Steam Sale - (Overlooked) Indie Game Deals Discussion Thread

allansm said:
I know Valve isn't a charity, but why don't they double the number of flash deals, pick half of them to be less known indie titles and call them indie flash deal? This way they can keep on putting the same popular games on sale for the third or forth time and still highlight indie games.
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It isn't great and the exposure is important...but to be fair to Valve there is like two new indie bundles every week and plenty of other stores too. So at least there are options.
 
Hey gaffers is Pid really as frustrating/hard as some reviews are saying it is?

I tried the demo yesterday and really liked it.
 
Quick heads up for anyone on the fence regarding La-Mulana (currently on sale for 50% off). Playism (apparently another game distribution channel and localizing company to bring games over to the west) is having a La-Mulana, plus one secret mystery game, live streaming this sunday:

http://www.playism.tv/blog/?p=416

Might be worth checking out if you are interested in La-Mulana.
 
toddhunter said:
It isn't great and the exposure is important...but to be fair to Valve there is like two new indie bundles every week and plenty of other stores too. So at least there are options.
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Thats not even in the same stratosphere though. These Indie bundles sell less than promoted Steam deals AND they share that money with charity and other developers.
 
Facism said:
Does anyone consider Natural Selection 2 as an indie game? It's a great game that's constantly updated and is expecting another big content patch at the end of August. It looks great and now performs well after the last few updates.
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Well, it is undeniably an indie game. It's here because of crowdfunding and was made by a small team without any publisher, honestly it's a miracle they even released it because the beta was rough as hell.
 
Gez said:
Welp.

TIRWG.png
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Could be worse. I know at least SOME people enjoy it.
 
Toma said:
Thats not even in the same stratosphere though. These Indie bundles sell less than promoted Steam deals AND they share that money with charity and other developers.
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Fair enough, I don't know the figures.

Lets hope the lack of indie bundles and the like this time around is because Valve are cooking up something else for after. If they are still pushing Linux, you'll think they'll need Indies very much alongside them.
 
Toma said:
I fully agree. Between this, dev OST woes, non-existant community contests (summer sale 3 years ago comes to mind), the card monetization and Greenlight shit devs have to wade through, I am really souring on Steam atm. But oh well, here I am, making a thread for them so that people actually buy some games from some other devs that deserve it.
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Shouldn't we have a Steam gripe thread? I would start one, but I'm still a junior.
 
B.U.T.T.O.N. (Brutally Unfair Tactics Totally OK Now) - $1.49 (50% off)
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http://store.steampowered.com/app/92400/

Considering the staggeringly low amount of party games on Steam, this one deserves a mention for being rare AND fun. The game asks you to do some actions, while trying to make sure that the others cant do them. The physicality of the gameplay and the evolving behaviour of anyone participating make this a great choice for a party game. However, make sure to play it with good friends, since there are some sex-related jokes/challenges as well.
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I played button at Eurogamer's indie booth a few years back. It was... awkward touching strangers. I like to assume they were the developers but maybe I was just touching some unsuspecting stranger. Also had no real idea if I was winning or not, which I think is a good quality in a party game.
 
Knurek said:
Shouldn't we have a Steam gripe thread? I would start one, but I'm still a junior.
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Keeping that thread clean from massive insults and flaming will take a lot of effort, for which I dont have the time right now. The OP should also be rather well thought out since its a very sensitive topic for many, considering its their main PC gaming portal. There should probably be a thread about that topic eventually, but now doesnt seem to be the right time for it. Maybe I can dig up some other developer comments that would make for a decent thread on that.
 
Visualante2 said:
I played button at Eurogamer's indie booth a few years back. It was... awkward touching strangers. I like to assume they were the developers but maybe I was just touching some unsuspecting stranger. Also had no real idea if I was winning or not, which I think is a good quality in a party game.
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Yeah, I think you really need to play this with friends. Doesnt seem like something that works with strangers. No clue about the winning part, I think I read that the game just resets after every challenge so you basically need to keep a record of the tally yourself or something.
 
