Ew, not like Fortnite, I mean like indie launchers
Phantasy Star Online, especially with private servers
For Linux: https://github.com/zeroz41/pso_wine/tree/master/pso/pc#readme
Factorio you can buy it from there website. It’s on steam yes but it’s also available on there website with (iirc) to get a steam key or link it to steam if you want to do that.
This was how I first got Factorio, but the post is really about things you can’t discover on Steam.
If you like factorio, mindustry in similar and open source. It’s on itch.io, Steam and their website.
The Croc remake is Gog exclusive (and on console) and I love it! It’s the first single player PC game that I’ve 100%'ed!
Voices of the Void
Absolute peak game that doesn’t really have any contemporaries.
A game with base management, fully open map, random events ranging from spooky to hilarious, minigames to fix equipment, little robot helpers, big robot helpers that require some assembly, but don’t need charging thanks to running on nuclear power, and a quadbike you can backflip.
And the Christmas gun.
YARG - Yet Another Rhythm Game. Like Guitar Hero/Rock Band (way better than Clone Hero) - open source. Guitar, Bass, Drums, Keys, Vocals.
I think it’s still being worked on, but some Devs have been hired for the next big rhythm game - if I understood correctly - so the development has slowed some.
You can get quite a lot of songs for free with it, there are some real bangers and it’s tons of fun (or go sail the high seas and get what feels like infinite songs, including those from the popular plastic instrument games). Also runs really well on my potato laptop…
OSU. There’s a open source client don’t know anymore which ones good.
CLICK THE CIRCLES
Lazer client works native on Linux, and is perfectly suitable to play with. Lower audio latency on both Windows (WASAPI) and Linux (runs native and not via Wine) is a pretty solid reason why most people prefer it, but the interface isn’t as skinnable as Stable is currently and slider head accuracy is confusing for some old players, but other than that there isn’t any reason not to use Lazer.
If i recall lazer also doesn’t let you “cheat” with spinners or some such and thus points are on avg lower compared to what people are use to.
I recently got into a Toontown rougelike ( rougelite? ) fan game called Toontown Grindworks. It’s available for free on Itch. Ypu run from floor to floor climbing the corporate tower, fighting cogs ( basically businesspeople robots ), avoiding traps, and collecting gear and new gag tracks ( weapons/upgrades ). All to get to the final boss of the tower. I’ve only had a single run where I got to the final boss, but failed there because I got really unlucky.
There is also the current demo of Plants vs Zombies Universe, which jas a fair bit of content that can last a while if you don’t speed through it. The game is basically devs wanting to create a PvZ fan game where it’s basically content from all the games rolled into a single PvZ title. Meaning you get the exclusive PvZ Online plants/worlds/zombies, exclusive PvZ2/2C plants/worlds/zombies, etcetera. All while being a bit more balanced as of now to create a genuinely challenging game.
I was gonna say development is on indefinite hiatus, but it seems a 1.2 update was released about a week ago! Sadly, unless you already have the link, you need to access their discord for the download, from either google drive or mega, if that would sway anyone away from it. That, or I’m sure they have a QQ group set up, but I ain’t creating an account just for this game.
Other than those, the only other games I could recommend are pokemon fangames or well known open source games like Mindustry ( has a steam version, but that’s only for supporting the devs and getting steam workshop content, if you even care ) or SuperTuxKart. That, and a few furry visual novels on Itch that aren’t completed yet that I like.
Armadiilo Run https://www.armadillorun.com/
Wow what a flashback to my teenage years!
Oh man I sunk countless hours into this like… 20 years ago. Amazing game.
Edit: I just found my old registration code from Oct. 2006 and it still worked to download the game. The game still runs great!
Japanese visual novels that never get translated are a big one. A huge chunk of them live on novelgame, DLSite, and DMM. In fact, there are some full fledged Japanese games that are DLSite exclusive. I’ve tried a few, and some can be quite good.
The Star Trek games on GOG (like Elite Force I and II, and Armada) are worth your attention.
Full Metal Daemon Muramasa is also typically bought on JAST.
There are also a bunch of gacha games that never released on Steam, though the bigger ones are working to change that.
Hytale, Tibia, Escape from Tarkov, Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup, Brogue
I’ve been playing a lot of Gyakuten Live. It likely can’t be officially monetized because it infringes upon “Love Live School Idols” as well as stealing a few assets from the Ace Attorney games. But, the game has quite an impressive amount of production value, with many emotive character faces, a full custom soundtrack, numerous cinematics between cases, and a lot of artwork to help visualize the scenarios. It centers around what seem like relatively innocuous cases, like a missing treasure, or fraudulent tickets, but (aside from the intro case) tends to dive into some complex character emotions as the motive behind each incident.
The other game that made me think of posting this is Hytale, which looks to basically be an indie, non-Microsoft, pro-modding version of Minecraft.
Holy shit. As a fan of both Love Live and Ace Attorney I never realized how much I wanted something like this. Unfortunately I don’t have any recs to give, so all I can offer are my thanks and an upvote.
Seconding HyTale!
Unciv (https://github.com/yairm210/unciv) is a great low graphics but with nothing to be jealous of Civilization 5 free and open source alternative. It also has a great mod scene with mods that add undead and fantasy armies and so much more.
Vintage Story, a Minecraft-like game that focuses on a tough, realistic survival experience. There are climate zones and seasons. Things like smelting ores or growing food are much more involved than they are in Minecraft, which makes for a strong sense of progression when you’ve finally managed to make iron or build a windmill.
I second vintage story, such a cool game
Hytale too, completely different direction than VS but another fun minecraft-ish game
I will add that it’s Minecraft-like only graphically. Anyone going into Vintage Story expecting their Minecraft knowledge to carry over is going to have a very bad time because the actual overlap is minimal.
Really, its hard to under state how calling VS “minecraft like” is utter bullshit nonsense. Its like calling borderlands and tarkov the like each other. Its so insanely superficial that its absurd.
I mean both games are blocky, voxel based survival sandbox games where you’re dropped into a world and have to build a base and collect resources for better gear and hide from the monsters that come out at night.
It is very much similar to Minecraft in scope and gameplay loop. It’s just far, far more complex.
It’s more like comparing Tarkov and Arc Raiders.
- 0 A.D.
- Beyond All Reason
- Open BOR (beats of rage)
- M.U.G.E.N









