this post was submitted on 07 Jul 2023
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I love obscure and overlooked games and want to share a bunch with all of you. Most “hidden gem” threads end up listing titles with thousands of reviews or that got some level of marketing. I aim to mostly avoid that. While you may see a few familiar games here, everything in the list below has under 1500 reviews on Steam and most have far less. Far fewer had any notable marketing push or appearance in gaming shows or directs. And since the Steam Sale is ongoing, it’s the perfect time to try these games for yourself.

If you’d like more recommendations, comment with at least three games you like and I’ll respond with a couple more indie games hopefully suited to your tastes. Hope you enjoy!

False Skies - 37 Reviews

  • A JRPG with simple GameBoy graphics but scale matching and surpassing lots of genre classics. It’s most similar to Dragon Quest III, since both deal with custom parties and somewhat open exploration of their worlds.

Hyperspace Delivery Service - 37 Reviews

  • A Star Trek inspired take on Oregon Trail. There’s a bunch of minigames based around travel and planets and events like fighting space pirates to make each trip across space feel fresh.

Treasures of the Aegean - 57 Reviews

  • Imagine if Tomb Raider was a 2D metroidvania and had a timeloop mechanic. That’s this game. The parkour system feels great too.

DIG - Deep in Galaxies - 79 Reviews

  • Terraria/Starbound + Noita + Spelunky = this game. Fly through space to dig through planets and create broken character builds. The first free content update was also just released.

Star Drift Evolution - 169 Reviews

  • A racing game with 75 tracks, 51 vehicles, multiple camera modes, and some great handling. Probably most similar to Art of Rally, but this has more variety.

Prodigal - 182 Reviews

  • A Zelda-like game with Stardew Valley-esque characters and interactions. Loads of dungeons and a charming (if simple) story all wrapped in a GameBoy Color aesthetic.

Intergalactic Fishing - 211 Reviews

  • Travel to infinite lakes and fish in them. Despite the simple graphics there’s a lot being simulated and yet the complexity of it all never makes the game overwhelming.

Elsinor - 235 Reviews

  • An adventure game about Hamlet, but you play as Ophelia and she’s caught in a Groundhog Day scenario. While I don’t think this is the best narrative game (that would be Scarlet Hollow), I do think this is the most intriguing one with so many clever and interesting ideas to share.

RITE - 251 Reviews

  • A difficult precision platformer like Celeste, Super Meat Boy, and I Wanna Be The Guy. It’s split into dozens of bite-sized levels so it’s easy to pick up for short play sessions.

Ctrl Alt Ego - 350 Reviews

  • An immersive sim that stands toe to toe with classics like Deus Ex and Prey. You play as a detached consciousness which can jump between robots to make your way through various missions and levels however you want.

The Eternal Cylinder - 383 Reviews

  • This is like Spore, but even weirder and there’s a cylinder that’s going to kill your aliens.

ADACA - 449 Reviews

  • Imagine S.T.A.L.K.E.R. with Halo’s weapons and a special move that’s Half Life 2’s gravity gun and you’ve got ADACA. The two current story acts are just an introduction to the more open zone mode with quests and mysteries to explore and solve.

Legend Bowl - 723 Reviews

  • If you ever played Tecmo Bowl or Superbowl on the SNES, this is basically an upgraded version. I think this is the best American Football game on Steam. Mutant Football League is a close second.

Environmental Station Alpha - 1046 Reviews

  • It’s really difficult, but I think this is the best encapsulation of the Metroidvania formula. Plus the postgame is more substantial than you’ll probably expect.

Heaven's Vault - 1410 Reviews

  • Did you like uncovering the secrets of an ancient alien civilization in Outer Wilds? This offers something like that, with a slower pace, more direct narrative, and focus on learning a lost language.

Northern Journey - 1453 Reviews

  • Explore a mystical and mysterious Nordic region. The atmosphere this game builds for itself through environments and music is possibly the best I’ve ever experienced in any game ever. It’s really that good.
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[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Really enjoyed Heaven's Vault.

Surprised that The Enteral Cylinder only has 300-ish reviews. I remember seeing it all over the new when it launched. How is it?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Oh wow, I missed it early on! The Eternal Cylinder is good, but some occasionally clunky gameplay alongside the very unique alien designs might turn some people away. It crashed twice on me and once you figure out all the systems of play it can feel simple (although there's a lot of complexity under the hood), so I could see some people giving up on it due to frustration or boredom - especially if the aliens or story don't hook them.

I loved the environments and alien concept (plus the fun stress of the cylinders approaching) which kept me hooked. Plus it's much more mechanically involved than Spore was. Spent about 13 hours with the game and left satisfied. If I had to numerically rate it, it's maybe around 8/10?

