Interesting Indie Games

[doomlord9]

So I've been browsing around and visiting the Youtube pages of a few Lets Play posters has netted me the knowledge of some Indie games that I have never heard of before then but are damn near perfect for me. Too bad I can't afford any of them yet but here are the ones that have recently caught my attention.

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Factorio

A game all about creating and managing supply lines, resources, and automation. A little bit of combat, some storyline, and it comes out to be a really fun looking game.

The Lets Play series that brought it to my attention is HERE.

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Rimworld

Dwarf Fortress but with a GUI and the threats come from space instead of below. Not as in depth as DF is/was but it's still in Alpha release with more being added.

If you love the idea of Dwarf Fortress but find the UI to be physically painful to try to use, you will probably be like me and bitterly curse the state of your finances at being unable to buy and enjoy the micromanaging goodness and thus must settle for Lets Plays like THIS to sate your desire. Although that also comes with blinding rage when they do it wrong and grim satisfaction when they suffer for ignoring the advice you shout at the screen, but that just comes with the territory.

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Infinifactory

Minecraft and Spacechem(which while isn't new and fully completed is absolutely awesome on its own)had a baby. A 3D puzzle game about creating a plan to automatically complete an advanced product by welding, turning, and adjusting supplies to create the finished product.

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Starbound

Not a new one and alot of people probably know of it, but it counts as an indie game in Early Access and is really fun as well. 2D Minecraft, or Terraria if you have played that, but in space!

Recently had a major stable update for lots of new content if you already have it but got bored with it being just a Space-based sandbox with pretty much no content. Like Minecraft, but in SPAAAAAAACE!

For those who want to, they also have a Nightly Build you can opt into to test out whatever was done the day before by the devs. Naturally this comes with repeated fatal bugs and crashes but you can sample the new content each day if this is how you like to play.

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So those are ones that have recently caught, or have had, my attention.

Any other fun Indie games you guys know of, early access or not, that have caught your attention?

 

[CptTagon]

Iji is a excellent, free Metroidvania game. You play as Iji, trapped inside a research lab as aliens attack. You get upgraded with nanomachines, and make your way across ten sprawling levels. What makes it most interesting, is the moral side of the story. You can either play the game as the usual blood-soaked fighting game, using twenty different weapons to kill the aliens, or you can go the pacifist route, and climb and evade the aliens, and go through the entire game without harming anyone. Either way, I heartily recommend it.

Cave Story is another retro game, this time made by a guy in Japan. Fully translated, you play as a young man inside a cave, who explores a variety on environments to try and help a nearby village against an evil doctor. No moral quandaries in this one, the game play puts emphasis on weapons that upgrade as you collect energy from enemies. Good humor, an excellent story, and interesting levels and bosses.

Transistor I'm not certain how indie this game is, but I love almost everything about it. The music, the game-play, the visual design, and the setting are all excellent. You play as Red, a mute singer who uses the Transistor to try and find out who stole her voice and why, as the City crumbles under the attacks of a truly alien foe. This one is not free, but still worth paying for.

Dead State is another one I'm not to certain about on its indie credentials, but I did enjoy the Steam demo. You play as a group of survivors in a small town in Texas after the zombie apocalypse. It is third-person, turn-based combat against the undead and other humans, with the mechanic that if you make too much noise, more zombies will spawn at the edge of the map and start moving towards you. Apparently buggy, but I encountered no bugs in the demo, and their site shows that they are still patching it.

Finally Katawa Shoujo, is less of a game, and more of a visual novel, but it is still very indie. You play as a young man with a serious heart condition, who has to go to a school for the disabled. There, you can meet five girls, each with their own romance path and each with their own problems, both physically and emotionally. Each path is a few hours long, with pleasant if generic music. I believe that it is the only game like it in existence, and the only VN I have ever played.

 

[Silversun17]

Transistor I'm not certain how indie this game is, but I love almost everything about it. The music, the game-play, the visual design, and the setting are all excellent. You play as Red, a mute singer who uses the Transistor to try and find out who stole her voice and why, as the City crumbles under the attacks of a truly alien foe. This one is not free, but still worth paying for.

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downer ending though.

 

[CptTagon]

downer ending though.

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I'd debate you on if it's a downer ending or a very bittersweet ending, but I don't think we could do that here without spoiling it for other people.

 

[Silversun17]

I'd debate you on if it's a downer ending or a very bittersweet ending, but I don't think we could do that here without spoiling it for other people.

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ya. let them play and decide for themselves.

 

[tehelgee]

It should be noted that Transistor is made by the same people that made Bastion.

 

[Guile]

I'll plug Sunless Sea. It's kind of a rogue-like merchant freighter, set in a dark and eerie underwater sea (the Unterzee, or just the Zee for short). Very good writing, visuals and music fit the genre but aren't incredible, and the combat is fairly basic but competent enough.

