Are there any good indie games on the world's largest video game store? I dunno, are there any leafy trees in the Amazon?

From what I've been playing: Stardew Valley, Factorio, Vampire Survivors, Derail Valley, A Hat In Time, Project Wingman, Frostpunk 1 and 2, Portal 2 (technically self-published), Signalis. Voices Of The Void will eventually have a Steam release. All of those games work well on Linux.

I play indie games a bunch, here's my shortlist:

• Factorio (factory builder)
• Enter the Gungeon (bullethell top down shooter)
• Slay the spire (rougelike deckbuilder)
• Subnautica (underwater exploration/survival/base building) - nr 2 is in early access, publisher deal with Krafton so good for the devs they fucked up trying to get out)
• Megabonk (rougelike auto-shooting, 3d vampire survivors type)
• Outer Wilds (space mystery exploration)
• Chants of Senaar (language decoding)
• Return to the Obra Dinn (forensics)
• Dave the Diver (dive fishing/sushi serving)
• Celeste (2d platformer)
• Neon White (speedrunning FPS)
• Papers Please (soviet style document checking)
• Cuphead (metroidvania)
• Magic Archery (very short and solid incremental, free and unmonetized, very rare)
• Inscryption (deckbuilder)
• Schedule I (drug dealing sim)
• Hollow Night (2d platformer Soulslike)
• Hades (roguelite)

All of them are good and they're mostly different types of games. All are tons of fun to play and most of them have a very charming art style (schedule I, and Megabonk Notably lacking there)

Out of these the absolute favorites are Factorio, Outer Wilds, Return to the Obra Dinn.

Side note, very important you stick with Outer Wilds until you find a major secret, people sometimes bounce off it and miss out on a once in a lifetime gaming experience.

This must be a troll post. So many indie games on Steam

Rimworld. Does have a native Linux port. It's a colony simulator in space. 2D. It you have a lot of control over your colony, you can micro manage everything. I have over 1000 hours in the game.

Dwarf Fortress

I'm sure you've heard of this one already, since the internet can't stop talking about it, but Hollow Knight and Silksong are both phenomenal games.

I've also got to mention one of my personal favorites, Book of Hours (and it's predecessor, Cultist Simulator). Weather Factory's style is... unique to say the least, but if you love them you'll really love them.

Also Balatro. Another one that I'm sure you've heard of because it has taken the internet by storm.

songs of syx, couldnt stop playing that, just started dredge aswell

Kenshi

Caves of Qud

Entropy Zero / Entropy Zero 2

MINERVA

Squad

Road to Vostok

Citizen Sleeper / Citizen Sleeper 2

Risk of Rain / Risk of Rain 2

Terra Invicta

Ghost Song

Sifu

... and if you have an inkling toward the OG 'walking simulator'...

Dear Esther: Landmark Edition

I am mostly confident that all of those are either self published or published via what was at least at the time of original release of the game, a fairly small indie publisher.

EZ and EZ2 are technically mods for HL2 but they are pretty darn good and then quite good, respectively.

Dear Esther and MINERVA are also HL2 mods.

Squad is basically the old Project Reality mod for Battlefield 2, but made in Unreal Engine by at least originally about 75% of the old PR mod team.

Anyway, I tried to pick some games that are indie, but are not as well known, largely due to not being cutesy.

EDIT

Forgot this one:

If you want a tank combat simulator game, on approximately the same level of fidelity of a flight simulator:

GHPC / Gunner, Heat, PC!

For when you finally get tired of Warthunder/Gaijin's bullshit, lol.

I guess technically you could describe the ARMA games as 'indie' in that they are self published, but they're also fucking huge, and ARMA is basically the consumer grade version of the military simulators they literally sell/lease to real world militaries.

Also, I would say Disco Elysium, but at this point, you should pirate it, after all the bullshit the publisher has done.

(which is arguably the more cannonically accurate way to play the game, if you haven't yet)

Any genre is pretty wide open but I'll list some of my most played.

• Oxygen not included
• Hydroneer
• Abiotic Factor
• Raft
• Planet crafter
• Against the storm
• Graveyard keeper

Factorio, 100%

I've been playing a lot of Parkitect recently, which is self-published

Space Haven

Noita is very cool, very deep, and has a tonne of content. It’s common for people’s first win to take about 100 hours, if they watch/read guides & the wiki

And I say first win, because the community calls getting your first win “the tutorial”. It’s 10% or less of the total content in-game

Two things that make it stand out: firstly, it’s hard. The community calls it “wizard death simulator”. That doesn’t mean that it’s not fun even at the start or that you can’t become ridiculously powerful, just that you will suck when you first start playing

Secondly, it’s not a metaprogression game which gives you the illusion of progressing by unlocking things or bumping up your stats. Killing bosses does unlock spells, but none of them are “if I find this at the start I’ll melt enemies”. They’re more “if I find this halfway through a run it might be fun to experiment and see what weird kind of a wand I can build”

Trailer: https://youtu.be/0cDkmQ0F0Jw

Tell me that doesn’t look sick

Some of the few i played the last year:

Tome 4: One of the best traditional rogue-like out there, with lots of classes and items. I won't lie, the graphics are dated but they grow on you. The greatest thing going for it, it's the number of races, classes, items that you can combine. You can play it for free on their page or get the paid steam version. It has some paid dlc. Sadly the developer hasn't appear in a while, i think they had a few real life problems, i hope they get better. Still the game is still top notch and with lots of content. If you are into traditional rogue-likes this one is a must play.

