I’ll write something here later probably. In the meantime, hi to whoever’s reading this I hope you get a chance to enjoy something kind today :)
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Depends what you’re looking for.
Adventure/RPGs: Oblivion remaster and Avowed both came out with pretty good ratings overall. Ghost of Tsushima was also a big hit last year, came out in May 2024.
Multiplayer indies had a good year as well - Repo, Peak, and Escape from Duckov have been popular.
Cozy/niche games: Hello Kitty Island Adventure, Deltarune, Slime Rancher 2.
Niche games I’ve personally enjoyed and/or want to get: Mudborne, Cryptmaster, Dungeons of Hinterberg, LAN Party Adventures, The Lonesome Guild, and Little Rocket Lab.
It’ll be an extremely niche market - the narrow range of nerdy PC players who don’t want to buy a laptop or a regular prebuilt, and don’t want to bother building their own.
A huge chunk of the Deck’s success is in its form factor. I don’t see much ROI on the Machine in that aspect.
I have high hopes for the Frame though.
And… all the Nintendo Adults have made it clear over the decades that “Corporations aren’t your friends. Except for the one with Mario. #StandUpForNintendo”
I must be in a hell of a bubble but the stereotypes I’m familiar with are as follows:
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“Nobody hates Nintendo more than Nintendo fans” and
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“Nobody hates Nintendo fans more than Nintendo.”
They make it impossible to enjoy damn near any of their older games without piracy. Their hardware is objectively worse performing than other consoles of the time. And they price gouge like a mfer.
I still play my Switch and my old 3DS but I’m doing my damnedest not to give them another cent directly if I can help it.
Does Sable count? It has ~6k reviews on steam. It’s a really unique environmental exploration game with a sweet story (to minimize spoilers) and there’s a lot you come across accidentally and it feels satisfying and like it’s your own journey, in a way.
Also Mudborne. It’s about $8 and has 620 reviews, and the breeding mechanics are fun and tinker-y. Unlocking areas and figuring out puzzles in the name of frog conservation!
Garden Story is also a cute, easy enough, Zelda-like as is Ogu and the Secret Forest, with about 1k reviews each. Less “weird” and more “adorable” but still enjoyable.
Last but not least, I will always recommend Jazzpunk. it’s 6k total reviews across 11 years so hopefully that’s obscure enough but it’s super duper weird in the best way. Play it at least once and you’ll never forget it.
Only insofar that it’s free.
It does suffer from FOSS (fully open source software)-iness, since you have to install Luanti, then go into the content downloader (like Minecraft’s mod store) and install Mineclonia.
There’s also less documentation on Luanti than on Minecraft but Mineclonia is pretty 1:1 so you can use the MC wiki for pretty much everything.
So actually now that I write it out yes lol, that way you’re not having to pay $30 to see if you like a game.
ETA: Luanti also has Voxelibre, which started as a Minecraft clone but has diverged into its own game. Also less documentation but if you want different gameplay there’s a lot more you can install for free!
I’ve been on a Luanti (formerly Minetest) kick past few days, mostly playing Mineclonia.
It has some small QoL upgrades over the original imo. Could benefit from controller support but scratches the itch well enough as a palate cleanser.
After this probably looking at Dungeons of Hinterberg in my backlog.
Puritanism comes down to “happiness is bad.“
Not just sex; dancing, music, poetry, novels, games, decorations. Anything which takes joy in life and expression is forbidden.
Suffering while alive is seen as the proper punishment for being born human - seeing people and nature as beautiful and divine is legitimately blasphemy to these people.
It’s going to come down to anything with even a whisper of LGBTQ+/minority/disability/etc representation, just like with books.
They start with the “egregious” content (not that it’s necessarily right to remove that either), then narrow it down until it shapes up into hegemonic conformity and systemic oppression via media (there’s a term for it, kind of like stochastic violence but not quite that I can’t remember atm).
TBF, even if they’re a shit company to their consumers it’s kind of funny for them to point out they still make boatloads of money while keeping employees since it makes others look bad.
“Efficiency” is smoke-blowing bull for the sake of putting a few more pennies in shareholder stocks. Stable profits are far more sustainable and better for the real economy (where real people spend real money) than infinite growth since having a regular paycheck allows people to continue buying things.
TL;DR (compiled from additional research as well): Professional level designer Jos van Laar recreates mission “Scuttling the U-529” from Medal of Honor: Allied Assault in Unreal Engine 5 as part of his portfolio. There is no download available for the level, but Nathan Silvers, the original level designer for the game had high praise - though is labeled as “this user” in the linked article.
Here’s another article with more explanation. Maybe, just maybe it’ll inspire a proper remaster, ideally with proper compensation for the artists.
Cool news to learn today though! /gen
If I could afford to pirate games, it wouldn’t be indie games.
Indie devs are usually small and made up of equally(ish) poor people just trying to make a living. That money puts food on their table and keeps the studio running.
That said, I know some devs look at it as free advertising. Doesn’t make it great, but it’s a different perspective at least.
Slime Rancher, though most of my library is indie so I could list like ten others.
I won’t list out the “big” famous ones since those get covered anyway (Stardew, Undertale etc.)
There are plenty I love that have a little less polish but charm their way through, like Calico and Yonder. I also just played through Tunic and quite enjoyed it.
A solid indie publisher is Reddeer games - about half my switch titles are by them. Finji is another.
Privatize the profits, socialize the losses.