For example: my first 'Zee Captain' made his first trip to Venderbight carrying mushroom wine and a friendly enough mummy. She regrettably got drunk on the wine and attempted to duel my captain while disembarking, but he showed her what for, and overboard she went. Regrettably, his second run to the Iron Republic (the nation of brass-eyed devils; the cheapest source of fuel in all the Unterzee) had him run afoul of a party of Clay Men revolutionaries preaching a Communist manifesto, and his ship sunk beneath the waves.

My second captain - bloody-handed rival of the first one, searching for her father's bones - is much more successful, having made a short run and a very long run east through the dangerous Corsair Forest, a sea bristling with pirate scows, and then trending north to the frozen lands where madmen and secret-keepers dwell. Regrettably, she has yet to find Mount Palmerston, and if she doesn't unload this crate of untaxed human souls, a disreputable gentleman of her acquaintance is going to break her kneecaps.

It's that kind of game.

 

[Heaven Canceler]

Infinity Wars is a free Collectible Trading Card Game. Uses some awesome stuff that you can only do on the net like simultaneous turns and such. It was inspired by famous Card games like Magic the Gathering, but it has many unique stuff that keeps it apart. The Overall number of Cards is still not that great, but it is steadily growing bigger. Avaiable as a stand-alone on the Website or on steam, there is also work on a Russian Version I believe which they are making together with another Company. Has a bunch of Features that make it Free to Play instead of a In Name Only game, like weekly free decks that are rotated around, random daily reward Cards and the possibility of winning Cards in Rift Runs (Decks that you can build from a Random Card pool against other Players) if you are good enough.

The most awesome Thing is the community though. While the Player pool is small, People are friendly and helpful and willing to give a helping Hand to newbies, even give out free Cards in many cases.

Path of Exile: It was really awesome for a while and the Setting is incredibly interesting. Sadly, I have had a case of "New Game" Syndrome and thus I have been losing my enthusiasm for it. Anyone who likes Hack and Slash style gaming with a great amount of potential for customization of your character's build will likely have some interest in the game. I may return to the game sometime in the future since I heard they are adding a 4th chapter sometime this year and that could give me the enthusiasm necessary to Play beyond the early Points of the second Chapter of the game.

 

[doomlord9]

A new game was just released on Steam Early access that looks pretty interesting.

Offworld

It's a tactical RTS but unlike other games of the sort it looks to be focused primarily on becoming an economic power rather than a military power. I haven't seen any Let's Plays for it but just the trailer looks interesting enough to post here.

 

[Adyen]

A new game was just released on Steam Early access that looks pretty interesting.

Offworld

It's a tactical RTS but unlike other games of the sort it looks to be focused primarily on becoming an economic power rather than a military power. I haven't seen any Let's Plays for it but just the trailer looks interesting enough to post here.

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The devs has been posting a lot of videos of them playing it.

I'm actually tempted to play it if it wasn't so goddamn expensive (and me not having enough friends who would buy it for the price tag).

Maia is a neat little game that has you building a colony on another planet. It's still in Early Access, but it's neat enough.

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Darkest Dungeon. It`s pretty much the most streamed Indie game currently, and I have to say that it`s fun for hours, if not more. AND, it has a completely playable Early Access, with new classes and maps coming out when it`s completed.

If you`re looking for an old-time SLG type game, I highly recommend Sunrider. It`s a Kickstarted game that runs on one of the dumbest systems ever, but it`s completely free and voiced! It also has a third part coming soon, so you can always keep playing it!

 

[mkire]

so does sunrider actually have porny bits to it, or is steam just being weird about a VN?

 

[Nekraa]

Ib is a fun horror game. It's not that long, a few hours maybe (been a while since I played it) with a few different endings.

 

[Princess Magnificent]

Sunrider's very first bit of unit chatter appears to be "What? I-I'm not doing this just because I like you!"

 

[Adyen]

so does sunrider actually have porny bits to it, or is steam just being weird about a VN?

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The actual steam version does not, but you can just check the (steam) forums for that game and they'll tell you how to install the version that does (or rather, has more).

 

[Mr_John]

I'll go ahead and plug Besieged. It was brought to my attention from a friend, and I was having a lazy afternoon this last Sunday so I figured 'why not?'

It's interesting, and pretty fun. It's still very obviously in the alpha stage; there's only fifteen levels, for one. There's a couple of bugs I've noticed as well, although they mostly related to trying to build two different things in the preparation box.

