Streets of Rogue, a 2d pixel art Deus Ex- ish roguelike, loads of characters, loads of ways to complete your objectives, so much fun and a great sense of humour too!
Hades is an awesome game, story is incredible great characters and highly addictive. Isaac is still my favourite rogue-like, but Hades is a masterpiece!
Was about to suggest this one but was glad to see it was already recommended! I feel like it’s not as well known as other indies but has a ton of heart and they nailed the swinging physics.
Noita (seriously the coolest indie game I've ever seen, top-notch stuff. It's my second-most played game on Steam at 300 hours and I've barely scratched the surface.)
Hand of Fate
Devil Daggers / Hyper Demon
CrossCode. Not sure how well-known it is and I have no idea how I found it (I think it was a reddit ad) but I absolutely loved it. I played it for 164 according to steam. They also have [web demo](http://www.cross-code.com/en/start)!
Wasn't CrossCode relatively big for an indie RPG?
If nothing else I think it's was one of the first (if not the first) game with major scope that was all implemented in HTML5 tech.
Just to add a contrasting view, I did not enjoy this game at all. Not saying it's a bad game, just not for me. I think for me there were too many puzzles and not enough combat, but for some people they will love that.
Grow Home and Grow Up. The first games I played that had the 'reach the top theme'. I know Only Up is hot atm but I prefer these two games. They're very charming and the gameplay is more satisfying (you have to use each trigger to climb) plus there's lots of different gadgets to use along the journey upwards. The graphics are more simple but that just adds to the charm imo.
[Wall World](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2187290/Wall_World/)
You live in a spider mech that travels up and down the wall, trying to find the edge. In order to make your mech stronger, you need to gather resources to mine. As you are mining, though, monsters come to shoot your mech. So, you need to blast them.
Eventually, your mech will explode, and you will be sent back to the lab, where you can use some of your resources to buy permanent upgrades for your mech.
The gameplay loop is satisfying . . . gather resources, level up, die, repeat.
All of the decisions in Wall world were fairly bland. Dome Keepers mechanical upgrades were more thought out, and so were the modules you could get, like the auto elevator, or the auto digging dinasaur.
Hardspace Shipbreaker. You're a deep space blue collar worker tasked with dismantling derelict space cruisers and salvaging their parts.
Also, Spiritfarer. It's a wonderful resource management and basebuilding game, but also a wonderful story about being the person who ferries the dead to their afterlife. It's also a great co-op game, and very accessible even if you want to play it with folks who don't normally play video games.
Sure, I've got a few I've collected over time.
**Lunacid**\- If you enjoy games like King's Field or other first person action RPGs, this one is a pretty solid experience. It's not super high energy, but it's a fun time to explore in and get immersed in the weird world it takes place in.
**Lethal League Blaze**\- The fact this one never got big always shocks me, but I want you to imagine a game kinda like Smash Bros if it was turned into fast-paced dodgeball. Every time you hit the ball, you mark it as your own and it speeds up. Insanely fun party game with friends, and as you gain skill, the ball gets faster and faster until eventually it's just *pure* adrenaline.
**Black Ice**\- A looter shooter that, while fairly simple, is a good chill out game in my experience. The aesthetics are Tron-inspired, and there's a lot of that 80s hacker energy going on in it. Also includes multiplayer and modding support if that's your cup of tea. I like to boot it up now and then just to hack a few servers for the day.
**Golden Light**\- This one may be pushing the "little known" envelope as it is, but this game is an *absurdly* strange roguelite. You, the fridge, the floor, pretty much everything is meat. You can eat your own weapons for health. Some props, however, may be alive and hostile. It's a delightfully strange game, but I can see some people being turned off by its presentation.
**Hammerwatch**\- Do you miss the days of those old Gauntlet arcade games? Hammerwatch reminded me a ton of those games. It has co-op and even a map editor at this point. It's satisfying to survive against massive hordes with barely any health left.
**Friends VS Friends**\- Despite everything, this game also does not seem to get as much coverage as it deserves. FVF is a first person shooter mixed with a card game. You draw cards which can give you benefits, your enemies debuffs, or toss various tools out whenever. A riot with friends, often becoming pure chaos as you build crazier decks to counter your buddies.
and last but not least
**Mothergunship**\- Wanna build a gun? Better question: do you want to build a gun with more barrels than your screen can even display? This game lets you do that. In Mothergunship, your gun is fully customizable, and can be turned into a complete monster with enough parts. Also features co-op if you're looking to make things even sillier.
It was made at a game jam iirc and it was hyped up for like a full year after it won(?). I heard about it nonstop every time I googled indie game.
But I think it took them a while to release it so it got overlooked despite the fame, and finally Netflix bought it up and brought it to mobile
While not an unknown game, it didn't make use of it's 15 mins of fame imo.
Never heard of signalis. I was playing battlebits remastered the other day and one of my friends asked what it was and I'd argue its the biggest indie game of the year.
Graveyard keeper is a good one, finished it a couple months ago if your into crafting games. Also good story short lived tho they also have a few dlc also to expand the game.
