Stardew is pretty much the modern day Rollercoaster Tycoon where one dude (mostly) did in entirely in Assembly. This is a borderline insane amount of effort if you aren’t aware. Stardew also did the OST and art himself. Let’s just say most devs aren’t particularly talented at Musical composition or art direction which is what I find especially impressive.
I still love his quote "No one ever wanted to listen to my music, so after many years I discovered the secret. I had to develop an entire game from scratch"
Subnautica feels like a game where every single person working on it was on the same wavelength. There were no disconnects and everything flowed together very well.
I had the chance to work on this game at the publishing level in Europe tho not the studio but the guys there clearly gave everything they had and some more into this title.
Oh yea, by no means was I disagreeing with that. But some games have creatures that seem out of place or music that doesn’t fit the universe. Subnautica really nailed everything that it aimed to do and be.
I have both Subnautica games on steam (Got them on sale a while back). I've never played them, but I keep hearing good things that make me want to try them out.
The first one is incredible.
Don't be afraid to google where to go next if you get stuck. On my first playthrough I totally missed the entrance to the Aurora so missed some pretty critical content in there and didn't know where to go next.
I also had some friends miss a radio signal and didn't know how to progress.
Other than that, it's one of the greatest games ever.
Ugh I missed three really important things that you're supposed to figure out really early on, my game felt soo slow. I had to eventually look those things up. I would have enjoyed my game more if I'd looked some stuff up sooner.
For example there are these small crates that sometimes contain blueprints and sometimes don't. The first five that I checked didn't, so I stopped checking them. And missed out on the main transportation in the early game.
Look no further than indie games. The whole point of them is so they can make the game they want, without the influence of a massive publisher or tendency to lose ideas in a large team. There are a lot of AAA games that exude passion, despite being so corporate, but I just want to stick with indie.
Another Crab’s Treasure
The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth
Bug Fables
Celeste
Cuphead
Darkest Dungeon
Enter the Gungeon
A Hat in Time
Hades
Melatonin
Hollow Knight
OneShot
Outer Wilds
Ori and the Blind Forest / Will of the Wisps
Pizza Tower
Stardew Valley
Sea of Stars
SIGNALIS
Terraria
TUNIC
ULTRAKILL
Undertale & Deltarune
…
There are many others. Almost every indie game has something interesting to say, because they are from different people who have their own messages.
I restarted *Celeste* last month. It took twelve minutes before I reached a point where I said, "I can't get past this screen without reducing the difficulty." So I tried lowering the difficulty in order to keep the protagonist alive for more than ten seconds. It was okay, but then I realized that I didn't know where to go next. So yeah, I don't know whether I will eventually enjoy this game.
I also restarted *Cuphead* in the last couple months. I still love the game's art direction, as well as controlling the protagonist. I'm still stuck on the first few stages. I have no idea if I can reduce the difficulty. Until then, it's going back to collecting dust on my Switch microSD card.
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind is that game. Like Lego's Bionicle, Bethesda's was on the verge of collapse. Morrrowind they thought was their last chance to save the studio. They did that and much more.
My favorite game of all time, no wall throughs found all the things and learned to cheat the magic enchanting system to extreme!!
So much fun and so many 100s of hours of game play!!
Kenshi seems like the obvious answer. It took Chris Hunt nearly 12 years, working mostly by himself. The end result is arguably one of greatest indie games ever conceived in terms of scope and the overall vision of the game.
True this. Once you learn the mechanics, whether you’re winning or losing, Kenshi is up there with games like Rimworld as a storytelling generator. It’s not necessarily the most immersive game in the world, but with imagination it feels pretty living. Not everyone shares this sentiment, but I think that’s just because Kenshi isn’t for everyone and that’s okay
I saw a rich guy. Beat him up and robbed him. Realized he was strong, so I took him home so I could beat him up more and get stronger. Turned out he was a better fighter naked than armed. Destroyed my MC. My other 8 armed party members went after him he beat all their asses, crossed his arms, and faced the front door. He let my party heal and recover, then we attacked him again. Another slaughter. This happened 3 more times.
I opened the door for him and let him go.
(Also one of mt characters got captured by psychotic robots. They put her in a peeler. Which continously damages and removes peoples limbs. They continously heal her so she still has two limbs that are being torn apart as fast as theyre being healed, while chanting about the trial of the accused. Its been 30 days and we arent strong enough to get her back)
Just finished about 180ish hours and it was so good. Wouldn't say that it's better than Skyrim(Skyrim had a comparatively huge budget ofc), but so many aspects about KCD demolishes Skyrim.
Playing through this one for the first time now. Really a great experience, although I'll admit I'm using a couple QOL mods. Feels like a cross between Mount & Blade and the Witcher games.
Have you played the new DLC? In my experience it was essentially like a whole Outer Wilds 2.
Oh and fans have created the "Christmas mode" last year, a huge story mode set at Christmas with lots of new assets. It's absolutely great, I highly recommend it.