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Adding some from my library

  • Dropsy - 1329 Reviews

    • A weird point and click with nice atmosphere. The soundtracks are neat too.
  • The Blackwell Legacy - 1122 Reviews

    • The Blackwell series are point and click games about ghosts. It's cool to see familiar characters through out the series and how they change (or unchanged) .
  • Railroad Ink Challenge - 65 Reviews

    • It's the digital version of a puzzle board game I highly recommend. High re-play value and fun to play solo or with friends. (The digital version should be solo only but you can compete with online leader boards)
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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Not sure if I would consider it a gem but this game gave me a good chuckle: Genital Jousting is currently on sale for 69 cents.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

The Age of Decadence is CRPG set in a post-apocalypse ish, in which an analogue to the Roman Empire ruled most of the world until the collapse of civilisation, now it’s mostly city states struggling to survive and reclaim the old magitek of the empire.

Underrail: Life on earth’s surface has been made inhospitable ages ago, and the remains of humanity now live in the metro system called underrail and the caverns around it.

Both are isometric, turn based games that focus on combat and exploration. And they are hard. Builds are incredibly important, almost min maxing but they have a wide range of viable builds, especially the first one where you can play the entire game without fighting a single battle, all through alternative solutions and skill checks.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Have you played Colony Ship, by the same devs as Age of Decadence? I've been keeping an eye on it for a while and looks to be real close to its 1.0 release, but I've not heard or read a lot about it.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

ΔV: Rings of Saturn
https://store.steampowered.com/app/846030/V_Rings_of_Saturn

A hard sci-fi 2D space mining sim.
"A physics-based mining sim, set in the thickest debris field in Sol. Every action has a reaction, lasers are invisible without a medium, and your thrust is a potent weapon. Find trade, adapt your equipment to your playstyle, hire a crew to help. Unravel the mysteries of the rings, or just get rich."

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

These are some deep cuts right here! Thank you for linking and sharing about them!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Of course! Honestly it was tricky to not make the list even longer. There's a lot of cool games out there people might miss.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

One of my personal favorites is still Ring Runner: Flight of the Sages, a 2D spaceflight shooter with text adventure RPG elements. At first it starts of pretty standard but there's such an incredibly wide array of customization options that it's almost daunting. Plus the developers really embrace the comedy over the course of the game to pretty extravagant levels. I mean, you literally fight a boss who manufactures DVORAK keyboards.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (4 children)

This is a good list! I'll be checking some of these out for sure. I also have some overlooked games of my own I'd like to list. No links since I'm on mobile, but I may edit them in later.

Qbqbqb (30): Simple arcade game with nice animation and catchy music.

Goetia (496): Spooky point-and-click with some very good puzzles in my opinion.

Under Leaves (530): Relaxing hidden object game with a nice art style. Great game to play when you're stressed and want to turn your brain off.

Year Walk (1197): Horror adventure game with an off-putting atmosphere and interesting art style.

The Last Door (1541): Horror point-and-click adventure game with a lovecraftian feel.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

+1 to Year Walk, I remember playing that on an iPod Touch when it first came out. I love Simogo, with games like Device 6 and Sayonara Wild Hearts, they make really unique games.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I really love sunless sea and sunless skies. They are so beautiful and story rich. Extremely simple game mechanics. You basically explore an unknown map, uncover the story, make choices and allegiances and do your best to survive.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I personally found Sunless Sea to get boring after a while to the point of giving up on it. I think DREDGE might be more appealing, though I haven't played it: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1562430/DREDGE/

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Here are two 3D platformers I haven't really heard a lot of but still had very fun with last year.

Demon Turf - 335 Reviews What pulled me in initially was the art syle, the games looks a bit like the cartoons from my childhood. This one got combat, exploration, bosses, collectables. A bit of a problem is that the game tried to do a lot of things at the same time, resulting in a bit uneven quality overall. There are also leaderboards if you into speedrunning.

Demon Turf: Neon Splash - 105 Reviews Some kind of standalone DLC/spinoff to the first game. In this game everything is more streamlined and the design feels more focused. Combat have been cut in order to give the platforming more time to shine and a reason to simplify the controls. The focus is on repeating the same levels for better a time on the leaderboard. Speedrunning is not really my thing but I still found enjoyment in the game. Much cheaper and short than Demon Turf.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Does Cogmind count? Because even when I see people discussing games like it, which are already pretty niche, it never comes up. That's tragic, because oh my god, just read some of these articles. This developer is obsessive and even if you don't get too deep into Cogmind it's an incredible toy to just screw around with and just see what happens.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I can recommend NEO Scavenger (slightly under 4k reviews). It's hardcore survival game in post apocalypse world. I haven't finished it yet, 'cause I always die in the process. Still very enjoyable if you're into post-apo.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Thanks for the list, a few games really caught my eye.

Here is my contribution - Tametsi

A minesweeper which has hand-crafted levels so you can always solve it with logic instead of relying on luck when you are out of logical moves.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

RUINER: Isometric twin-stick shooter with a 10/10 soundtrack. Basically zero advertisement, i only ever found out about it because I listen to similar music and got the soundtrack reccomended to me by the YT algorithm.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

English Country Tune (153 reviews)

Fantastic super hard puzzle game from the person who would later create the more well known (and equally amazing) Stephens Sausage Roll (1001 reviews).