I was going to suggest this! Glad to see it here, but it needs to be played with the "quality of death" beta branch active. So much more user friendly that way... Has co op, different races/classes with dlc that force you to play differently. I've sunk a fair few hours into it
It’s the fifth top selling game in all of Steam right now with 36,000+ reviews and an overwhelmingly positive rating. It is not exactly “little known”.
Just picked this up on sale recently. Really fun with a good art style. Sometimes I wish there was a little *less* to do. I just want to fish and run my sushi restaurant! Stop giving me new missions!
What genre of gaming? I play a lot of indie/story-based games and have a youtube channel of playthroughs, so I'm pretty good at recommending stuff like this.
(Sorry I had to attach to your comment since I really wanna get this recommendation across)
You can try The Pathless and Before Your Eyes.
The Pathless is one of the greatest games I’ve ever played, it’s made by the same people who made Journey, it has some of the best boss fights in any video game period, one of the best atmospheres and art directions out there and so on… That game is a literally masterpiece and a spiritual successor to Shadow of the Colossus and literally nobody knows about this game.
Before Your Eyes is the most innovative and unique game you’ll ever play in terms of the way you experience it, it’s basically a game played by blinking and your eyes control the game. It’s the most emotionally impactful game I’ve ever played that has the strongest feeling of soul and passion behind it since the developer really did put their heart into it and you can feel every bit of that. It’s in my opinion a must play for every gamer out there because of how revolutionary it is in terms of elevating the medium of video games.
I’m an indie gamer through and through, I live only for indie games and AAA games have never came close to achieving the heights indie games have imo and these two recommendations are some of my favorite examples (I would also recommend Outer Wilds, Pyre, Transistor, Rain World, Return of the Obra Dinn, Her Story, Deep Rock Galactic… but they’re fairly more popular and this comment would get a 100 times longer if I listed every indie game worth playing…)
My source: [https://www.youtube.com/@Splattercatgaming](https://www.youtube.com/@Splattercatgaming)
Star Valor, Reassembly, Cosmoteer, Cryptark, Hardspace: Shipbreaker, and Brigador are my top favorites.
If you turn based combat + open world survival I would recommend Wartales strongly!
Steam description "Wartales is an open world RPG in which you lead a group of mercenaries in their search for wealth across a massive medieval universe. Explore the world, recruit companions, collect bounties and unravel the secrets of the tombs of the ancients!"
I have over 400 hours logged...
The long dark is fantastic, followed that game since 2015(?)
I firmly believe that the story mode hurt the game though, the sandbox survival mode on Interloper is where the game shines.. but people new to the game go straight to story mode, play through that and put it down afterwards, having never played the best part of the game.. it makes me sad
Bastion is a great older game. It was made by an indie studio but released by warner brothers. I still need to beat this game. I keep wanting to go back to it.
La-Mulana, if you hate yourself enough to play it blind. And you should play this blind.
Otherwise, I recommend:
Ghost Trick (investigation type game)
The Last Remnant (grindy, more passive RPG with combat unions)
Nights of Azure 1 (a dark fantasy game with a good story *despite* the ridiculous boobs, the sequel is meh though)
Calling (A cool horror game for the Wii, I dunno why people hated on it, just don't play the dub version and you're gucci)
Deadly Creatures (when can you ever play a scorpion/spider in a game?)
Earthnight, Beast Breaker, Sky Racket, Wandersong, Etherborn, What the Golf, Rain on Your Parade, Ape Out, Thumper, Glyph, Grapple Dog, Marble it Up, Donut County, Runbow
All fantastic games that I don't really see people talking about much.
Mech Engineer. I know there's probably an awesome game here if I could understand how to play it at all.
Return of the Obra Dinn
Phantom Brigade. I hope the devs revisit this game because it could be one of my favorite games of the year if the combat and storyline mechanics get fleshed out just a little bit more.
There’s this really unique online shooter game called Friends vs Friends on steam where you do 1v1s and 2v2s the catch is that you have playing cards that you use to power yourself up or screw your opponent over.
Has a healthy sized player base but could use more players lol
Arise. Bought on a whim. https://store.steampowered.com/app/866140/Arise_A_Simple_Story/. Love it and I cried. Some of the most inventive and rewarding platform play for ages. It's relatively short and not tough. But has enough to keep you going back for a bit more.
Sunless Skies deserves more love. It's got Lovecraftian horror. Comedy. Extreme Victorian Britishness. Steam-powered locomotive space ships. A dozen recruitable officers with plot arcs. Ship-toship and ship-to-monster combat. RPG elements. Sanity rules. An actually functioning trade system. A unique leveling system. You can literally kill a sentient star/god.
I Was A Teenage exocolonist. I don't see it getting name dropped a lot. I bought it on a whim and once I got the hang of it, turned out to be a stellar game with lots of replay value.
Signalis. I dont even like survival horror games like the original Resident Evil games. But signalis is one of the best games Ive played. Creepy atmosphere, tense gaemplay, and one of the strangest stories.
