Sometimes I have trouble finding a game to play because I don't know my options; don't know what's available that I might be interested in that I just haven't seen before. So, to help other people avoid this problem, I'll put a few blurbs on this page of what I think are great games you might not have heard of. Hopefully you come across something that grabs your attention!
Outer Wilds - Wow, what a game this is. A finely-tuned Swiss watch puzzle with an incredibly thoughtful narrative to boot. It's best not knowing anything substantive going into this wonderful little space adventure, but to explain its gameplay, it's a metroidvania of sorts set in a small solar system. You'll fly to and from different planetary bodies in your rickety spaceship made of wood, trying to solve a large, multifaceted mystery. Unlike your usual metroidvania, all your tools are given to you by the end of the tutorial, so knowledge rather than items will drive your progression. Outer Wilds is an excellent game for anyone who like to explore, who like space games, or likes a good mystery. As a sidenote, the DLC, Echoes of the Eye, is excellent and a worthy addition to to the game. Somehow, Mobius Digital captured lightning twice.
Return of the Obra Dinn - This is the ultimate detective game. A 'ghost ship' has sailed into port, and you have to deduce what happened to its SIXTY crewmembers and passengers. This is made easier thanks to 1) an ever-useful logbook containing the crew manifest, drawings, and other handy information; and 2) a pocketwatch that lets you see the moment someone died. I don't think I've ever played a detective game that places more responsibility on the player than this one. You will find clues, make connections, weave a web of who is who and what happened to them, with very little handholding from the game itself. It's exhilirating to slowly, piece by piece, develop a complete picture of the events that transpired on the ill-fated Obra Dinn. I don't know if there'll be another detective game that ever surpasses it. And by the way, a little bit of nautical knowledge could be very helpful to you. ;)
In Other Waters - This one feels like it was designed for me. It falls under what I like to call 'fiddly UI games', where a large portion of the gameplay is done through interactables like menus, terminals, levers, dials and other gizmos. This particular example has you exploring an alien world, examining and recording its local wildlife and the ecosystem that they inhabit, all the while trying to find the person who invited you there. They really went all in on developing this world, the work put into fleshing out an entire ecosystem is remarkable. The story is well-crafted, having a compelling personal narrative as well as higher-concept themes of ecology and consciousness.
Strange Horticulture - A neat little game where you, the protagonist, run an herbalist's shop. Your customers will come to you requesting a plant, and you, using your reference book and other tools, will find the right one. There's no true shop management elements here, just an ever-increasing collection of plants to identify and organize, as well as an exploratory element to match clues to a regional map. It's a fun process to fill out your proverbial plant Pokedex, and in the process an intriguing narrative develops...
Tinykin - It's the middle of July, I'm waiting for Pikmin 4 to release, and came across Tinykin on Steam, seemingly made just for me to make the wait more bearable. And it would do a great job of that if it weren't 11 hours long! It's a wonderful little game where you play as Milo, an intrepid explorer trying to find humanity's original home planet, Earth. Having had a teleporter accident (classic), you are trapped in a big house with a bunch of little guys to help you, the eponymous Tinykin. This is more of a 3D platformer than it is a management game. You're doing less plate-spinning and more using your army of goobers to clear obstacles, whether that's by building a tower for you to climb up or blowing up barriers, etc. It's a really good 3D platformer, as evidenced by the tightly pathed race challenges that were added in a post-launch update. The movement feels good when you really get going, though it is flawed in that none of the Tinykin blend particularly well into speedy movement. They function perfectly well in the normal course of play, but some movements you'll have to make in the time trials will feel awkward. The Tinykin are otherwise polished-feeling and work as an extension of you - you won't be fighting them in service of all your jumping around. OH RIGHT, the bug people! There's bugs everywhere in the house to talk to and do quests for, and they're all incredibly charming. There's a whole little bug society you explore the layers of, it's neat! I fully recommend this, it's a great short game with plenty of meat if you're looking for a solid platformer.