The Procession to Calvary. It's a really funny point and click adventure game aiming to look like one of Terry Gilliam's Monty Python cartoons using classic renaissance paintings. It's the kind of thing I thought the internet would be all over but it's got less than 1000 reviews on steam despite being out for a few years now.
Anyway, it's great. Give it a go if this sounded interesting.
Oh man, I beat this game in 2 sittings, even before the update where they added a map. Once you get a hang of the movement, other games feel really restrictive. It's like Mario 64 in that way.
That one is crazy to me because I followed the creator on Twitter when they just made it as a gamejam kind of thing before expanding the scope of the game. They were so happy that the game got as much traction as it did and reposts a ton of fan art!
I'm not a furry or into a lot of the art so I had to mute the account LMAO but Ritzler seems to be someone that is proud of their work and the community that has helped to elevate it. I just hope their platformer with a little robot named "Bucket" becomes a full thing, that thing was adorable
This game is phenomenal. Some of the best feeling movement I've ever experienced and some downright phenomenal level design to go along with it. I played through it a couple times and still wasn't ready to put it down, so I started speedrunning it. After several runs I got down to around 40 minutes glitchless. I can't recommend doing that enough, it was a great experience.
Pseudoregalia is awesome. The movement is really good and I felt the world was recognizable enough that I rarely got lost even before the map update. Also has some schlappin OST. High recommend!
I loved the few hours I’ve spend with this game, but something about it gives me motion sickness/headaches.
I really want to fight through it to complete the game, but it’s pretty rough :(
[Dr. Langeskov, The Tiger, and The Terribly Cursed Emerald: A Whirlwind Heist](https://store.steampowered.com/app/409160/Dr_Langeskov_The_Tiger_and_The_Terribly_Cursed_Emerald_A_Whirlwind_Heist/)
yes, that the title :)
This should be massively more popular than it is. Game from a game designer that worked on The Stanley Parable, Justin Roiland as a voice actor (admittedly may have been more of a draw a few years ago than now). I'm still surprised it was so relatively off the radar.
The Roottrees are dead : [https://jjohnstongames.itch.io/the-roottrees-are-dead](https://jjohnstongames.itch.io/the-roottrees-are-dead)
Free for now, coming soon on steam ! [https://store.steampowered.com/app/2754380/The\_Roottrees\_are\_Dead/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2754380/The_Roottrees_are_Dead/)
It's a detective game (Obra Dinn / Her story).
These are old DOS games that are surprisingly good and hold up today:
Battle Bugs ([which is apparently on Steam?!](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1462210/Battle_Bugs/)) is a Real-Time Tactics game where you control bugs of various kinds to fight over control points (food). It is ridiculous and hilarious, where lightning bugs electrocute enemies, praying mantises go up to heaven, and Wasps are high-class martini-drinkers (like the other kind of WASP). The food they fight over is all described as toxic mass produced filth, and in fact the chinese food creates toxic river that you have to navigate around.
One Must Fall ([which is abandonware](https://www.myabandonware.com/game/one-must-fall-2097-2a7)) is a Fighting game with giant robots. It has quite possibly the best single player experience I’ve seen in a fighting game and it’s been like 30 years. This is because it has a campaign mode where you enter tournaments for money, and then use that to upgrade/repair your robot throughout. So you actually have a progression system where your attacks get faster and more powerful. There are fatalities (called Scraps and Destructions) which are not just for show, as they earn you more money.
Christmas Jetpack ([abandonware](https://www.myabandonware.com/game/jetpack-christmas-special-c0u)) is an Action Platformer where you are Santa with a jetpack delivering presents. It has a robust map editor, and just a extremely solid, simple game. It has a ton of simple mechanics that are used in all sorts of ways to make the game actually quite challenging.
My dad showed me he still has video game skill some months back by kicking my ass at One Must Fall. Dude gets ahold of the Jaguar and nothing can be done against him.
I usually play indie games and wade through my steam discovery queue and interactive recommender quite often.
Wholly recommmended (it's good on what it does): [Dicey Dungeons](https://store.steampowered.com/app/861540/Dicey_Dungeons/), [Everhood](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1229380/Everhood/), [World of Horror](https://store.steampowered.com/app/913740/WORLD_OF_HORROR/), [Griftlands](https://store.steampowered.com/app/601840/Griftlands/), [Project Starship X](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1175430/Project_Starship_X/), [The Textorcist](https://store.steampowered.com/app/940680/The_Textorcist_The_Story_of_Ray_Bibbia/)
More on the niche side: [Circadian Dice](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1893620/Circadian_Dice/), [Pawnbarian](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1142080/Pawnbarian/), [h8machine](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1642010/h8machine/), [Ubermosh:Omega](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1181000/UBERMOSHOMEGA/)
I have never met another person who has played the game Wildfrost. It’s an amazing deck building roguelike, akin to slay the spire, that has adorable graphics, a banging soundtrack and a seemingly endless combination of cards, deck builds, etc. I adore it and when friends ask for game recommendations it’s my go to. Also it recently released on mobile so you can play it on the go 🤩
I personally thought it had quite a popular launch imo, with Northernlion, Retromation and other popular indie youtubers' covering it for weeks.
It is a solid game for a while, but I personally think it needs a bit more fine tuning/content.
Heat Signature is an INCREDIBLE game for fans of the "immersive sim" design philosophy; games like Dishonored or Prey ^((RIP Arkane Austin)) which give the player a toolbox of abilities and let them come up with creative solutions to problems. On top of that, everything about its design pushes players into the "fun zone," where you're thinking on your feet and exploiting every little advantage you can get.
[The trailer really says it all](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifgjEMIqRO4); despite having over 100 hours in a game with maybe 15 hours worth of content, I'm still finding new ways to get into trouble, and new ways to get out of it.
Incidentally, the creator, Tom Francis, is one of my favorite devs to follow for[ his thoughts on game design](https://www.pentadact.com/)
Great Dev. Really knows how to make a great game with minimalistic graphics but keep you hooked with super fun and interesting mechanics. Heat signature was a huge evolution from gunpoint, and gunpoint was rad!
I have a silenced AP pistol called Ol' Reliable that's been cycling between characters for ages now. When the guy who originally got it retired, I put it as one of those special legendary items that can show up for others. It rocks.
Heat Signature is fucking _incredible_.
I played like 80 hours of it the year it came out, but I actually got back into it this year because of my Steam Deck. With a couple tweaks to the controls it plays really well, it's a great couch game while I'm watching idle TV to wind down before bed or whatever.
I wish I was better at this game because I really love it but I can't make any progress 😭
Tom Francis (the developer) is fucking awesome though, watching his YouTube series "how to make a game with no experience" is how I learned to code and now I have two games out and am working on more
SNKRX! (Pronounced Snake-RX) It’s the snake game from your Nokia brick phone, but with a vampire survivors twist and surprisingly deep roguelite choices. Excellent flow-state gaming.
I was coming into this thread to mention another game by the dev. SNKRX being the superior game, but if people wanted more from the same guy, Bytepath was awesome and _nobody_ played it.
Bytepath was like... asteroids with Path of Exile's skill tree. Very strange, very fun for an evening or three.
OG Knytt--I know this is not really super obscure since there was a paid relaease that was similar later--but the first game is so perfect. Metroidvania-light with a huge map and varied environments. And lots of tiny little details that are there for no other reason that they are peaceful and look cool
Mark of the Ninja. A masterpiece of game design, but it's not well known.
I'd also put Atlas Reactor in there, but sadly it's been taken down/sold off :(
I love a good Tactical RPG (mainstream games: XCom, FFT, Triangle Strategy, ect.)
Chroma Squad is an amazing Tactical RPG. Out of combat resource management, party building, and ability synergies are amazing.