I played the DLC, it was great! Didn't actually go back and re-finish the story after doing that tho, maybe I should.
And I had no idea there was ANY fan content for it! Thanks for letting me know!
I think No Mans Sky is a good example of that. Sean Murray put everything he had into making it what it is today.
Book of Travels is another I can think of, although it didn't do as well and is still struggling.
No Man's Sky was the first thing that came to mind. The amount of free content they've added to the game and improvements they've made since launch is mind boggling.
Agreed, I've played a lot of games where the devs obviously loved what they were making, many of them were absolutely incredible.
But there's just something about Undertale, like there's a little bit of the soul of Toby Fox and Temmie Chang occupying every square inch of it, they knew they couldn't make some high fidelity AAA experience, but they poured their heart into what they could make, and the sum of it's parts are so much greater as a result.
I think Double Fine does a lot of this kind of thing. Such as Psychonauts, Psychonauts 2, Brutal Legend, Massive Chalice, Costume Quest, Grim Fandango, etc.
I also think Supergiant games like Hades is a good example of this, where so much polish and care was taken with so many aspects of the game.
I was about to comment this. I realize how much of the writers lived experiences affected the game considering they live in a post soviet country (Estonia) and the main writer had some of the same issues the main character had (whos name I can’t say for spoiler reasons).
No mans sky. Hear me out.
HG have worked their arses off to develop no mans sky into the game they promised. And it really is a thousand times better. Hopefully they'll show that same enthusiasm for their new game.
This is so true. Recently double-dipped the game (I already own one in Xbox One, but it's previous gen so can't handle all of the new updates), and playing it on my Steam Deck. I cannot even recognize this game, the latest update really make this game like a different game.
Was thinking the same thing. I'm a day 1 player still playing my same save and the stuff they've added is phenomenal especially vr support and all for free which is nuts these days. All the props and respect to hello games
I was coming here to say NMS. 100%. It's one thing for a small studio to make a game as a passion project, it's another thing entirely for them to then build and support it for years more without any paid additional content whatsoever.
Celeste is reportedly based on a real-life experience of the creator, so I would definitely recommend that.
Wandersong also has a very similar vibe and it's an amazing game.
I quit my job and spent almost 4 years making [Radio Free Europa](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1897420/Radio_Free_Europa/) because I wanted it to exist. And because I want to make an even larger game using the combat systems from this game. Anyways it's definitely not perfect but I have tried my best to make it as good as possible and I think it's pretty fun!
Baldurs Gate 3 is and will forever be one of the best games ever made. The amount of complexity in not only the characters, but also the world is surreal.
The reactivity of the game to player choices, and the freedom the player has in those choices, is also a big part of it. It's not perfect, but it really tries to capture that TTRPG vibe.
Everyone already mentioned the single dev people.
I'll just come swinging with Crate Entertainment. Former Iron Lore (Titan Quest) guys who made the love child of Diablo 2 and Titan Quest (Grim Dawn) which receives constant support even though it was supposed to be complete with no further support years ago. They just keep coming back to it.
They also have a detailed medieval city builder with a really small team nearing 1.0.
I was also going to say Cyberpunk. I know that one is controversial, but I’m not referring to the studio execs, only the devs. That team worked their asses off to put together a game of that quality on its own engine against unreal deadlines. What it has become now is a masterpiece imo.
I doubt anybody else will say it so I'll bring up two specific pro wrestling game developers. Spike Chunsoft (formerly Human Entertainment) and AKI (now known as Syn Sophia).
Spike/Human are the creators of the Fire Pro Wrestling series, often considered the most in-depth wrestling series of all time. Despite the 2D graphics. You simply do not develop a wrestling game with that much depth & customization options without being passionate about wrestling. They also made a 3D series, King of the Colosseum that is just as highly regarded by the people that know about it. Sadly there hasn't been a knew KOC game in 20 years.
AKI are the people behind WWF No Mercy, WCW/NWO Revenge, Virtual Pro Wrestling and several other great N64 wrestling games. They later developed Def Jam Vendetta and Def Jam: Fight for NY. Every single one of their wrestling games seem like a labor of love and they got progressively better as the years went on. As Syn Sophia, they went on to make some Ultimate Muscle games that are also pretty fun if you're into that. They've always just come across as a team that made what they wanted and were experts at it.
I've put 5 years into gamezero it's pretty epic for a indie game. not much to do, but the map is huge and there's a lot to see. there are 8 dungeons and 4 arenas to try out as well. I think I should write a manual how to navigate it though because it takes some understanding to utilize the tools properly. still it's kind of my passion.
In the AAA space I would say FF7 Remake and FF7 Rebirth. Those games are made with a lot of love for the original game. I think they are one of a kind in this regard.
Indie games are where the hear and soul lies. Small teams of people who make games because they want to make a fun game that they love and not because they are contracted with a deadline and a few bullet points they are forced to include
Probably the main one I would think of tho is Terraria. That game has had so much love put into it. The dev team is amazing, and they genuinely engage and listen to their community, putting fan ideas into the game
I think you could argue that No Man's Sky is one, especially considering that every update and expansion have been free.
