$80 games? No Thanks. Weak Steam Sale Discounts? I Can Wait Longer. Indies Doing Cool Things for Cheap? Free Mods and Fan Games? Yes Please!!!

S

SScorpio

Member
For the people just skipping through. Please don't just reply play old games, use alternative key sites for cheaper prices, etc. This thread is about non-main stream indies, as well as mods and fan recreations. There's a bunch of awesome stuff out there (some for free) that most people have no idea exists.


Seeing the same 20-33% discount on a game on Steam that's now several years old already that you didn't feel was worth that price the last six sales? Getting tired of games that are made to be larger and larger from mountains of filler so you find "value" in their inflated prices?

It's time to take a step back to a simpler time in gaming. I'll start with this great channel the YouTube algorithm actually worked for once and helped me find something cool that's starting to highlight indies, ROM hacks, and fan games. The only limit is a lot of this stuff isn't on consoles. You don't have to stop playing on consoles, but you'll need a PC. But aren't they expensive? Not for the kind of PC you need to run these things on. A $300 Ryzen mini PC with 780m graphics is more than powerful enough. Or if you're on the go, just get a Steam Deck or other handheld PC.

Here's the channel: https://www.youtube.com/@Tenacityfromtheglass/videos

Let's start with some indies many which are on the Steam sale and will cost less than that grande frappa mocha whatever BS coffee drink people seem to love over paying for. These are all N64 looking games, many platforms, but some Star Fox 64, Mischief Makers/Klonoa, Burning Rangers, and even an upcoming game for Golden Eye fans.



N64 not your thing? Or maybe you extracted the last of the spare change from your couch a decade ago and have since switched to only using Apple Pay? Well how about a bunch of free games that were all made with the Doom engine? But, there's a 3D platformer with Doom guy running around a Mario 64 looking world, and a Sonic Themed Kart Racer you ask. Yes, they were made with the updated GZDoom engine which is just the same old Doom engine ported to modern PCs.



Anyone have any other recommendations for ways to find these? What are some unknown treasures you fun that other people should be checking out?
 
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One of the best things about PC is the variety of games. games that console players are asking for (games that are moderately priced and moderate scope with 8-12 hrs play time) can still be found easily on Steam.

Personally I just let Steam algorithm and reviews do the work. Most often they don't miss
 
Funny thing about the increased base prices is that even on sale it makes it less appealing. 40% off and its still over $40? Guess I can keep waiting.
 
llol this is the reason why nvidia GPU arent selling , majority PCMR playing indie games.
 
I find hidden gems in game bundles all the time. Fanatical is the best, i check it at least once a week. Another is favorite is IndieGala.
Here's a n64 like game you might be interested in op
This one is definitely worth checking out too
 
Great post but I'll add a console is also not a bad place to go looking for diamonds. If you are paying for a subscription, try digging around in those.

PC is king for this, tho. And on that note- console bros please consider pairing your controller to your laptop if you've never tried that!!!
 
ArtHands said:
One of the best things about PC is the variety of games. games that console players are asking for (games that are moderately priced and moderate scope with 8-12 hrs play time) can still be found easily on Steam.

Personally I just let Steam algorithm and reviews do the work. Most often they don't miss
Click to expand...
Absolutely, but the problem is that still only highlights moderately successful things which only scratches the surface of what's out there.

Things like ROM hacks where the graphics and maps are changed can stretch a classic game's engine to its limits. If you check the channel there's a whole video on Pokemon hacks where fans are making better games than what Game Freaks has put out in the last decade. And game recomps are stretching that even further.

Let's all share some of the cool things we've found and played lately.
 
SScorpio said:
Seeing the same 20-33% discount on a game on Steam that's now several years old already that you didn't feel was worth that price the last six sales? Getting tired of games that are made to be larger and larger from mountains of filler so you find "value" in their inflated prices?

It's time to take a step back to a simpler time in gaming. I'll start with this great channel the YouTube algorithm actually worked for once and helped me find something cool that's starting to highlight indies, ROM hacks, and fan games. The only limit is a lot of this stuff isn't on consoles. You don't have to stop playing on consoles, but you'll need a PC. But aren't they expensive? Not for the kind of PC you need to run these things on. A $300 Ryzen mini PC with 780m graphics is more than powerful enough. Or if you're on the go, just get a Steam Deck or other handheld PC.

