Hidden gems in the Steam sale

[keurig]

Considering that the Steam sale is currently ongoing, I was wondering if there were any hidden gems that I might have missed, particularly stuff from smaller indie developers that would have flew under my radar. A friend wants to gift me a game and nothing is immediately grabbing me when browsing the store.

My recommendation for a game that might have flown over some tyrants radars would be Umurangi Generation (it also has a great Macro expansion). It's a fantastic two-person developed indie photography game set in a dystopian cyberpunk future. When going in, I expected something like Pokémon Snap but instead you have full movement and control throughout the environments rather than the game being onrails, and a lot of cool photography options that unlock as you further progress through the campaign. It also has phenomenal storytelling through its environments, and a soundtrack by ThorHighHeels that I fell in love with.

Umurangi Generation on Steam

Umurangi Generation is a first person photography game in the shitty future. Set in Tauranga Aotearoa off the back of an impending crisis you are a courier for the Tauranga Express. Throughout the game you will unlock a variety of lenses and equipment.

store.steampowered.com

 

[Torzelbaum]

What kind of games do you like? I know I have picked up a few things from my wishlist during the sale (but I have waited on some in hopes that there will be a lower price in the future).

 

[keurig]

What kind of games do you like? I know I have picked up a few things from my wishlist during the sale (but I have waited on some in hopes that there will be a lower price in the future).

I've got a soft spot for simulation games, strategy games, adventure games, visual novels, rpgs (both jrpgs and crpgs), and platformers. I am open to suggestions outside of that though.

 

[Kalir]

Two recommendations I can make just out in the wild:

Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling: I know a lot of people kind of miss the old style of Paper Mario games that got left behind after TTYD. Bug Fables is an adorable game HEAVILY inspired by TTYD, centered around an adventuring party consisting of the bee Vi, the beetle Kabbu, and the moth Leif.

Deep Rock Galactic: The best co-op shooter I've played for years, handily replacing Team Fortress 2 and Overwatch in my go-to list. Play as a team of heavily-armed dwarves, mining the extremely hostile planet of Hoxxes IV. It's something between the cavern exploration of Minecraft and the wave shooting of Left 4 Dead.

 

[keurig]

Two recommendations I can make just out in the wild:

Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling: I know a lot of people kind of miss the old style of Paper Mario games that got left behind after TTYD. Bug Fables is an adorable game HEAVILY inspired by TTYD, centered around an adventuring party consisting of the bee Vi, the beetle Kabbu, and the moth Leif.

Deep Rock Galactic: The best co-op shooter I've played for years, handily replacing Team Fortress 2 and Overwatch in my go-to list. Play as a team of heavily-armed dwarves, mining the extremely hostile planet of Hoxxes IV. It's something between the cavern exploration of Minecraft and the wave shooting of Left 4 Dead.

Thanks for the recommendations!

Bug Fables looks really cool, I loved TTYD on GameCube so I'll probably pick this one up for sure. Deep Rock Galactic is on Game Pass so I've played it but it's a lot of fun! Hands down one of my favorite co-op games atm, along with Risk of Rain 2 and Sea of Thieves.

 

[Torzelbaum]

crpgs

I guess I would be remiss to not mention the Monsters' Den series. They are light on story and presentation but full of fun monster crunching, loot gathering and build/party customization (to varying degrees on that last point). There is a bundle of the three available games but if you were only going to get one I would recommend Godfall or Book of Dread.

 

[Dr. Nerd]

Hylics is on sale for 1.50, and I highly recommend it if you like short, experimental RPGs and haven't experienced it yet. I haven't gotten around to playing the sequel yet, but it's also on sale.

Neo Cab is a cyberpunk visual novel about a gig-worker for an Uber-type company trying to scrape by, and is pretty much all about her interactions with her friends and clientele in a oppressive corporate future. It's good!

They Bleed Pixels is in the same vein of tough physics platformers like Celeste/Super Meat Boy, and it doesn't get enough love. I dig the soundtrack.

Elliot Quest is sort of like a cross between Zelda 2 and Kid Icarus, and very enjoyable if you like either of those type of exploratory platformers.

 

[Violentvixen]

My recommendation for a game that might have flown over some tyrants radars would be Umurangi Generation (it also has a great Macro expansion). It's a fantastic two-person developed indie photography game set in a dystopian cyberpunk future. When going in, I expected something like Pokémon Snap but instead you have full movement and control throughout the environments rather than the game being onrails, and a lot of cool photography options that unlock as you further progress through the campaign. It also has phenomenal storytelling through its environments, and a soundtrack by ThorHighHeels that I fell in love with.