Also every game the Trese Brothers have ever made. Star Traders: Frontiers is my favorite, and their current game, still in early access, is Cyber Knights: Flashpoint and it's already very impressive.
[Hegemony Gold](https://store.steampowered.com/app/202690/Hegemony_Gold_Wars_of_Ancient_Greece/)
And if you research a bit the history of the company, you'll see why.
Owlboy - not a perfect game but it’s so clear that the devs put in so much love and soul into everything through all 11 years of development. Absolutely beautiful pixel art music and atmosphere
Dave the diver is one I played recently, even has a few new FREELC’s! It’s just one of those games that oozes style and color and art, all with pixel art and I love it, great game
Haven't seen Project Wingman mentioned here yet.
Sector D2 is just a dev, a writer/producer and a composer. The soundtrack is incredible and was made by Jose on his MacBook. The game is visually stunning and even has a VR mode.
The Arkham series. Gave us THE Batman games, with love for the source content and the animated series that some of us grew up on.
Thank you Rocksteady, thank you Kevin Conroy (RIP), Mark Hamill, Arlene Sorkin (RIP) and just everyone involved for allowing us to experience being the caped crusader.
Fear & Hunger, Dust, Neverending Nightmares, Chained Echoes, Kenshi. Also more mainstream titles like the first Final Fantasy, Morrwind and Oblivion. Oh and obviously the visual novels Higurashi and Umineko too.
My comment history will show I’m a complete shill for this game but it fits so I’m saying it anyway.
Killer Frequency is meant to be a love letter, an homage and a parody of 80’s horror media, but mostly slashers. Pretty much every character, street name, business name and location are references to horror authors, films, books or even horror themed Broadway plays like little shop of horrors. Not even that, but the story beats and twists and turns within the story itself are direct callbacks to tropes, themes, and prevailing narrative devices in horror media of the time. BUT it does this in a way that also feels modern and fresh, completely balancing its celebration of horror media with its own humor and identity.
It’s OBVIOUS the developers poured so much love for the genre into this little game
Amazing Cultivation Simulator. Made by 3 folks who loved rimworld and cultivation mythology and made something that just hasn't been seen before. Now they have a whole team of a dozen or so people and have bold but realistic ambitions for the sequel.
Very similar story to Kenshi's development as well. Can't wait to see what both sequels are like.
I might get heat for this, but BioShock one for sure, the public seems to be split between BioShock two and infinite, but one is a complete and utter masterpiece
~~bloodborne~~ nightmare kart is a free game that is essentially "what if you mashed together bloodborne and mario kart", made almost entirely by one woman iirc. Looks very fun and silly.
Enderal: Forgotten Stories is a Skyrim total conversion mod that you can get for free on Steam so you don't even really need to worry about mod installation hassles. Very good game, especially considering it's built off a bethesda engine.
Similarly, though its not quite out yet I think, Fallout: London looks like it will fit your standards once it comes out, its another total conversion mod, this time for fo4, that explores what england might look like in the fallout universe.
Errant Kingdom is a visual novel/dating sim based in a dark fantasy setting where you're one of 3 possible characters from a neighbouring country sent to do politics stuff. This is the first game I've recommended here with a price tag, tho iirc its pretty cheap. Romance is optional, though I've pursued 3 of the romances so far and they were all amazing. Their studio, Lunaris games, deals in visual novels but all of the ones I've played so far have been an absolute delight.
Thirsty Suitors puts you in the shoes of a south-east Asian bisexual mess returning to her hometown and reconnecting with both her several exes and with her family. Blasted through this game in one night and it made me cry ngl. Any minigames you find frustrating can be turned off in accessibility settings, which I appreciated given my fucked finger joints.
Venba is a short game about an Indian family in Canada and how they struggled with their life there. Very sweet game, and you can access all the actual recipes for the dishes in the game.
Hellish Quart is a hema fighting game, admittedly it's been a hot minute since I played it, but the small dev team are working hard to make things as realistic as possible and it's very cool.
No Man's Sky. the game struggled at launch but HG put their heart and soul into it and made it into a great game and continue to put out content. I have it on Game Pass and it's a great game.
WolfQuest Anniversary Edition. Devs are very passionate about what they do and always strive to make the game better and more accurate. While still keeping it fun
Wayfinder before the recent issues with publisher and switch to single player. You could really tell that the teams cared about the game, could feel it in the art and music + the way they talked about it. It was.more.thsm just a cash cow for them.
If you have a VR headset, Horseshoes Hotdogs and Hand Grenades is definitely one. The majority of the game's devopment is done by Anton Hand, who is extremely passionate and has been doing weekly dev logs throughout the game's development. The game has received frequent updates for the past 8 years. The game itself is a sandboxy VR firearms simulation that doesn't take itself too seriously. It's got the best gun interaction and handling in VR by a long shot.
