▲ 350 r/gamerecommendations+1 crossposts

200ish Less Known Games You Might Want To Play On The Steam Deck (a fine subjective assortment)

🎭 STORY RICH

And Roger

A surreal narrative visual novel focused on fragmented memory and emotional interpretation. It emphasizes atmosphere and character psychology over traditional plot structure.

Burden Street Station

A confined narrative mystery centered around a single location and its hidden histories. The gameplay focuses on dialogue and environmental storytelling.

CLICKOLDING

A surreal narrative experience blending internet aesthetics with psychological storytelling. It explores themes of perception, identity, and digital absurdity.

despelote

A narrative-driven sports adventure about childhood memory and culture. It focuses on atmosphere and lived experience rather than mechanics.

Everdeep Aurora

A narrative exploration game set in a mysterious underground world. It blends discovery with emotional storytelling and environmental mystery.

Goodnight Universe

A narrative adventure centered on surreal exploration and emotional themes. It uses atmosphere and symbolism to tell its story.

GLITCH DADDY

A chaotic narrative adventure with surreal humor and broken-world aesthetics. It leans heavily into absurdity and experimental structure.

Grimhook

A dark narrative adventure combining exploration with stylized storytelling. It focuses on tone, mystery, and character-driven progression.

Reventure

A branching meta-adventure where every decision leads to a different outcome. It thrives on experimentation, humor, and replayability.

Road 96

A procedural road-trip narrative about escape and political unrest. It combines multiple character perspectives into one evolving journey.

The Bookwalker: Thief of Tales

A narrative adventure where stories themselves become playable worlds. It blends exploration with literary-themed gameplay mechanics.

Time Flies

A minimalist adventure about a short-lived insect experiencing life. It uses humor and existential themes to explore mortality.

🧩 POINT & CLICK

Au Revoir

A noir-inspired mystery adventure focused on memory and manipulation. It emphasizes logical puzzle solving tied to narrative progression.

Brassheart

A dieselpunk point-and-click adventure with cinematic storytelling. It combines puzzle solving with retro-futuristic worldbuilding.

Broken Sword: Reforged

A modern remake of a classic investigative adventure game. It focuses on conspiracy storytelling and global mystery solving.

Carnival

A surreal point-and-click adventure with mysterious carnival-themed storytelling. It emphasizes atmosphere and puzzle-solving through exploration.

Cult Vacui

A horror-leaning point-and-click adventure with occult themes. It blends puzzle-solving with unsettling narrative elements.

Death of the Reprobate

A comedic absurdist adventure filled with surreal humor and bizarre logic. It encourages experimentation and unconventional puzzle solving.

Dexter Stardust

A retro-style sci-fi point-and-click adventure with lighthearted storytelling. It emphasizes exploration and puzzle solving across planets.

Don't Escape: 4 Days to Survive

A survival-focused point-and-click where you prepare for an unavoidable catastrophe. It blends resource management with puzzle logic.

Earth Must Die

A darkly comedic adventure about planetary destruction and absurd decision-making. It emphasizes humor and branching narrative logic.

🧠 VISUAL NOVEL

BatteryNote

A minimalist visual novel exploring digital communication and emotional connection. It focuses on short-form storytelling and atmosphere.

Dear Me I Was

A reflective visual novel about memory and identity. It emphasizes emotional storytelling and personal introspection.

Everything Will Be Fine

A narrative visual novel exploring uncertainty and emotional struggle. It focuses on branching dialogue and character psychology.

Near-Mage

A magical-themed visual novel with character-driven storytelling. It blends fantasy elements with personal narrative arcs.

Neo Cab

A cyberpunk visual novel about emotional labor and survival as a rideshare driver. It emphasizes dialogue choices and relationships.

No Case Should Remain Unsolved

A detective visual novel focused on cold case investigation. It emphasizes logic, dialogue, and narrative reconstruction.

Until Then

A cinematic coming-of-age visual novel set in a stylized narrative world. It focuses on relationships and emotional storytelling.

Urban Myth Dissolution Center

A supernatural investigative visual novel about urban legends. It combines mystery-solving with episodic storytelling.

⚔️ RPG

Artis Impact

A stylish JRPG blending emotional storytelling with classic turn-based combat. It leans heavily on atmosphere and character-driven narrative rather than complex systems.