Hmm, I am surprisingly curious about Patterns:
bGzfXpC.jpg


Anyone played it?
 
eXceed 3rd - Jade Penetrate Black Package - 2,99 euro (50% off)
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http://store.steampowered.com/app/207400/

2nd best SHMUP on Steam, after Jamestown. Amazing rock music by japanese indie legend, Saitama Saishuu Heiki.
The 2nd game is also worth trying, though this one uses Ikaruga scheme (two colors of bullets, two colors of player character, when you're white, only black bullets hurt you, and vice versa) which might not be up to everyone's liking
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Such a pity the Touhou or Cave games aren't on Steam :\
 
So with the Sale in the home stretch, I was wondering...what happens to this fhread afterwards? I'd hate to see it disappear with all the other forgotten threads. I mean, we have basically complied a directory of dozens and dozens of indie games on Steam. 1) I think it is a testament to our passion for the unique experiences that indies can provide and 2) this is our baby. Toma may have created the topic but we kept it relevant with our recommendations.
 
Thanks again for the Altitude recommendation, game is a lot of fun, can only recommend it.

The demo if the game is almost full-fledged, just some power-ups are locked away.

Do we have an OT or a community thread for the game?
 
danielcw said:
Thanks again for the Altitude recommendation, game is a lot of fun, can only recommend it.

The demo if the game is almost full-fledged, just some power-ups are locked away.

Do we have an OT or a community thread for the game?
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It had a 5 post thread in 2009, sooo... nope.
 
Toma said:
Quick heads up for anyone on the fence regarding La-Mulana (currently on sale for 50% off). Playism (apparently another game distribution channel and localizing company to bring games over to the west) is having a La-Mulana, plus one secret mystery game, live streaming this sunday:

http://www.playism.tv/blog/?p=416

Might be worth checking out if you are interested in La-Mulana.
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Buy La Mulana everyone! Awesome Metroidvania with beautiful pixel art and atmosphere/philosophies similar to the Souls series.
 
More_Badass said:
So with the Sale in the home stretch, I was wondering...what happens to this fhread afterwards? I'd hate to see it disappear with all the other forgotten threads. I mean, we have basically complied a directory of dozens and dozens of indie games on Steam. 1) I think it is a testament to our passion for the unique experiences that indies can provide and 2) this is our baby. Toma may have created the topic but we kept it relevant with our recommendations.
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I added about 50% of all entries myself, so I know how painful it is and yet... is exactly that going to happen! I'll give the thread info to Salsa for his last day sales thread and then I'll maybe dig the info out during the next sales and only update the prices.

After the Steam sales are over, we'll migrate back to the monthly Indie thread series which is meant for exactly those Indie Game discussions anyway (and not bound to Steam).
 
Toma said:
I added about 50% of all entries myself, so I know how painful it is and yet... is exactly that going to happen! I'll give the thread info to Salsa for his last day sales thread and then I'll maybe dig the info out during the next sales and only update the prices.

After the Steam sales are over, we'll migrate back to the monthly Indie thread series which is meant for exactly those Indie Game discussions anyway (and not bound to Steam).
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That sucks. If anything, maybe you could include a link to the thread in your monthly threads? And we could continue to add recommendations.

Also Patterns? Once again, an awesome game I never heard till now. Think I could run it?
 
The 39 Steps - $7,49 (50% off)
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http://store.steampowered.com/app/234940/

Not a game, but unique enough to deserve a mention. Its basically a Visual novel with the text of a short story (that was the inspiration to Ian Fleming's James Bond) and illustrated with pictures. Hundreds of hand-painted digital environments, and authentic materials from 1910s Britain. 8 different storytelling mechanics, 25 collectible items and 16 awards to be unlocked. An original soundtrack by Si Begg and theatrical voice performances, including Ian Hanmore, Greg Hemphill and Benny Young.
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More_Badass said:
That sucks. If anything, maybe you could include a link to the thread in your monthly threads? And we could continue to add recommendations.

Also Patterns? Once again, an awesome game I never heard till now. Think I could run it?
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Nah, these threads are a pain in the ass to maintain. And I can barely deal with more work than one thread. I'd prefer having all Indie Talk in the monthly Indie threads, since they are having a hard enough time staying afloat as is (getting 15 pages in 30 days, whereas this Steam thread has 25 pages in 8 days) and if we are truly talking about "Overlooked" Indie Games, there are plenty of Games that need the talk way more than anything on Steam.