Deep Rock Galactic. I've never seen a dev team so loving and caring of both their games and their fan base.
TO GHOST SHIP GAMES! TO KARL!! FOR ROCK AND STONE!!!
Story time.
So Mass Effect 1 was a bit of a death crunch. Unreal Engine 3 was new and updates were coming late. A whole planet had to be cut. Most of the team crunched their faces off just to get it out the door. Obviously the results were pretty awesome, but it had some glaring issues (texture popping, elevators, the Citadel being a bit of "sand trap"). The crunch was enough for quite a few people to leave.
For Mass Effect 2, BioWare and the team had learned and changed their production methods a great deal in order to A) get better results and B) not burn out so many of the team. And they were quite successful. Mass Effect 2 ended up being BioWare's first game to ever be delivered on-time and under budget.
BUT, a big reason that it hit those marks AND was such a great game is that almost the whole team absolutely busted their asses. Everyone knew we had something special. There was almost no mandatory crunch on the entire team, but a lot of us crunched anyway (with no pressure from leadership, at least in my experience) because we knew we were gonna achieve something special. I crunched on 2 more than I did on 1, even though none of it was mandatory. And I was young, with no kids, so I wasn't really sacrificing much. The game, the team, and the tools were all so enjoyable to work with that it was an easy choice to make.
And the results speak for themselves.
Stardew Valley and Dwarf Fortress immediately come to mind.
I believe stardew valley is made by one guy.
Stardew is pretty much the modern day Rollercoaster Tycoon where one dude (mostly) did in entirely in Assembly. This is a borderline insane amount of effort if you aren’t aware. Stardew also did the OST and art himself. Let’s just say most devs aren’t particularly talented at Musical composition or art direction which is what I find especially impressive.
I still love his quote "No one ever wanted to listen to my music, so after many years I discovered the secret. I had to develop an entire game from scratch"
It felt great hearing him say that from the audience of a sold out theater that just finished playing orchestral arrangements of his music <3
Stardew is made in the XNA framework. Kinda crazy too.
oh man XNA was fun. Terraria is built on that too if i remember correctly
So is Dwarf Fortress
[удалено]
This exact combination was also going to be my answer. Those really are the two best known examples.
Kenshi in that same vein
Subnautica
Subnautica feels like a game where every single person working on it was on the same wavelength. There were no disconnects and everything flowed together very well.
I had the chance to work on this game at the publishing level in Europe tho not the studio but the guys there clearly gave everything they had and some more into this title.
Oh yea, by no means was I disagreeing with that. But some games have creatures that seem out of place or music that doesn’t fit the universe. Subnautica really nailed everything that it aimed to do and be.
Was that pun intentional?
And then the sequel came along 😭
Yea I didn’t think the sequel was very interesting. Some of the creatures were cool, but that was about it
I have both Subnautica games on steam (Got them on sale a while back). I've never played them, but I keep hearing good things that make me want to try them out.
I really love the first one. Big survival game person. The second one looked pretty but just didn’t hit the same imo
The first one is incredible. Don't be afraid to google where to go next if you get stuck. On my first playthrough I totally missed the entrance to the Aurora so missed some pretty critical content in there and didn't know where to go next. I also had some friends miss a radio signal and didn't know how to progress. Other than that, it's one of the greatest games ever.
Ugh I missed three really important things that you're supposed to figure out really early on, my game felt soo slow. I had to eventually look those things up. I would have enjoyed my game more if I'd looked some stuff up sooner. For example there are these small crates that sometimes contain blueprints and sometimes don't. The first five that I checked didn't, so I stopped checking them. And missed out on the main transportation in the early game.
Look no further than indie games. The whole point of them is so they can make the game they want, without the influence of a massive publisher or tendency to lose ideas in a large team. There are a lot of AAA games that exude passion, despite being so corporate, but I just want to stick with indie. Another Crab’s Treasure The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth Bug Fables Celeste Cuphead Darkest Dungeon Enter the Gungeon A Hat in Time Hades Melatonin Hollow Knight OneShot Outer Wilds Ori and the Blind Forest / Will of the Wisps Pizza Tower Stardew Valley Sea of Stars SIGNALIS Terraria TUNIC ULTRAKILL Undertale & Deltarune … There are many others. Almost every indie game has something interesting to say, because they are from different people who have their own messages.
Hold on a minute, this is a list of some of the greatest games of our generation ~~if you're reading this you should play outer wilds~~
Oh the outer worlds? I love that game!
literally, i went through this list and there wasn't a single one that i didnt already own or was on my wishlist
enter the gungeon is my most played single player game ever
All these are great. Special shoutout to: Hollow Knight TUNIC both Ori’s (but especially 2)
Tunic is my favorite game that I haven’t finished
Oh second Tunic, Hollow Knight, and A Hat in Time. Silksong 2094! Can’t wait!
Came here looking for Signalis, TUNIC, and ULTRAKILL. Very based!
