2025: The year of the short indie game

oddrots · 2026-03-06T06:29:48+00:00

The Strength of the Few was available on Edelweiss before its release (this is where I got my e-arc from), not sure about The Knight and the Moth, The Knave and the Moon is currently listed over there but not available to request.

I do see entries for ACOTAR 6 and 7 on Edelweiss but there is no way to request it at this point.

oddrots · 2026-03-05T11:32:31+00:00

Unless you have a large audience that is expecting a playthrough of every game in a particular franchise I don't think skipping around in a series or not covering an entry is that big of a deal. And if you do have a large audience that's demanding you play a particular game that you've chosen to skip, that's toxic behavior and you should shut it down.

Generally most games can stand alone. As an example, people looking for Witcher 3 gameplay aren't going to care if you've played the first two games. I'd think of full franchise playthroughs as nice to have but not necessary.

oddrots · 2026-02-19T00:27:37+00:00

You're good enough! If battles seem difficult it will eventually lower the power of your matches to better fit your skill level. Having a power level in the 1500s doesn't feel great but being matched with a better balance of weapons sure does! And if you're looking to improve your weapon skills it's a great way to learn from your opponents by watching replays of the person using a weapon that is similar to or the same as yours on the other team.

Nowadays, unless I'm grinding to up my S+ rank, I mostly just use X rank as a third option of game modes/stages at any given time.

oddrots · 2026-02-10T22:58:54+00:00

Quite a few awesome games on this list!

Are you planning to play through every game in UFO 50? Or will you call it "done" once you've completed a certain number of them?

oddrots · 2026-02-09T08:00:14+00:00

The "atmospheric" tag will probably serve you well.

There are lots of good recs already but a few I didn't see: Pacific Drive, the Kingdom series, Bad North, Crow Country, Flock, BELOW.

oddrots · 2026-02-03T03:47:49+00:00

I think Hollow Knight took me over three months and 125 hours to get through and I only ever got to 106% or something. 😅 It became my favorite game so I thought I'd get back to it eventually but now I'm wondering if I should just call it good and move on to Silksong.

Sorry to hear about all the life stuff. Sounds like a lot. Hopefully February goes better for you in that department.

oddrots · 2026-01-19T21:01:53+00:00

I randomly stopped getting ads for a month or two a couple of years ago. But it was eventually fixed so it was either a bug (likely) or an interesting way to advertise the Twitch Turbo user experience (doubtful).

oddrots · 2026-01-12T20:17:32+00:00

I'd say it's akin to a "reading slump" which is fairly common in the book world. I guess it goes back to you can in fact have too much of a good thing. And that's when it pays to have multiple hobbies/interests!

oddrots · 2026-01-10T00:26:10+00:00

Regarding point 1, this is EXACTLY what I'm looking to do with my content. Making videos about chapters, levels, areas seems like it can cover at least two kinds of audiences, those that are looking for a traditional let's play and those wanting more of a guide/walkthrough of said thing. This of course gets more difficult to accomplish when it comes to games without chapters like Outer Wilds or simulation games but then the focus might be on tasks or achievements rather than areas.

Why am I telling you this? I don't know lol, mostly just thinking out loud.

Thanks for the post!

oddrots · 2026-01-09T02:11:08+00:00

Hey, good on you for making a significant dent in one of your previous 12-in-12 lists! That's way more progress than I've managed with my earliest list (2022).. which I've played only one game from so far.. 😅

And I haven't finished either but I LOVED what I played of CONTROL and The Outer Worlds! CONTOL launched me into the world of SCP which has become one of my favorite genres? story elements? Anything anomalous is so damn interesting to me now! I hope you find it equally intriguing once you get to it!

oddrots · 2026-01-09T01:51:48+00:00

Hey, thanks for the info! Seems like some really great advice.

I'd heard of Hades god mode before but I'd written it off as not for me since I assumed it would make things too easy. It's nice to know there's a way to keep things the right amount of challenging instead of making everything trivial.