Anyway, just consider this thread something we'll dig out twice a year for the major Steam sales. Sometimes, you just... need to let go. *strikes dramatic pose*
 
More_Badass said:
Binding of Issac, heard a lot about it, never played it. What makes it so good? I know it's from SMB's devs so that gives me a good idea of difficulty and sense of humor.
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it's awesome. bucket loads of powerups, random so it's different everytime, good difficulty level (challenging as hell to beat it properly)

if you like roguelike-likes or whatever they're called, perma death arcady games, it's one of the best of the bunch.

I sank around 160 hours in it and not done yet.
 
I think I am pretty much almost done with this thread btw. There are a few games I skipped because no one has recommended them, and I am currently checking out Patterns, but the thread should be about 95% complete.

Good feeling.
 
Patterns is surprisingly big, 1,3GB. Impressions later tonight. Off to playing some CardHunter before the vacation activity of the day is going to start:
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Knurek said:
eXceed 3rd - Jade Penetrate Black Package - 2,99 euro (50% off)


Such a pity the Touhou or Cave games aren't on Steam :\
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Buy the eXceed trilogy if you dont have it. The games are great, but yeah Jade Penetrate Black Package is the most polished of the 3. My God though the last boss is brutal uses a tunnel effect alongside bullet swirls so you are trapped in a narrowing tube and bullets are coming in from either side and you get less space and time to react to them...the whole while you are trying to stay calm in this multistage boss fight THIS PLAYS.

By God amazing soundtrack and great bullet hell. Pumped experience. First one is a traditional shmup with a heavy focus on leveling up your shots, second game is a polarity switch game like Ikaruga, and 3rd game (Jade Penetrate) is a traditional bullethell that increases in challenge the better you do.
 
Toma, could you change my description for eXceed from 'though this one' to 'though it'?

Should make it more clear that the Ikaruga mechanics are in the 2nd game. :)
 
Knurek said:
Toma, could you change my description for eXceed from 'though this one' to 'though it'?

Should make it more clear that the Ikaruga mechanics are in the 2nd game. :)
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Your wish has been granted.
 
More_Badass said:
Wow. I have a passion for hiking and that looks like some gorgeous terrain to explore

And I'm vacationing in Florida, nothing but rain for the last four days while NY has a heat wave, nice timing
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Yep, we are doing a ton of hiking these days with marvellous sights like these. We walked along the path below those chalk cliffs on the first picture 3 days ago.
 
Since Stump probably wont post his Sang-Froid impressions again here:
Stumpokapow said:
Sang-froid -- one hour played: This is really cool, it's very hard to put into words. It's so Canadian. You play as one of two characters, brothers (I chose the lumberjack who wears plaid and has a beard, who incidentally is the Easy/Normal difficulty as opposed to the other brother who is the Hard difficulty). The story is that it's December 1858 (pre-Canada!), your sister was at the local Catholic (all good Quebecois stories are Catholic at heart, and this is explicitly so!) church when the cartoonishly corrupt and evil priest came onto her--she rejected her advances, and in the kefuffle the church got burned down. He blamed her for the situation and the town thinks she's a witch. He makes a deal with the devil to get the girl and sends packs of wolves and werewolves after you at your cabin. The game takes place over 20 or more nights.

The gameplay is divided into two main phases. First you have a planning phase. You see a top-down map of a fairly large area containing buildings. In this phase you can also go into town and buy items and gear or get blessings at the Convent. During the planning phase you see how many waves of enemies will come each night, where they will come from, and what kind of enemies they will be. Each wave has several groups of enemies coming from different locations. You need to set traps to deal with the enemies. Traps cost AP, which is limited. Some traps cost money, which is also limited. Later in the game you can voluntarily give up AP and get paid cash for doing so (this represents spending time chopping wood for sale at a lumber company). Traps include steel tooth wolf traps, pressure based spike traps, overhead nets containing rocks, bonfires that you can light for defensive purposes, bait meat, etc.

When you are ready, you start the night. You spawn in a viewpoint similar to Brutal Legend or Orcs Must Die. You have an axe and a gun. You can run and roll-dodge. All actions take stamina, which regenerates. When stamina is depleted, you become slow. Your gun is single-shot and must be manually reloaded and makes an ungodly amount of noise, so strategic use is key. Each attack you land builds up rage, which can be unleashed in the form of a powerful attack.

