Little Indie Games Worth Knowing About (Probably)

Curious to see feedback on this one. It resembles Darkest Dungeon somewhat (which I didn’t really click with), and I’d love to try a game like that but a lot less punishing…

This game’s had my eye since I first saw it on Steam when looking for a new Metroidvania. Early reviews are promising.

Not sure Overcooked 2 qualifies as a “little” indie anymore but there’s no separate thread for it. More content teased:

Both Deep Sky Derelicts and Niffelheim released on Steam today - both look interesting to me. Any impressions of either?

I find Deep Sky Derelicts intriguing from what I played. Not sure I can recommend it yet though. Its its own thing thats for sure. I would watch some lets play’s on that one first or wait for a sale.

After after fifteen minutes of each, I didn’t uninstall either. Which is a lot more than I can say about most indie releases!

-Tom

I’ve had my eye on Deep Sky Derelicts for a while, and having watched a couple of videos of the release build, it strikes me as having more in common with Slay the Spire than Darkest Dungeon. Not necessarily a bad thing, but not what I was expecting. Am I wrong?

If you enjoy games like the card game Werewolf and have others to play it with (or not!), do yourself a favor and play the tutorials (they’re not very long) for this…

…while it’s currently F2P for another 18 hours. Imagine XCOM and Werewolf had a baby.

Paging @geggis!

Replying to myself, I won a copy of the game in a contest yesterday, and it was a short and strangely moving experience.

It had non-speech storytelling that impeded a bit of what I think is a really amazing underlying design work: each scene evokes aspects of the bleakest part of the adult world as they could be assimilate in a child’s mind in a very delicate way. By contrast to this exquisitely tactful approach, the short “real world” cutscenes, while speechless, felt plain like Blade Runner’s narration, something which happens again with the abrupt and, again, plain ending that cuts short the amazing final chapter.

A lot of the decor is interactive, in a silly way inspired by the wonderful Humonguous Entertainement games (although not quite at the same level). The puzzles are very easy and the Object Hiding is fully integrated into the scenes.

This is a very short game (3 hours) and because of occasional but repeating rough edges, it has an amateur-ish feel. Yet, funnily, it has moved me in a way not dissimilar to the incredible Quadrilateral Cowboy.

This is not a recommandation: I am very glad I was blessed with what I felt playing this little game, and I wanted to share it.

Thanks @Mysterio for the tip, and @Left_Empty for the impressions. Will check them out.

Oh, meant to ask, did anybody check out Post Human W.A.R.? Seemed like a perfect candidate for some synchronous Qt3 multiplayer.

@geggis lemme know if you try it out and like it!

That looks really cool! I’ve wishlisted it. Wish I’d known earlier! The Ship is one of my favourite multiplayer games so that mixed with Werewolf/Space Station 13/X-Com sounds like a riot.

@Left_Empty that looks lovely. Getting Nier: Automata vibes from the vocals in the music. The gameplay and visuals look a little Tiny Bang Story.

@Dave_Perkins Will do! I don’t think it’s asynchronous so online play would take some planning but I’ll definitely weigh in once I’ve picked it up.

This is totally Tiny Bang Story, excepting in a much more delicate and actually, dare I say, “fun” way. Tiny Bang had been a major disappointment to me.
As for the Nier: Automata vibes, I understand she is the same singer. I think before release they mentionned she actually wrote the lyrics in that made-up language.

It seems Synthetik will have a free (if you have the game already) expansion very soon:

Even more, the game price will increase after its release, so maybe it’s the time to buy it, if you still haven’t done it.

This collective of indie developers is asking folks to subscribe for $3 a month on Patreon to get two little games each month. I’ll let you know how the current batch are. They seems light and silly, which I’m cool with for $1.50 each, unless they’re also garbage. Seems low risk.

I bought Llama Villa from them a month or so ago. It was a fine little distraction, although it felt more like a proof of a concept than a real game (like a lot of stuff does on itch.io, which is why I like the place so much). The art was really top notch, as far as “proof of concept” goes, though!

Same, I love who they are and happy to buy. I just dont like maybe half of what they make, so I am going to stick to buying on demand.

I just saw a bit of The Historical Gamer talking about this but still have no idea what gameplay is like. Keeping an eye on it, however.

Being, as I am, a sucker for digital boardgames, has anyone played this?

Yes, I refunded it. It wasn’t fun or explained well.