Basically, you have a map and a goal. Usually it's the destruction of a castle or some little soldiers, although there's a mission or two where you have to reach a set series of points or fetch/transport something. You start with a single floating 'control block' and build out from there. Wheels, hinges, pistons, all that kind of stuff; build a catapult to destroy a castle, build a meat grinder to make a fine paste of all the attacking soldiers, build a car capable of taking archer fire (that somehow degrades the connections between your blocks. Armor is useful) while you roll it over a hill.

Or build a giant cannon and blow the fuck out of the archers before crossing, like I did.

It's pretty cool so far, although there's a steep learning curve on the flying functions. I still haven't figured out how to do anything other than go straight up or crash. Looking forward to new levels eagerly.

Oh, and I'm not sure if it counts, but I'll never pass up an opportunity to shove Magika in other people's faces. The epitome of a Mage game, there's so many references, jokes and overall funny to keep you entertained while you blast your way through hordes of enemies. I'm so hyped for the release of Magika 2- I'm pretty sure I'd sell my soul in order to have it real ease tomorrow.

 

[Noctum]

I'll recommend a few good Indie games that I've played and enjoyed.

Firstly: FTL A Rougelike game that could be best described as a cross between BSG and Serenity. You are the captain of the last hope of the Federation against the vicious rebels, trying to stay one step ahead of them to get vital information to Federation command and stop the civil war! Also has a poem by Yatzee.

Second: Long Live the Queen In the kingdom of Nova, the queen has just been assassinated. Her daughter, Elodie, is set to take the throne in one year on her fifteenth birthday. Now she has to survive assassins, courtly politics, pushy foreign powers as well as learning all the skills she needs to be a good queen. Good luck! (and take notes. LOTS OF NOTES)

Third: Papers Please A bureaucracy simulator (wait! Come back!) where you are the border guard of an Eastern European Communist nation. It is your job to process, and either accept or reject, the applications of would be immigrants. Problems ensue in that you have to process enough people to get paid enough to feed your family, heat your home and pay for medicine if you need it. But any mistakes in applications come out of your paycheck, so be careful! Then you have the other usual problems. Increasing rules and paperwork for entry, corrupt guards offering you extra cash for arresting more people, and immigrants who you should help, but is the price of being a good person worth your job? A game where the moral choices actually mean something, not just a bar on a character sheet.

Also, all three of these are about $10 or less on Steam. Check them out!

 

[Xilph]

Someone recommended Infinifactory/Spacechem? That's awesome, reiterating those games should be at least worth a shot. While they're not for everyone if you are one of the people that likes that kind of game expect it to make it onto your list of best games ever as it totally is. SpaceChem has a free demo containing the first third of the campaign, the full version grants access to the last six worlds and the user created level, plus it's needed for the DLC. It's been in a ton of bundles and things over the years though so you might have it already if you get them. Infinifactory is fairly different but still feels very similar so if you like SpaceChem then definitely try it, it does stop at a much lower difficulty level then SpaceChem did but they're adding more levels and there is user created levels, they're also somewhat active within the community and have been known to do cool stuff. For example as a member of the first one hundred people to complete the game I got a physical patch and a piece of paper saying congrats you were 12th on it. Definitely worth looking at the two of them though, seriously go do that now.

As far as other games go? Jahooma's Logic Box is in development with a release some time in the near future, 10 levels are free and available on the website I linked though. I can pull up a bunch of similar free online games as well if anyone wants them, the type of game is certainly interesting to me, just look at the free online Zachtronics games for a good starting point.

doomlord9, how good is Factorio actually? I've heard it mentioned in relation to the Zachtronics games before but only tried some ancient alpha or beta or something I barely remember.

 

[doomlord9]

how good is Factorio actually? I've heard it mentioned in relation to the Zachtronics games before but only tried some ancient alpha or beta or something I barely remember.

Click to shrink...

I've only been able to watch Let's Plays but it definitely has my interest. At its core it isn't very complex but managing the supply lines to feed your constantly hungry and ever growing factory complex and making sure all the processed components get to where they need to go is what makes it difficult.

THIS is the factory complex near the end of the first Lets Play series for Factorio I watched that shows how complex it can get after lots of revisions, additions, and replacements of various parts. Confusing to look at all at once but it all make sense if you have watched it slowly grow from the beginning.

I wish I could buy it, apparently there is also a decent sized modding community for it as well.

 

[doomlord9]

doomlord9, how good is Factorio actually? I've heard it mentioned in relation to the Zachtronics games before but only tried some ancient alpha or beta or something I barely remember.

Click to shrink...

Well, I have an update on this question.

If you're like me, it's extremely addictive. To the point of 'Ok, I need to expand my iron and copper smelting operation so my belts can supply the new advanced electronic chip factories but for that I need to upgrade my power supply to feed the electric furnaces but before that I have to clear out those nearby alien nests so the the increased pollution cloud doesn't irritate them and make them attack my currently undefended base and.......why the fuck is the sun coming up? I only just started and I have so much left to do before I can call my base stable and efficient!'

