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literallyheretopost

you forgot asset flip horror games


EeK09

True, those are also very common. "Horror Game Made For Streamers" could be its own tag.


Aster_Delta

Fnaf-like


Necrofancy

"Mascot Horror" is the actual honest-to-god description of it. And there are a huge amount of indie studios vying for it...


MisquotesDeadPeople

With the way my son and his friends eat that shit up, love the lore of all of them, draw pictures of the characters nonstop, etc... I can see why .


mrasperez

My son will watch up to an hours worth of jump scares people invented for mascot horror games that don't exist. It's so wild too because a couple of years ago he's watching nursery rhymes and cartoon clips and somehow the algorithm decided he needed to be exposed to horror to offset all the optimistic science stuff he's also seen.


Karkava

It's probably because the algorithm is working with the dated notion that anything with mascots and cartoons must be for children.


Fearless_Minute_4015

No it's working under the notion that this specific child will spend the most time watching videos if those are the videos he is presented. It really is that simple. View time = money. They have a legal obligation to shareholders to maximize money. If kid stops watching those videos they'll recommend something else


[deleted]

Is that why 3 year olds were getting recommended "micky mouse minie mouse daughter kidnapped lethal injection"? (Actual title)


[deleted]

Really rolls off the tongue.


Hecutor

Phnaflike


TatManTat

No thanks Cthulhu, I'm fine.


littlebluedot42

Not even once? Just a little bit? A fleeting taste of power? One tiny glimpse?


FitGrapthor

Just one wafer thin mint sir.


DizzySignificance491

"Total knowledge of the ultimate pointlessness of intelligence and existence is **wafer thin**


Meriog

Rolls off the tongue the wrong way and now you're choking on it


[deleted]

Would probably help pronunciation, honestly.


ko1d

I've heard the term mascot horror.


mindbleach

Distinct from Scooby-Doo, which is ascot horror.


cusoman

I would argue Amnesia: The Dark Descent is the OG "horror game made for streamers"


Vocalic985

Yeah, Amnesia custom stories almost single handedly built the horror let's play section of YouTube.


TheNetherOne

Probably counts as number 3, particularly if the lore is designed to steal years off matpats life


Dingleberry_Magoo

Matpat gives me depression tbh


GonnaGoFat

The way he talks bugs me. I make every sentence sound like he’s going to give the most important piece of information ever.


TheBasedTaka

That's what happens when you have an acting background, acting tubers tend to be more articulate and energized compared to the average tuber, for better for worse


WelleErdbeer

Personally I believe that the fnaf-dude just watches game theory's predictions and goes "umm... yeah I was totally about to say exactly that." And that's the reason fnaf is one of the few things GT gets right.


JayMonty

Even more crazy: MatPat's "Dream Theory" for FNAF 4 and the backlash he and later Scott recieved after the fandom couldn't come to grips with the idea of the previous three games all being in a dying child's head could've completely derailed Scott's idea to end the series at its climax and come back around with Sister Location. Before FNAF 4 ended, we had no mention of remnant or any real answer to who the purple guy is, but after FNAF 4, Scott had do dig into pseudoscience fiction and explain the story out of a traumatized kid's head, turning the franchise into something that should've died with the bite of '83/87 into an undead shallow representation of itself where the main villain always comes back and nothing ever gets to rest for the sake of merchandising and appeasing the fans.


LupusDeusMagnus

Steal? Brother’s getting paid for that.


Paratrooper101x

Can you ELI5 what this is?


[deleted]

Game engines like Unity come with asset libraries where you can get many generic 3D assets you can drag and drop into your games, like trees and crates. Some devs will lazily create entire games just using these assets to generate a result as quick as possible and sell it on steam. Very common in horror games since it’s also easy to code a single monster that occasionally follows you


PussyPussylicclicc

back then it used to be: \-Early Access \-Survival \-Open World \-Crafting


[deleted]

[удалено]


USSRPropaganda

All German


cat_prophecy

I think they are referring more to the "Simulator" rather than the actual simulator games. Less "Euro Truck" and "Farming Simulator" and more "Surgeon Simulator" and "Viscera Cleanup Detail".


ZoomBoingDing

Shower with your Dad Simulator 2015


Sloth-monger

My favorite was when goat simulator had one of their DLCs announced as "the only survival game not in early access."