Here's the channel: https://www.youtube.com/@Tenacityfromtheglass/videos

Let's start with some indies many which are on the Steam sale and will cost less than that grande frappa mocha whatever BS coffee drink people seem to love over paying for. These are all N64 looking games, many platforms, but some Star Fox 64, Mischief Makers/Klonoa, Burning Rangers, and even an upcoming game for Golden Eye fans.



N64 not your thing? Or maybe you extracted the last of the spare change from your couch a decade ago and have since switched to only using Apple Pay? Well how about a bunch of free games that were all made with the Doom engine? But, there's a 3D platformer with Doom guy running around a Mario 64 looking world, and a Sonic Themed Kart Racer you ask. Yes, they were made with the updated GZDoom engine which is just the same old Doom engine ported to modern PCs.



Anyone have any other recommendations for ways to find these? What are some unknown treasures you fun that other people should be checking out?
Click to expand...

Definitely interested in games like this. Especially the full conversions like you mention later in the post. One such full conversion mod I found to be very engaging and interesting is Ultima Odyssey: Ruins and Riches. Though it doesn't receive updates anymore, there are many people using it to make online forks for private UO shards. The core components are more akin to an early 90s CRPG though, so it's a single player focused experience (though you can open the server for others to play with you, it's designed around one player) with the bones of Ultima Online - just familiar enough to be recognizable and understandable for those who've played UO, but developed and altered enough to be its own experience that is definitively different in nature.

If you take a look at the manual, read the "Road to Odyssey" section to get a better idea.

pixeldrain.com

Ultima_Odyssey.pdf

This file has been shared with you on pixeldrain
pixeldrain.com pixeldrain.com




But yeah, long story short, the indie scene and mod scene are more amazing than they've ever been. Take Adventure Game Studio, for example. Developed over 20 years ago, the software lets users make Sierra/LucasArts style point and click RPGs and there are amazing and completely free projects out there, like Heroine's Quest that is a love letter to the Quest for Glory series - great stuff out there at no cost all over the place!

 
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DownLikeBCPowder said:
Definitely interested in games like this. Especially the full conversions like you mention later in the post. One such full conversion mod I found to be very engaging and interesting is Ultima Odyssey: Ruins and Riches. Though it doesn't receive updates anymore, there are many people using it to make online forks for private UO shards. The core components are more akin to an early 90s CRPG though, so it's a single player focused experience (though you can open the server for others to play with you, it's designed around one player) with the bones of Ultima Online - just familiar enough to be recognizable and understandable for those who've played UO, but developed and altered enough to be its own experience that is definitively different in nature.

If you take a look at the manual, read the "Road to Odyssey" section to get a better idea.

pixeldrain.com

Ultima_Odyssey.pdf

This file has been shared with you on pixeldrain
pixeldrain.com pixeldrain.com




But yeah, long story short, the indie scene and mod scene are more amazing than they've ever been. Take Adventure Game Studio, for example. Developed over 20 years ago, the software lets users make Sierra/LucasArts style point and click RPGs and there are amazing and completely free projects out there, like Heroine's Quest that is a love letter to the Quest for Glory series - great stuff out there at no cost all over the place!

Click to expand...

Adventure Game Studio had lots of interesting things. There were even SCI style remakes of King's Quest 1, 2 & 3. And that had Graham's voice actor from 5 voice him in the fan remakes.

MMOs can be tricky as they are made to be large populated worlds. The scene around the original Neverwinter Nights was interesting as many D&D modules were created for it, and as well as all new creations including some pseudo style MMOs that even had servers that linked to one another.

Give the first linked video a watch if you haven't, PC ports and hacks are called out there. The Banjo Kazooie total conversion hack for 3D Zelda that's a 40 hour game looks nuts.

The recent AVGN video about the original Metroid trilogy also sent me down a hacks rabbit hole. The Rogue Dawn hack for the original NES game is crazy, and there's some really good looking Super Metroid mods as well. https://metroidconstruction.com/hacks.php
 
Crayon said:
Great post but I'll add a console is also not a bad place to go looking for diamonds. If you are paying for a subscription, try digging around in those.