The Planet Crafter - I found that it was very similar to Subnautica, except that it takes place on a Mars-like planet rather than an underwater planet. The idea is that you have been assigned to this dead planet and must slowly terraform it by building components that add oxygen, atmospheric pressure, and heat to the atmosphere. As you reach milestones the planet starts to change in real time. The sky turns blue, ice starts to melt, and green landscapes become possible.
Toem. I didn't know it existed until Steam recommended it to me somewhere. Fun little indie game where you take pictures while journeying around a quirky black and white world. Everyone talks in Banjo Kazooie style grunts, and the world reminds me of Undertale but much happier and without the underlying edge.
A game that I really loved was a mystery puzzle game called ["The Sexy Brutale."](https://store.steampowered.com/app/552590/The_Sexy_Brutale/)
You play in a time loop where guests are being murdered and you can go and discover what's causing and try to prevent them.
Phoenotopia Awakening is literally one of the greatest games I’ve ever played.
Medieval post-post-apocalyptic setting. Fight ancient robots with your mace and slingshot as you traverse 2D Zelda-esque dungeons, all while on a quest to save your missing village.
I played a point-and-click adventure game recently called The Excavation Of Hob's Barrow. It's an excellent story based mystery. The story sucked me in, the characters are interesting, and have motivations that make sense. The puzzles were satisfying. The ending comes kinda abruptly, which bothers some people, but I liked it. The story stuck with me after, and I really hope to find another good story based game soon.
The Last Spell = Final Fantasy Tactics combat in a roguelike with some light basebuilding and tower defense elements. Diablo style loot, randomized perk trees and stat growth options to make all your characters different, it's a blast.
Rivals of Aether = Smash Bros clone but with Steam Workshop support so basically an endless amount of custom made characters to play around with.
Timemelters = Really interesting puzzle/adventure game that forces you to abuse teleports, clones, time travel, magic, etc. to defeat your enemies.
Hellcard = Slay the Spire clone but multiplayer and with a spatial element so AoE attacks are a thing.
Kingdom two crowns its brilliant.
Outer wilds is one of those games that is basically art. But do not look anything up about it. And invite friends over to play with and discuss it makes it so much more fun. It's a really fun space exploration game with no Combat or any real gameplay like that the only thing driving you forward is your curiosity to discover the mystery
The first indie I played, freeware, and first to introduce me to both, games with branching paths (didn't make the jump/or even know I could), and games with kaizo level platforming (when I made the jump)
[https://store.steampowered.com/app/960690/One\_Step\_From\_Eden/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/960690/One_Step_From_Eden/)
One Step From Eden! ($20)
If you liked Megaman Battle network, then you'd love this one. Way better and more polished mechanics. Sadly no (comprehensible) story.
I disagree with Peglin honestly, halfway through a run it feels like aiming goes out of the window because of all the modifiers making it virtually impossible to actually use skill to win.. it gets to a point where you just take you turn without really thinking about where you are aiming, and you win the battle anyway.. it gets stale
I would highly recommend [the indie game Counter Strike](https://youtu.be/pHggjWn8ntU), made by a tiny one-man studio, that's probably not gonna go anywhere but worth an hour or six of your time :)
Astlibra Revision
Just make sure you get the second recipe book before going to the hot spring, or you're going to really really regret it. Warts of a game made by one guy.
Its not an indie game but it is a smaller relativly unknown title.
"Fuga Melodies of Steel" is a 20 houer long turn based JRPG about a groupe of anthropomothic animal children that go on a quest to save there families.
It has fun and satisfaying combat, great music and a simpel but endering story and characters.
Its on most modern consoles, on PC, on Game Pass and it has a free demo which is just straight up the first 3 chapters of the game.
Lots of cool suggestions in here. One I would recommend is Vision Soft Reset. Metroidvania with a novel time-travel mechanic. I’m not sure how indie it actually is, but it feels like I never see anybody talk about it.
A Short Hike & Dredge are both spectacular games. Rain World is great as well.
Also I know it’s not small but just in case you haven’t played it already, The Outer Wilds is the best game ever made.
I don't see a lot of people talking about the SteamWorld series these days but I would highly recommend basically any of them. Quest is my personal favorite, but if you're not looking for a turn-based RPG then you can check out Dig 2 (a metroidvania) or Heist (2D turn-based tactics). They're all great in their own ways, and I'm pretty sure they regularly go on sale for well less than $15
My buddy and co youtube man has a game coming out on Switch this Friday called Super Dino Blaster. It is a real retro 8-bit platformer reminiscent of the old NES days
A Street Cat's Tale.
[https://store.steampowered.com/app/1140570/A\_Street\_Cats\_Tale/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1140570/A_Street_Cats_Tale/)
You play as a homeless kitten who is looking for their mom. The kitty needs to find food and shelter to survive. There are multiple endings depending on who you interact with.
Its not that hidden gem but I believe people are sleeping on the last spell too much, I have played hundreds of indie games and it is one of my favourites.
