5mo ago

Recommendation engine: Downvote any game you've heard of before

This might be a slightly unusual attempt at a prompt, but might draw some appealing unusual options.

The way it goes: Suggest games, ideally the kind that you believe would have relatively broad appeal. Don't feel bad about downvotes, but do downvote any game that's suggested if you have heard of it before (Perhaps, give some special treatment if it was literally your game of the year). This rule is meant to encourage people to post the indie darlings that took some unusual attention and discovery to be aware of and appreciate.

If possible, link to the Steam pages for the games in question, so that anyone interested can quickly take a look at screenshots and reviews. And, as a general tip, anything with over 1000 steam reviews probably doesn't belong here. While I'd recommend that you only suggest one game per post, at the very most limit it to three.

If I am incorrect about downvotes being inconsequential account-wide, say so and it might be possible to work out a different system.

335 comments

In Grotto, you play the role of a soothsayer living in a cave who is occasionally visited by members of a tribal society living nearby. They come to you with problems, and they want you to present your opinion, but you can't speak. You have access to constellations of stars, which each hold different meanings, and you must present your answers in the form of a single constellation, which the petitioners are left to interpret.
You'll feel a bit of frustration as your intended message is missed completely in favor of something that the petitioner wanted to hear, and the same constellation might mean different things to different people, but that's just part of the game. The story unfolds around you and its progression is communicated to you only through the explanations your petitioners give for their visit. Each is a uniquely unreliable narrator, so what you believe is for you to decide.
Two endings, and an interesting story with some occasionally unexpected consequences that might make you feel bad, so if a game giving you a case of the sads is unappealing, maybe take that into consideration.
- fantastic game by the makers of Laika, check out their whole ludography

Ooh, I'll play.
Final Profit: A Shop RPG is an RPG about a deposed elf queen who opens a humble shop and slowly advances through the ranks of the Bureau of Business with the eventual goal of defeating Capitalism from within. It's unique. It has some incremental game like mechanics, and can get a little repetitive in the mid-game, but it has a surprisingly compelling story and a lot of unfolding mechanics that keep it interesting all the way through.
Roughly a 30 hour playthrough with many endings, NG+ and some optional challenge modes that remove or change some of the most obvious strategies for advancement, so if you finish it and still want more, you can play through again with a somewhat different experience.
- I really can't handle the RPGMaker look of it.
  I'm willing to give it a try though
  
  It's unfortunate that RPGMaker games have such a consistent and distinct aesthetic, it's really obvious when a game was made with the engine, and a lot of the reviews mention it, too.
  That said, this is definitely one of the best RPGMaker games I've played. They really stretch what's possible with it. Can't get away from that look, though.
- Man this made me feel guilty downvoting. Great game, a real surprise packet for me, think I got it in a Humble Bundle and tried on a whim and had a great time.
  Think it’s an Aussie dev (single person?) too, and still getting pretty frequent large content updates
  
  The dev is also very responsive! I left a (positive) review with some critical feedback and they commented on it very quickly and had a bit of a dialog with me about the comments I'd made; they ended up revising the Steam page based on review feedback (mine and others), too, which made me want to support them even more!

Occult Crime Police is a fantastic free offering for those looking for a bit more Ace Attorney. It mostly follows the gameplay of Ace Attorney games, in which you investigate murder scenes involving strange, paranormal phenomena, and then discover contradictions in people's witness accounts to uncover the culprit. It's a bit easy, but maintains some great humor and charming animation production value.
- This is SOLID GOLD holy shit
  edit: OKAY I FINISHED THE FIRST CASE ABSOLUTELY PLAY THIS
  