Oh hey, I played the demo in the Indie dev fest or whatever a few weeks ago and liked/wishlisted it! I'll be picking it up in July for sure.

Neo Cab is a cyberpunk visual novel about a gig-worker for an Uber-type company trying to scrape by, and is pretty much all about her interactions with her friends and clientele in a oppressive corporate future. It's good!

Highly recommend this. I want to be the Quantum Witch lady. My only complaint is the "final boss" conversation was a little obtuse and I think could have been a little more clearly written, but it's not a big deal.

 

[FelixSH]

They Bleed Pixels is in the same vein of tough physics platformers like Celeste/Super Meat Boy, and it doesn't get enough love. I dig the soundtrack.

While I agree, that this is a good game, it's very different than pure platformers, like Celeste and SMB. If my memory is correct, it is VERY combat focused, which is not at all the case for the other games - in Celest and SMB, you generally have no way of attacking.

As a suggestion, I'd go with Arcade Spirits, which I already posted about, not too long ago in the "Like What you are Playing" and "Beating Games" threads. I had a lot of fun with that one.

 

[Exposition Owl]

Eliza is a fascinating visual novel that meditates on developing technologies, the gig economy, and the power of therapists to help people. I'm not a big visual novel player, but I loved this one.

If you've ever loved a story about heroic woodland creatures in a fantasy world, like Brian Jacques's Redwall novels or David Petersen's Mouse Guard series, then you might like Ghost of a Tale. It's a third-person action-adventure game, heavier on the adventure than the action, about a mouse bard who has to sneak around a castle held by an occupying army to try to solve a mystery. This kind of game stands or falls on its writing, and Ghost of a Tale's writing is really good.

 

[Peklo]

Annalynn by Cruise Elroy is a score-chaser platformer patterned after a host of influences from the early '80s "golden age" of the arcade--several Namco games are the most prominent inspiration on display, but you could easily extend the reading to many others. It's evocative of that culture and aesthetic in the best ways possible, presenting clear and intuitive mechanics, high-risk and dynamic play, and challenge to make the split-second decisions and gradual mastery matter. Cute as anything with excellent visual and audio design, it's especially precious in the wider indie gaming space where the base level of foundational works is often so limited to a specific canon and genre--even as monumental as something like Pac-Man historically is, the view of it is often as a footnote or even a relic, embodied by "outdated" genres that don't offer the kind of large-scale persistence that compels in most "retro" projects, where the experiences newly crafted evoke something old but not that old, beyond the limits of acceptable antiquity. Annalynn's strength is focusing all its tributary sensibilities toward a niche that is underrepresented and undercelebrated in the present and making it feel as meaningful and relevant as ever.

 

[Peklo]

Tenderfoot Tactics by Badru, Michael Bell, Isa Hutchinson, Taylor Thomas, Zoe Vartanian and Madison Pathe is an open world tactical goblin exploration game, and it's unlike anything you've ever played even if as part of the sell in "this good thing is like that other good thing" rhetoric you could draw the comparison to whatever tactical RPG that is closest to your heart and it would compare well in the process. Those kinds of comparisons aren't enough to capture the specific mixture of mysterious goblin appeal its world and presentation possess, the allure of its enigmatic goblin aesthetic, or the successes of its freeform goblin voyage. People who like video games and goblins should absolutely play it.

 

[Issun]

I will never not shill for Eastshade, given the chance. It's basically what if Elder Scrolls but no stats or combat. It's gorgeous and charming and very relaxing. The quests run the gamut from serious to goofy (helping a disfigured artist, pranking a bear with the wrong pastry, and solving a whodunnit at an island hotel are just a small sample) and every NPC is written and acted to perfection. It is a well realized world, and again, it's just beautiful to look at.

It's half off right now and it is easily worth every penny at full price.

 

[Peklo]

Every Qute shooter is on sale: they are in production order Judgement Silversword, Eschatos, Ginga Force and Natsuki Chronicles. The prior and latter pair both bundle with each other; Natsuki Chronicles is a hori while the others are verts; all are great. The (more) modern latter three are brought together by the music of Yousuke Yasui, one of the most talented composers ever to have worked in the medium.

 

[Klatrymadon]

In a similar vein to Peklo's excellent Annalynn recommendation, Whip! Whip! has just gone on sale. It's a single-screen platformer clearly inspired by Bubble Bobble (and Memories, and Symphony) but with the addition of a grapple mechanic for grabbing enemies and booting them off the screen. There are point bonuses for enemies bopped in quick succession, which leads to some very satisfying moments as you line 'em up and chain-kick the bejesus out of them.

