Given the big swathe of posts about bad behavior from big companies, I figure we could counterbalance that with some positivity about stuff the smaller guys made that often costs us less too.

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[–] Sunsofold@lemmings.world 12 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (2 children)

I play, almost exclusively, non-AAA games. Some gems, known and hidden:

Autonauts and Autonauts Vs Piratebots - Cute automation games
Spelunky - Elegantly simple and well executed platformer
BPM: Bullets Per Minute - Rhythm FPS. Others have tried. None I have found have been as good.
Immortal Redneck - FPS roguelite
Ziggurat - FPS Roguelite
Receiver II - Unique FPS roguelike. Every part of everything that moves is simulated. The hammer on your gun hits a firing pin which hits the primer on the cartridge. You can get stovepipes, misfires, double feeds, etc. You don't reload by hitting 'reload' but go through the full manual of arms in a shooter where the tolerances for failure are fairly slim.
Valley - running game. The feeling of letting a hill propel your running to otherwise impossible speeds, bottled. Nice little story too.
Dredge - Lovecraftian fishing game.
Tunnet - lovecraftian network technician simulator. Build a network to allow communication between computers in an underground society with unspeakable horrors occasionally destroying your mind/body.
Opus Magnum - Programming puzzles
Vagante - roguelike with tight tolerances
Ruiner - Cyberpunk slash n dash with a soundtrack half by Sidewalks and Skeletons. Very fun.
Tails Noir - Detective story. Normally find the anthro thing a bit tiresome but this was pretty good. Well written.
Elderborn - First person brawler
Webbed - be a peacock spider. Rescue your lady spider. Help insects. Fight a bird. Dance.
A Story About My Uncle - Movement game. Jump, dash, grapnel. Simple and elegant.
Tormentor X Punisher - Top down twin stick shooter. Everything dies in one hit. All the enemies, and you.
Tin Can - Survival game in which you try to keep up an escape pod long enough to be rescued, which is hard when it seems to have been made by the lowest bidder's lowest bidding subcontractor and maintained with all the loving care of a convenience store bathroom.

[–] Azrael@lemmy.ca 1 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

Tails Noir was a cool little game! I really liked it. 🤩

[–] Sunsofold@lemmings.world 1 points 5 hours ago

I liked that it wasn't a parody of itself. Most of the writing could have been unchanged if it hadn't been anthro themed. And the writing was nice, nothing ham-fisted, and had some respect for the reader. I keep running into games where you've just talked to an NPC about how they need you to hit the blue button, and you've gone through a hallway of posters saying your goal is to hit the blue button, had a quest marker guiding you there that says 'this way to the blue button you need to press,' and your character still feels the need to speak to the air about the need to hit the blue button when you walk into the blue button room.