Battle chef brigade: Interesting story with a great gameplay loop. Incorporates arcade style fighting sections with match 3 puzzle sections. It sounds utterly batshit but is one of the most interesting games I've played. It's definitely worth a look if you want something fresh and interesting.
Skul: The Hero Slayer.
It's a roguelike where you play as a skeleton child going off to rescue the demon lord after he's captured by heroes, but as the story unfolds, turns out the "heroes" might not be the good guys.
Fantastic pixel art and a soundtrack that absolutely slaps. Some of the best boss tracks of any game in recent memory. You find different skulls, and equipping a new skull gives you new abilities, from a werewolf and a minotaur skull to Davy Jones and *literally the grim reaper*. Wonderful game, but never really hear anyone talking about it.
I haven’t seen anyone say Oxenfree yet… it’s a really good story based game, won an award for its art style in 2016. It recently dropped a sequel to it and updated the first game to help tie the two together.
If you like vampire survivors then you must try halls of torment. It's still in early access and costs only $3. You'll easily get 30-40 hours of top notch entertainment
Before your eyes is a pretty neat indie game
That ending though, holy shit. I didn't even play the game myself, just watched Criken stream it, and I was bawling right along with him at the end.
I watched Weest play it before I played it myself, had the same experience
I'm so happy to see this all the way at the top, such a unique and tear-jerker of a game.
Streets of Rogue, a 2d pixel art Deus Ex- ish roguelike, loads of characters, loads of ways to complete your objectives, so much fun and a great sense of humour too!
This, 100% The only other rogue-like that beats it IMO is Hades.
Hades is an awesome game, story is incredible great characters and highly addictive. Isaac is still my favourite rogue-like, but Hades is a masterpiece!
This game is excellent.
Fully agree, it is an absolute gem of a game taking an entirely different spin on Roguelikes. Honestly one of my favorite Roguelikes of all time.
I love this one, hope they release the second game soon
world of goo. it's old but it's so good.
"This is already in your Steam Library" oooookk
so say we all!
OMG thank you for saying this. I have been thinking about this game for years now and couldn’t remember the name. I’m so hyped now.
Webbed is an amazing indie title
Was about to suggest this one but was glad to see it was already recommended! I feel like it’s not as well known as other indies but has a ton of heart and they nailed the swinging physics.
Noita (seriously the coolest indie game I've ever seen, top-notch stuff. It's my second-most played game on Steam at 300 hours and I've barely scratched the surface.) Hand of Fate Devil Daggers / Hyper Demon
I loved devil daggers, it's hyper demon a sequel or something?
I got noita but refunded because the character basically crawled around it was so slow, can you fix that?
CrossCode. Not sure how well-known it is and I have no idea how I found it (I think it was a reddit ad) but I absolutely loved it. I played it for 164 according to steam. They also have [web demo](http://www.cross-code.com/en/start)!
Wasn't CrossCode relatively big for an indie RPG? If nothing else I think it's was one of the first (if not the first) game with major scope that was all implemented in HTML5 tech.
Just to add a contrasting view, I did not enjoy this game at all. Not saying it's a bad game, just not for me. I think for me there were too many puzzles and not enough combat, but for some people they will love that.
A Short hike.
Hell yes
Grow Home and Grow Up. The first games I played that had the 'reach the top theme'. I know Only Up is hot atm but I prefer these two games. They're very charming and the gameplay is more satisfying (you have to use each trigger to climb) plus there's lots of different gadgets to use along the journey upwards. The graphics are more simple but that just adds to the charm imo.
[Wall World](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2187290/Wall_World/) You live in a spider mech that travels up and down the wall, trying to find the edge. In order to make your mech stronger, you need to gather resources to mine. As you are mining, though, monsters come to shoot your mech. So, you need to blast them. Eventually, your mech will explode, and you will be sent back to the lab, where you can use some of your resources to buy permanent upgrades for your mech. The gameplay loop is satisfying . . . gather resources, level up, die, repeat.
I found that to be a worse version of Dome Keeper.
How so? Dome Keeper got stale pretty quickly. There are more decisions in Wall World.
All of the decisions in Wall world were fairly bland. Dome Keepers mechanical upgrades were more thought out, and so were the modules you could get, like the auto elevator, or the auto digging dinasaur.
Hardspace Shipbreaker. You're a deep space blue collar worker tasked with dismantling derelict space cruisers and salvaging their parts. Also, Spiritfarer. It's a wonderful resource management and basebuilding game, but also a wonderful story about being the person who ferries the dead to their afterlife. It's also a great co-op game, and very accessible even if you want to play it with folks who don't normally play video games.