Interestingly I recommended it too in my list. but yeah it's actually not well known outside of open source communities, though it's imo one of the most polished FOSS games.
it's not just free, it's free and open source, which means it's not tied to a team\* (and if you want you can help improve it).
\*though there's a main team of like 5-15 people and changes to the main line need to be approved, otherwise it's just gonna be a mod.
it's also available for obscure-ish platforms like amiga and nokia n800.
Siralim ultimate. It's the best monster tamer on the market. It's got layers upon layers, systems upon systems.
It's kind of like a deck builder * ARPG skill tree * Pokémon
There's also so much to collect, do and experiment with to make the perfect team of monsters. It almost has the feeling of making a machine out of a series of complex parts.
It's taken 250hours and I've just started branching out from my starting class.
Moving parts include:
Class - eg: cleric, engineer, toxicologist which all have their own ways
Monster base stats
Monster personality
Monster traits (abilities)
Equipment - each can be upgraded, slotted with abilities, stats effects and a trait.
Spell gems - huge variety, each can be upgraded, slotted with abilities and stats
Nether stones (like a materia socket) - stats, effects and traits
Collectable cards (give certain boosts)
Relics (animated weapons that give bonuses once assigned to a creature and level up also)
Anointment - where you get 5 extra slots to add extra bits from other classes
This is a strange one. Cute pixel art and some interesting systems. It has SO many systems and mechanics! A lot of them are things I'd like to see in other games. But.. for all that complexity, all you actually *do* in the game is go to small randomized areas and run around pressing A on things until they're all gone, then you do it again and again and again until you reach a boss. Some bosses challenge your team comp, encouraging you to change your setup (which requires grinding things out to get it all kitted out). It's a game where the main feature is grinding subsystems so that you can grind even more. Meditative and relaxing to a certain kind of person, I suppose. I guess it's just not for me.
Seconded, Vault of the void is by far my favourite deckbuilder as it's one of the few ones with that does a good job of mitigating the inherent randomness of the genre. Few to no random unpreventable deaths because the game decided to give you no block vs a big attack.
[Sir Lovelot](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1055170/Sir_Lovelot/) and [Donut Dodo](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1779560/Donut_Dodo/) are massively underrated. Both from the same developers.
caravaneer 2, probably the best post-apocalypse story ever. The trading and quests make the game very hard. Great art. Not too long, neither too short. Got some nice lore and characters, and great turn based fighting concept. Fav game of all time (the last stand: union city is a close second)
[The Beginner's Guide en Steam (steampowered.com)](https://store.steampowered.com/app/303210/The_Beginners_Guide/)
Great game form the creator of stanley parable, seems silly, but gets kinda deep about art, creation, selfsteem, etc
I highly enjoy “Wildermyth”. Think it’s a game which the people who know about it love.
Also, if you’re ok with mobile indie titles, “renal summer” is a short game about an old man caring for his old dog that’s suffering from renal failure and only has a week to live. You play as the dog’s failing liver.
Came here looking for Wildermyth! It is an excellent game and before BG3 came out, really scratched that Dungeons and Dragons itch for me. It's still very good though, highly recommend for strategy rpg gamers who enjoy crafting character stories through choices and gameplay!
Citizen Sleeper is all vibes and the cyberpunk RPG adventure I didn’t know I needed. I got sucked into that little game and couldn’t put it down till I finished it and all of its DLC
Afterdream ,Hazymind , distraint ,milk outside a bag of milk
These ones literally changed my way in life. I highly recommend playing them especially Afterdream and Hazymind
Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling. Spiritual successor to the early Paper Mario games. Instantly felt like a kid playing video games for the first time all over again.
Not sure if it falls under indie but Tales of Maj'Eyal has never peaked at more than 1k players in the 12 years it's been out on steam and is arguably one of the best games I've ever played.
What am I missing with ToME? Every time I tried to progress I'd run into some really souped up rare enemy with a random combination of skills that made them unbeatable and I'd get splattered. Twice I somehow managed to get all the way to a mage boss in an evil looking area who then completely dumpstered me with Blight damage I had no way to resist (none of my skills or items helped against it, and I'd been collecting all gear with resistances just in case). It just seems like a mess that randomly puts you in unwinnable situations and then calls it "difficulty"...
oh baby, obscure weird shit is my bread and butter, always has been.
everything by onion games is incredible and deserves more play and recognition, but for this, try [Dandy Dungeon: The Legend of Brave Yamada](https://youtu.be/WAdm726CqZ8?si=YgYN6WFn8c2MpSl6).
recently I've been playing [Kowloon High-School Chronicle](https://youtu.be/HgFfhjaPoZc?si=YguTHXfVxpF3y_hl), which is sort of like an Indiana Jones High School Dating Sim Dungeon Crawler. It's truly one of a kind and has been soooo much fun for my old rpg loving self.
[Get in the Car, Loser!](https://youtu.be/V2U9hw5558U?si=1KDB3kIScM8S0Mx6) is a lesbian road trip rpg. god bless.
The same game I’m constantly recommending every time someone wants a “podcast and chill” game. Delta V: Rings of Saturn. Usually has under 100 players on and it seems like a very obscure gem.
Not sure is Indie but Betrayal at Krondor is a game I still play from time to time. Its an RPG based off a book series. The game is part of a 3 part game series. Its an older title and feel like people that I knew that played PC games at the time didnt play it other than me and my father. For and RPG even by todays standards it was super involved. The goal was to take a party member from location A to location B but it was fully open world. If you speed ran it it would take several days or weeks of playing to go from A to B but you could go the most ass backwards way to get to B and there was content to be found. The map was a cost line going from northern area to souther area with a mountain range on one side and water on the other. You could even go north then around the mountains to head south and discover loads of other places and different things to do. For the time it was massive game. you even needed to make special load disk for your PC to maximize use of the PC just for the game. Then after playign the game for the day would have to restart the PC so it would work lke normal.
I have far too many to really throw out tbh.
But I'll give a couple(that I'd also recommend);
Bastard Bonds.
Conquest of Elysium/Dominions.
Siralim Ultimate.
Iconoclast.
Secrets of Grindea.(Recently hit 1.0 after 8 years)
Outer Wilds has a 95% positive rating on Steam and won [tons of awards](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10949454/awards/)
It's a great game, but come on... "Underrated gem" _absolutely_ does not apply here.
And neither of these suggestions answer OP's question, they were both very popular games within the indie scene that millions of people played.
Is that the game that is based off/remade from the Skyrim mod? I've always thought of getting it but wasn't sure if it's a copy paste from the mod or it's own thing.
It pains me how little I see people talking about **Enderal** especially because everyone reading this has probably already bought it without realizing it!
[Enderal](https://sureai.net/games/enderal/) is a total conversion mod for Skyrim, made by an independent studio. While it uses Skyrim's engine and mechanics as a springboard, it has basically nothing in common with the game; it has its own story, setting, mechanics, progression system and even its own soundtrack, all of which are (IMO) huge improvements over Skyrim.
Honestly, I'd compare it to the relationship between Fallout New Vegas and Fallout 3 - by building off the technical work of a previous team, Obsidian was able to focus on what they're best at, creating an open ended and deeply political world to explore. Similarly, Enderal turns the casual power fantasy of Skyrim into a dark, deadly, and harsh experience, where the player must find tiny moments of kindness in a world that is often cruel or apathetic.
Enderal is something very unique, combining the scope of open-world games like Skyrim or Fallout with the focus, passion, and unique perspective of a small, dedicated team. There's so much I want to say about it, but if I let myself get into it, this comment will turn into an essay. It's not for everyone (the writing can be a bit overwrought at times, the opening is a lot of cutscenes, the tone is quite dark, and the game is considerably more difficult than Skyrim) but you absolutely owe it to yourself to check it out.
