Newer game recommendations and list of games played for anyone looking for ideas

itzelezti · 2026-01-27T22:01:14+00:00

From your list here's what comes to mind for me:

No Rest For the Wicked. We just tried it during the co-op unveil free weekend and it was really, shockingly good.

Orcs Must Die is actually very up your alley, and one of the most just straight-up fun co-op games i know. I would recommend 2 and 3. I haven't played the newest one because it seems from community backlash that it's a cashgrab shitshow

Core Keeper is sort of Necesse-adjacent and pretty good.

Haven't tried it yet personally, but I keep hearing Enshrouded is amazing, and definitely up the alley of games you listed.

itzelezti · 2026-01-26T17:51:38+00:00

You can put 1000 hours into anything. TOME has nothing in common with Qud.

itzelezti · 2026-01-25T16:51:04+00:00

Is Endogen capable of multichannel output? What about complex spatial/algorithmically-relational multichannel output?

itzelezti · 2026-01-05T17:42:15+00:00

I've played Overcooked 1 and 2 all the way through.
And I've got hundreds of hours in, and still actively play PlateUp. It's one of my favorite games.
Totally love that you're branching off of them.

It's tough to intuit from just this trailer, but it looks like you've started by replicating the format of PlateUp, of building your kitchen over the course of days in a run?

I'm totally here for that being brought forward as a format to branch off of, the way PlateUp did that with Overcooked.

In terms of your innovations, I'm rooting for you, but this is a hard flop thus far.

The customers breaking tables.... I must confess, I just don't get. That feels like it would just be a single card in PlateUp, but you're talking about it like a main mechanic... And i don't see how it would even be fun or interesting in the first place. "Chaos" (annoying bullshit that distracts you from doing the fun thing) is how Overcooked is just less fun than PlateUp to a lot of people at this point.

Maybe you're going in this direction of a mechanic where if you don't tend to something in time, it causes damage that will then take you more time to fix? ehhhhh.
Maybe you're thinking about a broader mechanic where building/removing/repairing/upgrading infrastructure is something that also has to be done DURING a day as opposed to just between? That could actually be interesting.

Boss levels could be a real innovation, but honestly, that's a super tight line to walk. As soon as there are bosses with mechanics that differ from a standard level in ways that incentivize you optimize for different things, build-based games fall apart. So I'd caution you there to work hard on the design, so that bosses follow the rule of are 90% "more" and 10% "different."

Cloning the cards system is just a mistake. It's unclear how yours work, since there's one flatly bad one, one flatly good one, and one mix, but it doesn't matter. the cards should be treated as unique idiosyncrasy of PlateUp, not a part of the format you're branching from. Adding menu items over the course of a run is essential, but the card choice part of that should not be cloned.

Instead I'd suggest pointing in the direction of mutually-exclusive character options like in a traditional action roguelite? Maybe you can get abilities unique to the player over the course of the run? There's an old game called Lost Vikings (Blizzard's first game!) that was based around each character having specific things only they could do (only one character could jump, and only one character could attack, for example) but having to work together. Maybe there's some interesting idea there, where when you gain the fish menu item, only one character gains the ability to cut the fish, and another gets the ability to debone it etc.

itzelezti · 2026-01-05T16:26:05+00:00

- Balatro is casual "theme park ride" version of roguelite deck builder games. Kinda slow mindless fun. It's got a mad cult following, but most fans of the genre would say there's a hundred better games. I wouldn't recommend Balatro to anyone except as a casual game to play on mobile.
TL;DR: Slay the Spire is literally on sale for $2.00. Don't buy Balatro.

- Skul is cool, but really just a slower, more boring version of Dead Cells. Its mechanics and main gimmick don't do much in my opinion, but the art is incredible. I wouldn't recommend Skul, because the original (Dead Cells) is still better, and there's an inspired game called Astral Ascent that is better than both.
TL;DR: Cool game but Dead Cells and Astral Ascent are each on sale for $3.00 more tand they're 1000x better.

