Pyre - I know Hades is amazing but I honestly believe Pyre is Supergiants best game and its not even close. It's a game explicitly about revolution and solidarity, it surprises me it doesn't get mentioned on Hexbear more.

Return of the Obra Dinn - "Well that guy got stabbed, that guy got shot, THAT GUY HAD HIS ARM RIPPED OFF BY A GIANT SQUID AND WAS IMPALED BY A SPLINTERED ROWING PADDLE AND GOT SHOT IN THE HEAD WITH A CANNONBALL nobody has ever been MORE dead."

Balatro - You already know.

I'm also playing Pillars of Eternity again so that too.

I can't be arsed to figure out which of these are "actually" indie or just seemingly lower budget, so:

• SIGNALIS - unmatched aesthetic & vibes, after finishing it the first time I kept thinking about it so went back for a second round on survivor/classic difficulty
• Pizza Tower - it's just so peak
• Nidhogg - I think this came out more than five years ago but I finally played it this year. Even though it's extremely basic and doesn't have a real campaign it's just so incredibly polished in its deceptively simple combat system that I kept coming back for more.
• Return of the Obra Dinn - spent a wonderful Sunday afternoon solving this one sitting at my kitchen table with my steam deck and giant ledger notebook
• Into the Breach - extremely fun, every single turn feels absolutely clutch; however you have to play basically perfectly in order to win so it is quite stressful
• Night in the Woods - explicitly leftist game, one of the few
• The Messenger - this one is really fun and has great music. My partner still remembers and talks about watching me play it.
• Katana Zero - it's got that one hit kill/quick retry mechanic, excellent game. It's the game that Hotline Miami wishes it was imo.
• Hyper Light Drifter - there are some massive unwarranted difficulty spikes but if you get around those this is a wonderful, beautiful game

• chants of senaar is decent entertainment for an afternoon

• balatro, number go up

• pizza tower, warioware clone but wilder

• yomi hustle, TAS fighting game. Its a fun thought experiment that quickly devolved into which character had the unpatched unblockable loop

Disco Elysium

The Messenger/Sea of Stars and Hades

Disco Elysium, Pathos Nethack, Cultist Simulator, Slime Rancher but I think that's been more than 5 yrs on that one.

The others like Disco Elysium and Signals have been said so I'll add Tunic! I love the artstyle and the puzzles in this game are insane, definitely not everyone's cup of tea but one of my favourites.

Of course the big ones like Hades, Disco Elysium, Slay the Spire, Balatro. A few lesser known ones that I really like and wish got more attention:

• Griftlands: two-track deck building roguelite by Klei (Don't Starve, Oxygen not Included, Mark of the Ninja) with rich worldbuilding and good stories. Honestly criminal how little attention it got.

• Streets of Rogue: Immersive sim roguelike with lots of cool characters and situations you can stumble into. Eagerly awaiting the sequel!

• Shadows Over Loathing: stick figure rpg with a unique setting and humor that's actual entertaining. Overshadowed by the success of its predecessor West of Loathing, and perhaps not as good, but still very enjoyable.

Pizza Tower babyyyyy

SIGNALIS and SYNTHETIK/SYNTHETIK 2

Theres just something about isometric retrofuturist german games that have titles stylized with all caps y'know?

Sunless Skies!

-HESUNTHESUNTHESUNTHESUNTHES-

How has no one mentioned Outer Wilds yet? That's usually right on up there in these kinds of threads, because it's great. An absolute masterpiece of a game.

Pathologic 2 is also a masterpiece, but a (purposefully) miserable game to play. It's so beautiful and the world is so rich, but it definitely demands perseverance to make it through, because it will do everything it can to make you hate it.

A Short Hike isn't quite as narratively satisfying as the other two, but it's short and fun and extremely adorable. Just a pleasant little world to spend an afternoon in.

Umurangi Generation

Cult of the Lamb

Vampire Survivors

Dome Keeper

Planetka (free on Steam!)

Thumper (a little older, but I still come back to it to this day)

... Hardcoded :-|

CrossCode, Unsighted, Ultrakill, YOMI Hustle, Animall Well

CrossCode ZeroRanger Hades Rabbit & Steel

Love me some Noita. Falling Sands physics and coding-like wand building in a world far vaster than the provided path suggests. Difficult as fuck tho. Part of that might be my insistence on always making a wand with every explosive I find stuck in a single trigger which I inevitably misfire.

Ooblets. It is the game equivalent of a warm hug. Charming, polished, anti-capitalist.

I really enjoyed Sable, cool exploration game with a lovely artstyle and my favorite soundtrack in years.

Also really enjoy Balatro, Void Stranger, Norco, Last Call BBS, and Cloudpunk. (Really looking forward to Nivalis!)

Enter the Gungeon, Atomic Crops, Hades, slay the spire, hardspace shipbreaker

Kor

I'm a big fan of Pathologic 2. Had been aware of Pathologic for years but finally played the remake after learning of it from this Hbomberguy video.

Calling it survival horror doesn't really communicate what the game is but it's a start. It's heavily dialog driven, and very deeply thought out. Reading the artbook I noticed references to internal contradictions as sources of tension and evolution, which was neat.

Cult of the Lamb! A roguelike with elements of Animal Crossing, and an aesthetic that blends cute characters and heavy metal album covers.

Lunistice! A 3D platformer with traditional levels and satisfying movement. Reminded me of the good parts of playing games on the N64.

Nebulous: Fleet Command! One of the most unique strategy games I've ever played, it's like the original Homeworld with fewer ships and much more in-depth tactics.

Buckshot Roulette, Darkest Dungeon II, and Hades.

Dominions 5 and 6. Turnbased strategy games wich shine in multiplayer and have massive amounts of choices/options,

Also Vampire Survivors and the whole Bullet Heaven gerne it spawned have to be mentioned.

Probably not favorite-favorite (many of those have already been mentioned), but Children of Morta needs some love. A solid action roguelike with a very well done narrative and great atmosphere.

Balatro and Vampire Survivors are natural picks because number goes up dopamine hits, but I gotta give a huge shoutout to Lunistice. 3D platformer with extremely tight controls, possibly the tightest I’ve experienced. I even got 100% achievements, which I never do, because it feels just that good to play.

Honorable mentions to House Flipper 2 and Powerwash Simulator for good games to relax while feeding that perfectionism itch.