  Continuing this in the same thread as it's a bit topical:
  Are you a fan of Love Live! School Idol? Me neither! I basically knew nothing about it at all. Regardless, Gyakuten Live is an incredibly detailed cutesy Ace Attorney style game, in which the characters of the show gather for "school trials". Though you may need to put up with a cutesier all-girl cast, and the stakes are much lighter and involve things like stolen possessions rather than murder, the mysteries end up having a surprising number of twists and even some heartfelt motives at the end. Features a fully custom soundtrack and LOTS of custom artwork, matched with some traditionally silly Ace Attorney humor.
  So far, THREE cases are available, and each features a different prosecutor. The game's page lists plans to continue up to 6 episodes.
  In ItchIO's standard, the game is "name your own price" - so you can choose to download it for free. It's unlikely to come to Steam since it technically infringes on an anime/manga without permission.
  One more coming if my AA recommendations are well received.
- Adding one more to the Ace Attorney spinoff block:
  Tyrion Cuthbert: Attorney of the Arcane is a well-written fan spinoff of the AA formula, taking place in a fantasy universe where magic is real, but mostly the domain of the nobility. Trials are a form of theatre, where the nobility knows how to tip the scale, but your mentor knows how to tip them back.
  It introduces some very enjoyable mechanics, in which knowledge of each spell's effects and conditions constitutes its own evidence. Tyrion bears his own magical ability that lets him view the thoughts of witnesses. He is also accompanied by the defendant of his first case, a mercenary-mage named Celeste, who gets a lot of investigation banter with Tyrion, much like Maya and Phoenix.
  Five cases in all, and none of them are shortened crapshoot cases, nor is there a downer ending; all the major threads conclude with satisfying endings, and the developer hopes to make a sequel from the world they've built.
  Oh, and as is common for AA games, take a listen to "Eye of Horus", the game's equivalent of the "Objection!" theme when Tyrion nails a contradiction. The game's soundtrack as a whole has some real bangers, for both the high points and the emotional pulls.

I don't have any suggestions but I do like this prompt and I see a lot of games I've never heard of
- I don’t either but this is such a great discussion. I’ve come across quite a few interesting sounding games here. Thanks OP.

Magnetic By Nature is a 2D platformer where you are generally using either attract or repel mechanics. I came across this game on the PAX East show floor, and it really wowed me. I may be one of only a few hundred people who ever played it. There's a bonus chapter, after the credits, that was kind of bullshit, but the 7 or so hours of gameplay before it was fun, challenging, and unique. Initially available for like $15, it's now down to $1, and it's a steal at that price.

The Precursors.
A first person scifi FPS-RPG. Developed in Ukraine. Very unique experience wrapped inside of a concept that's been done before. High slavjank tolerance required.

Quest Master. Mario Maker meets Zelda dungeons, done well. It deserves way more attention than it's currently getting, and it's pretty fun with huge potential despite being early access.
- This looks rad!
  On a similar note I Wanna Maker which is more or less Mario Maker but free and tonnes of developer created and user created levels to play through.
  
  Oh, that is great. I have fond (painful) memories of I Wanna be the Guy, and this seems right up my nostalgia alley.
- I like this stuff and I wanted to get either this or Super Dungeon Maker.
  But kinda hard to pick a side since they both look like they have overlapping small communities. And games like this, communities are the only reason to play.
  
  Pick Quest Master. The developer is extremely active and responsive to community feedback and requests. There's even weekly content updates.

Moonlight Pulse (83 reviews)
Metroidvania with character-switching
This 2D platformer metroidvania has memorable characters and very cool worldbuilding. You switch between characters to match their abilities to the right situations. They live on a living, planet-sized creature and are fighting off the parasites that are slowly killing their creature-planet. You'll swim through its blood vessels and explore its organs.
It's not super long—I finished the story in 9 hours. It's just about the right length to satisfy.

Copy Editor: A RegEx Puzzle Game
It's a word-puzzle game that incrementally teaches you how to use Regular Expressions (RegEx) to find & replace text. Some of the puzzles add silly restraints for you to work around, and the game has charming NPC coworkers that introduce each challenge.
- Never heard of it, and sounds awesome, regexes are the sort of things that need lots of practice to be good at, a game seems like a great way to keep the skill alive
- Ah yes, a game that taunts me about my shitty regex-fu.
  After a decade, I don't think I'll ever remember how to regex without a cheat sheet.

Calcium Contract is a boomer shooter with a pretty unique rewind feature. Humorous with old school feels, but for a modern time. It’s a one man project.

The Masterplan is a true heist game. You know that fantasy of playing out a heist from Heat? This is that game. It's top down, and you control all of the members of the crew. You pick your time to initiate the heist, you hold up people at gunpoint, you prevent them from being a hero, and you try your best to get out with the best score that you can. It's a real bummer that this team never got to make another game.

Cozy Space Survivors is a short (few hours) cozy survivor-like indie game with pixel graphics. A run is only ten minutes, so it works also for people with not too much time. It is developed by a single person and it is his first release.
- I've bought so many Survivor games and many are so bad.
  This one looks like it's trying something unique. I'll take it for a spin.
  