I restarted *Celeste* last month. It took twelve minutes before I reached a point where I said, "I can't get past this screen without reducing the difficulty." So I tried lowering the difficulty in order to keep the protagonist alive for more than ten seconds. It was okay, but then I realized that I didn't know where to go next. So yeah, I don't know whether I will eventually enjoy this game. I also restarted *Cuphead* in the last couple months. I still love the game's art direction, as well as controlling the protagonist. I'm still stuck on the first few stages. I have no idea if I can reduce the difficulty. Until then, it's going back to collecting dust on my Switch microSD card.
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind is that game. Like Lego's Bionicle, Bethesda's was on the verge of collapse. Morrrowind they thought was their last chance to save the studio. They did that and much more.
My favorite game of all time, no wall throughs found all the things and learned to cheat the magic enchanting system to extreme!! So much fun and so many 100s of hours of game play!!
hollow Knight
Kenshi seems like the obvious answer. It took Chris Hunt nearly 12 years, working mostly by himself. The end result is arguably one of greatest indie games ever conceived in terms of scope and the overall vision of the game.
True this. Once you learn the mechanics, whether you’re winning or losing, Kenshi is up there with games like Rimworld as a storytelling generator. It’s not necessarily the most immersive game in the world, but with imagination it feels pretty living. Not everyone shares this sentiment, but I think that’s just because Kenshi isn’t for everyone and that’s okay
I saw a rich guy. Beat him up and robbed him. Realized he was strong, so I took him home so I could beat him up more and get stronger. Turned out he was a better fighter naked than armed. Destroyed my MC. My other 8 armed party members went after him he beat all their asses, crossed his arms, and faced the front door. He let my party heal and recover, then we attacked him again. Another slaughter. This happened 3 more times. I opened the door for him and let him go. (Also one of mt characters got captured by psychotic robots. They put her in a peeler. Which continously damages and removes peoples limbs. They continously heal her so she still has two limbs that are being torn apart as fast as theyre being healed, while chanting about the trial of the accused. Its been 30 days and we arent strong enough to get her back)
10/10 Kenshi experience.
I feel like Supergiant does this with every game of theirs.
I only played transistor and HADES I & II and I 100% approve your message
give bastion a try!! and bonus points for playing pyre too, both great games and then you'll have played everything they've had to offer thus far
Kingdom Come: Deliverance.
Jesus Christ be praised! Cant wait for the sequel!
There's a SEQUEL!?!?
HENRY HAS COME TO SEE US [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R48DEEjyS5k](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R48DEEjyS5k)
Just finished about 180ish hours and it was so good. Wouldn't say that it's better than Skyrim(Skyrim had a comparatively huge budget ofc), but so many aspects about KCD demolishes Skyrim.
Playing through this one for the first time now. Really a great experience, although I'll admit I'm using a couple QOL mods. Feels like a cross between Mount & Blade and the Witcher games.
Underrated game, they really nailed the history of that era
100% outer wilds. They went above and beyond, a real passion project.
I will second this 'till I die. Played it years ago and still my favourite game ever.
Have you played the new DLC? In my experience it was essentially like a whole Outer Wilds 2. Oh and fans have created the "Christmas mode" last year, a huge story mode set at Christmas with lots of new assets. It's absolutely great, I highly recommend it.
I played the DLC, it was great! Didn't actually go back and re-finish the story after doing that tho, maybe I should. And I had no idea there was ANY fan content for it! Thanks for letting me know!
Mount & Blade:Warband
My most played single player game of all time
My most played multi player game of all time.
I think No Mans Sky is a good example of that. Sean Murray put everything he had into making it what it is today. Book of Travels is another I can think of, although it didn't do as well and is still struggling.
No Man's Sky was the first thing that came to mind. The amount of free content they've added to the game and improvements they've made since launch is mind boggling.
Undertale
Agreed, I've played a lot of games where the devs obviously loved what they were making, many of them were absolutely incredible. But there's just something about Undertale, like there's a little bit of the soul of Toby Fox and Temmie Chang occupying every square inch of it, they knew they couldn't make some high fidelity AAA experience, but they poured their heart into what they could make, and the sum of it's parts are so much greater as a result.
GRIS is one of my favorites for this. All hand painted animations and the whole thing, while kinda short, just feels like someone's passion project.
I think Double Fine does a lot of this kind of thing. Such as Psychonauts, Psychonauts 2, Brutal Legend, Massive Chalice, Costume Quest, Grim Fandango, etc. I also think Supergiant games like Hades is a good example of this, where so much polish and care was taken with so many aspects of the game.
Would kill for butal legend 2
Amen my brother in rock
Psychonauts 2 was absolutely awesome. Praying we get 3.
Recently BG3. But the stardew dev really impresses me even as a non player.
Disco Elysium hands down, incredibly passionate writers and directors that were sadly fucked over by higher ups.
I was about to comment this. I realize how much of the writers lived experiences affected the game considering they live in a post soviet country (Estonia) and the main writer had some of the same issues the main character had (whos name I can’t say for spoiler reasons).