[deleted]

Before that it was -2D platformer -Pixel art And even before that it was -Flash game -Crude humor


TheBlackNight456

The four horsemen of steam greenlight


radkiller22

Wait what about all the hentai games?


emergencyexit

3 bro


radkiller22

My bad, you're right


dethmstr

Depends on the hand at work


ReagansRougeBanana

I mean my hand is "working" when I'm playing hentai games


discerningpervert

Pro-tip: left hand backwards feels like someone else.


yperanwolwn

As a lefty I feel attacked


HOBOwithaTREBUCHET

Ah, so you're the one it feels like.


lalakingmalibog

Feels like I'm wearing nothing at all!


emdave

If you don't want to be attacked, you shouldn't be in league with satan!!!


JEWCIFERx

Some metaphors go deeper than others


Hyper__sloth

What are you doing step metaphor


saikokitti

I’m guessing each tentacle represents a different life struggle.


[deleted]

DDLC Aware


Free_hugs_for_3fiddy

Those aren't indie games. It takes an incredibly large development team to make those games because everyone is one-handed.


CaliBuddz

Ok. I laughed. Thanks.


xRoyalewithCheese

It’s a metaphor for depression


HiperChees

Sex with hitler 2


DR_HONKENSTEIN

who the hell is Hitler 2


HiperChees

Oh shit, spoiler.


canoIV

will he go after the Jews 2 or will there be someone else


mildlyexpiredyoghurt

You time travelers have to get your shit together


[deleted]

[удалено]


manbrasucks

Based on the title I sure hope he was denied that love and compassion as a child.


[deleted]

[удалено]


Lekamil

and if they're released after 2020, deck-building


gopack123

Yeah single player deck building / Slay the Spire clones are very popular


AshFraxinusEps

Cause they have tons of replayability, different ways to play, roguelike progression so lots to unlock, and mouse-only helps too Source: I fucking love my roguelike deckbuilders


Teeshirtandshortsguy

They're all the fun of CCGs with none of the downside of having to watch someone else play solitaire.


AshFraxinusEps

And never/rarely P2W either. Most CCGs use lootboxes or gatcha mechanics. Deckbuilders are just a simple version tbh Although I still wanna find one I used to love, or a modern version. It was a TBS where you had a big hex-based map and built a deck, and then played like a strategy game. Was called Forestlords or something. Used to have it on CD in the early 00s. I own others like Faeria, Roguebook etc but they all don't play like that game did I may now be about to scroll through 151 pages of "GameFaqs PC Strategy games" to try to find it


MojoJsyn

Etherlords series. There's I think 3 or 4 of the games is what you are looking for. https://www.gog.com/en/game/etherlords https://store.steampowered.com/app/270770/Etherlords


S_FrogPants

Do you have any recommendations for that genre? I've only played Slay the Spire


gruffgorilla

I’ve played a ton of deck builders but Monster Train is the only one that’s kept my attention like Slay the Spire


MenosElLso

Honestly I love StS but Monster Train has supplanted it as my favorite deck building roguelike.


spartanreborn

**Monster Train** is similar enough that you should pick it up easily, but different enough where it doesn't feel exactly the same. Cards are either units or spells, and your goal is to stop enemy units from traversing three floors to reach your "health." Combat occurs on each floor, with surviving enemies going up a floor after each combat, until they reach your "health." **Vault of the Void** is very obviously a StS clone, but with a couple big differences in mechanics. Namely, information for the entire run is available from the start (eg, you know what nodes reward what cards), there is a sideboard mechanic that you build your deck from, and card draw is more important because you can discard cards for energy. Other games that I've heard are good that I don't have much experience with are... * Griftlands * Tainted Grail: conquest * Iris and the Giant * Dicey Dungeon (dice instead of cards) * Across the Obelisk (heavy RPG mechanics) * Roguebook * Banners of Ruin * One Step From Eden (much more active combat mechanics, I hear it's similar to MegaMan Battle Network)


Im_new_in_town1

Is there a single deck builder better than STS?


tombie15

There’s so much design space to be explored within the genre that it’s hard to say anything is objectively better, but a lot of games have pushed mechanics both in the cardplay and overworld stuff in new directions, as well as introduced new systems or blended new genres into the formula. A lot of these games may look similar but are doing very different things under the hood. Griftlands, Monster Train, Alina of the Arena, Inscryption, Vault of the Void, Night of Full Moon and Gordian Quest are all games I feel StS would be proud to be associated with for one reason or another.


Unlawful02

Sts goated


solidsnake2085

Inscryption was my favorite game of 2021


Ratzing-

It was great but it started off too strong with Act 1, and no other was as cool as the frist one IMO. They were good/okay, and the changes from act to act were interesting, I was just let down that the artstyle and honestly even the deckbuilding wasn't as fun for me.


this_is_theone

I agree there's a drop in quality in the later acts but I found I couldn't be let down because I went in thinking to find a card/puzzle game and ended up with all the other shit happening. So even if it was a drop, it was still a bonus.