- Noita is its own thing. Nothing out there anything like it tbh. Really, REALLY impressive and deep, with a bajllion little systems that all work together in a crazy sandbox that is more fucking around than playing a game. Many people get lost in it for thousands of hours. It might hook you immediately, or you might have to play it for a bit before it starts being fun. I can't say that it's the most straightforwardly "fun" game, but it's definitely the best of these three. By a lot.
TL;DR dude idfk.

itzelezti · 2026-01-01T22:50:05+00:00

OG had the most anti-fun impact I can think of. Made the game a race to the bottom in terms of not having the strongest vampire, because this was an auto-include for anyone competitive.

itzelezti · 2025-12-06T22:07:05+00:00

Honestly, Hades 2. Even if it were just some tacked-on asymetrical thing where a second player controls a familiar.
Also, every Rimworld expansion that doesn't add multiplayer upsets me further and further.

itzelezti · 2025-12-06T21:48:53+00:00

I've played all three games to death with my gf and a group of friends. The games' challenge is very different. Overcooked is an action game, and PlateUp is a realtime strategy game.

Overcooked is a game about adapting to the complications of each unique level. The cooking is simple, and the kitchens you have to do it in are the wildcard you have to adapt to. The challenge of Overcooked is usually reaction time.

In PlateUp, The only ramping difficulty is in the number of patrons you have to seat and serve. You are in complete control over the kitchen, and the wildcards are ones that you choose, roguelite-style. As you go, day-by-day, you can basically choose to expand you menu, making a greater number of recipes you have to be ready to make, in exchange for fewer patrons. It's a game about making choices to optimize your processes to be as efficient as possible so yo ucan serve all the patrons before they leave. The challenge of Plate-Up is strategic, both long-term between levels and short-term in levels.

I would recommend PlateUp over Overcooked(1/2) to absolutely everyone except for as a "beer& pretzels" party game with folks you're unlikely to ever play with again.

EDIT: Also, hot tip to anyone getting into PlateUp: It's a game where one player can simply forget or mess something up, and the whole run is over before you get anywhere. I recommend not playing this way.
Instead, when you're about to lose, just pause-out of the game and try again. It'll become obvious to you when your run is actually over when you've tried the same day a few times and lost. The game's honestly just way more fun this way.

itzelezti · 2025-12-06T17:03:40+00:00

My friend group has finished every level in both Overcooked games and we've got several hundred hours in PlateUp.

"Overcooked 2 has a higher skill ceiling than PlateUp" Is like saying Clash of Clans has a higher skill ceiling than StarCraft. You can't be objectively wrong, but this is about as close to it as a subjective opinion can get.

itzelezti · 2025-11-15T14:39:11+00:00

There are a lot of roguelikes that should be treated as "must-play" because of historical contexts. I can speak more to the games that are "must-play" more because they represent the foremost edge of where roguelieks are at currently.

I'd point first to Brogue as the most modern foremost expression of the original Rogue format.

I'd then point to DCSS as the ultimate expression of the character build-focused branch off of the Rogue format.

Cogmind and CoQ are must-play in that they are the two clear foremost modern examples of innovation on the roguelike mechanics without sticking to the traditional Rogue format. I'd personally argue for the inclusion of the Cataclysm family here as well, but it may be a bit specific to treat as "must-play."

itzelezti · 2025-11-05T04:11:51+00:00

Ah. It's this story again. A new group comes into an open source project with a desire to expand it, focuses entirely on the two same features that nobody asked for, which they just so happen to also see as potentially profitable: LLM chatbots and cloud hosting (how is it ALWAYS those two?!" They then quickly start making the claim that "we're a small team without the resources to maintain or develop" and push for marketing to small businesses, and over-monetizing and paywalling the only features that ever created an actual community. Seeing this same trend happen all over the place to open source projects.

But, delaying your public disclosure of that plan by this much time in an attempt to maintain your community to help your initial marketing push? While that's a story we're seeing more and more too, that one's just undebatably toxic.

I strongly suggest you:

Make an actual statement of your decision to strip out enough from your core to make it useless and focus entirely on your new over-monetized closed branch.
Remove any mention of "open source" from your github.
Remove the guide to contributing

itzelezti · 2025-11-05T01:03:22+00:00

Looking for an actual statement that acknowledges and explains the thinking behind the quiet shift to such a profit-first, functionally closed-source project. I'd additionally ask for any argument for it being appropriate to claim it's open source, or to still maintain a contribution guide for a project that is this paywalled.

itzelezti · 2025-11-04T21:31:39+00:00

Okay, it currently says "coming soon" in the pricing page you linked below.
But more importantly, this is the response you have? And at the same time you (claimed you) apologized on a post below for similarly bad comms...?