PC is king for this, tho. And on that note- console bros please consider pairing your controller to your laptop if you've never tried that!!!
Click to expand...

If you're stuck on consoles that's an option. But many of the games end up free from Epic or included with the games Amazon gives away with your prime subscription which are games you get to keep even if your subscription ends: https://gaming.amazon.com/

Or they're in Humble Bundles, or just cheap from Fanatical build your own bundles.

You're right about trying a laptop if you have one. A lot of this stuff will run fine any any computer strong enough to handle browsing modern websites with Chrome. People complain about the death of the low end GPU market, but that happened because the iGPUs on modern processors can handle current games at 1080p low settings with some FSR thrown in.
 
SScorpio said:
Adventure Game Studio had lots of interesting things. There were even SCI style remakes of King's Quest 1, 2 & 3. And that had Graham's voice actor from 5 voice him in the fan remakes.
Click to expand...

Definitely! Quest for Glory II also was given the VGA treatment with a fan remake by AGDI in AGS, since that was the only game in the series that was only in EGA! I loved the KQ remakes you mentioned, I played them all!
 
Them increasing the price of games was the best thing for me in terms of gaming. At first I was pissed, but now I've become such a patient gamer. I get games for much cheaper, sometimes at an extremely low price if you consider deep discounts or subscription services. The games are complete, and any issues and bugs are usually fixed. I went from buying 10-15 new or full priced games annually at $60 Canadian to buying 1-2.
 
Crayon said:
I hope so. It's not like everything is going, just the big shity stop to make room for fresher and smaller things.
Click to expand...
For all the panicked AI is going to destroy everything, I'm hoping it enables more small teams creating excellent games with the quality of Clair Obsur. Small teams of a dozen or so people can take risks that a game made by 500 can't. Once you need 10 million copies to break even, you're chasing treads to make sales versus making something cool.
 
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SScorpio said:
Seeing the same 20-33% discount on a game on Steam that's now several years old already that you didn't feel was worth that price the last six sales? Getting tired of games that are made to be larger and larger from mountains of filler so you find "value" in their inflated prices?

It's time to take a step back to a simpler time in gaming. I'll start with this great channel the YouTube algorithm actually worked for once and helped me find something cool that's starting to highlight indies, ROM hacks, and fan games. The only limit is a lot of this stuff isn't on consoles. You don't have to stop playing on consoles, but you'll need a PC. But aren't they expensive? Not for the kind of PC you need to run these things on. A $300 Ryzen mini PC with 780m graphics is more than powerful enough. Or if you're on the go, just get a Steam Deck or other handheld PC.

Here's the channel: https://www.youtube.com/@Tenacityfromtheglass/videos

Let's start with some indies many which are on the Steam sale and will cost less than that grande frappa mocha whatever BS coffee drink people seem to love over paying for. These are all N64 looking games, many platforms, but some Star Fox 64, Mischief Makers/Klonoa, Burning Rangers, and even an upcoming game for Golden Eye fans.



N64 not your thing? Or maybe you extracted the last of the spare change from your couch a decade ago and have since switched to only using Apple Pay? Well how about a bunch of free games that were all made with the Doom engine? But, there's a 3D platformer with Doom guy running around a Mario 64 looking world, and a Sonic Themed Kart Racer you ask. Yes, they were made with the updated GZDoom engine which is just the same old Doom engine ported to modern PCs.



Anyone have any other recommendations for ways to find these? What are some unknown treasures you fun that other people should be checking out?
Click to expand...

You don't have to buy on steam. Plenty of places to get steam games for cheaper such as GMG, it's the competition that makes PC games do cheap vs consoles.
 
Increased prices was the push i needed to start enjoying my backlog and cured me of FOMO.
 
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You could only buy games below ~$10 on Steam and you'd still have an endless supply of good/great games to play.
 


I recommend Lunistice, a 3D platformer with a PS1/Saturn era style art style. IMO, how a 3D Sonic game should look and play instead of playing itself with grind rails & jump pads half the time. It's on PC & Switch.

Added Cornkids 64 to the wishlist, I've seen it before, but lost track of it.
 
If you're playing games on Steam, there's a 90% chance you already have a backlog of games to play. As prices get higher and discounts are less steep, you can just play your backlog and wait for deeper discounts.

