Given the big swathe 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.

  • Sunsofold@lemmings.worldEnglish
    3·
    20 days ago

    I play, almost exclusively, non-AAA games. Some gems, known and hidden:

    • Autonauts and Autonauts Vs Piratebots - Cute automation games
    • Spelunky - Elegantly simple and well executed platformer
    • BPM: Bullets Per Minute - Rhythm FPS. Others have tried. None I have found have been as good.
    • Immortal Redneck - FPS roguelite
    • Ziggurat - FPS Roguelite
    • Receiver II - Unique FPS roguelike. Every part of everything that moves is simulated. The hammer on your gun hits a firing pin which hits the primer on the cartridge. You can get stovepipes, misfires, double feeds, etc. You don’t reload by hitting ‘reload’ but go through the full manual of arms in a shooter where the tolerances for failure are fairly slim.
    • Valley - running game. The feeling of letting a hill propel your running to otherwise impossible speeds, bottled. Nice little story too.
    • Dredge - Lovecraftian fishing game.
    • Tunnet - lovecraftian network technician simulator. Build a network to allow communication between computers in an underground society with unspeakable horrors occasionally destroying your mind/body.
    • Opus Magnum - Programming puzzles
    • Vagante - roguelike with tight tolerances
    • Ruiner - Cyberpunk slash n dash with a soundtrack half by Sidewalks and Skeletons. Very fun.
    • Tails Noir - Detective story. Normally find the anthro thing a bit tiresome but this was pretty good. Well written.
    • Elderborn - First person brawler
    • Webbed - be a peacock spider. Rescue your lady spider. Help insects. Fight a bird. Dance.
    • A Story About My Uncle - Movement game. Jump, dash, grapnel. Simple and elegant.
    • Tormentor X Punisher - Top down twin stick shooter. Everything dies in one hit. All the enemies, and you.
    • Tin Can - Survival game in which you try to keep up an escape pod long enough to be rescued, which is hard when it seems to have been made by the lowest bidder’s lowest bidding subcontractor and maintained with all the loving care of a convenience store bathroom.
      • Sunsofold@lemmings.worldEnglish
        2·
        16 days ago

        I liked that it wasn’t a parody of itself. Most of the writing could have been unchanged if it hadn’t been anthro themed. And the writing was nice, nothing ham-fisted, and had some respect for the reader. I keep running into games where you’ve just talked to an NPC about how they need you to hit the blue button, and you’ve gone through a hallway of posters saying your goal is to hit the blue button, had a quest marker guiding you there that says ‘this way to the blue button you need to press,’ and your character still feels the need to speak to the air about the need to hit the blue button when you walk into the blue button room.

  • Nefara@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    19 days ago

    Banished, you can’t get more Indie than just one guy’s passion project.

    I don’t know what it is about that game but it really struck a chord with me and I’ve come back to it over and over. It’s my favorite game to play when I’m sick and can’t do anything. It’s relaxing and peaceful and cozy while also being complex and ruthlessly challenging at the same time, so it’s like spinning plates. Seems easy when you get the hang of it but it can all come crashing down if you make a bad enough mistake. It’s spawned some copy cats, and I’ve tried them, but the original just gets me somehow.

  • NONE@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    21 days ago

    Hollow Knight

    I love it so much that I can’t finish it, I always stop when I’m about to fight the final boss. I just don’t want it to end.

    Maybe when Silksong came out I finish it once and for all.

    • Deconceptualist@lemm.eeEnglish
      1·
      18 days ago

      Hollow Knight isn’t exactly over when you finish the story. There are more fights, especially Godhome. If you can beat all that you’re an incredible player.

      You probably know this but just wanted to make sure you’re not unintentionally missing out.

  • Brotha_Jaufrey@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    20 days ago

    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 clones have since 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.

    It’s a scrap-collecting + space horror survival + comedy game. The comedy feels very unintended and that’s why it’s so fucking funny. You encounter very horrifying creatures, then see your friends die the funniest death. Then you hope to collect enough scrap to survive another day.

    • drosophila@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      2·
      18 days ago

      The monsters in REPO are worse somehow.

      Not sure if its because its relatively easier to stun/kill/hide from them or if its because their mechanics are lacking in some way compared to lethal company’s, but I feel as if they don’t have the same sauce.

    • cevn@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      20 days ago

      Bro yes. That game is so good. Wish I could get my friends to play more often lol.

  • mohab@piefed.socialEnglish
    2·
    17 days ago

    Crimzon Clover: World EXplosion. Top 3 shmups of all-time and best shmup on Steam, IMO.

  • hades@lemm.eeEnglish
    2·
    20 days ago

    Factorio.

    Honourable mentions:

    • Chants of Sennaar
    • Blue Prince
    • Animal Well
    • Raft
    • Citizen Sleeper
  • Lightsong@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    21 days ago

    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.

  • Durandal@lemmy.todayEnglish
    1·
    21 days ago

    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.

  • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    1·
    21 days ago

    Here are a few, hopefully they aren’t mentioned yet:

    • walking simulator/light puzzle game - Firewatch, What Remains of Edith Finch, INSIDE, A Juggler’s Tale, Abzu, Nuts
    • puzzle - Manifold Garden, The Case of the Golden Idol, GNOG, Gorogoa
    • misc - Inscryption, Pony Island
    • 3d platformer/adventure - Yooka Laylee
    • metroidvania/platformer - Blue Fire
    • programming - Human Resource Machine, TIS-100
    • souls-like/boss rush - Furi, Titan Souls

    Some of these might be AA, it’s hard to tell the difference sometimes. I have plenty more where that came from. :)

    • Maestro@fedia.io
      1·
      21 days ago

      I loved Obra Dinn. If you like that you will probably also like “Case of the Golden Idol” and it’s successor.

  • Noxy@pawb.socialEnglish
    1·
    20 days ago

    Monster Sanctuary. A superbly polished, extremely fun, and decently challenging metroidvania and monster collecting/battling game. If you played the first few Pokemon generations on gameboy and don’t find the newer games capture that same magic, check out Monster Sanctuary!

    Pacific Drive. A station wagon building amd exploration game set in a STALKER-esque Pacific Northwest in the Olympic mountain range. Extremely original and unique game, and with an excellent soundtrack.

    Hardspace Shipbreaker: spaceship salvage, with increasing hazards and challenges and complexity of ship systems to expertly disassemble. With a pretty cool workers’ solidarity and union struggle type of plot.

    Rimworld. Hundreds of hours lost.

    Stardew Valley. A literally perfect game.

    Terraria. Also a literally perfect game.

    Caves of Qud. Like if Dwarf Fortress adventure mode was actually polished, and also if distant future scifi with mutants and cybernetics and sentient plants and sapient gun turrets.

    Dwarf Fortress. It’s Dwarf Fortress.

    WolfQuest. Wolf simulator set in Yellowstone, with a focus on real world accuracy. So cool to raise a pack and manage territory and hunt and explore and howl a lot

    Bomb Rush Cyberfunk. A brilliantly executed spiritual successor to Jet Set Radio Future.

    Descenders. Crazy fun downhill bicycling game.

  • ISOmorph@feddit.orgEnglish
    1·
    21 days ago

    One game I love that hasn’t been mentioned yet is Subnautica. The only survival crafting game I ever finished. The story telling and athmosphere are unmatched.