do not have spoons for effortposting but I have a little list on my backloggd page picking one game that was released in each year 1990-2024 and there are a bunch of indie games on there in the more recent years https://backloggd.com/u/Caoimhe/list/one-game-per-year-1990-2024/

• CrossCode - My favorite RPG of all time, and that's a very high bar. This is a game that is perfect in every way and adds up to more than the sum of its parts. Fantastic combat, tons of side content, endearing characters, emotionally powerful story, beautiful visuals, amazing soundtrack. I could gush for hours about Lea as a protagonist, but it's surely better to experience this one for yourself than let me get into spoilers.

• Crypt of the Necrodancer - Rhythm game/roguelike sounds like the strangest mashup ever. But what's even stranger is just how well it works. It's just a matter of keeping 4/4 time, but forcing a steady pace forces you to think fast and not make any mistakes. Every death is clearly your fault as every enemy is designed to be beatable using only a base dagger without getting hit (and indeed there's a challenge character that forces exactly this), but dealing with swarms is where it gets complicated. I especially recommend trying to speedrun, playing for speed really makes this game adrenaline-fueled as you have to pace yourself judging how much time you can afford to gather items if you want to make sub-15 or sub-10. Danny Baranowsky's soundtrack absolutely delivers. Get both the Amplified and Synchrony DLCs.

• Mega Knockdown - A turn-based fighting game that's fun for complete beginners to pick up and play, while still offering a lot of depth. Use this to entice your non-fighting game friends in. Also come show up to the monthly round robin league.

• Petal Crash - My relationship with versus puzzle games remains complicated. But Petal Crash is still a very good game.

• Slay the Spire - Roguelike deckbuilder, basic idea is that after each combat you get to add a card to your deck, plus collect relics from elites/events/shops/bosses which provide passive effects. There's a ton of depth in trying to assemble the perfect deck one card at a time, resource management gets very complicated balancing what you need in the short-term versus what you want to take to the endgame. Tons and tons of possibilities, you can pretty much expect to never build the same deck twice. Oh, and did I mention there's 20 levels of hard modes once you think you've gotten A0 down? Also has a very powerful mod API with Steam Workshop support, check out Packmaster and Adventurer for my favorite must-plays.

• Ultimate Chicken Horse - Start on a nearly empty platformer map, each round everyone adds one object somewhere on the map then you all try to finish the level. Whoever finishes gets a point, plus bonus points for whoever finished first or collected coins that have been placed. Then you add another set of objects and repeat. Quickly becomes hilariously chaotic as you try to figure out how to balance screwing everyone else over while still making sure you can win, only to realize that after a few rounds you have all built a horrifying monstrosity. Has full crossplay with console versions.

• Anything by Zachtronics - A bunch of different engineering puzzle games where you have to write code or build a machine to solve problems. Once you've solved the puzzle, you can see a histogram comparing your solution to everyone else's on a few different metrics, encouraging you to go back and try to optimize it further. I recommend Opus Magnum as the best entry point.

with those we love alive changed me on a fundamental level and introduced me to the bhagavad gita('s second chapter) which is now one of the philosophical tenets of my life? also introduced me to alejandra pizarnik's poetry. what i am saying is that i used the game and some of the literary inspirations for the game to process grief.

simon tatham's puzzle collection. i linked to solo on the settings i play (9x9, jigsaw, unreasonable). i love sudoku and when devtesla first linked to the whole collection, discovering that sudoku could be harder than what was printed in the puzzle section of the newspaper was mindblowing. i also enjoy light up, towers and unequal. mines, tracks and pattern are annoying to play on the app/phone but i like them too

it's possible i need every indie game in existence listed out in order to remember what i've played

Horizon's Gate

If you're reading this and you like tactics games I need you to play this game. Five years on and it's still my favorite indie game of the decade. It has great character building, great exploration, and great world building.

