Hello!
One of the things I really enjoy is unique, interesting or out-of-the box game design. It doesn’t have to be AAA game, it doesn’t have to be a perfect game, it can be pretty rough - but if it has a mechanic or design element that is somehow unique or original, I’m instantly in love with the game.
The problem is that such games do not usually get a lot of exposure, since it is after all a niche. And that is really a shame - in the past few years the most fun had with video-games was playing such smaller and shorter indie games with something unique or pretty clever, where I can obsess over the design and more importantly - get inspired. That leads me to my question - are there any communites or blogs or content curators that are about this kind of smaller, maybe unpolished, but original games? Or what games would you recommend that would fit into this description? I don’t mind if it’s a 5 minute experience. It’s ok if it’s more interactive art than a game.
To better illustrate what I’m looking for, I’d compare it to modern art - the kind where you get a single colored square on a canvas. I never got it, and it always felt just weird - until I had to start doing flyer design and started researching and reading about composition, space and all that stuff. And now I see there’s so much going on even on a picture with a single line, that it’s really interesting to think about why the square is where it is, and what kind of composition rules was he working with.
And I think it’s the same for game design - sometimes you see a clever mechanic or design on otherwise really ugly and unpolished game, and it still gets you inspired and thinking.
I understand that my question is a little bit vague, so I’ll give you a list of some games I consider unique, some of them are well known, some of them not-so-much:
- Immortality - you probably know about this one, but a game where the plot twist is discovering a hidden game mechanic, you could’ve done all the time? And the fact that you watch three movies at once in random scene order is also a really good experience.
- Against the Storm - I really like how they solved the issue with management sims - that they tend to get boring once you set everything up, by making it a roguelike.
- Different Strokes - an online persistent collaborative museum of art, where you can either leave a new painting, or edit someone’s else. Each painting can be edited only once, so there are always two authors of a single piece.
- Sayonara Wild Hearts - I really like the idea of making what’s basically an interactive music album. While the game design isn’t anyting that interresting, the focus on music is cool - there should be more music albums with video-games instead of video-clips.
- Project Forlorn - Again, not really a game - this time I think there’s no actuall gameplay, but it’s the best interactive music album presentation I’ve ever seen. And again - I like the idea of exploring music and games together.
- Playdate - Not exactly a single game, but rather a console - but the idea behind giving you a game per day (which is I think how it started, they may all be available now looking at it) sounds amazing - which I’d also consider a game design (or rather, experience design?).
- Baba is You - Another probably well known game, but the puzzle mechanic is just mindblowing.
- Before Your eyes - In this game, the main mechanic is that you go through the memories of someone who has just passed away, but the time advances every time you blink - physically blink, because the game can use your camera. That is such a clever idea, that it definitely fits onto this list.
- Nerve Damage - This is my favourite recent discovery. The game is trying so hard to be uncomfortable to play, with it’s main design build around just being unplayable. But it somehow works and once you get into the flow, it’s such an unique experience.
So, does anyone has some recommendations about where to look for more experimental games? A curated list, blog would be awesome - since clicking through pages of games on itch.io is pretty hit and miss. Also, feel free to share some of your favourite unique design or experimental experiences and games!
SUPERHOT - a shooter in which time only moves when you move. It kind of plays like a puzzle game and is quite fun
SUPERHOT is so much fun in VR! Definitely one of the best VR games I’ve played.
Since nobody mentioned it before, Stanley parable.
If I had to describe it with one sentence: you’re not playing the game, it plays you. I played a lot of games but this one stuck in my head. It awards for thinking outside the box.
Any other title like antichamber were already mentioned ^^
and if you want to play a completely different game from the stanley parable in every way by the same developer, the beginner’s guide is a short story game I would consider a work of art. It definitely is unusual as far as games go and it makes you feel things. It is best played completely blind on information.
Inscryption, there’s a reason it’s such a highly rated game on steam.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1092790/Inscryption/
Inscryption is an inky black card-based odyssey that blends the deckbuilding roguelike, escape-room style puzzles, and psychological horror into a blood-laced smoothie. Darker still are the secrets inscrybed upon the cards…
Baba is you: a simple block pushing puzzle game where you make the rules by lining up words. It’s not like anything else.
Iron lung: a short horror game about navigating a submarine blind
Dollhouse: a flim noir styled avoid the pursuer type horror game, with eack level adding new mechanics. One of the most interesting games I’ve played, but it got lost to a ten year hype train and never recovered from the initial review bombing.