To give a decent approximation, if you have played Minecraft with the Industrialcraft mod with the Gregtech customization installed and loved every second of it, Factorio is definitely a game for you.

That's what has eaten my last week almost entirely, to the point that I need to spend who knows how long catching up with both here and FF.net. I actually have it running in the background letting the material buffers build because I am in the late game where the material costs for the research is enormous and I have enough defenses I am not worried about the aliens breaking through while I am not watching.

To be exact I am playing with the Dytech mod installed, which like Industrialcraft increases the available stuff to do and the time it takes to get there immensely, greatly expanding the time it takes to play a single map.

 

[CptTagon]

I'd like to plug The Banner Saga. A mix between turn-based combat and The Oregon Trail, it is set in fantasy Norway, as the races of men and the giants known as varl try to resist an invasion, while a small group of refugees try to flee from the invaders.

 

[wayne82444]

By any chance do you know of any good Lets Plays that use the Dytech Mod? I've been looking for one myself, since it looks interesting, but I only seem to have found one abandoned Lets Play of it. Well that and FishSandwich's Lets Play with Dytech and Ribbon mods, but no matter how many times I try to watch his stuff I can't manage it. Something about his voice just annoys me like hell and I end up giving it up within 15 minutes. I have no idea why even.

Also I would play Factorio myself, but I suck at long term planning, so even in the demo I tried I kept having to rework everything every few minutes.

 

[doomlord9]

No, FishSandwich is the only Let's Play for Factorio I have watched. The voice did annoy me as well for abit but the game was interesting enough that I was able to ignore it long enough to get used to it.

 

[wayne82444]

Well glad to know it wasn't just me who was annoyed by his voice. For Factorio Lets Plays I normally watch MangledPork Gaming, although he is probably better known as "That train guy". His Railworld series is pretty good, and I enjoyed his no crafting challenge one as well. The more recent "Living With Biters" series he has been doing can be kind of frustrating to watch though- he keeps getting biters stuck everywhere. Watching them tear his base apart while he ignores it can be kind of funny though.

 

[pepperjack]

I'll go ahead and recommend Mr. Robot and Starscape, both from Moonpod.

 

[doomlord9]

Well I have a new infection and like all good communicable diseases, it's always best to spread it amongst your closest casual acquaintances.

Clicker Heroes

With only a short description, it's Cookie Clicker made into an RPG with added replay value in a standalone client. I don't think I have closed the game window in well over a week since it's an idle game that will continue to run while you do other stuff but you advance several times faster by paying attention and clicking.

Or scrolling if you use X-Button Mouse Control and set a layer to translate scrolling up or down into left-click, giving you a solid 60 clicks/sec. I see this as a good medium between getting carpal tunnel and the outright cheating of auto-clicker programs that click even while you're afk. This at least requires you to focus and it has the ability to setup a hotkey to switch between normal mouse setup and the adjusted layers quickly and easily. Mine is (+) on the numpad, right next to my mouse to I can swap back for forth without hunting for whatever I set the key to.

And in a proper QQ mindset, it changes your finger training from an up and down tapping motion with your index finger to a back and forth fiddling motion with your middle finger. Any females you are intimate with will likely be pleased with the intensive training you have been putting towards enhancing her pleasure.

 

[Xilph]

So you just discovered a proper idle game? I've played Clicker Heroes before but never really got into it, I enjoyed Mine Defense a while back but essentially bet it even if it takes a while but there is no prestige mechanic. My current interest in the field is Kittens Game though, you collect catnip and recruit kittens for your village to do kitten-y things, currently I'm still a fair way off my first reset as I only started playing a few days ago. They both start simple but get much more complex and interesting as you progress, the second is interesting as well as it's more of a true idle game in that after the very early game you will not be clicking to generate resources as your manual clicking never improves and is only available for the most basic kind of resource, makes it more about managing your resources then anything else.

 

[wayne82444]

Nice to see that Clicker Heros finally got an update, I had stopped playing while waiting for the annoying Christmas themed stuff to go away. Seeing it is at .18 I might start again.

 

[doomlord9]

Huh.....I didn't even notice it had an update since the window remained open so long....

 

[wayne82444]

It has been in .17c since before Christmas, so that is the update I was referring to. The fact that it just got updated to .18 in the last day or two is a nice coincidence though.

 

[doomlord9]

They must have updated to .17d for the Steam release becuase I was on that for awhile. The clickable were headcrabs, Cid had the power-suit and a crowbar, Brittany had a headcrab on her, various references to Valve. That was also the update that gave clickables a chance to give rubies so it's no longer a cash-grab game. You can get those rare unlocks if you're patient enough now.