Or look to third party keys instead of buying from Steam. If you really want to save money, just use something like https://isthereanydeal.com/ to build a list of games at the price you're willing to pay and wait to be notified.
 
SScorpio said:
Seeing the same 20-33% discount on a game on Steam that's now several years old already that you didn't feel was worth that price the last six sales? Getting tired of games that are made to be larger and larger from mountains of filler so you find "value" in their inflated prices?

It's time to take a step back to a simpler time in gaming. I'll start with this great channel the YouTube algorithm actually worked for once and helped me find something cool that's starting to highlight indies, ROM hacks, and fan games. The only limit is a lot of this stuff isn't on consoles. You don't have to stop playing on consoles, but you'll need a PC. But aren't they expensive? Not for the kind of PC you need to run these things on. A $300 Ryzen mini PC with 780m graphics is more than powerful enough. Or if you're on the go, just get a Steam Deck or other handheld PC.

Here's the channel: https://www.youtube.com/@Tenacityfromtheglass/videos

Let's start with some indies many which are on the Steam sale and will cost less than that grande frappa mocha whatever BS coffee drink people seem to love over paying for. These are all N64 looking games, many platforms, but some Star Fox 64, Mischief Makers/Klonoa, Burning Rangers, and even an upcoming game for Golden Eye fans.



N64 not your thing? Or maybe you extracted the last of the spare change from your couch a decade ago and have since switched to only using Apple Pay? Well how about a bunch of free games that were all made with the Doom engine? But, there's a 3D platformer with Doom guy running around a Mario 64 looking world, and a Sonic Themed Kart Racer you ask. Yes, they were made with the updated GZDoom engine which is just the same old Doom engine ported to modern PCs.



Anyone have any other recommendations for ways to find these? What are some unknown treasures you fun that other people should be checking out?
Click to expand...

Congratulations? Okay.
 
Holammer said:


I recommend Lunistice, a 3D platformer with a PS1/Saturn era style art style. IMO, how a 3D Sonic game should look and play instead of playing itself with grind rails & jump pads half the time. It's on PC & Switch.

Added Cornkids 64 to the wishlist, I've seen it before, but lost track of it.
Click to expand...

The last video on the Channel I linked mentioned Sonic GT, it's a free fan game that might be right up your alley: https://gamejolt.com/games/Sonic-GT/533291

Here's the video mention of it:

The creator of Sonic GT is working on a new game he'll sell on at least Steam and Switch called Roll' Rascal and there's a demo available:

There's of course always Sonic Robo Blast 2 which is a 3D Sonic game in the Doom engine. If you haven't played it, it feels like the Genesis games but done in real 3D and would have be a way for Sega to have Sonic on the Saturn. https://www.srb2.org/
 
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Not paid full price for a game since TOTK (I think).

Bought Nightreign and Oblivion at full price recently and my thoughts are 'nowhere near worth the money'. 2 £20 games at best.
 
My issue with the raised prices of games, sadly didn't mean the quality went up either. So I just wait for (massive) price drops and in the meantime I'll discover amazing smaller titles to spend my time on.
 
Not because of prices, but recently started again with retro games like Super Mario Kart for the SNES. Thanks to Steam I can even play the splitscreen mode online with a buddy. Same with Diddy Kong Racing, still one of the best racing games to this day.

More often than not you don't 80€ AAA games to have countless hours of fun.
 
Filben said:
Not because of prices, but recently started again with retro games like Super Mario Kart for the SNES. Thanks to Steam I can even play the splitscreen mode online with a buddy. Same with Diddy Kong Racing, still one of the best racing games to this day.

More often than not you don't 80€ AAA games to have countless hours of fun.
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Retroarch being a native Steam game and interfacing with Steam's RemotePlay seems like black magic. Being next to each other on a couch is still best, but you can have five other friends all playing the same co-op game with you without weird network sync issues since you are streaming the game, and get inputs from other people.
 
drganon said:
Nah, most indie games are trash.
Click to expand...
There is a ton of shovelware, just the sheer number of games releasing on Steam has grown at an impressive rate.

2020~10,263
2021~11,841
2022~12,564
2023~14,311
2024~18,825

That's why it's important to call out the good ones. Counterstrike, Team Fortress and DOTA were all free fan mods that effected the industry and spawned many of the most played games today.
 
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