Both are graphically very basic but mechanically incredible and really well designed!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I recently watched my friend beat stephen’s sausage roll, a game that I have not been able to beat in 10 years. That game is bonkers hard. My arbitrary guess is that the number of people who have beaten the game is under 5,000. If anyone is looking for a puzzle game that will make your brain hurt, that is the game for you.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

I'm just here to +1 Northern Journey. I couldn't put this game down once I started. It's weird AF, and I loved it utterly.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Love the post, keep it up

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Creeper World. It’s technically a tower defense, but the enemy is fluid, constantly pouring out of spawn area. And the game has a pretty good story line.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Warsim deserves love. It's a real passion project: a text-based kingdom management sim with lots of things to do and nooks and crannies to explore.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Neodori Forever - 46 reviews (Positive) is also part of the Summer Sale!

I just picked this up and it's a fun and vibrant, pixel graphics, arcade style drifting game. There's a 'story' mode followed by an endless mode to keep you busy and the soundtrack made its way onto my playlist. I don't have a Steam Deck, but it seems like it'd be a good fit.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Love this thread, finally some real hidden gems! Gonna check out DIG - Deep in Galaxies and Ctrl Alt Ego.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

This is a great list and these all look amazing. Thank you for taking the time to compile it and share!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

I'd love to contribute with Vision Soft Reset, with 78 reviews.

A metroidvania with time travel elements, you are a robot that can see the future investigating a planet, every time you save it creates a vertice in a timeline tree where you can jump around. I wish it was more ambitious but with the small team and budget, it did what it wanted pretty well, with my critique being a lack of polish in a few areas.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

___ Acid Spy ___

Acid Spy is a first person stealth action game set in a cyberpunk universe. Infiltrate heavily guarded bases and take down your enemies with skill and finesse. Master the art of quick, deadly stealth to become the acid spy.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Thanks for the lists! Seems like whenever someone asks for some lesser-known indie games, people start mentioning ones like Stray and Hades, which are good, but not exactly deep cuts. :)

I looked through my most played and least reviewed indie games on Steam, and found these three. They're super cheap for the summer sale right now, too.

Venineth - 178 reviews - currently $8 - released 2020

  • Physics-based 3D puzzle platformer. You play as a ball, with a lot of momentum, that rolls around some amazing looking, mysterious landscapes. Chill ambient music plays in the background. I haven't gotten very far yet; the reviews suggest that it gets harder as it goes on. The first couple hours are very relaxing.

Stealth Bastard Deluxe - 628 reviews - currently $1 - released 2012

  • 2D puzzle platformer with the best soundtrack ever (and the soundtrack is 40 cents right now). You need to have very precise jump timing, so it has more difficult platforming than most puzzle platformers. Very replayable with leaderboards, community-made maps, and unlockable new skills that let you solve a level in different ways.

AaAaAA!!! - A Reckless Disregard for Gravity - 625 reviews - currently $2 - released 2009

  • I stayed up way too late playing this one many years ago, and I can't even explain why it was fun. You just kind of fall downwards, aiming at things as you go down, and trying to find new routes to hit the things you want to hit and avoid the things you don't want to hit. I can't really compare it to anything else, except for maybe some platformers where there's a "falling level." Except this is all falling levels. It's weirdly good. They're working on a new one, although it's very delayed at this point.
[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

PARANORMASIGHT: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Anyone got a gem similar to Hypnospace Outlaw? Literally my favorite game since I discovered it.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Star Valor looks cool as hell. I can't actually run it, since it's Windows-only, but one of y'all might like it. If you liked the classic Escape Velocity games or endless-sky, this looks similar.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Star Valor does look great. If you're on Mac or Linux you can play Endless Sky or Naev, which are both free. Or outside Steam try Starsector, which might be the best 2D space game on the market, or The Ur-Quan Masters; a continuation of Star Control 2 and also free.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I highly highly cannot more highly recommend Observation. It's $7 right now.

It's a unique story game, with an excellent narrative, pace, and conclusion.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

If you like choose your adventure games, the game I released in 2016 is on sale. https://store.steampowered.com/app/426290/The_Away_Team_Lost_Exodus/ 58 reviews. Mostly positive.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Treasures of the Aegean looks kind of beautiful in the first trailer. And there's a demo to try? Looks like that's what I'm doing next.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Great list thanks.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

DIG, Deep in Galaxies looks awesome. Thank you!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Lingo (109 reviews) - A word puzzler with inspirations from Antichamber and The Witness. This has taken several sessions of getting the gang together to work on it, and after 20 hours, we still have more to do!

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Boundless

This is probably my favorite game, it's going through a rough patch right now because development had halted for about a year and was then sold to another company last year who are still in the process of transferring everything over. I'm hoping for new development within another year because it's an awesome game, but it's been stagnant for a long time. It's not on sale, but they've discussed a lower price for it openly after they get things rolling. We'll see.

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