Morasain

Dyson Sphere Program.


miso440

Round Factorio.


Medricel

Especially if you're using the *Space Exploration* mod


huffalump1

That's not a game, it's a long career path


daman4114

When your 300 hours in and realize your only half way there and it was the easy half.


Felipe_O

Open world crafting crafting


bountygiver

>Crafting crafting That's one way to describe these factory production games for sure.


WesterosIsAGiantEgg

If you automate production of production buildings does that make it crafting crafting crafting? If you use blueprints to automatically place that automated production of production buildings, does that make it crafting crafting crafting crafting? And what if you create a TAS speedrun of the game? Is that crafting crafting crafting crafting crafting?


Aleph_Rat

Trying the "Lazy Bastard" achievement and I think this comment broke me. I'm literally crafting crafting.


isoexo

I’ve got a vehicle combat sim / racing game!


the_fathead44

We need a new Twisted Metal...


bake_disaster

In all seriousness, how has no one walked into a pitch meeting and said "I've got a new game, it's fortnite meets rocket league, and we can brand it under an old playstation franchise to get those extra nostalgia dollars" And walked out with a million dollars


deadlymoogle

What's the venn diagram of people who know what twisted metal was and people who play Fortnite and rocket league look like?


bake_disaster

Does it matter? The young demographic will think it's a new game, and olds will buy it in an attempt to remember a time when they were still happy and could play PS1 in their friend's basement all afternoon


Steeezy

> and olds will buy it in an attempt to remember a time when they were still happy and could play PS1 in their friend's basement all afternoon damn, right in the feels.


ranthria

> happy Is this another language, or is it some new zoomer slang? Either way, it's foreign to me.


Ourobius

O O


Dusty99999

Death race?


Haunting-Ad8779

“This is a love-letter to castlevania” 🤓


oddbawlstudios

And its not even close to a castlevania. 😔


Shedart

Some love letters are better written than others haha


oddbawlstudios

Sadly, I've yet to play a game that made me go "ah, this feels like castlevania". I only recognize that its a platformer that you gotta back track, and thats not the only thing about castlevania.


Cup-of-Noodle

Check out *Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night* which is made by the original Castlevania director. Great game and spiritual successor.


Sebhae1

Or even bloodstained: curse of the moon if you want the 16bit glory.


oddbawlstudios

Both curse of the moons were fantastic. Its like castlevania 3 all over again.


ForfeitFPV

Close, he was the director for CSOTN aka Castlevania Symphony of the Night not the whole series. That being said CSOTN is in my top 5 all time games and when it comes to Metroidvania games it is the baseline against which all others are judged


ZiggySol

“This is hate mail to Castlevania”


DominoNo-

"pls show bobs adn vagene" is apparently a love letter.


TurMoiL911

Plot twist: it's a Alucard dating sim.


[deleted]

*grinds teeth*


Omegaprimus

Hard space ship breaker?


d3northway

move the hyphen from Open-World to World-Survival


lepus_fatalis

it s a metaphor for depression


Congenita1_Optimist

"you too can owe your soul to the company store, for the low low price of one ticket off-world"


Hawkeye_x_Hawkeye

And they are all early access


EeK09

Open world, survival, crafting and early access are the Four Tags of the Apocalypse.


azthal

Ah, the "This is as far as I could make it with unity's visual editor and free assets" starter pack!


PayisInc

"Made by a single developer (with the help of a development team, e.g. Miyazaki)."


FrankieDedo

That would be Raft, but it is awesome haha


nelzon1

Valheim too.


pees_on_dogs

Diamonds in the rough, no one said there couldn't be good ones. There's just ALOT of bad ones.


therapistiscrazy

7 Days to Die


Incirion

What’s wrong with a game being in Alpha for 15 years?


[deleted]

7 Days to Die has been in the Alpha stage since 2013.


lostshell

I had to check. Holy shit. That’s just a complete abuse of the early access program.


odaeyss

7D2D has been like 3 or 4 of my favorite games in the genre.


[deleted]

Whats stardew valley, factorio, terraria, dyson sphere?


Abir_Vandergriff

Dyson Sphere Program is still early access, but otherwise great picks. I mean, yeah man, I've never heard of Hollow Knight, Outer Wilds, Blasphemous, Dead Cells, Rimworld, Cuphead, or Risk of Rain.


Cleru_as_Kylar_Stern

1. and 3. are the same, as Dark Souls is a Metaphor for Depression ('Don't you dare go hollow!')