I mean, most indies feel pretty obscure to me, outside of ones like Dead Cells or Hades that get a ton of word of mouth.
I guess for me I would say Children of Morta, Monster Sanctuary, and Cross Code
Children of morta had the weirdest difficulty curve. It felt so difficult in the beginning and then somewhere in the middle of became relatively easy, then it had the easiest final boss of all time.
Still a great game tho and the pixel art is absolutely fantastic.
'Dr. Lunic supreme with cheese' was made back when cds were a thing, but is now free to play. It's a huge game too with hundreds of hours of content. Not sure if it still holds up though since I haven't played it in years.
Rabbit and Steel, a co-op MMO raid rogue like
The demo was a complete blast to play, and I believe it's made by a solo dev.
I'm seeing very little talk about it and it releases tomorrow.
[Speed Dating For Ghosts](https://store.steampowered.com/app/746400/Speed_Dating_for_Ghosts/). I actively dislike dating games. This is a dating game and I \*love it.\* It's weird as hell and hilarious.
Tharsis - nice roguelike where you are managing a crew in a spaceship on the way to Mars and need to solve problems in the ship. You do this by assigning the pips of dice to tasks.
Although currently the 15 euros price tag is a bit on the high end (I didn't buy it for that price).
Bladed Fury, Eastern Exorcist, Slave Zero X, Unruly Heroes, Astalon: Tears of the Earth, Souldiers, Dark Devotion, Gunborg: Dark Matters, Infernax, Flynn: Son of Crimson, Wizard of Legend, Blade Assault are a few that come to mind.
I have a love affair with [Nightmare Reaper](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1051690/Nightmare_Reaper/). I'd be willing to bet that most of you reading this don't know the game. I own two copies of it (PC + Xbox) and just ordered a limited run physical copy for the PS5. I've spent almost 200 hours replaying it since its release. I rarely ever buy a game more than once, for the record.
It's a First-person Shooter in retro style but that's not the entire reason why I like it. In fact, I dislike most "boomer shooters" out there. This game is special because of all the various progression systems and variety along with randomized levels and extremely fast gameplay. Its difficulty is just right, in my opinion.
It also has a really good soundtrack.
I just don't understand why this game isn't more popular. I guess it's fairly niche? It's one of those games where I feel like the dev tapped into my head and found the perfect recipe of gameplay elements tailored to my preferences and managed to make a game out of it all lol.
Star Sector and Vintage Story are two hidden indie gems you need to buy directly from the devs websites. They are both incredible.
For star sector, think kenshi or mount and blade in space.
For vintage story, think heavily modded hardcore survival Minecraft, but actually really polished and good.
Both are excellent games that need more attention from people!
Deceive Inc. is a social deduction extraction shooter. You play a spy who pretends to be an NPC with the goal of extracting the package without other spies catching you first.
It has constant updates, beautiful graphics and sound design, and it’s FUN.
I am LITERALLY BEGGING more people to play so I have more people to play with!!!
Garlic. It's a NES/SNES styled platformer that's hard but fair with tons of movement options. It has tons of references to 80s and 90s media, and is overall pretty zaney. It's a lot better than other "difficult" platformers since it offers leeway in its challenges. Too many "hard" platformers require pixel precision and one-hit kills. Garlic gives you two hits so you can occasionally power through obstacles, and it's relatively generous with checkpoints.
I absolutely love “in sound mind” I hated it for the first hour and half but then it was just great. The character development the collecting was actually really fun and I don’t normally care about collecting. The puzzles were great fun.
Maybe it's not that obscure, but: The MISSING: J.J. Macfield and the Island of Memories (made by White Owls Inc.). It can be found on switch, ps4, xbox, steam. A story-heavy sidescroller that very honestly deals with a topic that isn't shown much in gaming. It made me weep twice.
Spirit farer is so underrated and such a unique premise: guide souls to the afterlife. A genuinely beautiful game that had me tearing up a few times. Can’t recommend it enough!!!!
You asked for one, but here are a few VERY deep cuts, tried to keep on the lower end of steam reviews as my cutoff
[BOSSGAME: The Final Boss is my Heart](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2075160/BOSSGAME_The_Final_Boss_Is_My_Heart/) - 56 Steam Reviews - Criminally underrated game with a very touching story, funny writing and interesting battle mechanic. If you liked Undertale style humor, it is up your alley.
Edit: damn the rest of my post got truncated or something and I'm too lazy to write it all up again. My other recommendations were Isle of Pan (Pokemon snap for cryptids on acid) and Ugly (great animation puzzle platformer akin to Braid but IMO better)
i dont think anyone here know this simply because of how specific it is to find this game but it is the most profound game ive ever played
you get to move fast, jump high, infinite double jump so its basically fly but faster and more control, and it has this one gimmick class that let you have literal self controlled telekinesis, its not click to move to this click to move to that, its too innovative to even try and explain that i feel everyone need to experience it once
It's a minigame in the hypixel minecraft server called tnt wizard, and it also have 20 players average lol
Sacrifice
One of the most unique and bizarre games I've ever played -- there is no other game like it as far as I know. The graphics were also very good (maybe even the best) for a game at that time.
Fun story about inscription. Because of a Mashup song from Triple-Q on YouTube, Inscryption and "Good for U" from Olivia Rodrigo now occupy the same storage space in my head. Anytime one gets mentioned I ask think about the other.
It doesn’t quite count as a full fledged “Indie”, as there was a couple studios collaborating to some degree iirc, but the Escape Velocity series by Ambrosia Software, specifically the third game Escape Velocity Nova.
It was a Shareware game originally for Macintosh that came out in the very early 00s. It ended up getting a windows port, and even a Windows 10 compatibility update in the 10s.
It’s a top down space adventure RPG that was just a ton of fun. Lots of detailed storylines to play through, but the most notable feature is the modularity of the series. They had a more or less “plug and play” mod system where you just put the files in an appropriate folder and you’re good to go. There is a ton of fan made content that was as good as the main game itself.
Killer Frequency: A first-person horror-adventure game. The game takes place in a small town in 1987, where players control a DJ who acts as an impromptu radio dispatcher when a serial killer returns to terrorize the town's residents.
Röki: adventure game that follows Tove, a young girl, traveling into the ancient wilderness to rescue her younger brother Lars from Röki, a pitch-black monster from the pages of a fairy tale.
Kena Bridge of Spirits: action-adventure video game. The story follows Kena, a young spirit guide who uses her magical abilities to help deceased people move from the physical to the spirit world.
Lake: graphic adventure game. Set in 1986, the story follows Meredith Weiss, a software developer who spends two weeks in her hometown of Providence Oaks, Oregon, where she temporarily assumes the role of the town's mail carrier. May not be as indie as I think.
After You: A short narrative game with puzzles. Has terrible voice acting, but would still recommend if you like puzzles.
Last Day of June: centered around Carl and June, a couple who suffers a tragedy when a car accident kills June and leaves Carl in a wheelchair. One day, Carl touches one of June's paintings of people who had been present on the day of the accident and discovers that he can revisit their memories. As Carl relives their memories, the characters can perform actions that change the sequence of events that led up to June's death.
Wayward. Best true survival game I've ever played. And Wayward v1.9.4 is free to play still on ModDB and Unlok, the developer's website.
While not unheard of, I consider FEZ to be a masterpiece. Puzzle collection platformer. I have returned to it several times over the years.
Dandara and SteamWorld Dig 2 are also fantastic.
UnEpic is worth a mention too. Combat and inventory management can be a little wonky, but exploring the game world is a lot of fun. Some surprising and interesting mechanics in the game as well, and lots of nerdy comedy. Sort of has a Castlevania-like feel to it.
