Hello, i was wondering if there are any good indie games on steam to try out. Can be free or paid, i don’t mind if there’s no native linux build either (i play stuff with wine/proton anyways lol) and i don’t mind the genre. I’ve been thinking of trying something new as of recent so i thought i might ask it here.
Thanks!
Are there any good indie games on the world’s largest video game store? I dunno, are there any leafy trees in the Amazon?
From what I’ve been playing: Stardew Valley, Factorio, Vampire Survivors, Derail Valley, A Hat In Time, Project Wingman, Frostpunk 1 and 2, Portal 2 (technically self-published), Signalis. Voices Of The Void will eventually have a Steam release. All of those games work well on Linux.
Vampire Survivors
My addition to Vampire survivor is Brotato
In addition to Vampire Survivors:
Holocure
nope sorry, none.
I play indie games a bunch, here’s my shortlist:
- Factorio (factory builder)
- Enter the Gungeon (bullethell top down shooter)
- Slay the spire (rougelike deckbuilder)
- Subnautica (underwater exploration/survival/base building) - nr 2 is in early access, publisher deal with Krafton so good for the devs they fucked up trying to get out)
- Megabonk (rougelike auto-shooting, 3d vampire survivors type)
- Outer Wilds (space mystery exploration)
- Chants of Senaar (language decoding)
- Return to the Obra Dinn (forensics)
- Dave the Diver (dive fishing/sushi serving)
- Celeste (2d platformer)
- Neon White (speedrunning FPS)
- Papers Please (soviet style document checking)
- Cuphead (metroidvania)
- Magic Archery (very short and solid incremental, free and unmonetized, very rare)
- Inscryption (deckbuilder)
- Schedule I (drug dealing sim)
- Hollow Night (2d platformer Soulslike)
- Hades (roguelite)
All of them are good and they’re mostly different types of games. All are tons of fun to play and most of them have a very charming art style (schedule I, and Megabonk Notably lacking there)
Out of these the absolute favorites are Factorio, Outer Wilds, Return to the Obra Dinn.
Side note, very important you stick with Outer Wilds until you find a major secret, people sometimes bounce off it and miss out on a once in a lifetime gaming experience.
Can confirm that Outer Wilds and Return of the Obra Dinn are amazing games unlike anything I’ve had played before. Though both needed some time before it clicked for me. Subnautica, Celeste, Hollow Knight, and Hades are solid games too.
I’d also like to mention Soma (a horror game I still often think about) and the two Ori games (metroidvanias with incredible soundtracks).
If you liked Obra Dinn, I really like The Roottrees are Dead which was very similar but kind of different.
Thanks for the recommendation. That looks interesting. Added to my wishlist. Hope there’s not too much typing or it might get tiresome on the steam deck.
Well you can highlight text to search for, instead of typing, but still I wouldn’t really recommend it for the deck I guess. Maybe with the trackpads simulating a mouse, but I haven’t tried it to see how it feels. I played it on a pc proper.
My partner and I played Roottrees together and I think it might have been our favourite game ever. We really enjoyed The Case of the Golden Idol too which scratches a similar itch (though I would love for them to make a Roottrees sequel)
I could never get into Outer Wilds; had no clue what to do and the space controls are really wonky.
I can completely see why the gameplay might not be for everyone. I don’t remember struggling with the spaceship controls but maybe I just got used it it. If you ever want to give it another go I’d suggest exploring the starting planet first, then maybe go to the moon, and then explore the other planets. You don’t need to visit stuff in a particular order and are sort of led by your own curiosity. Though there’s a logbook in your spaceship for collecting clues which also gives some pointers where to go next.
Magic Archery (very short and solid incremental, free and unmonetized, very rare)
If you like incrementals look at the Gnorp Apologue. Very well designed and the presentation is top tier. Good enough to have spawned new ‘Gnorp-like’ games:
Dwarf Eats Mountain is very gnorp-like, it just released so the balance is a little rough but the dev is very active (there’s been 4 updates in the past 3 days).
Journey to Incrementalia same idea, it does a good job on having unique troop ‘builds’ due to the synergies between different types of units and the prestige upgrades.
Honorable Mention: Tower Wizard, more standard incremental but well done.
Factorio, 100%
Eh… Tons? 🤔
Caves of Qud. I’m still on the fence about whether or not I like the perma-death mode, but the writing is fantastically poetic and it’s clear the systems of interactivity in the game world are expansive beyond what I could ever hope to really comprehend.
This is the correct answer. Moonring is also an acceptable answer, and also free.
This must be a troll post. So many indie games on Steam
None of them are good
Must be a troll comment.
Okay, name a few bad ones and for each I’ll give you a good one in return!
Mindustry
Rimworld. Does have a native Linux port. It’s a colony simulator in space. 2D. It you have a lot of control over your colony, you can micro manage everything. I have over 1000 hours in the game.
Dwarf Fortress
Hey, finally found someone else who knows the game :D
I’m sure you’ve heard of this one already, since the internet can’t stop talking about it, but Hollow Knight and Silksong are both phenomenal games.
I’ve also got to mention one of my personal favorites, Book of Hours (and it’s predecessor, Cultist Simulator). Weather Factory’s style is… unique to say the least, but if you love them you’ll really love them.
Also Balatro. Another one that I’m sure you’ve heard of because it has taken the internet by storm.
I’ll second hollow knight and silksong, both are among my favorite games ever. I’m replaying hollow knight right now for that matter.
songs of syx, couldnt stop playing that, just started dredge aswell
Kenshi
Caves of Qud
Entropy Zero / Entropy Zero 2
MINERVA
Squad
Road to Vostok
Citizen Sleeper / Citizen Sleeper 2
Risk of Rain / Risk of Rain 2
Terra Invicta
Ghost Song
Sifu
… and if you have an inkling toward the OG ‘walking simulator’…
Dear Esther: Landmark Edition
I am mostly confident that all of those are either self published or published via what was at least at the time of original release of the game, a fairly small indie publisher.
EZ and EZ2 are technically mods for HL2 but they are pretty darn good and then quite good, respectively.
Dear Esther and MINERVA are also HL2 mods.
Squad is basically the old Project Reality mod for Battlefield 2, but made in Unreal Engine by at least originally about 75% of the old PR mod team.
Anyway, I tried to pick some games that are indie, but are not as well known, largely due to not being cutesy.
EDIT
Forgot this one:
If you want a tank combat simulator game, on approximately the same level of fidelity of a flight simulator:
GHPC / Gunner, Heat, PC!
For when you finally get tired of Warthunder/Gaijin’s bullshit, lol.
I guess technically you could describe the ARMA games as ‘indie’ in that they are self published, but they’re also fucking huge, and ARMA is basically the consumer grade version of the military simulators they literally sell/lease to real world militaries.
Also, I would say Disco Elysium, but at this point, you should pirate it, after all the bullshit the publisher has done.
(which is arguably the more cannonically accurate way to play the game, if you haven’t yet)
Any genre is pretty wide open but I’ll list some of my most played.
- Oxygen not included
- Hydroneer
- Abiotic Factor
- Raft
- Planet crafter
- Against the storm
- Graveyard keeper