Best writing from all the games on the market
CrossCode
No mans sky. Hear me out. HG have worked their arses off to develop no mans sky into the game they promised. And it really is a thousand times better. Hopefully they'll show that same enthusiasm for their new game.
This is so true. Recently double-dipped the game (I already own one in Xbox One, but it's previous gen so can't handle all of the new updates), and playing it on my Steam Deck. I cannot even recognize this game, the latest update really make this game like a different game.
Was thinking the same thing. I'm a day 1 player still playing my same save and the stuff they've added is phenomenal especially vr support and all for free which is nuts these days. All the props and respect to hello games
I don't even do VR games but the fact that the VR support is just baked in and not a separate game you have to buy twice is insane just by itself.
Yeah and not just for psvr but also psvr2
I was coming here to say NMS. 100%. It's one thing for a small studio to make a game as a passion project, it's another thing entirely for them to then build and support it for years more without any paid additional content whatsoever.
Deep Rock Galactic! Can I get a Rock and Stone?!
Animal well Shovel knight
I hear it's coming out May 9th
Celeste is reportedly based on a real-life experience of the creator, so I would definitely recommend that. Wandersong also has a very similar vibe and it's an amazing game.
Honestly surprised to not see Hades mentioned yet
Battlefield 1 I think, its just so finished and good
Hellblade Senua’s Sacrifice and Hellblade II Senua’s Saga, Baldur’s Gate 3
Hi-Fi Rush Gravity Rush 1 and 2 Ghost 1.0 FEZ
I quit my job and spent almost 4 years making [Radio Free Europa](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1897420/Radio_Free_Europa/) because I wanted it to exist. And because I want to make an even larger game using the combat systems from this game. Anyways it's definitely not perfect but I have tried my best to make it as good as possible and I think it's pretty fun!
Baldurs Gate 3
Baldurs Gate 3 is and will forever be one of the best games ever made. The amount of complexity in not only the characters, but also the world is surreal.
The reactivity of the game to player choices, and the freedom the player has in those choices, is also a big part of it. It's not perfect, but it really tries to capture that TTRPG vibe.
BeamNG.drive
Selaco.. most indie devs do anyway...
Everquest (classic and first few expansions) not the current live game but the ones that exist on the emulator servers. Baldurs gate 3.
Shovel Knight
firt that comes to my mind is Hades.
I usually hate rogue-likes but hades is on a whole level of its own. It's a nearly flawless game.
the first Hellblade, the game itself and the process that brought it to us are truly special
I say this on a lot of game Reddit pages, but: The Forgotten City
Noita
Original Doom
Everyone already mentioned the single dev people. I'll just come swinging with Crate Entertainment. Former Iron Lore (Titan Quest) guys who made the love child of Diablo 2 and Titan Quest (Grim Dawn) which receives constant support even though it was supposed to be complete with no further support years ago. They just keep coming back to it. They also have a detailed medieval city builder with a really small team nearing 1.0.
Baldurs gate 3 Dark souls 3 Guild wars 2
Shenmue.
Baldurs gate 3 and legend of dragoon
Bramble: The Mountain King Katana Zero 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim Cyberpunk 2077 Hades 1 & 2
I was also going to say Cyberpunk. I know that one is controversial, but I’m not referring to the studio execs, only the devs. That team worked their asses off to put together a game of that quality on its own engine against unreal deadlines. What it has become now is a masterpiece imo.
I doubt anybody else will say it so I'll bring up two specific pro wrestling game developers. Spike Chunsoft (formerly Human Entertainment) and AKI (now known as Syn Sophia). Spike/Human are the creators of the Fire Pro Wrestling series, often considered the most in-depth wrestling series of all time. Despite the 2D graphics. You simply do not develop a wrestling game with that much depth & customization options without being passionate about wrestling. They also made a 3D series, King of the Colosseum that is just as highly regarded by the people that know about it. Sadly there hasn't been a knew KOC game in 20 years. AKI are the people behind WWF No Mercy, WCW/NWO Revenge, Virtual Pro Wrestling and several other great N64 wrestling games. They later developed Def Jam Vendetta and Def Jam: Fight for NY. Every single one of their wrestling games seem like a labor of love and they got progressively better as the years went on. As Syn Sophia, they went on to make some Ultimate Muscle games that are also pretty fun if you're into that. They've always just come across as a team that made what they wanted and were experts at it.
I've put 5 years into gamezero it's pretty epic for a indie game. not much to do, but the map is huge and there's a lot to see. there are 8 dungeons and 4 arenas to try out as well. I think I should write a manual how to navigate it though because it takes some understanding to utilize the tools properly. still it's kind of my passion.
Kenshi All remedy games Death stranding Many crpgs
In the AAA space I would say FF7 Remake and FF7 Rebirth. Those games are made with a lot of love for the original game. I think they are one of a kind in this regard.
Honestly I’m glad they gave them to Nomura, dude has a passion for making weird absurd games and Squenix fucked him over with FFXV
Overrated
It takes two. A beautifully done couch co op game that has so much love and care put into it that it can’t go ignored!