Cogmind: A traditional rogue like game but with a twist on the genre. Instead of exp, you get parts for your robot and part of the progression is learning about specific mechanics (info-war, stealth, hacking, etc). It has a really modern immersive ui, and really nice ASCII animations. It's tagged as early access but i consider it complete. It has dozens of different endings and ten years in development. But take my heed, It's pretty hard and may not be for everyone, some runs can be a bit frustrating. Check some videos or reviews before buying.

Caves of Qud: Lets keep rolling with traditional rogue-likes. This one is fresh out of the oven, I think they finished it last year and it was a fantastic ride. Unique setting in a post-apocalyptic world with mutants psychics and cyborgs. It has lots of customization, you can be a gunslinger mutant with 5 arms, each with a gun, four legs, two heads and that would be a normal run.
Just so you get around the level or craziness the game has, you can have your face chop up by a conscious tree, pick it up and wear it over your already mangled face just to assert dominance (Really, the chopped face gives +1 EGO when equipped). Check it out, fantastic game.

Bonus track:

Song of Syx: A civilization builder, that plays like a mix of colony management and paradox grand strategy games. Great game with a great developer.

Dyson Sphere Program: Ok, this one may not be an indie game, not sure, it has way more developers than the other games. But they are great and the game is gorgeous. If you like Factorio like games this one should be your jam.

Non-Steam Game:

While not in steam if you have experience running things with wine and proton, I suggest giving it a chance, you won't regret it.

Star Sector: Space game where you explore the galaxy with an ever growing fleet. It seems to take inspiration on Star Control. The battles are fantastic, the effect when a ship goes booms it's glorious. It has a great community with lots of mods. It's still in development but i consider it already finished. It has enough content for hundred of hours and that's no even counting mods. There is a big update coming, I think at the end of the year, may be worth waiting for it.

Signalis

Caves of Qud. I’m still on the fence about whether or not I like the perma-death mode, but the writing is fantastically poetic and it’s clear the systems of interactivity in the game world are expansive beyond what I could ever hope to really comprehend.

nope sorry, none.

Could you please use the cross-post feature instead of making 4 separate posts in future? Thanks.

If you're generally looking for Indie games (meaning smaller teams, max. AA budget), there much selection in this comment section.

If you mean hidden gems, that not many people have played/know about, then take a look at https://buried-treasure.org/

Into The Breach

Hades, Dave the diver, Terraria, dead cells... All good indies are on steam...

I love art of rally, iracing arcade, dome keeper, kingdoms and castles, stonks 9800, mini motorways and bzzzt, they all work on Linux. Hope you have fun with any game though.

I put 60 hours into Coal LLC over the last 3 weeks

You know, I always loved Supraland and I never hear people talk about it. The gameplay is a little like Zelda in concept, but the puzzles are a lot more satisfying and it’s essentially set in the Lego movie.

I've been enjoying En Garde!

Eastward is probably my favorite video game ever. I actually learned about it from a post here on lemmy a month or two after its release and I don't think I've ever seen it mentioned in the wild since. Gorgeous pixel art, characters you fall in love with, wonderful soundtrack. It's not for everyone - it's very dialogue-heavy and a lot of the story is left open-ended - but the world they've built is so compelling and packed with emotion. It's really heartwarming at times and beautifully creepy at other times.

Mindustry

Eh... Tons? 🤔

Heart of the Machine

I'll name some not yet mentioned in this 🧵.

Sulfur is a nice indie boomer shooter, very addictive and unique.

Witchfire is a single player extraction shooter by the devs of painkiller - still in early access, but very polished and amazing gunplay.

Shattered pixel dungeon is my go-to roguelike these days, for free at https://github.com/00-Evan/shattered-pixel-dungeon/releases - the paid Steam version comes with UI optimizations for PC.

Hardspace Shipbreaker puts you in the role of a worker in a spaceship recycling plant - it's a dangerous job, and the company is very anti-union. Good story, Very Zen or high pressure depending on the selected mode, good Americana soundtrack.

Utopia must fall is my go-to arcade game. Has roots in missle command, defeating waves and picking upgrades in a bit of a roguelike style. Timeless and unique graphics style.

DotAge is a turn based city builder where your doom has been foretold in a vision of your town elder. Make sure you stem against the tide of bad omens and the change of seasons.