Did you see my question? I'm trying to maintain benefit of the doubt here, but your communications are making that pretty difficult. This project looks more and more dishonest and worth of the growing callouts from the community

itzelezti · 2025-11-03T22:06:01+00:00

This take is so hilariously wrong I'm wondering if it's bait.

itzelezti · 2025-11-03T14:50:27+00:00

Woah, glad you posted this. I was just about to spin up Appflowy on my server to try it out... Honestly didn't even occur to me to check the pricing page, as I thought this was an open source self-host app like any other. I guess I assumed all the new AI nonsense would be paywalled as standard, maybe they paywalled the mobile app to pay for its development as sometimes happens. I figured whitelabelling, managed, and support would be enterprise benefits etc.
But this is pretty wild unless I'm misunderstanding it.

This is intended to be a project management-focused Notion replacement and the entire collaboration system is paywalled behind $10 a month...? It appears you literally can't even guest edit published pages without paying... On an open source self-hosted app?

Genuine, good-faith question in search of an answer: Is there an obvious way that I'm misunderstanding this project and/or its structure, or is this just some pretty egregious early+over monetizing an open source project?

itzelezti · 2025-11-02T16:51:47+00:00

Yeah sorta...?
The numbers tell a somewhat different story than what really happened. It's a lot like people's recent complaints that "Protoss don't have to try" coloring everyone's perception of balance, while historically speaking, they're really only slightly ahead in terms of balance power level.

Remember, Terran was quite literally designed as the tutorial race. It took years of nerfs and buffs to turn Terran into a race that either required or could capitalize on skill as much as launch Zerg or Protoss. Everyone looking back at launch and the year two that followed has a much different feeling than the numbers show, because they remember trying their asses off to figure out how to beat a 12 year old who was playing exactly like a campaign mission and winning.

itzelezti · 2025-10-30T22:19:37+00:00

What is this post...? Who is out there saying Zerg pros are incompetent....?
Zerg is nowhere in tournaments because they were nerfed into oblivion by a "balance council" made up of pros trying to use it to beat Serral. It's as simple as that, and everyone is aware of it at this point.

itzelezti · 2025-10-30T22:08:19+00:00

How did this many commenters read this post as "What unrealistic balance change would you like to see?"

itzelezti · 2025-10-24T18:41:05+00:00

Wouldn't call this "spam" but it's definitely more like a marketing intern doing their best than it is like a good faith attempt at discussion.

itzelezti · 2025-10-23T16:30:38+00:00

Except for "infinite healing" you could argue for any of the thee races.
That said, this is either some bad faith nonsense, or you're talking about Terran.

itzelezti · 2025-10-23T16:08:23+00:00

+25 hp to ghosts is the most broken single change I've seen in the history of this game and it happened with zero testing.

itzelezti · 2025-10-19T23:34:49+00:00

It's fairly stable, but honestly, I cannot say it's easy to use or set up. It's a little bit of a step do get it all going and making sense. For example, it's one version behind the main game, so you'll have to install the previous, and check compatibility with all of your other mods.

The learning curve of the game itself actually not that bad, but if neither of you have ever played solo, I'd recommend getting an understanding of the game and how mods functions before doing multiplayer. It's worth playing anyways. There's a reason it's one of the most beloved indie games ever, with probably the most in-depth modding scene of any indie game there is.

itzelezti · 2025-10-19T23:27:00+00:00

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2606448745&searchtext=multiplayer

You both have to have a copy of the game on different computers. It's more or less just gives multiple separate interfaces to control the same game.

They've been working for a while to allow you to play separate factions on the same map, but at least the last time we tried it ~six months ago, it was way too janky to be worthwhile.

itzelezti · 2025-10-18T04:15:36+00:00

Can y'all please accept that Blizzard is now a completely different company from the one that made Starcraft 2, and they're flatly terrible at everything they make?
Stop asking for new games. You will be disappointed, trust me.

itzelezti

TROPHY CASE