tried to focus on less known games but heres my list

• tametsi: the greatest puzzle game on pc ever.
• idle slayer: idle game where you jump sometimes if you want to
• toki tori 2+: "metroidvania" style puzzle platformer where the only thing blocking you from progressing is your own understanding of the games mechanics. really good
• loop a tranquil puzzle game: if youre familiar with the board game serpentiles/tantrix this is just a digital version. but the puzzles are pleasant and the ambiance is good
• hollow knight: very little known. there's a little guy in it. apparently there's a sequel coming
• 80 days: basically a visual novel... roguelike i guess? based on around the world in 80 days but set in a weird belle epoque steampunky clockworky world. very neat
• ittle dew: puzzle platformer with quite good puzzles. unfortunately theyre a little more timing and combat style puzzles than pure logic etc but i still quite liked it
• heat signature: top down immersive sim game where you infiltrate spaceships. very cool
• adventure escape mysteries: free to play slop thats kind of reminiscent of early 2000s era shareware nancy drew type adventure games in the sense that you have to solve puzzles barely related to the task at hand to progress. totally free if you're not fussed by waiting for timers
• glass masquerade series: just jigsaw puzzles really, but you're matching shapes rather than images. sometimes interesting images and pleasant atmosphere but if you're not a jigsaw head then you probably wont enjoy it
• detective grimoire, tangle tower: both games in a series where you play as a detective. good
• quern undying thoughts: mystlike adventure game with slightly byzantine puzzles. i look back on the game more fondly than i did when i was actually playing it. it was good though
• puzzle agent 1 and 2: quirky Professor Layton style games made by Telltale before they became the The Walking Dead Games people
• islets: metroidvania. pleasant
• apico: breed bees. accidentally played this one for 70 hours
• atomicrops: roguelike where you farm mutant plants while mutant animals try to kill you. very high energy.
• any spiderweb software game: straight out of 1995 isometric combat adventure RPGs
• beacon pines: basically a visual novel with running around. story about a nefarious figure threatening a little boys town
• call of the sea: puzzle adventure walking sim where you are looking for your husband on an island. i remember this one being sort of obnoxious towards the end
• downwell: this was reasonably popular at the time and worth going back to if you missed it. play as a little dude falling down a well with guns for boots. roguelike
• dust an elysian tail: i dont remember if this game was that good or not but it was basically the first post metroid/castlevania metroidvania game that I can remember
• enderal forgotten stories: skyrim total conversion mod released separately (therefore free if you own skyrim). cool world. obviously quite derivative of elder scrolls but still worth seeing
• islands of insight: insane concept for a game. huge open world filled with puzzles. sort of similar to the witness but more pure logic than environmental puzzles. really good. runs like shit and was a total failure for the developer. was supposed to be multiplayer but they shut the servers down so now the world is weirdly empty. worth seeing imo
• loginode: another good logic game
• the marvellous miss take: stealth game where instead of waiting for five minutes for guards to leave you gotta sprint around and actively manipulate guards. pretty neat
• mark of the ninja: reasonably popular during its time. still a fun 2d platformer stealth game.
• paradise killer: murder mystery with a huge open world full of collectibles and fun movement. very stylish, fun characters
• purrgatory: probably not amazing but very pleasant puzzle visual novel with a largely lgbt cast. free
• sagebrush: first person walking sim with light puzzling exploring a cult compound. eerie vibes but not scary.
• the sexy brutale: genuinely horrible name for a decently fun time travel adventure game.
• senna and the forest: free logic narrative-ish game. worth checking out
• uurnog uurnlimited: very cool and odd immersive sim-style puzzle platformer.
• yokus island express: pinball metroidvania puzzle platformer

NORCO is a mystery adventure game set in near future Louisiana that fires on all cylinders. Very accurately depicts what life feels like in America and then speculates on it. I don't think there's a better use of your gaming time than giving it a playthrough.

• Tunic: A Zelda-like game with light "Soulslike" mechanics, but it's really a disservice to describe it according to other games. This is a wonderful adventure with very deep late-game puzzles.

