Little Indie Games Worth Knowing About (Probably)

Heh, yeah I probably will later today. Besides I have £10 in my Steam wallet effectively making this a £3 game, and it definitely looks interesting enough for that price!

Underland was promoted on EG today. Looks like an interesting little physics-based puzzler with a bit of an old Exile feel to it.

Super cheap on Steam right now, but it’s also on consoles if you can bare paying a bit more.

Thanks for this. I loved Exile! Will definitely get Underland.

Same, it was one of those ‘this is amazing’ new experiences to young me, with the physics and the atmosphere, and I am always interested in anything that evokes that feeling. :)

Apparently I already own this! Cool! Once in awhile, the enormous backlog I can’t keep track of pays a dividend!

I had endless fun just filling a jar with water and tipping it all out. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing!

Oh that looks interesting, thanks for the tip.

Just found out about Fly Corp, an early access game that is basically Mini Metro in the Sky:

I’ve been really enjoying Legend Bowl.

Sometimes games like this (and Sensible Soccer knockoffs) are sold purely on their throwback look and don’t have an actual good game in there but that isn’t the case here - I’m really enjoying the actual football game here.

It’s just slow enough to feel like it’s not pure arcade and the way things like change of direction and tackling are handled makes it feel crunchy and satisfying.

As with all football games there’s some available cheese here - the outside run can be overpowered if you have a fast Halfback - but the devs are active to feedback on Steam and Discord and are tweaking interactions consistently in response to feedback.

NFL and NCAA mods are already available and although the game doesn’t chain multiple seasons together to make a franchise-style game there is already a free third party tool that will take your end of season roster file, run aging, retirements, a draft and free agency and and then write that roster back to the game.

Have you played Retro Bowl before? I’m curious how this compares to that as I’ve played a lot of Retro Bowl on my tablet over the past year and really enjoyed it.

I haven’t played Retro Bowl at all, but I just went to look at it. It’s a weird mix - the Legend Bowl roster is fuller, but between-game player interaction is less. There’s no trading and while morale and greed and other stuff is in the game it isn’t used yet (except for in that third party tool, that uses it for contract price and retirements and stuff).

Gameplay in Legend Bowl is a lot more gamepad-y. You can use keyboard just fine, but it has the classic joystick style control style and press the appropriate button to aim at a receiver, that sort of thing.

I should mention, Legend Bowl does have a coach mode, so you can just call plays and then shout at the collections of pixels on your screen like a madman.

Thanks, sounds like I need to check this one out.

Can you load rosters from the early 90s? I feel like I would want that if I played this game. :D

Also do you know of a good Sensible Soccer throwback?

100% on my wishlist. Love the visual choices and especially how much of the field you can see (a lot) on screen.

I’m playing Northern Journey right now as well, and yeah, it’s really good.

Spoken like a man that hasn’t met the giant ticks yet. Eugh.

Well I did say it was a 'physics-based puzzler` and looked like it had a bit of an Exile vibe, not that the gameplay was anything like it. :)

Admittedly after playing it a bit it’s not as much of a vibe as I’d thought/hoped.

And yeah, I think I got through the first third of the game in an hour or so, and it was ok.

Just when I was thinking ‘I wish they’d add a new thing’, they added a new thing a couple levels later, so the pacing felt a bit off there to me. But I get bored real easy. :P

Yeah, you probably follow the same Dusk dev as me because that’s where I first saw and heard about it. It looks so dark, weird and wonderful.

I can’t decide if this looks tedious or completely relaxing.

" Features

  • Unpack a home — from a single bedroom to an entire house

  • Meditative gameplay with no timers, meters or scores

  • Explore domestic environments with all their nooks and crannies while you stack plates, hang towels, and arrange bookshelves

  • Discover a character’s story through the items that come with her to each new home (and the items that get left behind)

  • Soundtrack by BAFTA award-winning composer and audio director Jeff van Dyck"

It’s on Game Pass too. I’ve been meaning to check it out.

Oh, snap. Thanks. I can’t keep up. I’ll try it this weekend and report back.