The trajectory of the games industry remains unaltered since the Steam Winter Sale roundup. Studios are imploding, publishers are burning talent, and more amazing indie games are being produced than anyone has the time to even track. It’s time to support your local indie devs and damage your bank balance once again with my top 20 picks of lesser-known but great 2024 games discounted in the Steam Summer Sale.
Bears in Space (20% off)
Bears in Space is Jazzpunk meets Ratchet & Clank. No Metroidy stuff here, but plenty to explore—it’s part bullet-hellish FPS, part screwball gag delivery system. Funny most of the time (more than most TV comedy shows can claim) and a solid shooter for all of it.
Nidus – Twin-stick shooter(?)
Price: $8.39 / £5.01 (40% off) | Developer: Caleb Wood
Were it not for the total lack of fluffy ungulates, this could pass for a Jeff Minter joint. A psychedelic bizarro arena shooter where you play as a symbiotically paired cosmic flower and the angry wasp defending it. Either controlling both at once or splitting roles in co-op, the fragile flower evades and debuffs enemies, while the invincible wasp eats bullets and rams targets, returning to the flower to recharge and deposit power, allowing the flower to fire big bullet-wave attacks. It’s like rubbing your tummy and patting your head in the middle of a firefight, on shrooms.
Berserk Boy – Mega Man-like platformer
Price: $15.99 / £11.19 (30% off) | Developer: Berserk Boy Games
Cribbing from the Mega Man Zero series and the more recent Azure Striker Gunvolt games (including its tag-and-zap combat flow), Berserk Boy is more linear than your average Mega Man, but still has that familiar mix of wall-grabbing, robot-smashing and collecting new weapons and moves. It just feels good to run around, air-dash and bounce off enemies’ heads, and while the aesthetics sometimes feel a bit like Game Boy Advance-era also-ran, the soundtrack is a banger start to finish.
Ultros – Metroidvania
Price: $18.99 / £12.74 (25% off) | Developer: Hadoque
If Nidus hasn’t sated your hunger for cosmic psychedelia, Ultros should. An overwhelmingly colourful hand-drawn metroidvania that looks like it’s straight from the pages of a particularly intense Franco-Belgian comic. A surreal, squishy and fleshy sci-fi setting where you’re a mysterious masked hunter trying to break free of a time loop aboard a lush and overgrown space palace.
And I couldn't resist including 20 more similarly themed alternatives because there have been a mind-boggling number of cool indie games released this year.
- Game Title 1 - Description and discount details.
- Game Title 2 - Description and discount details.
- Game Title 3 - Description and discount details.
A lot can change in six months, but the trajectory of the games industry remains unaltered since my Steam Winter Sale roundup. The brakes have been cut and we’re rolling downhill at untenable speeds. Studios are imploding, publishers are burning talent, and more amazing indie games are being produced than anyone has the time to even track, and yet I try.
It’s time to support your local indie devs and damage your bank balance once again with my top 20 picks of lesser-known but great 2024 games discounted in the Steam Summer Sale.