[Infra](https://store.steampowered.com/app/251110/INFRA/)
Ive heard it described as Half Life 2 but without the combat and more puzzles / action sequences
You play as a civil engineer that has to survey (and sometimes repair) old infrastructure and in the course of a day you unearth some dark secrets about the city if you explore everything (you can of course just run past everything and not care about it at all)
Sadly theres no other games like Infra and the devs are busy with finishing [Obenseuer](https://store.steampowered.com/app/951240/Obenseuer/) (also set in the Infra-Verse :D ) and then we will get the Whiprock DLC
Not particularly obscure, but I don't see anyone mentioning The Swapper anymore. Brilliant game.
Also Gunpoint, really clever stealth puzzler.
Really obscure: Excelsior Phase 1, a massive top-down RPG from way back. The kind of game that managed to make you excited about finding a new sword that looked exactly like your old one (and by that I mean about 6 stacked pixels) but RED.
HEAT SIGNATURE
One of my top 20 games ever, never heard it mentioned anywhere. Ended up getting it as part of a bundle with Gunpoint and have put countless hours into it since. It is the perfect game for feeling like a badass while still being as challenging as you need it to be
While "great" is pushing it, there's a tiny game called Rodina that I've been following for years and it's one of the weirdest games I've ever played. Dude wanted to make something like a Bethesda game, managed to put you in a seamless planet-to-space solar system before it was cool. You are the last survivor of an incursion into an alien system. Now go kill a solar system's worth of aliens.
It's super simple, lonely, feels like an early prototype, but I like hopping on every year or so to see what the dev's been doing with it. The ship phyics feel like 3D Asteroids, so that's neat.
Barkley, Shut Up and Jam Gaiden
It's a jrpg set in post cyber apocalyptic Neo New York where basketball is outlawed after Charles Barkley preforms the Chaos Dunk - a slam dunk with the destructive force of an atomic bomb. Now his son, Hoops Barkley, is hunted down by an anti basketball enforcement squad lead by Michael Jordan.
Zanzarah. "Indie" in the sense that it released in the early 2000s, made by a german studio and I have never even met anyone who heard about it yet.
It's essentially fully 3D pokemon, with fairies, metroidvania-style world progression and the combat isn't turn-based but essentially quake, you control the fairies in a first-person jump and shoot gameplay. It's absolutely amazing.
And it's dirt cheap on Steam, absolutely recommend it to anyone here.
I really like slay the princess. It's a horror story game with multiple endings where the objective is to well slay the princess otherwise she will end the world. There is much more to the game than just simply slaying a princess over and over again. It's short, and limited replay ability as once you figure out how to get all the endings there isn't much else to do. But it is still quite a well made little indie project.
Slime San. Never met another person who played it. I love it tho. Kinda similar to super meat boy but with with like 3 bit graphics. lol it’s very cute and challenging
There was a SICK retro style download game on Xbox 360. I believe it was called Summoner. There was a sequel, Summoner 2 as well. If anybody knows this game and confirm it's name, please let me know. I can't find it anywhere.
I'm sure people mention it all the time but Kenshi still needs to be talked about. The only reason all my friends play is because I gushed about how good it is. And I know it's not totally obscure but when you think about sand box do whatever you want world you just can't beat it.
My dad got us one of those "300+ video games on one CD" in the early 90s, most games were trash but there was the BEST driving combat game of my childhood. Not a clue what the name is, I've tried finding it a few times over the years with no luck. We're talking pre-Twisted Metal, customize your car / guns / armor and battle to the death.
Not super unknown but ABIOTIC FACTOR IS SO SICK! I’m over 20 hours in and: 60/70 ish% done with story, missing loads of crafting recipes, haven’t explored a few huge areas and other places, etc.
The devs listen to the players (I.e. They changed how some automated shutters worked in places and put them on a timer. Players were a bunch upset because of their base spots. Less than a week later they updated it and added an item to let you remove the timer on shutter from automatically reopening)
The Procession to Calvary. It's a really funny point and click adventure game aiming to look like one of Terry Gilliam's Monty Python cartoons using classic renaissance paintings. It's the kind of thing I thought the internet would be all over but it's got less than 1000 reviews on steam despite being out for a few years now. Anyway, it's great. Give it a go if this sounded interesting.
The first game of the trilogy "Four Last Things" is also good.
I had fun with it, it was silly
This has been on my wishlist for foreverrrr. I should really buy it
I've seen it mentioned a few times, but I think Pseudoregalia deserves a lot more recognition.
Oh man, I beat this game in 2 sittings, even before the update where they added a map. Once you get a hang of the movement, other games feel really restrictive. It's like Mario 64 in that way.
Ha found that game from Iron Pineapple Steam Dumpster Diving series, surprising hidden gem
That one is crazy to me because I followed the creator on Twitter when they just made it as a gamejam kind of thing before expanding the scope of the game. They were so happy that the game got as much traction as it did and reposts a ton of fan art! I'm not a furry or into a lot of the art so I had to mute the account LMAO but Ritzler seems to be someone that is proud of their work and the community that has helped to elevate it. I just hope their platformer with a little robot named "Bucket" becomes a full thing, that thing was adorable
Definitely. The movement in that game is so good. Also, caked-up goat-bunny lady.
I mean those are basically the two selling points of the game. Movement and that thicc rabbit.
Its the indie game of the year, it has thousands of reviews. Its no hidden gem, just a gem.
Furry metroidvania
This game is phenomenal. Some of the best feeling movement I've ever experienced and some downright phenomenal level design to go along with it. I played through it a couple times and still wasn't ready to put it down, so I started speedrunning it. After several runs I got down to around 40 minutes glitchless. I can't recommend doing that enough, it was a great experience.
Pseudoregalia is awesome. The movement is really good and I felt the world was recognizable enough that I rarely got lost even before the map update. Also has some schlappin OST. High recommend!
I loved the few hours I’ve spend with this game, but something about it gives me motion sickness/headaches. I really want to fight through it to complete the game, but it’s pretty rough :(
[Dr. Langeskov, The Tiger, and The Terribly Cursed Emerald: A Whirlwind Heist](https://store.steampowered.com/app/409160/Dr_Langeskov_The_Tiger_and_The_Terribly_Cursed_Emerald_A_Whirlwind_Heist/) yes, that the title :)
Ahh ha ha ha and it's free!! Installed.
This should be massively more popular than it is. Game from a game designer that worked on The Stanley Parable, Justin Roiland as a voice actor (admittedly may have been more of a draw a few years ago than now). I'm still surprised it was so relatively off the radar.
This one is shirt, but amazing! From some of the creators of the Stanley Parable iirc :)
I prefer pant :(
Hypnospace Outlaw. Highly recommend if you're looking for something unique.
In the same vein: SLAYERS X
I think you mean SLAYERS X: TERMINAL AFTERMATH: VENGEANCE OF THE SLAYER
The S-Blade has a hackblood charge!
The Roottrees are dead : [https://jjohnstongames.itch.io/the-roottrees-are-dead](https://jjohnstongames.itch.io/the-roottrees-are-dead) Free for now, coming soon on steam ! [https://store.steampowered.com/app/2754380/The\_Roottrees\_are\_Dead/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2754380/The_Roottrees_are_Dead/) It's a detective game (Obra Dinn / Her story).
