What are some of your favorite content creators that highlight small indie games? Can be big or small, I’m just looking to find some lesser known games for a change.
Edit: I’m checking all of these out, thanks everyone!
Stuff+ generally always has a Prison Architect and one other game series going, then does one-shot videos of random indie stuff in between. He’s also not loud and annoying the way youtube gamers tend to be and doesn’t have a webcam feed covering a quarter of the screen, it’s just about the games.
SAP is his current time filler game, but his content is mostly about the banter and less about the gameplay. He is mainly an indie/variety streamer tho
The titles may look like click bait, but they are in fact not. The amount of time and work put into a casual “let’s break this small survival indie game” video is ridiculous.
They focus on abusing game mechanics and explore the limits on game loops and player guidance in games. Mostly survival, simulation and management games, and not all content is indie. All with a good dose of absurdity.
Written reviews are the best, thanks! Looks like I’m going down a rabbit hole, I think I’ve seen one of the games listed from the last year of reviews, and that’s only because I followed a rabbit hole mentioned by a YouTuber that led to me stumbling on it.
Only in the souls like niche, but Iron Pineapple covers a lot of often unknown indie games in his series of steam dumpster diving (don’t be fooled by the name, a lot of the games are good)
I quite like Retromation aside from the ones mentioned so far. Some games he’ll turn into a longer series while continually showcasing new titles as well.
I don’t watch his videos, I just go through the links in the description and watch the trailers on the steam page. He covers a lot of games not all good or unique, but it’s easy to go through. Also if you haven’t been playing many games then the top indie games of the year/decade can be good for you.
Also I found this list on indie general on /v/ or /vg/ a while back, it’s pretty good.
indie Games
2019:
-Baba is You
-Bug Fables: The Everlasting Spring
-Disco Elysium
-Grimm’s Hollow
-Katana ZERO
-Manifold Garden
-Outer Wilds
-A Short Hike
-Slay the Spire
-ToeJam & Earl: Back in the Groove!
-Touhou Luna Nights
-Unheard
-Wargroove
-What the Golf?
-Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair
2020:
-Alwa’s Legacy
-Black Mesa
-Breakpoint
-Creeper World 4
-Cyber Hook
-Damaged In Transit
-Deep Rock Galactic
-Factorio
-Filament
-Hades
-Hylics 2
-Jet Lancer
-Lair of the Clockwork God
-Levelhead
-Mainframe Defenders
-A Monster’s Expedition
-Noita
-OMORI
-The Pedestrian
-Penko Park
-Pumpkin Jack
-Risk of Rain 2
-Slap City
-Spelunky 2
-Tenderfoot Tactics
-There Is No Game: Wrong Dimension
-Umurangi Generation
2021:
-Bonfire Peaks
-Brutal Orchestra
-Chicory: A Colorful Tale
-Cruelty Squad
-Deltarune: Chapter 2
-Dodgeball Academia
-ElecHead
-ENDER LILIES: Quietus of the Knights
-Everhood
-Exo One
-The Forgotten City
-GRIME
-Inscryption
-Kaze and the Wild Masks
-MADNESS: Project Nexus
-Mini Motorways
-Moncage
-Northern Journey
-The Riftbreaker
-Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon
-Time Loader
-TOEM
-Toodee and Topdee
-Unpacking
-Unsighted
-Wolfstride
-Webbed
-Ynglet
2022:
-Devastator
-Devil Spire
-Dorfromantik
-Drainus
-Haiku, the Robot
-Kaiju Wars
-Nightmare Reaper
-Nobody Saves the World
-OlliOlli World
-Patrick’s Parabox
-Rogue Legacy 2
-Scoop Kick!
-Shotgun King: The Final Checkmate
-Supraland: Six Inches Under
-Teardown
-Windjammers 2
-Wobbledogs
sorry for the long list but I hope it helps people find some indie games.
I’ve played or own about half of these, and those I’ve played have been great. To me that means this person is a good curator. Here are a few I’ve especially enjoyed:
Black Mesa - never played HL before it, and I found it fantastic; in fact, HL2 felt like a downgrade to me in gameplay, that’s how good BM was
Baba is You - I’m a software engineer, and this totally nerd sniped me
Manifold Garden - not too difficult, but tons of fun and a very unique puzzling experience
Yooka Laylee and the Impossible Lair - only mentioning because I adored the original; this is fun too, but the OG is fantastic; not sure if this should qualify since it was made by former AAA devs
Slay the Spire - fantastic game, though I found Inscryption to be even better for me since it offers more than just a card battler (StS is rogue like, Inscryption is more complicated)
The Forgotten City - haven’t played it yet, but it looks like a ton of fun
I didn’t like a few of them (e.g. Jet Lancer), but that’s mostly because I don’t like the genres they’re in, not because they’re bad games.
Playframe doesn’t exclusively highlight small indie games, but they do cover a fair number of them alongside various bigger games.
Although, I guess it depends on how unknown a game has to be to “count” as “lesser-known”; I’ve certainly been introduced to games by Playframe, but, it’s not like they’re going onto Steam Roulette or anything.
Some examples of games that I personally hadn’t heard of until they showed up on Playframe include “Worldless”, “Cursed to Golf”, “Frog Detective”, “Say No! More!”, etc. I don’t think any of those are, like, deeply obscure or anything, but, they’re “smaller” indie games in my book.
To some degree I think you would like “Let’s Game It Out”. He almost exclusively plays indie and early access games… he breaks them, yes, but that’s where the fun is at.
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