Jazzpunk: hard to describe. An first person puzzle game where the whole game is a joke and every aspect is unexpected.
Papers please: run a Soviet bloc security check point, and try to keep your family alive with the small amount of supplies you receive for filtering citizen correctly. Same guy who made obra dinn.
Receiver 2: at the surface it’s an fps with insane gun mechanics. Deeper though, it’s forced meditation and mindfulness. Nothing you do can be reactionary or automatic, every movement must be on purpose. Lots of mental health themes.
Many others already mentioned here are great. Obra dinn, doki doki, antichamber, outer worlds. There’s a ton of great things out there.
Seconded on Jazz Punk and Papers Please, 2 awesome games!
Honestly I heard of Obra Dinn because it was from the guy that made Papers, Please
I have 35 and 41 hours in Receiver 1 & 2, I’ve managed to finish 1 2-3 times and never finished 2. But it’s a game you keep coming back to for its satisfying gameplay loop and challenge.
Planescape: Torment
The story of an amnesiac immortal piecing things back together.
The immortality isn’t invincibility, you still die, but wake up after a while.
Die enough times and you lose all memories, maybe with a different personality altogether, that’s where the game starts: a cold slab in the morgue and the start of this new incarnation you now control.
It’s not only a respawn mechanic though, the mechanic is used in a few puzzles and social encounters, it’s also integral to the storyline.One of the greatest experiences for sure. It’s more like a book or a visual novel, though, rather than a game, I would say.
Endure. In enduring, grow strong.
Have you played Return of Obra Dinn? Also Inscryption, the creator is half mad
Surprised nobody mentioned One Hour One Life before.
Basically, it’s a game where you only have 60 minutes to live in an open multiplayer world, starting out as a baby being cared for by your “mother” going to adult, and then dying of old age, possibly leaving everything to your offspring, also actual players.
I found this mechanic to be very unique among other games.
This is such a cool idea, I definitely have to try it sometime. I hope the game is not dead, it sounds like something you’d need an active playerbase for. The reviews on Steam sound amazing.
It’s not at all the same, but Crusader Kings has a related mechanic where you have kids and pass your dynasty to them, and they pass to their kids, etc. It’s not at all what the OP talking about, but maybe it’s interesting.
I absolutely recommend TUNIC. It’s sort of a combination of a legend of zelda/dark souls gameplay and a really interesting puzzle element. Basically, you are playing this game without the guide or any tutorial, and as you play you pick up pages of the game guide which teach you how to play, but it’s written in a language you can’t read, so you have to piece together the mechanics based on the pictures. The game is absolutely full to bursting with secrets, including a final puzzle that blew my mind when I figured it out. I played it with invincibility on so that I could focus on the puzzle element and not worry about combat so much.
It’s one of those games that you can only play once because you learn so many secrets through playing it, but it’s a truly magical experience.
My personal favourite that fits the description but was not mentioned yet is Cultist Simulator.
A thing, a place, an attribute, a person or feeling: all of these are cards.
Talk, work, travel: those are special containers called verbs.
And this simple setting gives you a lot of freedom. Upgrade your abilities, hoard esoteric lore, recruit people into your cult, raid vaults for goodies, summon an alien demon to get rid of your annoying boss and try to become immortal.
Takes a bit long to master due to how opaque some parts of it are though.
Somehow, the first time I played that game I had the longest run I’ve ever had for it. The more I learn the worse I seem to do. I did better when I was doing random shit than when I actually have a better understanding of what was going on.
I guarantee you will never find a game like the Return of the Obra Dinn. Never. It’s a shame that I will never ever be able to re-experience playing it for the first time again. If I could erase my memory of it to play again I would.
Unheard is another good one. It scratches the itch after you’ve played Obra Dinn and you’re clamoring for more. It depends on proximity and sound and attention to detail to play and solve. Amazing.
Gorogoa is absolutely amazing and beautiful. It’s a puzzle game you will appreciate as a designer. It uses perspective. Gorgeous.
I guarantee you will never find a game like the Return of the Obra Dinn. Never.
Have you heard about The Case of the Golden Idol? I haven§t played it yet, but from what I§ve heard it’s really good (it was most innovative game of last year on Independent Games Festival IIRC), and should be really similar to Return to Obra Dinn.
I’ve played both.
Obra Dinn is better for me, but I enjoyed both
The Case of the Golden Idol scratches a similar itch to Return of the Obra Dinn, just in case you missed that one. Bit simpler and more episodic though.