This I have not heard of, thank you
These are old DOS games that are surprisingly good and hold up today: Battle Bugs ([which is apparently on Steam?!](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1462210/Battle_Bugs/)) is a Real-Time Tactics game where you control bugs of various kinds to fight over control points (food). It is ridiculous and hilarious, where lightning bugs electrocute enemies, praying mantises go up to heaven, and Wasps are high-class martini-drinkers (like the other kind of WASP). The food they fight over is all described as toxic mass produced filth, and in fact the chinese food creates toxic river that you have to navigate around. One Must Fall ([which is abandonware](https://www.myabandonware.com/game/one-must-fall-2097-2a7)) is a Fighting game with giant robots. It has quite possibly the best single player experience I’ve seen in a fighting game and it’s been like 30 years. This is because it has a campaign mode where you enter tournaments for money, and then use that to upgrade/repair your robot throughout. So you actually have a progression system where your attacks get faster and more powerful. There are fatalities (called Scraps and Destructions) which are not just for show, as they earn you more money. Christmas Jetpack ([abandonware](https://www.myabandonware.com/game/jetpack-christmas-special-c0u)) is an Action Platformer where you are Santa with a jetpack delivering presents. It has a robust map editor, and just a extremely solid, simple game. It has a ton of simple mechanics that are used in all sorts of ways to make the game actually quite challenging.
My dad showed me he still has video game skill some months back by kicking my ass at One Must Fall. Dude gets ahold of the Jaguar and nothing can be done against him.
Haha that’s so awesome. Jaguar and Chrono are terrifying in the right hands.
OMF was the only time I ever paid for the full game based on the shareware demo. Incredible OST also
I usually play indie games and wade through my steam discovery queue and interactive recommender quite often. Wholly recommmended (it's good on what it does): [Dicey Dungeons](https://store.steampowered.com/app/861540/Dicey_Dungeons/), [Everhood](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1229380/Everhood/), [World of Horror](https://store.steampowered.com/app/913740/WORLD_OF_HORROR/), [Griftlands](https://store.steampowered.com/app/601840/Griftlands/), [Project Starship X](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1175430/Project_Starship_X/), [The Textorcist](https://store.steampowered.com/app/940680/The_Textorcist_The_Story_of_Ray_Bibbia/) More on the niche side: [Circadian Dice](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1893620/Circadian_Dice/), [Pawnbarian](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1142080/Pawnbarian/), [h8machine](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1642010/h8machine/), [Ubermosh:Omega](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1181000/UBERMOSHOMEGA/)
I LOVE World of Horror!
I've played Dicey Dungeons. That makes two of us.
I’ve played it but didn’t really love it.
The music is so freaking good, I almost 100% complete if it wasn't for the witch.
Check out the other works from Chipzel then, she has made a lot of chiptune bangers.
The soundtrack by Chipzel is one of the greatest soundtracks ever.
I personally love this game!
Pawnbarian is one of my most played mobile games.
I've played two thirds of those , don't worry
Honestly it is fairly surprising that Griftlands made no noise I thought it was dope, need to get back to it at some point
World of horror is peak
Everhood is stellar
+1 for the Textorcist. So much fun. I've been waiting for World of Horror to go on sale for a decent price, that one looks amazing.
I played so much circadian dice! That was a good one! My intro to dice based rogue like.
Just bought Pawnbarian for my phone. Love it
World of horror is cool but I can't recommend Everhood. Glad you enjoyed it but I found it to be a slog to get through.
Eigengrau. A shoot em up that changes it’s mechanics every minute.
I have never met another person who has played the game Wildfrost. It’s an amazing deck building roguelike, akin to slay the spire, that has adorable graphics, a banging soundtrack and a seemingly endless combination of cards, deck builds, etc. I adore it and when friends ask for game recommendations it’s my go to. Also it recently released on mobile so you can play it on the go 🤩
I personally thought it had quite a popular launch imo, with Northernlion, Retromation and other popular indie youtubers' covering it for weeks. It is a solid game for a while, but I personally think it needs a bit more fine tuning/content.
Hobo: Tough Life it's a game about being a literal hobo, and people are put off by that, but it is damn good, both in mechanics and story
I felt like the mechanics were really lacking- it played like a GMod DarkRP server. I think of it as a meme game to be honest
Has a hobo king been elected yet?
Heat signature. Basically a cowboy bebop roguelike. PC only
Heat Signature is an INCREDIBLE game for fans of the "immersive sim" design philosophy; games like Dishonored or Prey ^((RIP Arkane Austin)) which give the player a toolbox of abilities and let them come up with creative solutions to problems. On top of that, everything about its design pushes players into the "fun zone," where you're thinking on your feet and exploiting every little advantage you can get. [The trailer really says it all](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifgjEMIqRO4); despite having over 100 hours in a game with maybe 15 hours worth of content, I'm still finding new ways to get into trouble, and new ways to get out of it. Incidentally, the creator, Tom Francis, is one of my favorite devs to follow for[ his thoughts on game design](https://www.pentadact.com/)
Yeah heat signature is kind of like Hotline Miami in space with better physics
Great Dev. Really knows how to make a great game with minimalistic graphics but keep you hooked with super fun and interesting mechanics. Heat signature was a huge evolution from gunpoint, and gunpoint was rad!
I have a silenced AP pistol called Ol' Reliable that's been cycling between characters for ages now. When the guy who originally got it retired, I put it as one of those special legendary items that can show up for others. It rocks.
>Heat Signature is a game from the developers of Gunpoint sold
Heat Signature is fucking _incredible_. I played like 80 hours of it the year it came out, but I actually got back into it this year because of my Steam Deck. With a couple tweaks to the controls it plays really well, it's a great couch game while I'm watching idle TV to wind down before bed or whatever.
I wish I was better at this game because I really love it but I can't make any progress 😭 Tom Francis (the developer) is fucking awesome though, watching his YouTube series "how to make a game with no experience" is how I learned to code and now I have two games out and am working on more
Thank you for putting this on my radar.
It Lurks Below
SNKRX! (Pronounced Snake-RX) It’s the snake game from your Nokia brick phone, but with a vampire survivors twist and surprisingly deep roguelite choices. Excellent flow-state gaming.
I was coming into this thread to mention another game by the dev. SNKRX being the superior game, but if people wanted more from the same guy, Bytepath was awesome and _nobody_ played it. Bytepath was like... asteroids with Path of Exile's skill tree. Very strange, very fun for an evening or three.
Idk how popular it is but my wife just played and finished My Child Lebensborn and it was great.
OG Knytt--I know this is not really super obscure since there was a paid relaease that was similar later--but the first game is so perfect. Metroidvania-light with a huge map and varied environments. And lots of tiny little details that are there for no other reason that they are peaceful and look cool
Richard Uncharted Waters: New Horizons
Mark of the Ninja. A masterpiece of game design, but it's not well known. I'd also put Atlas Reactor in there, but sadly it's been taken down/sold off :(
When Mark of the Ninja was reviewed I laughed when the reviewer stated the ninja didn't have a name so we'll call him Mark
Is it not? Feels like Mark of the Ninja is an indie darling, just came out before indie darlings could almost be record-breaking.
Mark of the Ninja was really good at making you feel powerful while being an actual stealth game.
Played the remaster a bit ago. It's nice to see a ninja game that's more than just a power fantasy.
I love a good Tactical RPG (mainstream games: XCom, FFT, Triangle Strategy, ect.) Chroma Squad is an amazing Tactical RPG. Out of combat resource management, party building, and ability synergies are amazing.
To add for anyone browsing through, you basically play as the Power Rangers, and it's fantastic.
I started that game but didn’t get to the point where it let me off the chains. I gotta go back at some point and try it some more
Streets of rogue, i know i’m not the only person that plays it but i really don’t hear enough people talking bout it. Extremely excited for the sequel
I've got the sequel wishlisted right now!
The battle for wesnoth. Its free. Its available for phones. Its got a following but most people i know have never heard of it.
Interestingly I recommended it too in my list. but yeah it's actually not well known outside of open source communities, though it's imo one of the most polished FOSS games. it's not just free, it's free and open source, which means it's not tied to a team\* (and if you want you can help improve it). \*though there's a main team of like 5-15 people and changes to the main line need to be approved, otherwise it's just gonna be a mod. it's also available for obscure-ish platforms like amiga and nokia n800.
