Games

Ara Fell

The whole things just a massive labor of love from a relatively small indy studio. At one point it was an RPG Maker game that was delightfully well polished in terms of story, art, and environment. After the devs got tired to rpg maker limitations, they ported the whole thing to Unity and re-released it as a free Enhanced Edition update. Childhood me played the shit out of GBA Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and it very much scratches that JRPG itch.

Rags to Riches C64

I found this game a few years ago after playing a remake on Pico-8. The premise is youre an unhoused person who just got out of jail, and you have to collect cans and change, find work, get an education, and a nice job, all while avoiding several hazards like muggers and the IRS.

I found it surprisingly addictive and very fun.

Toodee and Topdee (559 reviews)

Puzzle platformer/block pushing hybrid

The 2d platforming world and top-down world have smashed together. You control one hero from each dimension, who share the same space in the levels. You switch between platformer and top-down modes and must get both characters to the goal. The boss levels are hard but very cool, combining action and puzzles.

Also features local 2-player co-op and a generous assist mode.

Underhero is a RPG. There is (bad) 2D platforming and an interesting blend between turn based and real time battles with decent amount of player expression, but I find most interesting the writing and scenarios you will find yourself in during the game. You play as an Underling after the Hero has an unfortunate accident after all, and while technically a silent protagonist, all entries in the journal/hint system/to-do list are just brimming with personality.

I swear I first saw this game in list of "Paper Mario-likes", but I can't find a single video with that topic that mentions it, and now I realize that it only has like 600 reviews on steam.

20 Small Mazes

If you're looking to kill a couple hours and love puzzle games, give 20 Small Mazes a go. I really enjoyed the variety.

Best of all, it's free.

Evochron Legacy if you want a space game that also lets you fly down onto planet's atmospheres, with the appropriate air drag limiting your max speed.

I should probably try playing it again sometime, it's very rough around the edges, but can be fun for people that enjoy ship piloting in space.

Global Gladiators

It's basically capitalism as a game, but for the Genesis/Mega Drive era it was a surprisingly fun game. When I was a kid I played this before I even knew what McDonalds was, and many people I know thought I was crazy when I talked about a game I played where you collected the Golden Arches while being guided by Ronald McDonald on an environmental quest.

Cleaning the System is a platformer where you jump through levels as some kind of pogo stick. The movement is really fun and if you bounce well you can build up a lot of momentum, which lends itself to speedrunning.

There is also a free version of it from the GMTK game jam where it placed very well

Infested Planet

RTS. Kind of reminds me of the ground comabt from Star Wars Empire at War crossed with Starship Troopers. Command a squad of space marines tasked with battling an overwhelming alien horde. Pretty fun campaign (if a bit of a predictable story), plus an endless mode. Not exceedingly difficult, but definitely challenging enough to make you think tactically and keep you on your strategic toes. Somewhat limited replayability makes the sticker price hard to recommend (unless your bread and butter is RTS), but it regularly goes on sale for less than $5, which it is absolutely worth!

Achron A RTS with time travel. You can actually send troops and orders in the past to change the outcome of the battle.
https://youtu.be/b6YYWCW1wVs?si=UfuVQX0j4c8fFIkZ

It's a shame it never got big. The time travel mechanic is awesome.

NandGame is a browser puzzle game, where you start of by building basic logic gates from relays and progress from there all the way trough processor design to compiling high-level languages. It does not hold your hand too much, but the invidual puzzles progress so incrementally, it feels almost magical how easily you learn to build computers and compilers.

Well of Souls was a little primordial mmorpg I got in a 100 games CD a while back. I used to have tons of fun making a custom character from sprites and seeing how far I could get. When I played it never felt mmo ish as it was already pretty empty.

Mobmania https://store.steampowered.com/app/2099220/Mobmania/

It's an Bullet Heaven game like Vampire Survivor. You can play online with up to 4 Friends and every Character has it's own Skills. The Game is still in Early Access but it gets Updates regularly.

Croakoloco

A small and simple semi-idle frog collecting game where you simply collect rare frogs and let them generate buckaroos so you can collect rarer frogs. There's a free demo that got me hooked to occasionally logging on and collecting more frogs.

Golf Club Nostalgia(917 Reviews)

This is a game that isn't here for the game play. I think if you are paying at all attention to the boring dystopia, or climate collapse communities then this will hit in a way that is hard to define.

Its a golf game. Simple, could be played on a phone really, but you have to have the sound on for this one.
You are a member of the elite refugees who have fled to Mars and only return back to Earth to use the husk of a planet for a round of golf. And your companion is a lone radio broadcast from Mars of what they have left, which is stories and the rare music that was saved.

The combination of overwhelmingly good world building and consistent vibe even down to the level names and journal entries hits like a train and made me cry at least a couple times.
It made me feel nostalgiac for a world that has not yet come to pass and is a great on sale pick.

Astalon: Tears of the Earth. Really fun 8-bit roguelite metroidvania where you swap between characters to access different parts of the dungeon.

Bopl Battle is a hilarious party game for up to 4 people. The rounds go really quick so it's a great game to play with friends when you have a limited amount of time, but the fun doesn't wear out fast either.

Alina of the Arena

Hex based rouge like deck builder. If we're taking indy gems, this one's probably a nice Amethyst. Not quite the most polished (the game kind of just throws you in without much of a tutorial and the story's pretty bare bones), but overall a solid B. If Slay the Spire and Into the Breach are your jams it'll be right up your alley.

Globulation2 brings a new type of gameplay to RTS games. The player chooses the number of units to assign to various tasks, and the units do their best to satisfy the requests. This allows players to manage more units and focus on strategy rather than on micro-management.

It's actually quite old and has gone through stretches of inactivity, but appears to be kept in working order in its git repo, and recently has been getting maintenance patches.

Spin Rhythm XD is a highly enjoyable rhythm game where you spin a wheel with two colors and match them with the beats on the game's rhythm track.

Here's a description from Steam:

Enter the Rhythm Dimension. A homage to classic arcade rhythm games (Guitar Hero, DDR), with a modern aesthetic and soundtrack. Match colours and beats, spin, tap, flick and flow through the juiciest beats in the universe. Supports multiple control styles including MIDI DJ gear on Steam!

Edit: at the time of writing this, I didn't realize that this game had 3.5K reviews on Steam, but literally nobody I asked knew about the game, so I guess it kinda counts.

Nexus: the Jupiter incident. It is a now a bit old tactical space combat game with a big focus on the narrative. It's awesome, but I never see it mentioned anywhere.

For my it's Bone's Café.

Imagine overcooked but where you kill and use your customers as ingredients and can raise skeletons from the dead to automate as your chefs and servers. It's overall a very well put together game, especially for one with 240 reviews (total)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1739070/Bones_Cafe/

I haven't played it couch co-op but the solo play has been really enjoyable

D-Day Normandy is a Quake 2 total conversion mod that is a standalone game. Our website is currently reduced to a forum, but we hope to get that back on track soon. The admin is currently unavailable... Anyways, WW2 FPS from around 2000. Class-based, objective or fraglimit (or both in some maps). Runs on everything these days. We have a couple servers worldwide, more info on ddaydev.com.

Within a Deep Forest

The first game I ever completed and the first time I left a review for a game. The music, the atmosphere, the design, everything blew away. It was freeware from back in 2006. Made by a guy called Nifflas. It's a sidescrolling platformer where you are an intelligent bouncing ball. I still think about it to this day.