 

[Peklo]

I primarily focus on queer visual novels because frankly ones that aren't also aren't worth my time, so I'm going to highlight some that I've read or am planning to. As such I can't "guarantee" anything about a number of these as I simply haven't gotten to them yet, but each of them has caught my attention in some particular way, so others can peruse and investigate accordingly.

Blackberry Honey
The Expression Amrilato
Fatal Twelve
The Flowers series: -Le volume sur printemps-, -Le volume sur ete-, -Le volume sur automne-. These games are a true serial forming one complete story across a specific sequential chronology told from multiple narrative perspectives that shift each game, and the conclusion is found in the fourth part, yet to be released in English, but it's surely coming. They are fantastic and I'll probably talk about them more someday.
If Found...
Mizuchi 白蛇心傳
Nurse Love Syndrome and Nurse Love Addiction
SeaBed
We Know the Devil - bit of a known commodity in relative terms, but why blaze past a chance to boost it some more?
Yumeutsutsu Re:Master

 

[muteKi]

I have heard incredibly good things about SeaBed but also that it's very, as they say, real about things like grief and depression.

It is also, as I understand it, consummately wordy. Whether in doing so the mundane is elevated or the spectacular profaned (or both, or neither) will be left as an exercise to the reader (because as far as I can tell this is the core point the game seeks to ponder).

 

[ArugulaZ]

Okay, that Annalynn game Peklo recommended is legit. It nails the look and feel of early arcade games, particularly those from Namco and Nintendo. It's hard, though! It's got the same issue as Jr. Pac-Man in that the scrolling screen hides the location of both treasures and your serpent pursuers. Also, you quickly get conditioned to leap over every tunnel in the background... I've run smack dab into a snake emerging from one more often than I'd like to admit.

(A nice touch is that the snakes are just halves of the Pac-Man monsters with snake bodies attached. I see someone remembers Lock 'n Chase!)

 

[Mr. Sensible]

I'm not sure how "hidden" they are these days, but the Cook, Serve, Delicious! trilogy are three fantastic little restaurant simulation games with a focus on fast-paced meal prep. The second and third games double-down on the food porn artwork if gazing at glistening steaks is your thing. The series is actually fairly hardcore in spite of the "casual" subject matter, and being a good touch-typist is a huge speed advantage if you're playing on a keyboard, so you should probably know that before jumping in. Oh, and the third game is definitely the toughest by far, so perhaps start with the original or its sequel if you'd like a gentler (and slightly cheaper) sample of CSD's gameplay.

 

[Violentvixen]

Has anyone played Mixolumia? This got some buzz a while ago because the guy came up with the idea then posted his random tweaks along the way on Twitter and it's interesting to read. But even on sale the price seems a bit high for a falling block game.

 

[Ludendorkk]

Incredible Mandy is a Zelda-esque 3D dungeon puzzler with a great look and a focus on creative boss fights. This one seems to get looked over every time I recommend it but if you're looking for a good "Oops! All Dungeons" Zelda-Em-Up then don't let this one pass you by!

 

[breakman]

One Way Heroics is a very good roguelike which you can get, along with expansion One Way Heroics Plus, for $2.69

 

[That Old Chestnut]

Mindware has marked down their catalog again, for anybody familiar with Space Mouse and Cosmic Cavern and the like.

Space Mouse 2 in particular is an awesome dot-muncher that manages to combine elements from a variety of retro titles in a pretty compelling way. You have a little Tower of Druaga dungeon crawling, the auto-scrolling and frantic scramble for oxygen of Mr. Driller, and somehow the baby chicks from Flicky. There's always something happening to keep you engaged, both mechanically speaking, and just from the sheer amount of stuff on-screen at any moment. Though even at a sale price of $10, it might be a little too pricy for some, but I was glad I took the gamble.

Keep a careful eye on the bundles too, as some are even cheaper than the standalone title would be.

Fair word of warning, though. This one can take an oddly long time to boot up. I'm guessing this is because the software is some old arcane ass code being run through an emulator? I dunno. Mindware's stuff seems to be a bit janky like that.

(The first Space Mouse in particular has a hard time running on my computer. Takes entirely too long to load, and the game speed runs so fast on my system, it's nearly unplayable for me. And near as I can tell, I have no way of adjusting the speed. So buyer beware on that one. Space Mouse 2 is better in every way, anyway.)

 

[ArugulaZ]

Reminds me a bit of Pix the Cat, what with the grid based movement and the trailing chicks and all. Good game... I wouldn't be surprised in the least if that was on sale for a few more days too.