hidden gems

All games with fewer than 100 plays that I think should get more exposure. I dont absolutely love all of them, but I find every single one at the very least interesting to talk about, Ive even written reviews for some of them.

Antipsychotic
Antipsychotic
Interactive music video about a musician's struggle with certain mental conditions, short and powerful
Paws of Coal
Paws of Coal
Medical based detective game with a "watership down" esque aesthetic. An inspiration for me, though be forewarned its buggy
Traveler's Game
Traveler's Game
A hybrid RTS Visual Novel about aimless youths in Shenzhen China, its a bit too long unfortunately and the translation isnt great, but the realism of the dialogue and capturing of that "making a new online friend through counter strike at 2am in the summer" that you cant really get anywhere else.
Cache Grabbers
Cache Grabbers
A weird geocaching sim, very unique
Daily Thread: The Sewing of Discontent
Daily Thread: The Sewing of Discontent
I wrote a review about this already but in short its a sewing / management sim a bit like papers please but for 19th century seamstresses in england, very educational
Isle of Pan
Isle of Pan
A weird, amateurish photography sim, very charming
Detective Ridelle
Detective Ridelle
Like ace attorney but gay. Actually I guess thats redundant. Well, like Ace Attorney but Lesbian and on a Train
Data Garden
Data Garden
Short, minimalistic and clever
Imperialism
Imperialism
An "honest" simulation of expansion and economic domination
Svoboda 1945: Liberation
Svoboda 1945: Liberation
A mixed media FMV game about the story of the sudeten region of czechia
Druidwalker
Druidwalker
0 tutorialisation roguelike, satisfying to work out
The Farnese Hercules
The Farnese Hercules
Its uhh, like picross kinda? But in service of a love letter to retro computers and sculpture
Bus Simulator 23
Bus Simulator 23
Meditative adventure game through the framework of a lite bus sim. Cozy and melancholy
Soulvars
Soulvars
An addicting turn based rpg similar in mechanics to DDS1 if it was a bit more deckbuilder esque
Extreme Evolution: Drive to Divinity
Extreme Evolution: Drive to Divinity
Dont play this if you have any kind of photosensitivity but to anyone else its a fascinating little platformer
The Mountain is as it Always was
The Mountain is as it Always was
Just play it, its a bitsy game
A Hint of Purple
A Hint of Purple
Disco Elysium inspired VN, hard not to spoil and its free so just play it
Commonplace
Commonplace
I genuinely don't know what else I could say about commonplace at this point, but I would say it occupied my mind for months and wouldnt let go, probably not for everyone though
Before the Green Moon
Before the Green Moon
A refreshingly different narrative focused farm sim. The actual farm sim mechanics arent super in depth, but the understated realism and writing really are something special
Wayward Strand
Wayward Strand
Wayward strand is the kind of narrative game that makes playing other similar games worse by comparison. Death to gameified relationships, give me independent characters, not robots

9 Comments


1 month ago

i like this list a lot . i will look more at the games . thank you .

1 month ago

suggestion for you (or the list if you take submissions): bird tapper purple platoon panic, only play is currently me rn

1 month ago

fuck yeah traveler's game

1 month ago

@mlinguine np, thanks for reading
@zeusdeegoose Ill look into it
@judgerussel oh shit you've played it? I swear I thought I was the only one on the site who had

1 month ago

@LordDarias I sometimes keep tabs on weird Chinese games ... i didn't finish it though, I should return to it

1 month ago

Does Imperialism has something to do with Tropico 2? I noticed their both on the dev page (or publisher, dunno) here on Backloggd.

1 month ago

@CDX yeah, frog city software developed both Imperialism and Tropico 2
@Judgerussel I dont blame you, it really does go on a lot longer than it needed to

1 month ago

@judgerussel goddamnit I misspelled your username in the reply

1 month ago

@LordDarias Thank you for the answer.

Thank you for the list, to be honest. Didn't know a bunch of these studios and games, and my wishlist just grew thanks to ya.


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