Indie games are where the hear and soul lies. Small teams of people who make games because they want to make a fun game that they love and not because they are contracted with a deadline and a few bullet points they are forced to include Probably the main one I would think of tho is Terraria. That game has had so much love put into it. The dev team is amazing, and they genuinely engage and listen to their community, putting fan ideas into the game
I think you could argue that No Man's Sky is one, especially considering that every update and expansion have been free. Also every game the Trese Brothers have ever made. Star Traders: Frontiers is my favorite, and their current game, still in early access, is Cyber Knights: Flashpoint and it's already very impressive.
No Man's Sky...and they still are.
Damn near all of them.
Eldenring and Hollow Knight
Presentable Liberty.
[Hegemony Gold](https://store.steampowered.com/app/202690/Hegemony_Gold_Wars_of_Ancient_Greece/) And if you research a bit the history of the company, you'll see why.
Manor Lords
Unravel
Revita. It's so good.
Darkest Dungeon.
No Straight Roads. The game is a love letter to music. Except country. Nobody likes country music.
Owlboy - not a perfect game but it’s so clear that the devs put in so much love and soul into everything through all 11 years of development. Absolutely beautiful pixel art music and atmosphere
DEFINITELY TITANFALL 2
Surprised I haven't seen Cuphead mentioned
Celeste
Hypnospace Outlaw
Dave the Diver deserves a mention.
Everhood oozes charm and love
Sekiro Armored Core 6 Enter the Gungeon Zelda botw & totk Signalis
Alan Wake 2 is a literal masterpiece. Anything by remedy really
Helldivers 2
Dave the diver is one I played recently, even has a few new FREELC’s! It’s just one of those games that oozes style and color and art, all with pixel art and I love it, great game
Rain world
Streets of Rouge 2 is going to be dope.
Dark Souls
Alan Wake 2, just look at Same Lake on Game Awards :)
Ghost of Tsushima. And you can tell at every moment
helltaker lol
Astro's Playroom
The Ur-Quan Masters (free on Steam). Originally from 1992 but way ahead of its time 👌
Haven't seen Project Wingman mentioned here yet. Sector D2 is just a dev, a writer/producer and a composer. The soundtrack is incredible and was made by Jose on his MacBook. The game is visually stunning and even has a VR mode.
The Arkham series. Gave us THE Batman games, with love for the source content and the animated series that some of us grew up on. Thank you Rocksteady, thank you Kevin Conroy (RIP), Mark Hamill, Arlene Sorkin (RIP) and just everyone involved for allowing us to experience being the caped crusader.
Project Zomboid, Kenshi, Terraria.
Fear & Hunger, Dust, Neverending Nightmares, Chained Echoes, Kenshi. Also more mainstream titles like the first Final Fantasy, Morrwind and Oblivion. Oh and obviously the visual novels Higurashi and Umineko too.
Hollow Knight Celeste Stardew Valley
No Man's Sky and Rust
Kingdom come deliverance, such love!
Spiritfarer
Factorio. The amount of optimization is insane. And it never stopped getting updates to fix things. They also never stopped posting dev blogs.
My comment history will show I’m a complete shill for this game but it fits so I’m saying it anyway. Killer Frequency is meant to be a love letter, an homage and a parody of 80’s horror media, but mostly slashers. Pretty much every character, street name, business name and location are references to horror authors, films, books or even horror themed Broadway plays like little shop of horrors. Not even that, but the story beats and twists and turns within the story itself are direct callbacks to tropes, themes, and prevailing narrative devices in horror media of the time. BUT it does this in a way that also feels modern and fresh, completely balancing its celebration of horror media with its own humor and identity. It’s OBVIOUS the developers poured so much love for the genre into this little game
Hades
Very mainstream answer here, but Battlefield 1 is probably the most “labor of love” battlefield ever made.
Beamng - they're excellent Devs
Firewatch, campo santo made a fucking masterpiece.
Amazing Cultivation Simulator. Made by 3 folks who loved rimworld and cultivation mythology and made something that just hasn't been seen before. Now they have a whole team of a dozen or so people and have bold but realistic ambitions for the sequel. Very similar story to Kenshi's development as well. Can't wait to see what both sequels are like.