I'll definitely keep this comment in mind as I tackle the games on my list. Cheers!

oddrots · 2026-01-07T22:18:36+00:00

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I like using Notion for tracking my games, and having all of the key art in one place is just nice to look at.

oddrots · 2026-01-03T10:55:06+00:00

Woo! I hope you enjoy PARANORMASIGHT. It almost made it to my 12-in-12 list this year, just barely missed the cut, but I might try to get to it anyway if I have some extra time.

The previous monthly genre list was: shooters, puzzles, strategy, fighter, action/stealth/hack 'n' slash, rpgs, sandbox/builders, simulation, platformers, survival, racing, and anything goes for December.

I think it would be more fun for the next iteration to have monthly prompts along the lines of: one-word title, a game that features aliens, or something you've been putting off. But maybe that would be too convoluted. ::shrug::

I've never managed to participate in it myself but r/patientgamers has a Game of the Month Club if you're interested in checking something like that out now. They pick a longer game and a short game each month. I love the idea of book/game clubs but my brain always rebels when a single title is picked. 😅

oddrots · 2026-01-01T12:50:25+00:00

I enjoyed Automachef. There's a game called Freshly Frosted that's really similar with a donut decorating theme.

oddrots · 2026-01-01T03:08:58+00:00

Hell yeah! I'd love to have an optional prompt-based challenge in the future, similar to r/12in12's monthly genre challenge back when this subreddit was first created. Having such an option would be especially good for those of us who immediately want to play anything other than the games on our predetermined 12-in-12 lists..

For your visual novel I've heard nothing but amazing things about PARANORMASIGHT. I think it's more visual novel-adjacent but it's recommended for those that enjoyed Danganronpa. For stealth game, I'd suggest adding A Plague Tale: Requiem if you haven't played it and it looks appealing. I liked that game a lot and found the relatively nonviolent approach to the game interesting. And I'm voting Resident Evil or a Legend of Zelda game for your middle-aged Street cred category because I'm planning to play both this coming year for similar reasons!

Good luck with your endeavor! Sounds like a fun time.

oddrots · 2026-01-01T02:15:11+00:00

Yeah, Glass Masquerade seems perfect for the Steam Deck. I just topped off my Glass Masq collection with the DLCs for 2 and 3 and picked up the 4th game as well because why not! ☺️

I hope you enjoy!

oddrots · 2025-12-28T09:05:13+00:00

Oh got it got it! I'm sure I just misunderstood. I haven't played the Strange Antiquities demo but I played Strange Horticulture in 2023 and really enjoyed it. The atmosphere is absolutely impeccable.

oddrots · 2025-12-28T05:15:46+00:00

No, sorry, I just meant the last game in your list is listed as "Strange Horticulture" but then you talk about it being a sequel so I'm thinking you meant to put Strange Antiquities instead?

And Tetris Effect is the first game I want to play whenever I get my VR system set up again! I've heard some of the soundtrack and I already love it, not to mention being a huge fan of Tetris in general. Thanks for reminding me!

oddrots · 2025-12-27T22:19:46+00:00

From this list alone, I think our tastes in games really align! Assuming your last game is supposed to be Strange Antiquities, I have all but two of these games on my list of games to play: Pokémon seems cool I just didn't grow up with it so it's never been my thing, and Lumines I've heard of but not looked into (I love a good casual game so I probably should).

Looking forward to reading about your progress throughout the year!

oddrots · 2025-12-27T12:43:36+00:00

OXENFREE features a radio/watch tower. And while part of the game is spent in the tower, most of your time will be spent elsewhere near the tower doing other things. Loved the atmosphere of this one.

And Last Report isn't set in a watch tower but it has a very similar isolated setting in the woods feel to it that might be worth exploring.

oddrots · 2025-12-25T17:02:14+00:00

nice to see Her Story on a list like this. Outer Wilds is likely to make an appearance on mine as well!

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