  What are your picks of the genre?
  I’ve also tried a whole bunch, my favourite is probably Rogue: Genesia, I really like the challenges and metaprogression over some of the other titles I’ve tried

Tametsi
Simple premise is basically Minesweeper, but all the puzzles are handcrafted with some neat designs and concepts that will stretch your puzzle solving to the limit. Also importantly, no guessing required to solve and it’s dirt cheap for the amount of hours of puzzles you get!
- Piggybacking off of this comment, if you happen to enjoy Minesweeper, I recommend:
  14 Minesweeper Variants
  No guessing is required to solve any puzzle either, despite some variants seeming completely impossible.
  Fun fact: There's an achievement for stumbling across a level with a conpletely empty starting board, without any spaces being revealed to be mines or non-mines. Yes, that can be solved without guessing.
  Fun fact 2: I'd argue there are more than 14 variants.

Cannon Brawl is a unique kind of RTS where it's sort of like StarCraft meets Worms. You need to expand something like "the creep" from the Zerg in StarCraft in order to build, but you can also destroy the terrain under your opponent like in Worms. I kid you not when I say this has been one of my go-to local multiplayer games for a decade, and it rules.
- This is the first comment I've found talking about a game I've played. Had a lot of fun playing cannon brawl it feels wrong to downvote your comment.

ECHO (2017)! It's an indie game with AAA-feeling production quality from a tiny Danish studio that sadly went bankrupt after the game only sold a few thousand copies. I played it during lockdown on an old recommendation from MetaFilter and it has since become one of my favorite hidden gem titles.
Trailer
You play a bounty hunter named En (voiced by Game of Thrones star Rose Leslie) who wakes from hibernation when her spaceship arrives at a legendary artificial planet said to hold the secret to resurrection and eternal life. When she arrives on the surface, she soon discovers that its interior is a vast, abandoned baroque Palace, straight through to the core. As she wanders the infinite halls guided by her witheringly sarcastic AI London (voiced by Nicholas Boulton), she is surprised to find the Palace generates hostile clones of herself that hunt her down and copy her actions in a unique spin on the stealth genre. Gameplay consists of trying to navigate through various beautiful, byzantine concourses, collecting artifacts and unlocking elevators that lead deeper into the secret at the heart of the planet.
You may or may not enjoy this based on how you feel about stealth games with minimalist combat, but for me the challenging adaptive gameplay combined with the evocative score, compelling voice acting, intriguing story, and gorgeous environmental/sound/UI design made this a really nice surprise. (And while the studio might be dead, I'm really hoping the plans to turn it into a movie eventually rise from development hell.)
- This is an incredible game I highly recommend, but I had to downvote because rules
- When a publisher goes bust, who gets the money from game sales after that point?

The Black Pool is a game I decided to try recently. It reminds me a lot of Returnal in terms of visuals and gameplay, but I don't expect the story to evolve much beyond the initial "kids lost in the woods trying to get home."
It's a 4-player roguelike where you get to choose random elements to slot into different abilities, namely a Primary, Secondary, and AOE attack as well as a jump, dodge, and once-per-world 'rally' buff. Each element makes the ability act differently, like a light primary is a slow charging piercing laser while wind is a projectile with knockback, and you also get to upgrade your elemental abilities after each stage you clear. I'm only about an hour into it so far, but I definitely think it deserves a little more than the 29 player peak it got right after it launched.

I think this is the only thread where I actually haven't seen any of the games before.
Another game I enjoyed was The Eternal Castle (remastered). It's a remake of a game from 1987. The animation is great and the visual style is really cool.

Gridworld - a simulation game made up of a grid, as the name suggests. You can control the size of the grid, and what spawns in it. The core of the game are these tiny creatures that each take up 1 square. They have varying nodes on them that represent traits and abilities. Under the hood the game says these have to be "wired" correctly by the neural network to make a creature act right. So basically you let this thing run for hours and eventually get little square creatures that eat plants and maybe each other to live.

Return Fire was a head-to-head military shooter, with a choice of four different vehicles of destruction, and is played split-screen on PC with one keyboard. I think I only ever had the demo but it was fantastic.
- This was the 3DO game.