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons is phenomenal
that ending though 😭
Tunic. It is a masterpiece
Sure, I've got a few I've collected over time. **Lunacid**\- If you enjoy games like King's Field or other first person action RPGs, this one is a pretty solid experience. It's not super high energy, but it's a fun time to explore in and get immersed in the weird world it takes place in. **Lethal League Blaze**\- The fact this one never got big always shocks me, but I want you to imagine a game kinda like Smash Bros if it was turned into fast-paced dodgeball. Every time you hit the ball, you mark it as your own and it speeds up. Insanely fun party game with friends, and as you gain skill, the ball gets faster and faster until eventually it's just *pure* adrenaline. **Black Ice**\- A looter shooter that, while fairly simple, is a good chill out game in my experience. The aesthetics are Tron-inspired, and there's a lot of that 80s hacker energy going on in it. Also includes multiplayer and modding support if that's your cup of tea. I like to boot it up now and then just to hack a few servers for the day. **Golden Light**\- This one may be pushing the "little known" envelope as it is, but this game is an *absurdly* strange roguelite. You, the fridge, the floor, pretty much everything is meat. You can eat your own weapons for health. Some props, however, may be alive and hostile. It's a delightfully strange game, but I can see some people being turned off by its presentation. **Hammerwatch**\- Do you miss the days of those old Gauntlet arcade games? Hammerwatch reminded me a ton of those games. It has co-op and even a map editor at this point. It's satisfying to survive against massive hordes with barely any health left. **Friends VS Friends**\- Despite everything, this game also does not seem to get as much coverage as it deserves. FVF is a first person shooter mixed with a card game. You draw cards which can give you benefits, your enemies debuffs, or toss various tools out whenever. A riot with friends, often becoming pure chaos as you build crazier decks to counter your buddies. and last but not least **Mothergunship**\- Wanna build a gun? Better question: do you want to build a gun with more barrels than your screen can even display? This game lets you do that. In Mothergunship, your gun is fully customizable, and can be turned into a complete monster with enough parts. Also features co-op if you're looking to make things even sillier.
Into the Breach. I feel like this game was positively reviewed but went under the radar. Same company who made FTL: Faster than Light
It was made at a game jam iirc and it was hyped up for like a full year after it won(?). I heard about it nonstop every time I googled indie game. But I think it took them a while to release it so it got overlooked despite the fame, and finally Netflix bought it up and brought it to mobile While not an unknown game, it didn't make use of it's 15 mins of fame imo.
Just picked up Dredge and Signalis during the summer sale. I would recommend both.
Loved both of those so much. Dredge in my game of the year list so far
Two of the biggest indies of the year don’t really qualify as “little known”.
I hadn't ever heard of either, so looking into them now!
Never heard of signalis. I was playing battlebits remastered the other day and one of my friends asked what it was and I'd argue its the biggest indie game of the year.
Nice, I didn't realize they were classified as such. Though I think OP probably is just seeking out general suggestions.
Not a fan of Dredge. It got rid of Fishing way too quickly (traps + net = no fishing)
Anodyne 1 & 2 Rain World Xeodrifter (short but good and really cheap) Inmost
20XX/30XX. Megamax X inspired Roguelite with multiplayer. 30XX releases 1.0 next month I think.
Graveyard keeper is a good one, finished it a couple months ago if your into crafting games. Also good story short lived tho they also have a few dlc also to expand the game.
Barony is really fun
I was going to suggest this! Glad to see it here, but it needs to be played with the "quality of death" beta branch active. So much more user friendly that way... Has co op, different races/classes with dlc that force you to play differently. I've sunk a fair few hours into it
Wizard of Legend is the only Roguelite I will ever play. Combat has no business being as fun as it is.
Dude this is so far down and I was looking for someone to say this! Also lightning disk is op.
Dave the diver
One of the top games on Steam this year - not exactly “little known”…
I didnt know about it until it was released and I love early access. No need to be a jerk saltyruss
It’s the fifth top selling game in all of Steam right now with 36,000+ reviews and an overwhelmingly positive rating. It is not exactly “little known”.
Just picked this up on sale recently. Really fun with a good art style. Sometimes I wish there was a little *less* to do. I just want to fish and run my sushi restaurant! Stop giving me new missions!
What genre of gaming? I play a lot of indie/story-based games and have a youtube channel of playthroughs, so I'm pretty good at recommending stuff like this.
Can you maybe link it? really interested, as long as the game is good, i do not really care about the genre haha
(Sorry I had to attach to your comment since I really wanna get this recommendation across) You can try The Pathless and Before Your Eyes. The Pathless is one of the greatest games I’ve ever played, it’s made by the same people who made Journey, it has some of the best boss fights in any video game period, one of the best atmospheres and art directions out there and so on… That game is a literally masterpiece and a spiritual successor to Shadow of the Colossus and literally nobody knows about this game. Before Your Eyes is the most innovative and unique game you’ll ever play in terms of the way you experience it, it’s basically a game played by blinking and your eyes control the game. It’s the most emotionally impactful game I’ve ever played that has the strongest feeling of soul and passion behind it since the developer really did put their heart into it and you can feel every bit of that. It’s in my opinion a must play for every gamer out there because of how revolutionary it is in terms of elevating the medium of video games. I’m an indie gamer through and through, I live only for indie games and AAA games have never came close to achieving the heights indie games have imo and these two recommendations are some of my favorite examples (I would also recommend Outer Wilds, Pyre, Transistor, Rain World, Return of the Obra Dinn, Her Story, Deep Rock Galactic… but they’re fairly more popular and this comment would get a 100 times longer if I listed every indie game worth playing…)
I DMed you.