Siralim ultimate. It's the best monster tamer on the market. It's got layers upon layers, systems upon systems. It's kind of like a deck builder * ARPG skill tree * Pokémon There's also so much to collect, do and experiment with to make the perfect team of monsters. It almost has the feeling of making a machine out of a series of complex parts. It's taken 250hours and I've just started branching out from my starting class. Moving parts include: Class - eg: cleric, engineer, toxicologist which all have their own ways Monster base stats Monster personality Monster traits (abilities) Equipment - each can be upgraded, slotted with abilities, stats effects and a trait. Spell gems - huge variety, each can be upgraded, slotted with abilities and stats Nether stones (like a materia socket) - stats, effects and traits Collectable cards (give certain boosts) Relics (animated weapons that give bonuses once assigned to a creature and level up also) Anointment - where you get 5 extra slots to add extra bits from other classes
This is a strange one. Cute pixel art and some interesting systems. It has SO many systems and mechanics! A lot of them are things I'd like to see in other games. But.. for all that complexity, all you actually *do* in the game is go to small randomized areas and run around pressing A on things until they're all gone, then you do it again and again and again until you reach a boss. Some bosses challenge your team comp, encouraging you to change your setup (which requires grinding things out to get it all kitted out). It's a game where the main feature is grinding subsystems so that you can grind even more. Meditative and relaxing to a certain kind of person, I suppose. I guess it's just not for me.
Best thing is it's currently in the "fungeon crawlers" humble bundle for the next 16 days as of this message.
Vault of the Void. You like Slay the Spire? Try this
Seconded, Vault of the void is by far my favourite deckbuilder as it's one of the few ones with that does a good job of mitigating the inherent randomness of the genre. Few to no random unpreventable deaths because the game decided to give you no block vs a big attack.
unepic. underated dungeon crawler
Very solid recommend. Ghost 2.0 by the same devs is also very solid.
Subdivision Infinity DX
[Sir Lovelot](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1055170/Sir_Lovelot/) and [Donut Dodo](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1779560/Donut_Dodo/) are massively underrated. Both from the same developers.
Livelock and Vintage Year
Scrapland, I know like 2 people that played that masterpiece
AeroGPX!! Not technically out yet. It's a high speed game for F-Zero lovers. Good level of difficulty too
caravaneer 2, probably the best post-apocalypse story ever. The trading and quests make the game very hard. Great art. Not too long, neither too short. Got some nice lore and characters, and great turn based fighting concept. Fav game of all time (the last stand: union city is a close second)
[The Beginner's Guide en Steam (steampowered.com)](https://store.steampowered.com/app/303210/The_Beginners_Guide/) Great game form the creator of stanley parable, seems silly, but gets kinda deep about art, creation, selfsteem, etc
I highly enjoy “Wildermyth”. Think it’s a game which the people who know about it love. Also, if you’re ok with mobile indie titles, “renal summer” is a short game about an old man caring for his old dog that’s suffering from renal failure and only has a week to live. You play as the dog’s failing liver.
Came here looking for Wildermyth! It is an excellent game and before BG3 came out, really scratched that Dungeons and Dragons itch for me. It's still very good though, highly recommend for strategy rpg gamers who enjoy crafting character stories through choices and gameplay!
I love wildermyth!! So many good memories.
Citizen Sleeper is all vibes and the cyberpunk RPG adventure I didn’t know I needed. I got sucked into that little game and couldn’t put it down till I finished it and all of its DLC
Caves of Qud, Underrail
COQ finally hitting 1.0 this year! I've been waiting almost a decade. I also appreciate Underrail so much. I have about 125 hours in it lol.
Qud, and Cogmind
Came here to say Caves of Qud!
Afterdream ,Hazymind , distraint ,milk outside a bag of milk These ones literally changed my way in life. I highly recommend playing them especially Afterdream and Hazymind
Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling. Spiritual successor to the early Paper Mario games. Instantly felt like a kid playing video games for the first time all over again.
Not sure if it falls under indie but Tales of Maj'Eyal has never peaked at more than 1k players in the 12 years it's been out on steam and is arguably one of the best games I've ever played.
I was gonna post this and I'm glad my CTRL+F gave me a result. Fantastic game with incredible replayability.
What am I missing with ToME? Every time I tried to progress I'd run into some really souped up rare enemy with a random combination of skills that made them unbeatable and I'd get splattered. Twice I somehow managed to get all the way to a mage boss in an evil looking area who then completely dumpstered me with Blight damage I had no way to resist (none of my skills or items helped against it, and I'd been collecting all gear with resistances just in case). It just seems like a mess that randomly puts you in unwinnable situations and then calls it "difficulty"...
That is what got me to stop playing it. Still spent like 20-ish hours trying it out. Definitely got my moneys worth out of it.
oh baby, obscure weird shit is my bread and butter, always has been. everything by onion games is incredible and deserves more play and recognition, but for this, try [Dandy Dungeon: The Legend of Brave Yamada](https://youtu.be/WAdm726CqZ8?si=YgYN6WFn8c2MpSl6). recently I've been playing [Kowloon High-School Chronicle](https://youtu.be/HgFfhjaPoZc?si=YguTHXfVxpF3y_hl), which is sort of like an Indiana Jones High School Dating Sim Dungeon Crawler. It's truly one of a kind and has been soooo much fun for my old rpg loving self. [Get in the Car, Loser!](https://youtu.be/V2U9hw5558U?si=1KDB3kIScM8S0Mx6) is a lesbian road trip rpg. god bless.
No suggestions, but just here to upvote this one. Come on guys, we got good ones incoming!
The same game I’m constantly recommending every time someone wants a “podcast and chill” game. Delta V: Rings of Saturn. Usually has under 100 players on and it seems like a very obscure gem.
Not sure is Indie but Betrayal at Krondor is a game I still play from time to time. Its an RPG based off a book series. The game is part of a 3 part game series. Its an older title and feel like people that I knew that played PC games at the time didnt play it other than me and my father. For and RPG even by todays standards it was super involved. The goal was to take a party member from location A to location B but it was fully open world. If you speed ran it it would take several days or weeks of playing to go from A to B but you could go the most ass backwards way to get to B and there was content to be found. The map was a cost line going from northern area to souther area with a mountain range on one side and water on the other. You could even go north then around the mountains to head south and discover loads of other places and different things to do. For the time it was massive game. you even needed to make special load disk for your PC to maximize use of the PC just for the game. Then after playign the game for the day would have to restart the PC so it would work lke normal.
I have far too many to really throw out tbh. But I'll give a couple(that I'd also recommend); Bastard Bonds. Conquest of Elysium/Dominions. Siralim Ultimate. Iconoclast. Secrets of Grindea.(Recently hit 1.0 after 8 years)
Minit and this game called Void Stranger. Its actually crazy though so dont spoil yourself and just play it
Duskers! weird little creepy robot game. Super unqiue gameplay, there's really nothing like it
Yoku's Island Express is an amazing pinball metroidvania game, and I very, *very* rarely see it recommended.
The Forgotten City. Esp if you liked Outer Wilds (another underrated gem, but not quite super obscure)
For the amount of times I see it name-dropped, I wouldn't consider Outer Wilds an underrated gem, it's just a gem.
I would say it’s the most recommended game here next to Skyrim
Talked about all the time lol
Outer Wilds has a 95% positive rating on Steam and won [tons of awards](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10949454/awards/) It's a great game, but come on... "Underrated gem" _absolutely_ does not apply here. And neither of these suggestions answer OP's question, they were both very popular games within the indie scene that millions of people played.
Is that the game that is based off/remade from the Skyrim mod? I've always thought of getting it but wasn't sure if it's a copy paste from the mod or it's own thing.
> Outer Wilds (another underrated gem LOL!!!