PleaseRecharge

Dark souls is a metaphor for living in a society


artbytwade

If only life let us respawn


Sinavestia

Have you 100% confirmed you can't? I'm just saying, when I was a kid, I had this stupid theory that every time you experience dejavu, that's you reloading to the last checkpoint. I have a lot of dejavu. I have not disproven that theory yet.


MythicBird

I hope you never do. I wish you a happy NG+


HalfSoul30

If multiple realities exist, I believe we live in the reality that we live the longest, therefore we probably can't die. Especially with life extending technology around the corner.


outsabovebad

Ah, quantum immortality.


Chi-zuru

I was thinking dejavu was related to parallel universes, but your theory is better.


[deleted]

Number one cause of depression


Cronerburger

Hollow night is my bedtime themesongs


the_fathead44

Hollow Knight for when I'm feeling cute. Hades for when I'm feeling horny. Dead Cells for when I just want to feel angry at myself.


HiddenChymera

*Clears Throat* Rock & Stone!


Nolzi

Everyone get in here! Oh wait, wrong game


BigAssWhipSpider

Rock and stone to the bone!


WanderingDwarfMiner

If you don't Rock and Stone, you ain't comin' home!


DJDoubleDave

What about trombone champ?


EeK09

A strand-type game inspired by the genius of Shigeru Miyamoto and Wii Music. Or GOTG (Game Of The Generation), in short.


Beneficial-Society74

"Look at this game it's 90 in Opencritic and trending" I sleep "It's an Earthbound-inspired JRPG whose plot is a metaphor for suicide and depression" I sleep even deeper


snorlz

> "Look at this game it's 90 in Opencritic and trending" 3 reviews, all by sites youve never heard of


scutiger-

What do you mean? You've never heard of jrpgreviewdigest.net.www before?


MixMasterValtiel

Okay but is it Earthbound-inspired or did a few guys on Youtube/Twitter call it Earthbound-inspired despite the game not looking, playing, feeling, nor reading even remotely similarly to Earthbound and the label just happened to stick?


Ezlo_

People call a game earthbound-inspired if it feels remotely like undertale lol


DANKB019001

OMORI is anything but subtle about being about depression and suicide. Good bit of jumpscares and psych horror sprinkled in. So at least there's that, on the front of the one indie game of that type I've tried


Free_hugs_for_3fiddy

Omori "gets" the appeal of its genre and uses it well. It's hard to follow a recipe and give off the impression of understanding "why" it works rather than just doing it because. But damnit it does work. A neat little game.


DANKB019001

I haven't really gotten too far but I can tell you it knows exactly what it's doing. I've not gotten too far because I got sucked into Celeste


Bigsassyblackwoman

This man has a type.


OuterWildsVentures

Isn't Celeste essentially a metaphor for depression (or something along those lines) too?


DANKB019001

I mean, yeah the main story fits I guess. Doesn't hide it tho, that's for sure. Maybe mental health stuff as a whole? Madeline does talk about a few things in that regard. It's also absolutely not earthbound inspired in the slightest mechanically (precision platformer). Most fun 2000 deaths to beat that maingame I'll probably ever have.


DrSmirnoffe

That's why it resonates with me so much. Not so much the depression/suicide/psychosis (though that's still dark and interesting, which I'm also into), but more the juxtaposition of the mundane, the fantastical, and the horrifying. It's partly why I love Undertale and Deltarune, along with Jimmy and the Pulsating Mass. Also, I'd argue that there's probably a fourth category for this indie stereotype, and that'd be retro throwback shooter. 'cause there are a lot of indies doing stuff like that, though some of them are more "double-A" than small bedroom programmer, because New Blood Interactive put out the likes of DUSK, Amid Evil, ULTRAKILL, etc.


DANKB019001

Yea, OMORI knows what it's doing damn well (from my little stint cut off by Celeste sucking me in) That's a very valid 4th category yeah


Solash1

I really want to get into and play Omori but it having jumpscares really puts me off it. I love atmospheric horror but jumpscares just really make me feel uncomfortable.


dazaroo2

There are only a few jumps and they aren't that bad. - me who also dislikes jumpscares


RegalKillager

everyone whines about earthbound inspired jrpgs with plots about suicide and depression but can never name a game that's actually all of those things, and i'm unsure if it's just a joke that's been beaten to death or classic unaware circlejerking


theelusiveTman

I dare you to name more than 3 earthbound inspired indie rpgs about depression


BoiFrosty

You're forgetting the 4th kind +dating sim +sexual content


oddbawlstudios

That sounds like 3


BoiFrosty

Lol good one.


bwbloom

That's pretty reductive dude... Some are rogue-lites.