• Environmental Station Alpha is one of my favorite Metroidvanias, emphasis on the "Metroid" part, with late-game puzzles similar to those in Tunic. A must-play for fans of the genre, by the same developer as Baba Is You.

• Undertale.... you might a heard a dis one

• "Goomba Online" was a Gamemaker game where you played as a Goomba, online. It was a cute platformer ahead of its time with tons of Goomba costumes, a chat, and hackers galore. It had a tiny tiny tiny cult following

• Outer Wilds is a game that's hard to describe, because I don't want to hype it up too much. But it's also the singular best example of videogames as an artform. You navigate on foot and by physically-accurate shuttle to untangle a puzzle spanning the solar system. It's a narrative that could only be told in a videogame and is one of my favorite games of all time.

• Seriously though, Undertale! It heralded this new genre of indie games, with popularity that seemed undue. After Off, Cave Story, etc. I never expected this dinky cutesy Toby Fox RPG to break through that layer. It's cited time and time again with showing other developers that they can make games too. I was a longtime GameMaker user, having had been using GameMaker since ~GM 4 (I must have been 8? 9?). I was around for Sexy Hiking. I was around for Goomba Online. I was around for Undertale. I was around for the start and the completion of AM2R. When dinking on GameMaker, I read Toby Fox's longform treatise on dialogue systems in his Earthbound mod. I didn't realize until the summer of 2015, before Undertale released, that that was the same guy. I've sinced used Godot professionally and prefer it over Gamemaker, but you can make a game now too. And you should!

  • p.s. I have permission by Toby Fox to use his dog in a fan work :^) going to put the Dog into the Site

• AM2R is a Metroid 2 remake released summer of 2016, the year after ESA and the year before the official Metroid 2 remake by Nintendo. AM2R is currently undergoing work for a full 2.0 release, which I'd recommend waiting for, and I hope releases by the 10 year anniversary. I followed this since the start, when there was also a Super Metroid remake and multiple other concurrent Metroid 2 remakes (which never released), and even Prime 2D, a fangame which was inexplicably revived (and C&D'd) a few years ago. AM2R is just the most solid Metroid fangame, in the same style as Zero Mission. Worth playing.

• xenosphere – a short, delightful, strange one-button platformer. go in blind. mild jumpscare warning.
• osu – click the circles to the beat. mechanics lifted wholesale from osu! tatakae! ouendan/elite beat agents for the ds. it's probably impenetrable if you're not a weeb. i still feel duty-bound to mention it anyway: it's my most played game by far, i've played it for more than a decade now.
• soulstone survivors/20 minutes till dawn – "bullet heaven"; they're vampire survivors, basically. good podcast games. 20 minutes has got cool women as playable characters, so that one's probably more you lot's jam.
• fights in tight spaces – kill be james bond. or a non-problematic equivalent. a really stylish tile-based slay the spire, pretty much.
• dicey dungeons – roll the dice, it feels nice. roguelite with dice rolling, by the capable hands of terry cavanagh. cute, great art, charming characters, banger soundtrack by chipzel.
• awaria – fix machines. avoid attacks. kiss ghosts. the attacks really ramp up as you progress through the game (even if it’s a short one).
• a short hike – a cute little exploration. it just feels really nice to run around and climb around and fly around in this game. the characters are great, too.
• kingsway – a nice, light roguelite, leveraging windows 9x Aesthetics. as in: you literally fight enemies on windows 9x-style dialogue boxes, clicking on dialogue box options to attack or use magic/items and such. though ultimately under it is a pretty basic rpg with real-time battles, with not that much depth; i still find it a good podcast game (maybe exactly because of that).
• the murder of sonic the hedgehog – one of the most enjoyable april fools’ jokes i’ve ever experienced. a highly polished short visual novel. i only know of sonic stuff through cultural osmosis, but the characters are fun, the writing is fun. the main “challenge” minigame can be a bit repetitive, but again, it’s a short game.
• citizen sleeper — i just love rolling dice. an rpg where you struggle to keep yourself alive. do odd jobs and buy medicine for your failing body. the main conceit is that you roll a few dice at the start of the day, and that dictates what you can do: some actions you simply do better when you have a higher dice, some actions require specific dice to pull off. strong themes, strong writing, cool art, a lovely, very lived-in world (which is high praise for an offworld slum, isn’t it?).
• in stars and time — a jrpg, specifically an earthbound-like, if you will (i see 2v already mentioned off and The Big One. hiya). strong queer themes, elemental rock-paper-scissors where the elements are literally rock, paper, and scissors. but the main thrust of the game is the gameplay loop (ehe, because, you're living the days over and over again. like. sorry) and the strong writing required to bear that load.