Sulphur Nimbus: Hel's Elixir, a $6 (currently) game on itch.io. It started from the idea of an MLP fangame, but early in development evolved into an original setting.
This is a 3D physics platformer adventure with an unhindered flying character. Your hippogriff, Sulphur Nimbus, is an aerial photographer aboard a cargo ship, which is passing a mysterious atoll on the way to their destination. The crew want you to get pictures of the island, which has a castle that's been abandoned for decades. Unfortunately, after flying over there, a nasty storm builds up and you get zapped by lightning. After a flashback tutorial on how to fly, you wake up on the island shores, your wing is injured, and you have to run to safety, finding out this place is dangerous... so dangerous a resident dogicorn (like a hippogriff, but it's half dog and half unicorn instead of half bird half pony) has to rescue you when a lovecraftian horror tries to take you down into presumably Hel. Waking up in a castle room, your wing is healed, and you can fly again.
Now the game begins. Clear the boss monsters and rout them out of this island, area by area. Break the curse that binds you to this island. Find out what happened here.
What's unique about Sulphur Nimbus is the movement. Running, fighting, and jumping has physics to it, allowing for some parkour stuff to be possible, like running up steep inclines and wall jumping. Flight is realistic. There are no arbitrary limitations, other than a regenerating "flap" stamina. If you can get enough speed to take off, and if there's enough room to maneuver, you can fly. Level designs include lots of caves and enclosed spaces, but also lots of open areas, so being able to fly is a requirement to get through it, while also a challenge. While the game is designed for kb and mouse controls, honestly, a gamepad works very well with this game and is preferred. It also is cross platform, as it is made in java, and includes Windows, Mac, and Linux. The source code is on sourceforge and allows you to build the whole game yourself if you are so inclined.
There's no other platforming adventure game that attempts this, and I have tried every "become birb" game out there. They all are either bird simulators or use flight as a fast travel, but not as a core gameplay mechanic like this.

Pioneer is a great remake of the original Elite Space Sim.
It simulates the entire galaxy (core systems are hand-built, everything else procedurally generated), allows landing on planets, trading, combat, etc.
It features the original game's Newtonian physics, so actually arriving safely at your destination is a challenge in itself, similar to flying in Kerbal Space Program. But the HUD gives you all the info you need for that.
Oh, and it's fully open source and moddable.
- Isn't it a remake of elite ii? Oolite is more like elite 1

Taiji (906 reviews)
Nonlinear discovery-based puzzles
If you liked the puzzle design of The Witness, you'll enjoy Taiji as more of that but with scenic pixel art.
Instead of a linear sequence of tutorials and puzzles, Taiji is open-ended. You can wander wherever you want, solve the puzzles you stumble upon, and ultimately discover this place's secrets. Sometimes you find a puzzle that you don't understand, so you'll just have to leave it for later, when you've learned more puzzle mechanics. It's like a metroidvania but gated by knowledge instead of abilities.
All the puzzles are built on grids of tiles that you can turn on or off. There are no tutorials; you have to figure out the puzzle mechanics on your own, hinted by environmental details.
- Taiji was waaaaay harder than the Witness for me personally, but great choice. The vibe and music and what not is super chill also
  
  definitely scratches the same itch more than games like the talos principle. there's like one group it completely fails to properly tutorialize imo, and one that kind of falls short (although having played the witness will make your assumptions more accurate i think). other than that it's a brilliant game.

This one isn't super new, but Druidstone. It's a story based tactics game with some RPG elements and it's just excellently done. I've never heard anyone else mention it and I think more people should know about it.
- https://store.steampowered.com/app/954650/Druidstone_The_Secret_of_the_Menhir_Forest/
  This one :)
  
  Thanks for doing what I didn't have time to!
  Also available on GOG for those who prefer.
- It was pretty good, but I got stuck on an annoying mission and dropped it. Really wish that dev had just made grimrock 3, but I respect not wanting to do the same thing over and over...

I always like to give a mention to Your Spider. There are very few reviews (one of which are mine), but the game definitely deserves more attention.

Knights Within
Solo indie dev mashup of Risk of Rain, Helldivers, Vermintide, etc with its own soul and style of knights with guns. Dev is very active in the discord and takes feedback and actively plays with the small community the game has garnered.
I played the demo on a whim during a next fest expecting a janky joke of a game to laugh at but a decent and fun game caught me by surprise. It’s been improved and updated quite a bit since then.