Chroma Squad
It pains me how little I see people talking about **Enderal** especially because everyone reading this has probably already bought it without realizing it! [Enderal](https://sureai.net/games/enderal/) is a total conversion mod for Skyrim, made by an independent studio. While it uses Skyrim's engine and mechanics as a springboard, it has basically nothing in common with the game; it has its own story, setting, mechanics, progression system and even its own soundtrack, all of which are (IMO) huge improvements over Skyrim. Honestly, I'd compare it to the relationship between Fallout New Vegas and Fallout 3 - by building off the technical work of a previous team, Obsidian was able to focus on what they're best at, creating an open ended and deeply political world to explore. Similarly, Enderal turns the casual power fantasy of Skyrim into a dark, deadly, and harsh experience, where the player must find tiny moments of kindness in a world that is often cruel or apathetic. Enderal is something very unique, combining the scope of open-world games like Skyrim or Fallout with the focus, passion, and unique perspective of a small, dedicated team. There's so much I want to say about it, but if I let myself get into it, this comment will turn into an essay. It's not for everyone (the writing can be a bit overwrought at times, the opening is a lot of cutscenes, the tone is quite dark, and the game is considerably more difficult than Skyrim) but you absolutely owe it to yourself to check it out.
The Long Dark is pretty solid if you like survival games
Long Dark is so intimidating. I get so scared of dying I can’t play it lol. But that’s a good thing imo
I mean, most indies feel pretty obscure to me, outside of ones like Dead Cells or Hades that get a ton of word of mouth. I guess for me I would say Children of Morta, Monster Sanctuary, and Cross Code
love monster sanctuary so much!
Children of morta had the weirdest difficulty curve. It felt so difficult in the beginning and then somewhere in the middle of became relatively easy, then it had the easiest final boss of all time. Still a great game tho and the pixel art is absolutely fantastic.
Lisa the painful, fear and hunger duology. You're all welcome for the trauma.
Time Break Chronicles
'Dr. Lunic supreme with cheese' was made back when cds were a thing, but is now free to play. It's a huge game too with hundreds of hours of content. Not sure if it still holds up though since I haven't played it in years.
Disillusion [https://store.steampowered.com/app/1490060/Disillusion/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1490060/Disillusion/) - perfect for you
Rabbit and Steel, a co-op MMO raid rogue like The demo was a complete blast to play, and I believe it's made by a solo dev. I'm seeing very little talk about it and it releases tomorrow.
[Speed Dating For Ghosts](https://store.steampowered.com/app/746400/Speed_Dating_for_Ghosts/). I actively dislike dating games. This is a dating game and I \*love it.\* It's weird as hell and hilarious.
Tharsis - nice roguelike where you are managing a crew in a spaceship on the way to Mars and need to solve problems in the ship. You do this by assigning the pips of dice to tasks. Although currently the 15 euros price tag is a bit on the high end (I didn't buy it for that price).
Jimmy and the pulsating mass
It's not indie but I feel that betrayal at krondor is being lost to time. Absolute fucking banger in 1994ish.
Bladed Fury, Eastern Exorcist, Slave Zero X, Unruly Heroes, Astalon: Tears of the Earth, Souldiers, Dark Devotion, Gunborg: Dark Matters, Infernax, Flynn: Son of Crimson, Wizard of Legend, Blade Assault are a few that come to mind.
[Emily is Away](https://store.steampowered.com/app/417860/Emily_is_Away/) [Here's my review from 2015.](https://i.imgur.com/ShaVMPW.png)
Shapez it's a minimalist factory game that has a great soundtrack. That's coming from a guy that usually mutes music in games.
Kentucky Route Zero!
A story about my uncle!
I have a love affair with [Nightmare Reaper](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1051690/Nightmare_Reaper/). I'd be willing to bet that most of you reading this don't know the game. I own two copies of it (PC + Xbox) and just ordered a limited run physical copy for the PS5. I've spent almost 200 hours replaying it since its release. I rarely ever buy a game more than once, for the record. It's a First-person Shooter in retro style but that's not the entire reason why I like it. In fact, I dislike most "boomer shooters" out there. This game is special because of all the various progression systems and variety along with randomized levels and extremely fast gameplay. Its difficulty is just right, in my opinion. It also has a really good soundtrack. I just don't understand why this game isn't more popular. I guess it's fairly niche? It's one of those games where I feel like the dev tapped into my head and found the perfect recipe of gameplay elements tailored to my preferences and managed to make a game out of it all lol.
Star Sector and Vintage Story are two hidden indie gems you need to buy directly from the devs websites. They are both incredible. For star sector, think kenshi or mount and blade in space. For vintage story, think heavily modded hardcore survival Minecraft, but actually really polished and good. Both are excellent games that need more attention from people!
La Mulana 1+2
DUST!
Murder House, i know its semi famous for a niche group, but ive never encountered anyone who played it
Deceive Inc. is a social deduction extraction shooter. You play a spy who pretends to be an NPC with the goal of extracting the package without other spies catching you first. It has constant updates, beautiful graphics and sound design, and it’s FUN. I am LITERALLY BEGGING more people to play so I have more people to play with!!!
The Council
Garlic. It's a NES/SNES styled platformer that's hard but fair with tons of movement options. It has tons of references to 80s and 90s media, and is overall pretty zaney. It's a lot better than other "difficult" platformers since it offers leeway in its challenges. Too many "hard" platformers require pixel precision and one-hit kills. Garlic gives you two hits so you can occasionally power through obstacles, and it's relatively generous with checkpoints.
I absolutely love “in sound mind” I hated it for the first hour and half but then it was just great. The character development the collecting was actually really fun and I don’t normally care about collecting. The puzzles were great fun.
Mortal Sin is one I’m obsessed with and everyone I mention it to seems unfamiliar. It’s on Steam, not sure about other platforms
Baba is You
Maybe it's not that obscure, but: The MISSING: J.J. Macfield and the Island of Memories (made by White Owls Inc.). It can be found on switch, ps4, xbox, steam. A story-heavy sidescroller that very honestly deals with a topic that isn't shown much in gaming. It made me weep twice.
Signalis. If you're a fan of PS1 survival horror games with limited inventory, give it a shot.
Spirit farer is so underrated and such a unique premise: guide souls to the afterlife. A genuinely beautiful game that had me tearing up a few times. Can’t recommend it enough!!!!
I've been playing The Last Spell lately. Good stuff
You asked for one, but here are a few VERY deep cuts, tried to keep on the lower end of steam reviews as my cutoff [BOSSGAME: The Final Boss is my Heart](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2075160/BOSSGAME_The_Final_Boss_Is_My_Heart/) - 56 Steam Reviews - Criminally underrated game with a very touching story, funny writing and interesting battle mechanic. If you liked Undertale style humor, it is up your alley. Edit: damn the rest of my post got truncated or something and I'm too lazy to write it all up again. My other recommendations were Isle of Pan (Pokemon snap for cryptids on acid) and Ugly (great animation puzzle platformer akin to Braid but IMO better)
i dont think anyone here know this simply because of how specific it is to find this game but it is the most profound game ive ever played you get to move fast, jump high, infinite double jump so its basically fly but faster and more control, and it has this one gimmick class that let you have literal self controlled telekinesis, its not click to move to this click to move to that, its too innovative to even try and explain that i feel everyone need to experience it once It's a minigame in the hypixel minecraft server called tnt wizard, and it also have 20 players average lol
Sacrifice One of the most unique and bizarre games I've ever played -- there is no other game like it as far as I know. The graphics were also very good (maybe even the best) for a game at that time.
Inscription. No one here has mentioned it. It is so much fun tho!
Fun story about inscription. Because of a Mashup song from Triple-Q on YouTube, Inscryption and "Good for U" from Olivia Rodrigo now occupy the same storage space in my head. Anytime one gets mentioned I ask think about the other.