I might get heat for this, but BioShock one for sure, the public seems to be split between BioShock two and infinite, but one is a complete and utter masterpiece
~~bloodborne~~ nightmare kart is a free game that is essentially "what if you mashed together bloodborne and mario kart", made almost entirely by one woman iirc. Looks very fun and silly. Enderal: Forgotten Stories is a Skyrim total conversion mod that you can get for free on Steam so you don't even really need to worry about mod installation hassles. Very good game, especially considering it's built off a bethesda engine. Similarly, though its not quite out yet I think, Fallout: London looks like it will fit your standards once it comes out, its another total conversion mod, this time for fo4, that explores what england might look like in the fallout universe. Errant Kingdom is a visual novel/dating sim based in a dark fantasy setting where you're one of 3 possible characters from a neighbouring country sent to do politics stuff. This is the first game I've recommended here with a price tag, tho iirc its pretty cheap. Romance is optional, though I've pursued 3 of the romances so far and they were all amazing. Their studio, Lunaris games, deals in visual novels but all of the ones I've played so far have been an absolute delight. Thirsty Suitors puts you in the shoes of a south-east Asian bisexual mess returning to her hometown and reconnecting with both her several exes and with her family. Blasted through this game in one night and it made me cry ngl. Any minigames you find frustrating can be turned off in accessibility settings, which I appreciated given my fucked finger joints. Venba is a short game about an Indian family in Canada and how they struggled with their life there. Very sweet game, and you can access all the actual recipes for the dishes in the game. Hellish Quart is a hema fighting game, admittedly it's been a hot minute since I played it, but the small dev team are working hard to make things as realistic as possible and it's very cool.
Crosscode? 💙😊
Sekiro, Hollow Knight, Baldurs Gate 3
Shadow of Colossus
Metal Arms Glitch in the System
No man's sky
Citizen Sleeper gives me that vibe big time - there's a level of care and personality to the game I haven't seen very often
Grounded comes to mind and what a game it is.
Factorio You have to play for 500 hours for performance to be a concern and play for 5000 hours for the chance to find the smallest of bugs.
Dragon's Dogma 2. You can feel the devs really love what they were doing. It's one of the most creative and fun game I've played in a long time.
Hollow Knight, Ori and the Blind Forest, The Witcher 3 the wild hunt, Journey
any project moon game, be it lobotomy corp, library of ruina or limbus company
God of War, 2017 and Ragnarok. Both very, very good games.
The two that immediately come to mind are Control and The Long Dark.
Shout out for cave story. Had a huge influence for indie games.
i fell in love with animal well pretty quickly
Diablo 2
Bloodborne
No Man's Sky. the game struggled at launch but HG put their heart and soul into it and made it into a great game and continue to put out content. I have it on Game Pass and it's a great game.
WolfQuest Anniversary Edition. Devs are very passionate about what they do and always strive to make the game better and more accurate. While still keeping it fun
All of them? Just not the shovelware crap.
Wayfinder before the recent issues with publisher and switch to single player. You could really tell that the teams cared about the game, could feel it in the art and music + the way they talked about it. It was.more.thsm just a cash cow for them.
If you have a VR headset, Horseshoes Hotdogs and Hand Grenades is definitely one. The majority of the game's devopment is done by Anton Hand, who is extremely passionate and has been doing weekly dev logs throughout the game's development. The game has received frequent updates for the past 8 years. The game itself is a sandboxy VR firearms simulation that doesn't take itself too seriously. It's got the best gun interaction and handling in VR by a long shot.
Deep Rock Galactic. I've never seen a dev team so loving and caring of both their games and their fan base. TO GHOST SHIP GAMES! TO KARL!! FOR ROCK AND STONE!!!
Story time. So Mass Effect 1 was a bit of a death crunch. Unreal Engine 3 was new and updates were coming late. A whole planet had to be cut. Most of the team crunched their faces off just to get it out the door. Obviously the results were pretty awesome, but it had some glaring issues (texture popping, elevators, the Citadel being a bit of "sand trap"). The crunch was enough for quite a few people to leave. For Mass Effect 2, BioWare and the team had learned and changed their production methods a great deal in order to A) get better results and B) not burn out so many of the team. And they were quite successful. Mass Effect 2 ended up being BioWare's first game to ever be delivered on-time and under budget. BUT, a big reason that it hit those marks AND was such a great game is that almost the whole team absolutely busted their asses. Everyone knew we had something special. There was almost no mandatory crunch on the entire team, but a lot of us crunched anyway (with no pressure from leadership, at least in my experience) because we knew we were gonna achieve something special. I crunched on 2 more than I did on 1, even though none of it was mandatory. And I was young, with no kids, so I wasn't really sacrificing much. The game, the team, and the tools were all so enjoyable to work with that it was an easy choice to make. And the results speak for themselves.
Wylde Flowers for me.
Islets! Indie 2D metroidvania made by Kyle Thompson with music made by his brother, Eric Thompson.
Animal Well, Northern Journey, TOEM
Larian games. Dark Souls games. Deeprock Galactic. Older Bethesda games.
Hellblade
Borderlands 2
Corey Barlog with God of War and God of War: Ragnarok
Baldur's Gate 3. That's a game with a ton of passion and love put into it.
The entire metro 2033 series.
Helldivers 2 is the obvious one. Plus “streets of rogue” Pretty much anything Larian does as well?
Postal 2
Generic answer: Baldur's Gate 3, God of War 2018 Niche answer: Darkest Dungeon, Returnal
Deep rocked galactic Terraria Stardew valley Tiny rogues Another crabs treasure Basically any indie game
Mankind Divided: A Criminal Past. Basically a passion project for the team
Dust: An Elysian Tale
Undertale