The Last Sovereign (NSFW) is an 18+ RPGmaker game. The basic premise is this: What if you had a setting with a bunch of hentai tropes lumped together and played straight, with no porn logic or stupid characters?
You play as a middle aged, very competent army veteran who gains the powers of an incubus, and reluctantly uses them with the aim of making the world a better place, slowly developing a harem of well realized, cool characters along the way. There's sex scenes, obviously, but you very quickly forget all about them as you are plunged into an underdog story where you have to manage your fledgling armies + resources and have to constantly make tough decisions.
- It speaks volumes that this is the only game in the comment section I have to downvote
- This item is currently unavailable in your region
  Piss off Steam, this sounds hilarious
  
  The game is free, you can also get it on the author's blog or through itch.io
  
  f95zone has it almost certainly, if not, request it in a request thread, done.
  works for pretty much any NSFW title ;)

AAAAXY. AAAAXY is a nonlinear 2D puzzle platformer taking place in impossible spaces. You can take a walk on a Möbius strip, try to find the platform with your train at the train station, and play a piano that makes the Shepard tone. It will be a bit confusing at first, but I promise it will eventually get fun.
It's not on Steam, but it's available for download on the website for free. Linux, Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS. Also on F-Droid and FlatHub. give it a try im begging you

Maize, a point and click/walking simulator/puzzle game about a secret military project to create sentient corn. Quite possibly the silliest game I've ever played.
- Link doesn't seem to work for me because the parentheses breaks the link.
  Here's the steam link for anyone else
  
  That's weird. The link should be to the Wikipedia entry but thanks for making a steam link too!

Promenade
A short 2D Collectathon in the style of 5th Generation games of the genre. Jump into a 2D world and explore, solve puzzles and overcome challenges to collect gears to take you higher. A beautiful art style and soundtrack make me wonder why this wasn't talked about more when it came out earlier this year

Tin Can
Tin Can is a space survival simulator, where you are trapped in an escape pod after the loss of your ship. There are a few systems in your escape pod, and each system has components you need to look after. Your pod regularly flies through astoroid fields & other space phenomena that break these component parts forcing you to repair, replace or do without the systems keeping you afloat.
- Downvoting per the rules, as I spent months obsessed with this game, having notes with the codes open on my second screen. Excellent game.
  
  I did mention in the rules, if it was good enough to actually be your game of the year, you can make an exception. (I’m trusting that doesn’t mean we see Baldur’s Gate 3 on top or something)
- Requisite downvote, but also mention that the devs of Tin Can are about to start alpha testing of their multiplayer sequel named Space Chaos.

It's a Block Pushing Game is a sokobanlike from the creator of Baba Is You. It's relatively short but has multiple novel mechanics. I enjoyed it enough to create a curses client for it.
PS: If you like Baba Is You, Hempuli publishes multiple new games per month, mostly clever sokoban-likes, at https://hempuli.itch.io/

Azimuth
Azimuth is a metroidvania game, and something of an homage to the previous greats of the genre (Super Metroid in particular). You will need to pilot your ship, explore the inside of the planet, fight enemies, overcome obstacles, and uncover the storyline piece by piece. Azimuth features a huge game world to explore, lots of little puzzles to solve, dozens of weapons and upgrades to find and use, and a wide variety of enemies and bosses to tangle with.
It is open source and available for Windows, macOS, and Linux.

CONCLUSE
Concluse is an atmospheric horror game which features puzzles, outstanding cutscenes, and something a little twisted..
This one is free! Unfortunately a lot of my niche games are horror, not sure how broad of an appeal that is, but hopefully there's some horror fans here :)

Encased is a CRPG, heavily inspired by the classic Fallout games, bringing it's mechanics into the modern age. It's story is based on the classic book "Roadside Picknick" (known for being the inspiration of the Stalker series) and is very well written. It has a story narrator, similar to the Divinity: Original Sin games and a very in depth character creation. At the start you choose a department of a research company to work in, which will change the way you interact with many characters, adding some replay value. Anything more I could say would be a spoiler, but the entire beginning (first half to one hour) is an absolute banger.
It's my favorite indie game of the last few years and at the time of writing this, it is currently 90% of on steam, an absolute bargain
- Your description got my attention, so I opened the steam link to consider buying it and... Hey, it was already in my library!
- I may have to try it again some day. I thought the story and world was interesting and engaging. I played without guides and despite trying to explore and do everything while following the main story line, I soon found myself extremely underleveled to enemies. I thought it was hilarious that each person in the game is assigned a color based on their role in the colony so sometimes you meet someone who is introduced a being "a black"
- It is also currently on sale, for historic low price.
- God I love this game! Have done since a bought it a few years back.