Chronicon is an 2d ARPG. Done let the graphics fool you, it has very deep costumization options and unique builds to explore. It was finished, but Development has been picked up again unexpectedly after the dev came back to his roots after a failed project.

Cavalry Girls is a top-down Mecha game where you have to defend a city for 100 days. The UI is a bit convoluted, but it offers nice gameplay and deep costumization of your Mechas and you town defenses.

Deadeye Deepfake Simulacrum is a minimalistic top down game, where you play an agent for a mysterious agency which brought you back to life, and you have to work off you debt. You can hack anything(including flying bullets!), try stealthy approaches or go in guns blazing.

Mortal Sin is a melee Fps Roguelike. Lots of classes, weapons, armor and perks to choose from, unique graphics style, special moves depending on the equipped weapon and satisfying hack-and-slash gameplay.

Delta V: Rings of Saturn Is a top-down hard sci-fi game with accurate physics where you play as captain of a mining ship based on Enceladus (a Saturn moon), mining for minerals in the asteroid belt. Very Zen, until you try racing through the Belts or pirates damage your ship and You have to jury-rig it to make it home while keeping an eye on your fuel reserves.

Last but not least, We who we are about to die is an third person Gladiator sim in ancient Rome. The gimmick here is the fighting mechanics, where your mouse input moves the weapon and the speed of your weapon, the part you hit with and where you hit are all important. Takes a while to get good at swinging or throwing your axe, aw well as realistically blocking hits with your shield. Permadeath raises the stakes.

Mega Knockdown is a turn-based fighting game that's super simple to pick up and play while still offering a surprising amount of depth.

I'm here at Combo Breaker 2026 where we just had a small side tournament for the game last night, hosted by the developer. I took second.

Balatro

Pompeii: The Legacy

Another take on roman inspired city builders. It's in early access but already really playable.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2632240/Pompeii_The_Legacy/

Metropolis 1998

City builder inspired by sim city 2000 with pixel graphics. The interesting thing here is that you can plan and decorate the houses you build. So it's a bit of simcity / sims mix with retro graphics

Currently only a demo is available.

https://www.yesboxstudios.com/

Shogun Showdown

There's a humble bundle out for popular indie games

Check out Tunic

Mindustry - factory building + tower defense. For free on itch.io, runs in jvm

factorio squad expedition 33 no mans sky slay the spire 2 subnautica stardew valley terraria to the moon ib ao oni

these are the one i find good. your mileage may vary

Grimshire - moody farming game where you keep your villagers alive during a plague

Clair Obscur and Rogue: Genesia.

A gem is stationeers

Everything is a crab

There is no game(and their new game)

Deep rock galactic

Call of duty. Jokes aside what about bloons td6

Uboat

Gorogoa

Not seen Spelunky2 in this list. It's a quite hard rogue like platformer, but procedurally generated.

Also Noita (I think this is an indie?). Again procedurally generated game, but the map is bigger than expected. Wand programming at its finest

Someone else on Lemmy recommended Arco, and I've been enjoying the demo. Might buy!

Our adventuring guild: Tactics game full of flavour and min-max potential about getting a run down "guild of adventurers" from near extinction to a world class power

The Forgotten City. The less you know about it the better

And Inscryption is one of my favorite card battlers

Vanguard Galaxy is a cool space sim, mine, salvage, run missions. Gives me offline Eve Online vibes. Amazingly cheap for the content it already has. https://store.steampowered.com/app/3471800/Vanguard_Galaxy/

I enjoyed the demo for Heroes of the Seven Isles. I bought the full game when it came out but haven't had a chance to play it much. Really fun old school point and click adventure puzzle game with hand drawn doodle-style art.

Make Way. Fun little racing game with Ultimate Chicken Horse and Mario kart mechanics

Absolum. Great modern take on side scrolling beat em ups.

Blueblood Arena

under leaves https://store.steampowered.com/app/567030/Under_Leaves/

I play this game called Deadeye Deepfake Simulacrum a little while back. It's a weird sorta immersive sim type game. You hack computers and shoot people and a bunch of other stuff as a cyborg corporate agent/debt-slave. It was cool

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4G7rHJ8g3ng

Captain of industry

Genre: Factory automation

Absolutely fantastic game

crosscode glazer reporting o7

Baba is you for a fun puzzle game, moving around words to build rules that affect the game world

No, unfortunately there are not any good indie games on steam.

And my favorite right now: IGTAP. full release soon but the demo is so fun already. Play with proton even though there is a Linux build

Define 'good'. Everyone wants something different.

A good FPS that's indie (though it's actually AA) is a game called Operation Harsh Doorstop. I hadn't played it in a while, but from what I know, it's a fantastic Battlefield-like, with some inspiration from the H2M project as well.

It's made in Unreal Engine, which was on UE4 at the time. I think they use UE5, and likely optimize the game themselves.