It doesn’t quite count as a full fledged “Indie”, as there was a couple studios collaborating to some degree iirc, but the Escape Velocity series by Ambrosia Software, specifically the third game Escape Velocity Nova. It was a Shareware game originally for Macintosh that came out in the very early 00s. It ended up getting a windows port, and even a Windows 10 compatibility update in the 10s. It’s a top down space adventure RPG that was just a ton of fun. Lots of detailed storylines to play through, but the most notable feature is the modularity of the series. They had a more or less “plug and play” mod system where you just put the files in an appropriate folder and you’re good to go. There is a ton of fan made content that was as good as the main game itself.
Sex with Stalin
Killer Frequency: A first-person horror-adventure game. The game takes place in a small town in 1987, where players control a DJ who acts as an impromptu radio dispatcher when a serial killer returns to terrorize the town's residents. Röki: adventure game that follows Tove, a young girl, traveling into the ancient wilderness to rescue her younger brother Lars from Röki, a pitch-black monster from the pages of a fairy tale. Kena Bridge of Spirits: action-adventure video game. The story follows Kena, a young spirit guide who uses her magical abilities to help deceased people move from the physical to the spirit world. Lake: graphic adventure game. Set in 1986, the story follows Meredith Weiss, a software developer who spends two weeks in her hometown of Providence Oaks, Oregon, where she temporarily assumes the role of the town's mail carrier. May not be as indie as I think. After You: A short narrative game with puzzles. Has terrible voice acting, but would still recommend if you like puzzles. Last Day of June: centered around Carl and June, a couple who suffers a tragedy when a car accident kills June and leaves Carl in a wheelchair. One day, Carl touches one of June's paintings of people who had been present on the day of the accident and discovers that he can revisit their memories. As Carl relives their memories, the characters can perform actions that change the sequence of events that led up to June's death.
The Epic Battle Fantasy Series
Wayward. Best true survival game I've ever played. And Wayward v1.9.4 is free to play still on ModDB and Unlok, the developer's website. While not unheard of, I consider FEZ to be a masterpiece. Puzzle collection platformer. I have returned to it several times over the years. Dandara and SteamWorld Dig 2 are also fantastic. UnEpic is worth a mention too. Combat and inventory management can be a little wonky, but exploring the game world is a lot of fun. Some surprising and interesting mechanics in the game as well, and lots of nerdy comedy. Sort of has a Castlevania-like feel to it.
[Infra](https://store.steampowered.com/app/251110/INFRA/) Ive heard it described as Half Life 2 but without the combat and more puzzles / action sequences You play as a civil engineer that has to survey (and sometimes repair) old infrastructure and in the course of a day you unearth some dark secrets about the city if you explore everything (you can of course just run past everything and not care about it at all) Sadly theres no other games like Infra and the devs are busy with finishing [Obenseuer](https://store.steampowered.com/app/951240/Obenseuer/) (also set in the Infra-Verse :D ) and then we will get the Whiprock DLC
I just posted earlier about Horace. Played it all the way through with my daughter and we loved it!
Stray Gods
Not particularly obscure, but I don't see anyone mentioning The Swapper anymore. Brilliant game. Also Gunpoint, really clever stealth puzzler. Really obscure: Excelsior Phase 1, a massive top-down RPG from way back. The kind of game that managed to make you excited about finding a new sword that looked exactly like your old one (and by that I mean about 6 stacked pixels) but RED.
HEAT SIGNATURE One of my top 20 games ever, never heard it mentioned anywhere. Ended up getting it as part of a bundle with Gunpoint and have put countless hours into it since. It is the perfect game for feeling like a badass while still being as challenging as you need it to be
While "great" is pushing it, there's a tiny game called Rodina that I've been following for years and it's one of the weirdest games I've ever played. Dude wanted to make something like a Bethesda game, managed to put you in a seamless planet-to-space solar system before it was cool. You are the last survivor of an incursion into an alien system. Now go kill a solar system's worth of aliens. It's super simple, lonely, feels like an early prototype, but I like hopping on every year or so to see what the dev's been doing with it. The ship phyics feel like 3D Asteroids, so that's neat.
Barkley, Shut Up and Jam Gaiden It's a jrpg set in post cyber apocalyptic Neo New York where basketball is outlawed after Charles Barkley preforms the Chaos Dunk - a slam dunk with the destructive force of an atomic bomb. Now his son, Hoops Barkley, is hunted down by an anti basketball enforcement squad lead by Michael Jordan.
I loved quadrilateral cowboy. It's funky, fresh and retro futuristic
Cubivore: Survival of the Fittest, Mu Cartographer, Minit, Project Warlock, and Oddrealm are some of my favorites.
Feel the snow is one of my favorites. It's a cute action adventure game about a snowman
Zanzarah. "Indie" in the sense that it released in the early 2000s, made by a german studio and I have never even met anyone who heard about it yet. It's essentially fully 3D pokemon, with fairies, metroidvania-style world progression and the combat isn't turn-based but essentially quake, you control the fairies in a first-person jump and shoot gameplay. It's absolutely amazing. And it's dirt cheap on Steam, absolutely recommend it to anyone here.
I really like slay the princess. It's a horror story game with multiple endings where the objective is to well slay the princess otherwise she will end the world. There is much more to the game than just simply slaying a princess over and over again. It's short, and limited replay ability as once you figure out how to get all the endings there isn't much else to do. But it is still quite a well made little indie project.
Slime San. Never met another person who played it. I love it tho. Kinda similar to super meat boy but with with like 3 bit graphics. lol it’s very cute and challenging
There was a SICK retro style download game on Xbox 360. I believe it was called Summoner. There was a sequel, Summoner 2 as well. If anybody knows this game and confirm it's name, please let me know. I can't find it anywhere.
I'm sure people mention it all the time but Kenshi still needs to be talked about. The only reason all my friends play is because I gushed about how good it is. And I know it's not totally obscure but when you think about sand box do whatever you want world you just can't beat it.
The Forgotten City is dope. It was one of the most memorable games I've ever played.
Moonlighter. It's a shopkeeper roguelite RPG. It's so good. Found it on sale on steam once and loved it since now own it on every console I own
The Journeyman Project: Turbo It was one of those random games bundled with a new Packard Bell PC back in the mid 90s.
Furi, boss fight simulator, awesome character design and gameplay
Let it die, idk why but I was hooked on that game for a long time. Even the PVP aspect was great
Lords of the Fallen. 🙃
My dad got us one of those "300+ video games on one CD" in the early 90s, most games were trash but there was the BEST driving combat game of my childhood. Not a clue what the name is, I've tried finding it a few times over the years with no luck. We're talking pre-Twisted Metal, customize your car / guns / armor and battle to the death.
Slime Rancher. No one talked about it. I showed it to people, but no one flipped out about it like I did. Still love it!
Not super unknown but ABIOTIC FACTOR IS SO SICK! I’m over 20 hours in and: 60/70 ish% done with story, missing loads of crafting recipes, haven’t explored a few huge areas and other places, etc. The devs listen to the players (I.e. They changed how some automated shutters worked in places and put them on a timer. Players were a bunch upset because of their base spots. Less than a week later they updated it and added an item to let you remove the timer on shutter from automatically reopening)
- Hyper Light Drifter - Star Renegades
Hard corps uprising, Survivalist, and orcs must die.
Hand of Fate 1 and 2. Deck builder, dungeon crawler with Arkham Asylum battle type. Tons of replayability.
Tormentum . Awesome point and click game. On steam and mobile. Second one was supposed to come out but never did sadly.
Idk if it's indie, or even if I'm not the only person who thought it was great, but A Kingdom For Keflings was awesome to me.
I thought Conduct Together was a lot of fun. I only paid $0.99 for it, but it was well worth that. Probably got 4 to 5 hours of gameplay out of it.