Suits: a Business RPG is short but entertaining

Spheres of Chaos is an old asteroids based game that really ups the ante on trippyness and cool sounds
I should warn you though that it is very flashy, so epilepsy warning is in order

Lorn's Lure (currently demo only, releases in 3 weeks)
An android is led through a vast structure by a glitch in his visual system. Lorn's Lure is an atmospheric narrative first-person platformer with novel climb-anything mechanics and modernized retro 3D graphics.

Our Adventuring Guild doesn't look like much on its cover but it scratches all the management sim and tactics RPG urges that I enjoy, while also having some surprisingly cute writing (while still mainlining the classic fantasy RPG themes)
- Picked this one up on a whim from a summer sale discovery queue and it's been such a delightful surprise! I'll second scratching the RPG and tactics itch, just wish I had more free time in my life right now because the game is turn based crack for me.
  Bonus points for being a Unity game which makes it technically moddable (even if the developer has no plans of adding official support for it).
- Throwing in Tactical Breach Wizards, because it just came out and has very similar trun based tactics vibes, but with more sarcastic/ absurd humor that you'd expect from Heat Signature or Gun Point (on account of being from the same developer).
  Scratch that, there's an entry further down: https://lemmy.world/comment/11991845

Aw yeah! This is where my knowledge of absurdly good but extremely niche games comes in. I think I'll make multiple replies to this comment.
Chronosphere
Think enter the gungeon combined with superhot, but simplified a lot. It's a turn based bullet hell, and an excellent arcade game playable in the browser.
EDIT: I'd also like to take this oppurtunity to talk about flashpoint. Flashpoint is a massive archive of basically every flash game and animation, and you can even play them again.
However, in addition to flash projects, I also noticed that flashpoint also archives HTML/HTML5 games... but only a subset of them. Although flashpoint's primary purpose still is as a flash archive, it can also be used as a curated list of HTML5 games.
Here is a website that lets you search the flashpoint database
- Code Romantic
  Learn the pleasures of loving another human, and the pain of being a programmer — at the same time!
- Bonk.io
  A simple but elegant io game. You are a ball, and you want to knock other balls to the ground.
  One thing I like is that rounds in small, 4 person lobbies, rather than the massive worlds of other io games. Although you can't really make friends, you can know personas, and it's more personable.
- Spent
  A short questionaire game that demonstrates the difficulties of poverty.
  
  Spent
  This game hurts, got a bit of water in my eyes. Hit me in feeling bruh.
- PhobosLabs
  This site has a few high quality browser games. The one I come back to is X Type, a bullet hell shoot-em up that has ever expanding enemy ship sizes, and never ends. It gets hard fast.
  I also like Xibalba, which is a Doom/Wolfenstein style game playable in the browser.
  The creator also did a rewrite of quake in 13 kb of javascript
  
  That guy’s seriously talented!
  Among the things he’s made, he’s also made some really nice, easy to understand, high-speed compression formats (QOI/QOA), as well as a public domain mpeg decoder.
  I’ve used all three for various projects and I’d highly recommend that most software developers check them out. If only for the learning experience.
- Ember Skull
  Fun arcade bullet hell survivors (think vampire survivors) type game. Dodge bullets, and survive as long as you can.
- Keep Out!
  A webgl/browser based 3d dungeon crawler with proceduraly generated levels.
- Master Archer
  Addictive arcade game about archery. Reminds me of flappy bird, not in the raw mechanics, but in the way they are both addicting in the same manner.
- Gridland
  Also by double speak games, and open source gridland is a variant on the match 3 style. During the day phase, you accrue and store resources, and build stuff. During the night phase, you fight.
- Cave Noire
  Gameboy roguelike that is simple, but very elegant.
  Sadly, since romhacking went down, I don't think it's possible to find the translation patch for it, unless they uploaded it to the internet archive.
- Swarm Simulator
  Open source idle game, playable in browser. No clicking, just watching numbers go up.
- Mole Mania
  Gameboy puzzle game. Very high quality.
  