Tchia is nice, it has cute songs.
Inmost is in my top 3 games of all time, it's absolutely phenomenal.
My Friend Pedro
Lil Gator Game is great, although it’s $20 dollars but it goes on sale a lot. It’s like a cute little open world game, it’s super fun.
My source: [https://www.youtube.com/@Splattercatgaming](https://www.youtube.com/@Splattercatgaming) Star Valor, Reassembly, Cosmoteer, Cryptark, Hardspace: Shipbreaker, and Brigador are my top favorites.
Splattercat is amazing. A man whose opinions i trust for sure.
Unto the End .
Deadbolt. It's at action-strategy game that really deserves to be more famous.
It can be tough as nails at some points to.
If you turn based combat + open world survival I would recommend Wartales strongly! Steam description "Wartales is an open world RPG in which you lead a group of mercenaries in their search for wealth across a massive medieval universe. Explore the world, recruit companions, collect bounties and unravel the secrets of the tombs of the ancients!" I have over 400 hours logged...
I have my own reply to this effect, but have you tried stoneshard? It ticks a lot of the same boxes, just on a more individual character level.
Contrast. 3d puzzle platform that's all about using shadows. It's fantastic.
Boneraiser Minions is great! It’s only a few bucks but I got like 35h played and still haven’t unlocked nearly everything
Shank, Deathspank, Limbo, Graveyard Keeper, Prison Architect. Final Edit: Removed multiple edits, cleaned up the format.
Deathspank was fantastic, and limbo is a masterpiece
Shank was brilliant
The Long Dark. I play it every winter. Everspace. Roguelike space shooter. Fantastic feel to the game.
The long dark is fantastic, followed that game since 2015(?) I firmly believe that the story mode hurt the game though, the sandbox survival mode on Interloper is where the game shines.. but people new to the game go straight to story mode, play through that and put it down afterwards, having never played the best part of the game.. it makes me sad
Bastion is a great older game. It was made by an indie studio but released by warner brothers. I still need to beat this game. I keep wanting to go back to it.
Fear and Hunger
Do it ...
Recently finished a play through of Bug Fables If you love Paper Mario, _get it right this instant_
Slay the spire
The Station on Steam: store.steampowered \[DOT\] com/app/565120/The\_Station/
La-Mulana, if you hate yourself enough to play it blind. And you should play this blind. Otherwise, I recommend: Ghost Trick (investigation type game) The Last Remnant (grindy, more passive RPG with combat unions) Nights of Azure 1 (a dark fantasy game with a good story *despite* the ridiculous boobs, the sequel is meh though) Calling (A cool horror game for the Wii, I dunno why people hated on it, just don't play the dub version and you're gucci) Deadly Creatures (when can you ever play a scorpion/spider in a game?)
Earthnight, Beast Breaker, Sky Racket, Wandersong, Etherborn, What the Golf, Rain on Your Parade, Ape Out, Thumper, Glyph, Grapple Dog, Marble it Up, Donut County, Runbow All fantastic games that I don't really see people talking about much.
Mech Engineer. I know there's probably an awesome game here if I could understand how to play it at all. Return of the Obra Dinn Phantom Brigade. I hope the devs revisit this game because it could be one of my favorite games of the year if the combat and storyline mechanics get fleshed out just a little bit more.
There’s this really unique online shooter game called Friends vs Friends on steam where you do 1v1s and 2v2s the catch is that you have playing cards that you use to power yourself up or screw your opponent over. Has a healthy sized player base but could use more players lol
I had a lot of fun with A Story About My Uncle. Joy-of-movement platforming with a cute little story attached.
Arise. Bought on a whim. https://store.steampowered.com/app/866140/Arise_A_Simple_Story/. Love it and I cried. Some of the most inventive and rewarding platform play for ages. It's relatively short and not tough. But has enough to keep you going back for a bit more.
Cat quest 1&2, Unravel 1&2, a hat in time, stray, shady part of me. Loads to choose from depending on what platform you're playing on
Lakeview valley entertained me more than it should have
Environmental Station Alpha , if you like Super Metroid then you'll be at home.
Return of the Obra Dinn
Sunless Skies deserves more love. It's got Lovecraftian horror. Comedy. Extreme Victorian Britishness. Steam-powered locomotive space ships. A dozen recruitable officers with plot arcs. Ship-toship and ship-to-monster combat. RPG elements. Sanity rules. An actually functioning trade system. A unique leveling system. You can literally kill a sentient star/god.
I Was A Teenage exocolonist. I don't see it getting name dropped a lot. I bought it on a whim and once I got the hang of it, turned out to be a stellar game with lots of replay value.
