We all know the Marios, Red Dead Redemptions and Calls of Duty. But outside of the obvious and big sellers by triple-A games, there are a ton of games out there by indie developers that actually be just one person on a laptop at their local coffee shop. When you don’t have the budget of RockStar games or Nintendo, then you have to be creative with your limited time and resources, and thanks to that, you can end up in some very weird places.
Erotic Games
We’re going to start with just recommending a budding genre rather than one specific game, because they are proliferating like mad and are likely to make you scratch your head than scratch any bedroom itches. Some of these free sex games are like a ‘choose your own adventure’ type story, with pictures getting dirtier the farther you are able to progress. Some are simply matching games and the more you match, the model gradually strips off more of their clothes. What’s bizarre is how hit-and-miss the quality of these games can be. The price of ‘free’ certainly sweetens the deal in the case of going to check these out.
Conduct Deluxe/Together
This is a game made by a small Scandinavian company called Northplay, and it is like model train hell. You are charged with organizing trains to go around zig-zagging tracks to pick up and drop off passengers and different stations on the map, but these maps and tracks seem to have been made by drunken sadists, because the amount of crashes that will occur is maddening. This includes trains (that you can and cannot control), cars crossing the tracks that never slow down, and the occasional dragon. It is a puzzle game at heart, but it does you dirty the way you have to monitor, start, and stop four different trains at once, plus so many other mechanics, all while also switching tracks. For Steam it’s called ‘Conduct Deluxe’, and for the Nintendo Switch it is called ‘Conduct Together’ because on the latter you can play with two people at once (just in case you want to test friendships or relationships).
DEEEER Simulator
If the five e’s in the name didn’t clue you in, then take it from us, being a deer in this game doesn’t involve much grazing or staying on the lookout for hunters in the forest. No, in this over-the-top masterpiece, you have stretchable limbs, antlers that can become firearms, and have to save the city from a giant koala that shoots laser-beams from its eyes. Or you can completely ignore this goal, and just destroy the city in your deemer-like fashion. The graphics are like something out of The Sims, which give it a slightly sense of realism, which just makes it all the more bizarre when all the rules of a normal game seems to break down. Plus riding a horse as a deer is just an insanely cool thing to do.
Undertale
This game is an RPG available on most video game consoles, although it looks like it was made in the late 1980s. it was made almost completely by one person (Toby Fox), and it doesn’t take long for you to get used to the old-school graphics, which is good because everything else you do in this game keeps knocking you off your feet (or out of your chair). Sure, you’re trying to escape a land of monsters, but some of these monsters want to be you friend, some of these monsters want to invite you to have spaghetti, and some of these monsters want you to watch their elaborate game show. And while almost every game you can think of involving monsters requires you to kill or capture them, Undertale gives you the option to befriend them. While it’s quirky internet humour will win you over early on, its heart is what makes this game special (and very weird).