  Always love to see Mole Mania get some love. One of Shigeru Miyamoto’s earliest titles he worked on also
- Touch Some Grass
  A wonderful and life changing experience.
  I like to link it without the ending title, like https://store.steampowered.com/app/1944240/ because it's funnier when people can't see the game title in the link.
- The glitched attraction
  A fnaf fangame that is close enough to feel like fnaf, but has a twist: Every single level also involves a puzzle. While trying to survive enemies fnaf style. Although I've never played this game, I LOVE watching it on Twitch. I like to call it "Human's can't multitask: The Game".
- Warfork
  Fork of the older warsow, open source movement shooter. Think quake.
  Sadly, it seems to be dead on steam.
- Free Rider HD
  Simple bike racing game, although the player is very fragile, which adds some difficulty. Playable in browser.
  All the maps are user created content.
- A Dark Room
  Open source idle game, but not quite. It eventually expands beyond watching numbers go up, into a sort of roguelike, where you can wander the world and collect stuff. And die. Die a lot.
  A Dark Room was where I first saw the @ symbol used to represent the player character.
- this game is really fun
- The Game
  Absolutely obligatory, the simply named "The Game" is a work of art, and truly a life changing experience. You'll never think about things the same after experiencing "The Game".

If I am incorrect about downvotes being inconsequential account-wide, say so and it might be possible to work out a different system.
Wouldn't "upvote if you have never heard of it" accomplish the same thing?
I guess it would depend on people reading and following the instructions, instead of just upvoting games they like. Maybe that's a bit much to ask. :P
- It can be hard to encourage people to only do this for the obscure - and can sometimes lead to moments of "Witcher 3 / Factorio Unknown Indie Darling" moments. The dream is for threads like this to not contribute to successes that are already basically "lightning in a bottle", but focus attention where developers haven't seen so much of it.
  
  Yep nailed it.
  One of the reasons I hate reddit gaming communities is if you recommend games, the top five comments on all of these threads are always the damn same.
  
  Fair points, but I can't participate in this thread because I'm on an instance that doesn't allow down votes. The up vote solution is at least a bit more inclusive
  
  This thread is very nice great idea op
- Wouldn’t “upvote if you have never heard of it” accomplish the same thing?
  That is also what is happening.

Copy Kitty: https://store.steampowered.com/app/349250/Copy_Kitty/ has a demo
Fun elimination platformer. If you wish Kirby did more with the power mixing from Kirby 64, you'll probably like it.

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.
- That looks really cool!
- It's fun. Way too hard sometimes but I think that might have been the point.
  Down voting it but it's a good recommendation for those that like puzzle platformers like Super meat boy or the best parts of hollow knight.

MOTHERED
An immersive first-person horror adventure where you play the role of LIANA - a young girl who arrives home after major surgery and is met with a strange mannequin claiming to be her mother.
This is part of a trilogy which I highly recommend checking out. All three of these are great.

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.
- Very cool. I just watched a longplay and have to ask: what does alcohol do for you? I saw the player opt for it a couple of times, but I couldn't notice a benefit.
  
  If i recall... The alcohol lets you run your hunger to zero without dying.

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.

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.

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.
- Had to downvote but it really is an awesome game. Great physics and combat, universe, politics and economics.
  
  Guess it's more well known than I'd thought!

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.

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.

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!
- Reminds me of Creeper world except faster paced and more dynamic.

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.
- Sadly, downvoting this based on the rule…
  It did pop up in my feed when it was in development. I think the time travel is neat in concept but just becomes too hard to wrap one’s head around - and from what I remember, the core RTS elements were a bit lacking.
  
  The core RTS is very standard like the first command and conquer. The visual were a bit lacking not becaus ugly but hard to differentiate between untis when in the heat of battle. The single player mission is like a large training. And I kept getting destroyed by the AI even on easy.
  I might give it a try again to play with my son, now that he is old enough. It's really the time travel that should be revived by a bigger or more experienced studio. Lots of potential in there.
- Also pissed that the Linux version never made it to Steam, now that Proton is a thing I forgot to check it again.

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

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.
- Oh my gosh I played that years ago. I even made a world for it that was exactly what you'd expect from a 13 year old.
- Oh hey! I played quite a bit of this back in the day, and now the only memory is the name! Thank you for the memory!

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.
- Had to downvote, but the game is great. I play it with my kids and it is reliably hilarious. There are so many interactions that something surprising happens with amazing regularity.
- I meet with 3 friends online every 2 weeks to discuss nerd stuff and play some video games together after, and bopl battle has been great for that.

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