I’ve only played two of the games you mentioned, thanks for the list! Here are a few I thought were especially interesting and that I played somewhere recently:
- Nuts - you set up cameras to track movements of squirrels to find their hidden stash; gameplay is placing cameras and reviewing footage
- 140 - platformer stripped to its roots; the novelty is the simplicity; honorable mention Thoth (same idea, but twin stick shooter)
- Ys 1 - ARPG with bump combat, which I found very interesting
- Death Squared - MP (2 or 4) puzzle game where moving one unit can move set pieces, so coordination is needed
- Titan Souls - boss rush, but with 1HP for you and the boss
- Gorogoa - abstract puzzle game
- Donut County - you’re a hole
- Fez - 2D puzzle platformer where the gimmick is it’s actually 3D, but you can only see one 2D surface at a time (rotate worpd mechanic)
And some you’re probably aware of:
- Superhot
- Doki Doki Literature Club
- Oxenfree
- Portal/Portal 2
- Undertale
Thanks again for the list! I’m excited to see what others post too!
Edit: I just wanted to say thanks for the post! I found a ton of great games to try out, and I hope you got the same out of it. :)
Toribash is a unique take on fighting games, where you control the character in freeze-frames by adjusting actions on the character’s joints (relax, hold, flex, extend), then executing those actions. You can make singleplayer sequences or fight other players one on one - you get X amount of seconds per move simultaneously with your opponent, then the movement is resolved and you have another action round.
Omega Strikers - I’m not sure if this fits the bill entirely, but I think it is relatively unique in what it does and I have been playing the heck out of it since release, so I’ll plug it. It is a mesh of MOBA and table/air hockey, the game plays in 3v3 - 2 forwards and a goalie each team. Controls relatively standart for MOBA, the goal is to get the core (puck) into the enemy goal. You can also knock opponents off the sides or damage them making it easier to knock them off.
Death Stranding - package delivery simulator, with occasional horror and action elements
Iron Lung - horror game where you’re in a submarine with no windows
These definitely aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, but these are some really unique games I like.
Dwarf Fortress: A colony sim who’s depth gives it it’s uniqueness factor. It’s been in development for forever and if you dig into it a little bit stories will begin to construct themselves in the game in a way that no other colony sim does. Heads up that you won’t know how anything works and your forts will fall apart, it’s part of the Fun.Check out Kruggsmash on YouTube for some great videos on it.
Caves of Qud: I just learned about this game today actually, it’s a rogue lite(like?) In a similar vein as Dwarf Fortress. Super long in development with incredible depth and replayability. Really interesting stories that come out of it.
Kerbal Space Program: Learn to send adorable little green men to the moon! Build rockets, crash them, learn and try again! A few games have tried to do something similar, but nothing matches the vibe of ksp. Best to stick with the original + mods for now, the sequel needs more time in the oven.
Frontier Pilot Simulator: Be a delivery person on a alien world, fly vtol aircraft around, deliver goods, make money, upgrade craft. Ok that sounds basic as hell, but something about this game scratches a doing things itch for me. It’s great once you kinda get the flight controlls and can be played in 20 or so min intervals which I actually have trouble finding these days.
Delta V: Rings of Saturn: Take the old school asteroids game to it’s absolute furthest possible development and then a bit further, no, further than that, keep going.
Trackmania: Racing game that has crazy tracks but manages to stay grounded somehow. Fun if you just want to try and beat the latest tracks, also fun if you lose hours or weeks or months or years or decades of your life trying to get the best time.
VTOL VR and Jetborn Racing: Ok it’s a VR game, and you need a headset. But if you have one it’s literally the best flight sim ever. It’s just realistic enough to make you learn a bunch, but not so realistic that you get bogged down. No sticks or equipment needed, it’s all VR motion controls.
Carrier Command 2: Control a whole ass aircraft carrier! It’s very microprose, so super simulated and fiddly, but really really neat. If you have friends and can somehow convince them to play this with you, it’s super fun* *I take no responsibility for friendships lost due to ‘fun’
Anyways, I might like odd sim games a little bit more than is strictly healthy. Splattercatgaming on YouTube is a good source for finding odd games if you haven’t seen them yet.
Here’s one you almost definitely won’t know. Guy made his own game engine to make it work.
Hyperbolica - A whimsical Non-Euclidean adventure with mind-bending worlds full of games, puzzles, mazes, and secrets! Immerse yourself in reality-warping geometries where lines can never be parallel, horizons are curved, and space grows exponentially.
Do you need VR for it, or is it a decent experience on a flat screen?