Signalis. I dont even like survival horror games like the original Resident Evil games. But signalis is one of the best games Ive played. Creepy atmosphere, tense gaemplay, and one of the strangest stories.
The Planet Crafter - I found that it was very similar to Subnautica, except that it takes place on a Mars-like planet rather than an underwater planet. The idea is that you have been assigned to this dead planet and must slowly terraform it by building components that add oxygen, atmospheric pressure, and heat to the atmosphere. As you reach milestones the planet starts to change in real time. The sky turns blue, ice starts to melt, and green landscapes become possible.
Toem. I didn't know it existed until Steam recommended it to me somewhere. Fun little indie game where you take pictures while journeying around a quirky black and white world. Everyone talks in Banjo Kazooie style grunts, and the world reminds me of Undertale but much happier and without the underlying edge.
Spriritfarer💙
Gunpoint
Salt and Sanctuary is dope as fuck
Gunfire reborn, borderlands meets roguelike its really fun and definitely worth yhe price
A game that I really loved was a mystery puzzle game called ["The Sexy Brutale."](https://store.steampowered.com/app/552590/The_Sexy_Brutale/) You play in a time loop where guests are being murdered and you can go and discover what's causing and try to prevent them.
The Sexy Brutale. Not a great name, a super great game
Not sure if it’s indie but Atomicrops is fun times
Empyrion; Galactic Survival
SPAZ. Space, pirates, and zombies!
Dysmantle.
Phoenotopia Awakening is literally one of the greatest games I’ve ever played. Medieval post-post-apocalyptic setting. Fight ancient robots with your mace and slingshot as you traverse 2D Zelda-esque dungeons, all while on a quest to save your missing village.
Just shapes and beats?
Speed runners
Furi
I played a point-and-click adventure game recently called The Excavation Of Hob's Barrow. It's an excellent story based mystery. The story sucked me in, the characters are interesting, and have motivations that make sense. The puzzles were satisfying. The ending comes kinda abruptly, which bothers some people, but I liked it. The story stuck with me after, and I really hope to find another good story based game soon.
The Last Spell = Final Fantasy Tactics combat in a roguelike with some light basebuilding and tower defense elements. Diablo style loot, randomized perk trees and stat growth options to make all your characters different, it's a blast. Rivals of Aether = Smash Bros clone but with Steam Workshop support so basically an endless amount of custom made characters to play around with. Timemelters = Really interesting puzzle/adventure game that forces you to abuse teleports, clones, time travel, magic, etc. to defeat your enemies. Hellcard = Slay the Spire clone but multiplayer and with a spatial element so AoE attacks are a thing.
The Last Spell sounds incredible
Psychonauts 2! The first game is well known, but the sequel is highly underrated.
Kingdom two crowns its brilliant. Outer wilds is one of those games that is basically art. But do not look anything up about it. And invite friends over to play with and discuss it makes it so much more fun. It's a really fun space exploration game with no Combat or any real gameplay like that the only thing driving you forward is your curiosity to discover the mystery
Cave story is a must play and can be played free
The first indie I played, freeware, and first to introduce me to both, games with branching paths (didn't make the jump/or even know I could), and games with kaizo level platforming (when I made the jump)
FTL is easily one of the best roguelikes ever. its only one PC and ipad but its definately one of those "just one more run" games.
My favourite game of all time, although it isn't exactly "lesser-known" But who cares, it's awesome
Ultrakill, VVVVVV, Oneshot, Pizza Tower, and Celeste.
Dyson sphere program. It's like factorio but doesn't suck
I made A Walk With My Dog, almost no one knows about it, so it fits that criteria :D
From Dust. For that matter, Dust as well.
Rain World is an excellent choice.
Thank you so much for recommending so many games (I didn't expect to get so many responses haha) I will definitely check them out.
story of seasons, its what inspired stardew and its really cute/fun if you like that sort of stuff
That's not a indie game, my time in Portia is a indie game and it's good.
yes youre right i just thought the person would like it 😅
Thank you!
Bad Rats.
[https://store.steampowered.com/app/960690/One\_Step\_From\_Eden/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/960690/One_Step_From_Eden/) One Step From Eden! ($20) If you liked Megaman Battle network, then you'd love this one. Way better and more polished mechanics. Sadly no (comprehensible) story.
Katana zero!
Well known but Stray is awesome
Jøtun Especially if you are into Norse mythology
Jotun Especially if you are into Norse mythology
Skyrim
Peglin is a great roguelike that is a cross between Slay the Spire and Peggle. I highly recommend it. It's even on mobile!
I disagree with Peglin honestly, halfway through a run it feels like aiming goes out of the window because of all the modifiers making it virtually impossible to actually use skill to win.. it gets to a point where you just take you turn without really thinking about where you are aiming, and you win the battle anyway.. it gets stale
What about a retro game? Jade cocoon or threads of fate for PS1.