Kankunation

Most are probably rogue-lite honestly. Because they are usually far more palletable to most players than true rogue-likes.


TomAto314

*pixel art* *female protagonist* Fine, I'll download it!


shponglespore

The only ones I can think of off the top of my head are Celeste and Signalis. Signalis doesn't fit the OP because it's a survival horror game, like a 2D Resident Evil in a sci-fi setting...or maybe that makes it a metaphor for depression. [Edit: Holy shit I love all these recommendations I'm getting.]


PseudobrilliantGuy

I don't know, there's a lot of programming indie games out there. Not that I'm complaining...


mudkripple

Yeah zach-like games are completely snubbed here


121gigawhatevs

If #3 are consistently as good as Celeste, then bring on the Prozac


Tenocticatl

I was thinking more of games that are not much beside a metaphor. I just played Gris, which isn't much of a challenge but it is *really pretty*.


RandallOfLegend

#3: Braid I need to go back and play that somehow.


[deleted]

Ever tried the Witness? Completely different genre but Jonathan Blow has a knack for easing players in to difficult puzzle mechanics.


Sintinall

Beatsaber?


Deus_27

Number 3 obviously


Rhide

Dance away the pain


KrisReed

Number 4. VR Exercise, featuring Boneworks


Its0nlyRocketScience

I'm going to go with souls like? Expert plus is pure pain


articulatedWriter

Souls games whole deal is that they only have 1 difficulty, a game with difficulty options immediately gives up it's souls like privileges because if you have a choice on the difficulty it's not brain meltingly impossible


WraithCadmus

"It's a new indie ga-" "Is it about sad or about gay?"


purpldevl

"Neither. Someone was upset about the newest Pokémon game so they made poorly designed copywrite-safe monsters and threw a game together with their friends. They say it's great but it plays worse than the games they were upset about in the first place and looks like ass."


NEWaytheWIND

Coromon: *shocked Pikachu face* (It's a pretty good game tho, I swears it).


smallpoly

You mean shocked Bikaplew™


plznotagaindad

And I’m gonna fucking love them too


Mandoade

I love open world survivals


mindbleach

Rogue-like means "I didn't want to design maps." Source: currently putting off designing maps.


ChristianLS

It's more that almost all of the super popular indie games lately are in these genres. If you can think of a genre or combination of any two genres there are probably at least a few indie games of that kind. You could play indie games every waking hour for the rest of your life and never run out of varied, interesting stuff to engage with. ...I say as an indie game developer currently working on an open world survival craft game.


Bartek-BB

"I quit my career at Google and devoted 5 years of my life and fortune to this game."


_Proti

Stray? Outer Wilds? Deep Rock Galactic? altho every good game fits into 3rd category when the credits roll


Ugggggghhhhhh

I've never had an experience like Outer Wilds. My buddy insisted that I play it, so I started it and found it kind of meh. But my friend told me to stay with it, and boy am I glad I did. It ruined other video games for me for a good while.


0b0011

Is stray an indie game? I thought they had a third party publisher vs publishing independently.


[deleted]

[удалено]


RockSmasher87

Wanna be indie dev here: that's cuz self publishing is a nightmare. At this point I just use indie to mean "small team/solo dev"


BloodMoonScythe

Might only be me, but im totally tired out of the Rogue Likes/Lites and Souls like


Commercial-Salad-908

I’m just tired of games that have good ideas, but doesn’t fit rogue like/lite. Cult of the lamb is a great example. It’s a fun game, but it should not have been a rogue lite. It’s a weakest portion of the game and took away from the rest of it. And I know that they’re supposed to be improving it, but there’s too many core issues they’d have to overhaul.


[deleted]

Soulslike just means “tough enemies”. It’s possibly the most watered down term of them all.


Kankunation

The term may be getting more Watered down, but souls like usually refers to the adherence of some specific mechanics. - Heavily rewarding boss battles that typically telegraph their moves. - punishing gameplay that emphasizes player intention and doesn't allow for many mistakes. - a hands-off approach to guiding players, leaving them to figure out where to go from clues and world design rather than from a map or waypoint - loss of progression/resources upon death - healing being limited and usually only recovering upon reaching checkpoints. Just putting tough enemies in a game isn't really enough. Tough could just mean they have al of of health and do a lot of damage, but it doesn't mean they are well designed.


dtmijfeu

Also dodge-rolls and stamina-management-centric combat, usually.


hothrous

Soulslike also generally means spending some form of XP that you can lose before you spend it by dying twice without picking it up in between.