Shadow Tactics and Shadow Gambit are two brilliant gems that come to mind by Mimimi Studios. I discovered them a few weeks ago and just learned they went defunct back in August because they were too niche a genre and couldn't make enough sales. They're Stealth Strategy games where you control a group of ninjas/pirates through a heavily guarded level to the objective, stealthily murdering everyone along the way. If you get seen you can easily jump back to a quick save and try again. You're not overpowered and can easily be killed by enemies so save scumming is deliberately built in to the experience to experiment with your approach.
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It's in fact three games:
- Shadow Tactics is set in feudal japan. This one has an expandalone.
- Desperados III then takes the game to the wild west.
- Shadow Gambit goes wild and gives us a magic ship and an undead pirate crew. It has two rather pricey expansions, one bringing in a character from the first game. It also has a hidden character to unlock after you beat the game, which is kinda cool.
You can notice how each game perfects the formula, but they're overall extremely similar. I would very much recommend the last one if you have to pick one, as the focus on magic allowed them to go truly wild with the character abilities. Gaelle shooting corpses and partymembers around with her cannon is a particularly fun one.
Sidenote: Far as I can tell they didn't go bankrupt or anything, they just ... stopped. They're done or so. Did the same concept three times, happy now, works for them.
Andor's Trail is a foss roguelike with a twist that it's story based, something quite rare in this genre.
Immortal Life is a farming game but with a Wuxia twist where you can use chinese magic to help you do your chores and there's a twin stick combat inside the dungeon. What surprised me was seeing the game selling well on steam, but never seeing a single article about it, strangely common with chinese indies over here.
I would imagine that most articles about Chinese Indie Games are written in Mandarin, so it's unlikely you'd see them without the ability to read Chinese.
The games are in english and they talk about japanese indies all the time though.
the Skyrim total conversion mod, Enderal: Forgotten Stories, blew me away, and it's free if you own Skyrim. Even has its own installer and game page on Steam.
Their earlier game Nehrim: At Fate's Edge is also worth a play. It runs on the Oblivion engine so it's a little dated graphically, but story- and gameplay-wise it holds up fine.
OMG-Z It's a playstation mini for the PS3/PSP.
Warp on the PS3.
Donut County isn't really a nobody game. But I never see it mentioned.
Blasphemous.
Fantastic metroidvania meets soulslike game. The art style, the lore, the atmosphere, and by God - the music!
The combat is not super great, but it's capable enough for a metroidvania.
I haven't played the second one, I hear it's kinda hit and miss.
Sebil Engineering has a really fun mechanic I've never seen before. Its like those Hot Wheels tracks you always wanted as a kid but your parents never got you, but even better. I guess its a traffic control game? Anyone have other examples of these?
From The Depths -- very deep large vehicle design and combat game, prepare to happily lose months of your life
Barotrauma -- help crew a submarine under the command of the captain to perform missions in an alien open world. fun multiplayer with good in game VOIP
Dominions (Dominions 6 just came out, but it's an iterative game so try 4 or 5 first)
So it's like civilization and battle simulator had a baby, where armies are managed by the unit and there are simulated battles of thousands.
But all the civs are loosely based on different existing mythologies and there's a crazy complex magic system
Oh, and you get to create a god that you can totally battle with.
If you like civ-like games, it's a really unique and satisfying twist on the genre with an incredible amount of sheer depth.
Treasure Adventure Game, maybe? I believe it's free, though there's a paid remake of it named Treasure Adventure World now.
Cutesy "kid goes on adventure" 2d platformer with sailing and some Metroidvania-y or Zelda-y factors. Cute pixel art and the music is very well done.
Universim.
Shadow of the Forbidden Gods - a strategy game where you play as the ancient cthonic entity waking up because the stars are right. Set in a fantasy world where the forces of good slowly become aware of the coming apocalypse and attempt to forestall your return. You have to get past the janky UI and some dreadful AI art, but the gameplay is unique and satisfying.
The Witcher 3 (/s)
Why did I have to scroll down so far for le hidden gem?
After Hades, I hope some folks went back and played Supergiant’s other titles. I love them all. But even amongst them, Pyre is the underdog, unknown, shunned. And I think it’s fantastic. The music and writing is top notch. You can really see the bones of Hades in all their games, but they polished their world building and story telling to perfection in this one.
I played it when it came out, and I still think about those characters sometimes.
I'm currently totally hooked on Tiny Rogues.
rogue Lords: it is inspired by Slay the Spire (StS). Card game with roguelike element. Here, the cards are replaced by your minions skill. But the right set of skill is less frustating to build than in StS. Making it a more fun experience, and the graphics are way above StS(not hard). As in StS , with luck/skill you can manage to build some 'infinite deck" where you never let go of the control of the battle.
Skator gator is a really fun 3d platformer. It has some time trials that I got into when I never care about things like that. It's cute and controls very well.
Where The Water Tastes Like Wine - Ever play ToeJam & Earl? This game has the same core game loop. You're on a treasure hunt, unlike ToeJam & Earl where you are trying to find spaceship parts. In Where The Water Tastes Like Wine, you meant to collect stories and then share stories with major NPCs. The stories that you collect and share, change over the course of the game. The soundtrack is also really good.
Splattercat did a video on the game.
This game isn't for everyone. It's a very, niche game.
Ostriv, an 18th century city building game. I believe it is just the single developer based in Ukraine.
Live For Speed, this one isn't quite "hidden" but is overlooked by many as it is not on any storefronts. Sim Racing history and still going strong today with the 3 original devs.
They are hidden, so I don't know about them. Sorry I couldn't be of more help.
Superfighters (original web game) and Superfighters Deluxe (on steam)
Really good 2D platform brawler based around weapon drops.
Paradigm