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Hello fellow tiny indie enthusiast! Here are a few I hold dear:

Beyond All Reason - FOSS RTS game about robots destroying each other. Pick one of 3 factions and build up your army to crush the opposition. Great for multiplayer co-op or PvP, even has modes to face off against boss factions. Surprisingly robust and balanced.

PictoQuest - Picross is a pretty niche genre, but it’s a very rewarding puzzle system. This title combines the classic puzzles with real-time RPG combat, adding some frantic tension to the puzzle solving.

Smushi Come Home - Crazy cozy platformer about a mushroom dude trying to return to his family. If “Chill Vibes” was a game.

Aquaria - You’ve probably played this one; was a standout indie back in 2008, even getting a crossover in Super Meat Boy. It’s a Metroidvania with fantastic music, unique combat, and a heartfelt story. It perfected leitmotifs years before Undertale.

Miasmata - Survival horror game that focuses on plant sample gathering and cartography. Yes seriously, you literally have to triangulate your position with landmarks to fill out your map! It sounds like work, but it’s actually awesome to experience.

Diaries of a Spaceport Janitor - 3D pixel sci-fi urban sim in which you play a street urchin dreaming of a better life. Its depiction of hope amidst abject poverty is heart wrenching, but the game is absolutely brimming with charm.

The Void - Otherworldly resource management sim from the studio behind Pathologic. You’re a soul in purgatory struggling to remain extant amidst a war between two factions. You have to travel between nodes to collect Color, which is the fuel of survival. Monstrous Brothers roam around stealing all of it they can, and helpless Sisters plead you to offer what you can, with the promise they can help you ascend.

Legend of Grimrock - Oldschool dungeoncrawler RPG. Pick a group of four prisoners chained together and traverse the prison dungeon of Grimrock. Classic hack and slash, sword and sorcery; comes with a map editor and has a lot of community maps.

Knytt Underground - Metroidvania minus the combat. It’s all about exploration, platforming, puzzle solving, and glorious aesthetic. You may have heard of Within A Deep Forest from the same dev.

Honorable mention: Dreamfall Chapters - Not as indie as the others, but not nearly as well known as it deserves. Adventure game set between two worlds - a dystopian fascist sci-fi and… a dystopian fascist fantasy. You swap between worlds discovering not only the secrets destroying these places, but also to learn about your own past. Actually the third title in the series, but acts as a standalone.

Also “controversial statements and perceived elitism” is doing some heavy lifting…

Davey Wreden is just a powerful writer. Even his interview trailer for the game gave me pause.

I absolutely love how well Alta’s behaviors and animations convey her mood and motivations. Angrily running around swinging the tea basket is cathartic all in itself :D

This bigoted asshole managed to demonize trans people not only once, but twice.

In a sea of disgusting lies and undeserved co-option of others’ achievements, his comments on ‘reclaiming the Panama Canal’ and ‘Taking Greenland one way or another’ were particularly atrocious. Did this motherfucker say on live television that the United States is going to claim the sovereign territory of other nations!?!?!? Why the brainmelting fuck did Republicans clap!?!?

FYI he changed his name to Levi because he thought it’d help him get work in Hollywood

Why would the earth have anxiety about wanting to spend quality time with us? That’s definitely ‘death of the author’ territory.

Is it insanity? What egregious win did a trans kid have that defiled the sanctity of organized sport? Or is it all media outrage being used to distract us from realizing everyone with a 7-digit-or-less bank account all fundamentally want the same thing, which is at odds with those with more?