Enemies come in packs (YA DON'T SAY!)--each enemy has a "fear level", you do too. The enemy who is next to attack has an icon over his head so you can deal with him first. Fear levels steadily increase. When an enemy's fear level is higher than yours, it can attack. Getting closer raises fear levels. Too close and enemies can attack regardless of fear level. Yelling at enemies lowers their fear level but makes noise and attracts far-off enemies. Attacking lowers their fear level at the cost of your stamina. Bonfires greatly raise your fear level when you're near them.

You can consume items, including Canadian Whisky, to get a bonus. These cost money to buy.

The wolves attack your buildings. Damage to buildings reduces your rewards and I think leads to a game-over if they are destroyed. You have to defend multiple buildings, nowhere near each other, simultaneously and movement across the map is fairly slow so you should rely on traps to slow down or kill most enemies. You have an HP bar, which is depleted by being attacked--if you die, you lose. After a night you get experience, which can give you levelups. There's a full skill tree. You also see plot vignettes between the nights and get tutorials for new features. Everything you can do in the game has an optional tutorial video with a pleasant, older-sounding gentleman narrating.

Finally, the music is an enchanting mix of celtic folk with a fiddle, a bodhran, light guitar, etc and a sort of Jethro Tull heavy-folk-jazz vibe. There's a digeridoo in there somewhere. There's a splendid little version of Reel a Bouche, which is a traditional folk song sung in Canada. It's gorgeous to listen to. I hate when the load screens end and the music cuts off, I'd love to just listen to the OST on its own. The game assets are all unencrypted--WAV for the audio, WMV for the video, PNG for UI element backgrounds and stuff.

The game is a little rough around the edges, load times are pretty long, some of the English voice acting is Quebecois accented, it's not going to win any best looking awards, etc. But there's a lot of heart here and what I've played so far has been very enchanting to me. I recommend Sang-Froid at its flash deal price of $5.09, and I hope that when the next sale rolls around I'm not the only one here who has played it. This was an independent game made by a Quebecois author and a small team of 5-6 people, and it made it through Greenlight, so if you want to support the process and show that it can achieve good results and help independents, here's your test case.

I posted a dozen or so explanatory screenshots on Steam:
http://steamcommunity.com/id/stumpo/screenshots/

I use colour grading on my monitor so some colours might not look right, I ran at 1680x1050 with default settings but turned up AA. I have an AMD Phenom II X3 720 at 3.0 GHz, 8 gigs of ram, a 4850, and running off a 5400 RPM hard drive and I had no performance issues besides load times.

P.S. There's a known bug with tutorial movies where only the top half of the video renders. It's a Microsoft issue dealing with how W7 handles WMVs, not an issue with the game. Check the game's discussion page on Steam for solutions if you experience it.
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Knurek said:
eXceed 3rd - Jade Penetrate Black Package - 2,99 euro (50% off)


Such a pity the Touhou or Cave games aren't on Steam :\
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This is so true. I suck horribly at shumps, but I am totally enamored by them! I think it is a by-product of being around when arcades were still a thing.
 
Toma said:
I think I am pretty much almost done with this thread btw. There are a few games I skipped because no one has recommended them, and I am currently checking out Patterns, but the thread should be about 95% complete.

Good feeling.
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Great job as usual Toma. You've done more for GAF Indie than anyone I can think of. I've already bought several and will probably buy $80+ worth on the last day.
 
Toma said:
Since Stump probably wont post his Sang-Froid impressions again here:
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Was just about to ask if anyone else had any impressions. Stump's and the dev walkthrough have almost completely sold me on the game, but I would like to hear a little more from the perspective of someone who's finished the game in its entirety.

Edit: Looks like there's a highly positive Eurogamer review as well. Yeah, I'm in.
 
Played a few hours of DUST: An Elysian Tale. Also got an adapter to run a cable to the TV in my office so it's more like a console experience. I gotta say DUST really is great. It's got tight controls, the artwork looks incredible, and there's tons of places to explore and a fair amount of quests. Honestly in just two hours I've seen more variety than Muramasa. Get it.

Also wanna throw in a mention for Dead Pixels. Pretty fun side scrolling shooter. It's kind of like River City Ransom with guns and zombies.
 
traveler said:
Was just about to ask if anyone else had any impressions. Stump's and the dev walkthrough have almost completely sold me on the game, but I would like to hear a little more from the perspective of someone who's finished the game in its entirety.

Edit: Looks like there's a highly positive Eurogamer review as well. Yeah, I'm in.
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It's on sale at GMG for 50% off!
 
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