse DLC that changes more than looks)
If that’s not your speed maybe you’d the better known Stanley Parable. I won’t say much on it as it’s a fantastically written experience I’d recommend to anyone with a pulse. The less you know going into it the better, and it’s very accessible in terms of design because it’s largely a (hilarious and witty) walking simulator.
Finally, I’d recommend the Mount and Blade series. Bannerlord is the most recent but it’s predecessor, Warband is a very loved game too. Essentially this series drops you into a grounded medieval sandbox world as a character you define, then you just go play. Want to be a merchant and make all the money managing a bunch of stores and contending with the unrest and banditry caused by warring kingdom? You can do that. Want to /be/ that bandit raiding caravans? You can. How about the classic Lancelot experience of being a tournament fighting, seige winning, lady wooing, knightly machine? Absolutely. And better yet, when the king shafts you of that territory you really wanted to be granted you can just rebel and become a king in your own right (long term results and stability of your kingdom may vary by circumstance). It’s definitely worth a peek if you haven’t looked at any of the games in the series.
And that’s what I’ve got today. Hope you guys have some fun recommendations, stories and anecdotes for trade!
You can’t talk Indi without talking about Factorio. A game that spawned out of a Minecraft mod and kicked off the factory building craze.
Successful Kickstarter, solid early access actions of constant updates and a weekly blog talking about mechanics sneak peeks of upcoming changes, super well received 1.0 release with a DLC on the way.
A game that never goes on sale, yet doesn’t see a drop in sales after a increase in price.
It’s definitely pretty rare for games to get warmly accepted 1.0 status these days
I’ve spent an outrageous percentage of this year playing the poker solitaire/deck builder/roguelike that is Balatro.
I didn’t like roguelikes until dicey dungeons came along, and since then my favourite games have been that, slay the spire, Hades (haven’t played 2 yet) and now this.
If you like deck builders, I highly recommend it. A very smart twist on the solitaire genre.
If you liked dicey dungeons, take a look at Slice and Dice. It’s a dice rolling rogue-like where you fight your way through a 20-room dungeon, finding equipment and upgrading your heroes along the way. It also has the best feature of rlany rogue-like I’ve played, an undo button. You can get it on steam, but it’s also on itch.io and you can get it for both mobile and PC for one purchase.
I have it on android! It’s been a trusty travel game for me. I do find the upgrade pathways a little narrow though. Maybe I haven’t quite got the knack for it yet, but I find that I don’t have enough agency over if a run is successful. That is to say, I lose and too often can’t point to something I could have done differently.
If you are a fan of couch multiplayer games / party games then you’ll love “hidden in plain sight”. With its over simplistic controls and multiple different mini games the whole family or friend group (up to 4 players) are in for a treat.
There is no single player part of the game. And the game isn’t really that fun if you don’t have 4 players, but man if you do it’s a treat to play.
Lots of people might have heard of What Remains of Edith Finch, but I’m actually here to promote the debut game from that studio, called The Unfinished Swan.
It’s a very charming sort of adventure/puzzle game with some interesting unique mechanics, some very cool and beautifully designed levels and a a heartwarming story. It’s very short, too, so almost no investment needed!
Definitely worth an afternoon or two of your time if it seems up your alley!
- Super Hexagon is a very minimal reactions-based arcade-style game that I always find myself coming back to. I’ve only got a few hours in it, but when you usually die after about five seconds that adds up to a lot of attempts.
- Mini Metro is another very simple arcade game you can play quite quickly, much more gentle than Super Hexagon (right up until your rail network gets overloaded, then it’s panic time).
- Tinyfolks is a minimal roguelike which I’d describe as a more gentle (in terms of both theme and difficulty) version of Darkest Dungeon. You can complete a run in a few hours but there’s lots of replayability, and you can do the XCOM thing of naming your characters after your friends so it hurts more when they die.
- Bug Fables is basically just a spiritual successor to Paper Mario TTYD, if you liked that then you’ll like this!
- The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth has got to be one of my favourite games ever. Probably one of the most well-known indie roguelikes, it’s been remade and has three expansions. Even if you’ve played it before I’d strongly recommend getting the Repentance DLC as it adds so much new stuff. Infinitely replayable, ludicrously difficult to master, always enjoyable.
I’m happy to wax lyrical about any of these if people want more info!
Are VR games allowed? I have several indie games I just love to play.
RFVR is an RPG by a small dev team that are very active on Discord and attentive to players feedback. They just introduced voice commands, you can hire mercenaries all over the world, then later you can hire apprentices that level with you (5 levels below yours). There is crafting of food and spells, improving of weapons at a forge, mining and a tonne more. They have a small demo so you can get the feel of the game.
Virtual Hunter is by another small dev team. There is one map at the moment (recently reworked and expanded massively) with Red Deer, Fallow Deer, Boar, European Hare, Fox, and Pheasant with particular ammo/weapon for most ethical kill and you are penalised financially (as in no reward or trophy) for not being ethical, the guns are a .303, .223, .44, an over under shotgun with 3 types of ammo, and a bow with 3 or 4 types of arrows. The game takes into account sight, sound, and scent and animals act accordingly.
Cyube (recently released on psvr after being on Steam for several years) has a single dev who is active on discord and attentive to the community. This is an excellent peaceful voxel building game with lots of mods. There is a limited amount of included blocks but any moron can make new blocks (said moron made a few blocks hehe) there is also a whole modding system for more intricate and involved modding all available through the Steam Workshop.
Ever wanted to be GOD? Decide the fate of humans and rain love or destruction down on them? Check out Deisim. A flat earthers dream (sorry, had to) build your world 1 tile at a time ensuring your people have the resources they need and watch civilisations emerge, evolve and eventually go to war!
If this is received well I may drop another list on ya’s. Very few AAA+ games are in my library and the indie ones I’ve listed have way more playtime.
As a walking simulator hater (not going to say “if you like them you are not a gamer”, they are just personally not my speed), I enjoyed Stanley Parable a lot. Hades is kind of similar in that I don’t like roguelikes but I do like it.
Kingdom looked so interesting but actually playing it drove me up the wall for reasons I cannot articulate even today.
Nothing wrong with wanting to be more engaged. I don’t like walking simulators either, largely because they seldom have enough else going on to engage me. This is why the Stanley Parable is so exceptional in my mind, all I’m doing is walking and I’m just as engaged as any other game I’ve played, which is a testament to the strength of it’s writing.
I strongly recommend Kingdom with a friend, it helps shore up some of its occasionally rough edges. If all else fails pull up it’s OST on Spotify/YouTube/Tidal and appreciate it
I think that is the perfect explanation for why I don’t like walking simulators, thank you!