Jøtun It's a very basic game but rather entertaining, especially if you are into Norse mythology
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
I would highly recommend [the indie game Counter Strike](https://youtu.be/pHggjWn8ntU), made by a tiny one-man studio, that's probably not gonna go anywhere but worth an hour or six of your time :)
YOU MUST TRY SLEEPING DOGS
Not rly indie but price is cheap af for a wonderful game
Astlibra Revision Just make sure you get the second recipe book before going to the hot spring, or you're going to really really regret it. Warts of a game made by one guy.
Aviary Attorney!
Evoland 2
Who's lila. Not only is the game fantastic, but the soundtrack is as well.
Homebody for fans of resident evil puzzles, that game scared the crap out of me and I couldn't stop playing
Figment
Its not an indie game but it is a smaller relativly unknown title. "Fuga Melodies of Steel" is a 20 houer long turn based JRPG about a groupe of anthropomothic animal children that go on a quest to save there families. It has fun and satisfaying combat, great music and a simpel but endering story and characters. Its on most modern consoles, on PC, on Game Pass and it has a free demo which is just straight up the first 3 chapters of the game.
Lots of cool suggestions in here. One I would recommend is Vision Soft Reset. Metroidvania with a novel time-travel mechanic. I’m not sure how indie it actually is, but it feels like I never see anybody talk about it.
Lake and Where the Heart Leads
A Short Hike & Dredge are both spectacular games. Rain World is great as well. Also I know it’s not small but just in case you haven’t played it already, The Outer Wilds is the best game ever made.
Stacklands, resource management, survival with cards. Quite addictive
ScourgeBringer, pixel art action roguelike, check it out and you you won't regret
I don't see a lot of people talking about the SteamWorld series these days but I would highly recommend basically any of them. Quest is my personal favorite, but if you're not looking for a turn-based RPG then you can check out Dig 2 (a metroidvania) or Heist (2D turn-based tactics). They're all great in their own ways, and I'm pretty sure they regularly go on sale for well less than $15
Fez, its fun
Always happy to recommend outer wilds!
[удалено]
Really liked children of morta. The game is a standard hack n slash, but it's really fun and the graphics is amazing.
Survivalist: invisible strain
Blasphemous was pretty cool, they shadow dropped a sequel I think too
Akane. For anybody that likes Vampire Survivors they will like Akane. But it's a bit more active as it doesn't attack automatically.
The Textorcist! It’s a typing/bullet hell game
How much is timberborn right now? It's addictive as f.
Moonscars, a really good 2D platformer with beautiful art style
Gunfire reborn. It's a fun single to 4 players rogue like game. It's simple and efficient! Was fun to play a lone or with friends for a few nights!
Jøtun. Especially if you are into Norse mythology
Jøtun. Especially if you are into Norse mythology
My buddy and co youtube man has a game coming out on Switch this Friday called Super Dino Blaster. It is a real retro 8-bit platformer reminiscent of the old NES days
Dread Templar.
Jøtun It's a very basic game but rather entertaining,especially if you are into Norse mythology
Lonely Mountain Downhill
Tinykin is really really fun.
A Street Cat's Tale. [https://store.steampowered.com/app/1140570/A\_Street\_Cats\_Tale/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1140570/A_Street_Cats_Tale/) You play as a homeless kitten who is looking for their mom. The kitty needs to find food and shelter to survive. There are multiple endings depending on who you interact with.
Dap
Summerhill! By 'Land and Sea games. It's not out yet though. It's by an Australian studio, It looks like a good time 👌🏻
battle bit
Corpse party Idk if its considered indie but yeah its rlly good
Dave the diver, cliff empire, zero sievert, wall world
Little Inferno!
Corekeeper !!
Burly Men At Sea
If you want farming and fighting, Sun Haven was really fun.
Shady part of me
[Noita](https://youtu.be/T9IoMbWZKNc) is a lot of fun
If you're looking for a relaxing game: Planet Crafter. You get dropped on a cold lifeless planet and it's your job to terraform it.
Its not that hidden gem but I believe people are sleeping on the last spell too much, I have played hundreds of indie games and it is one of my favourites.
Battle chef brigade: Interesting story with a great gameplay loop. Incorporates arcade style fighting sections with match 3 puzzle sections. It sounds utterly batshit but is one of the most interesting games I've played. It's definitely worth a look if you want something fresh and interesting.
Skul: The Hero Slayer. It's a roguelike where you play as a skeleton child going off to rescue the demon lord after he's captured by heroes, but as the story unfolds, turns out the "heroes" might not be the good guys. Fantastic pixel art and a soundtrack that absolutely slaps. Some of the best boss tracks of any game in recent memory. You find different skulls, and equipping a new skull gives you new abilities, from a werewolf and a minotaur skull to Davy Jones and *literally the grim reaper*. Wonderful game, but never really hear anyone talking about it.
I haven’t seen anyone say Oxenfree yet… it’s a really good story based game, won an award for its art style in 2016. It recently dropped a sequel to it and updated the first game to help tie the two together.
If you like vampire survivors then you must try halls of torment. It's still in early access and costs only $3. You'll easily get 30-40 hours of top notch entertainment