(the first draft of this post actually became a bit of a monster so i'm putting that here.)

• #21 The World - Surreal exploration game in the spirit of games like LSD Dream Emulator and Yume Nikki. Good if you're a fan of low-gameplay walking sims where you just get to explore and take in cool environments. Also it's free!

• Abiotic Factor - A survival crafting game (I know, just hear me out) that takes heavy stylistic inspiration from Half-Life 1. It's more linear and guided than some other games in this genre are which helps it not feel aimless like some games in this genre can feel, and the more linear nature allows it to have an actual story and cool setpieces. I've been playing through it recently with a friend so I can't comment on how good it is as a singleplayer experience, but playing with a friend it's a great time and I highly recommend it.

• Celeste - Probably don't have to explain this one, but in case you haven't played it yet its a fantastic precision platformer that's difficult but fair, with a very sweet story to it. Also it stars a trans character and is made by a trans developer, so it's perfect gaming for pride month!

• DROD Series - If you're a fan of complicated puzzle games you should check out the DROD games. A real masterclass in fully utilizing the potential of game mechanics, every newly introduced enemy and object gets every possible way it can interact with every other element explored in a puzzle at some point. You will feel like the greatest brain genius of the earth solving the harder puzzles in these games. Good starting point is either the first one, King Dugan's Dungeon, or Gunthro and the Epic Blunder which was designed as an onboarding game for new players.

• Framed Collection - Puzzle game with a unique gimmick of rearranging cells displayed in a comic format to change the events of the story. Fairly short experience but very stylistically cool, especially the 2nd game.

• Haven - I've said before I want to do a more in-depth write up about my experience with this game some day because it ended up becoming one of my new favourites of all time, but if I had to give a shorter summary: Romance game with an extremely sweet and well written couple and a beautiful aesthetic, great story, and the devs went to an absurd amount of effort to add same sex relationship options post launch as a completely free update even though as a small indie studio they really didn't have to.

• Hexcells - Logic puzzle game in the vein of Picross or Sudoku. If you like those kinds of games you'll probably enjoy this. There's several sequels to it as well, I haven't finished them so I can't say for sure but they seem like more of the same so they're probably good as well.

• Psychopomp Gold - This one is kind of a mixed recommendation, there's things about this game I really love but also things about it I hate. It's a horror 1st person dungeon crawler with an amazing aesthetic to it, but the gameplay is extremely barebones and at times it feels like it's being weird and cryptic for the sake of it rather than to say anything. The game stuck in my head long enough after playing that I ultimately ended up on the side of "I liked it", but mileage may vary.

• qomp - Game where you navigate a pong ball through a maze using a single button, which despite having the simplest control scheme possible manages to milk a surprising amount of gameplay depth out of it. Very short and pretty cheap, definitely recommend this one if you have an hour or two and a few bucks to spare.

Also seconding Twovests' recommendation of Undertale (and adding Deltarune as well) and Anethum's recommendations of Dicey Dungeons and Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog.

Touhou 2-5 are pretty solid shmups. For some reason they're much easier for me to 1cc than the Windows-era games that followed it (to this day the only Windows game I have legitimately 1cc'd in Normal difficulty is TH19, and that's because the game is an unbalanced Phantasmagoria lol). And I love OPNA/YM2608 music :D