Back To The Dawn

A prison escape RPG with deep simulation systems and branching narrative paths. You balance survival, social manipulation, and long-term escape planning.

BLACK SOULS

A dark fantasy RPG inspired by fairy tales and Souls-like difficulty. It combines exploration, brutal combat, and morally heavy narrative choices.

Bloomtown: A Different Story

A narrative RPG mixing slice-of-life storytelling with supernatural turn-based combat. It blends emotional character arcs with exploration and dungeon crawling.

Cabernet

A narrative RPG about vampirism, morality, and identity in a modern setting. Choices strongly affect relationships and story outcomes.

Centum

An experimental narrative RPG with surreal structure and abstract storytelling. It focuses more on interpretation than mechanics.

Citizen Sleeper

A dice-driven narrative RPG set on a decaying space station. You manage survival, relationships, and systemic choices over time.

CORPUS EDAX

A stylized experimental RPG focused on narrative systems and thematic progression. It blends abstract storytelling with RPG mechanics.

Duskpunk

A narrative RPG set in a dark industrial world with survival elements. It focuses on moral choices and harsh systemic consequences.

Felvidek

A medieval-inspired RPG with surreal tone and low-poly aesthetic. It combines exploration with narrative-driven encounters.

Gorky 17

A tactical RPG with horror and sci-fi themes. It focuses on squad-based combat and exploration of a contaminated military facility.

Lisa: The Complete Edition

A dark RPG focused on emotional storytelling, sacrifice, and harsh decision-making. It mixes turn-based combat with exploration and narrative consequences.

Moon River

A narrative RPG emphasizing exploration and character progression. It focuses on atmosphere and emotional storytelling.

Muffles Life Sentence

A surreal RPG blending narrative absurdity with system-driven gameplay. It leans into experimental storytelling and unusual mechanics.

Mushroom Musume

A character-focused RPG with whimsical and surreal storytelling. It emphasizes relationships and narrative progression.

NITRO GEN OMEGA

A tactical anime-style RPG featuring squad management and mech combat. It blends strategic planning with character progression systems.

Paradigm Island

A narrative RPG focused on psychological and philosophical themes. It emphasizes branching decisions and consequence-driven storytelling.

Pyre

A narrative-driven RPG with unique competitive ritual combat. It focuses on character arcs and story branching rather than traditional battles.

Quantum Witch

A narrative RPG with magical realism and branching emotional choices. It blends story exploration with light mechanics.

SKALD: Against The Black Priory

A retro-inspired RPG with heavy old-school mechanics and dark fantasy tone. It emphasizes party management and tactical combat.

Sultan’s Game

A narrative RPG focused on political intrigue, survival, and branching consequences. It mixes resource management with story-driven decisions.

Veritus

A dungeon-focused RPG emphasizing exploration and tactical combat. It uses classic grid-based progression systems.

Vultures: Scavengers of Death

A turn-based RPG focused on survival and resource scarcity. It emphasizes tactical decision-making and harsh consequences.

WAGON

A deckbuilding RPG combining card mechanics with progression systems. It focuses on synergy-building and strategic decision-making.

🧠 STRATEGY / MANAGEMENT

Beholder: Conductor

A dystopian surveillance management game set on a controlled train system. You monitor passengers while balancing morality and authority.

Do No Harm

A medical simulation game focused on diagnosis under uncertainty. It emphasizes decision-making and consequences.

News Tower

A management sim where you run a newspaper empire. You balance journalism integrity, profit, and influence.

Plan B: Terraform

A planetary colonization and terraforming simulation. It focuses on logistics, environment shaping, and system optimization.

Tiny Bookshop

A cozy management game about running a small bookstore. It emphasizes inventory decisions, customer interaction, and relaxed progression.

We The Revolution

A political simulation set during the French Revolution. You act as a judge balancing morality and political pressure.

🎮 ROGUELIKE/LITE

Everything Is Crab

A chaotic roguelike centered around absurd transformations and randomness. It emphasizes unpredictability and replayability.

Luck Loot

A loot-driven roguelite focused on randomized rewards and builds. It emphasizes progression through chance and optimization.

Metavoidal

A roguelite with rhythmic and systemic combat elements. It blends action and procedural structure.

Star of Providence

A fast-paced roguelike shooter with tight controls and procedural levels. It emphasizes skill-based combat and replayability.

Red Pistol

A roguelike shooter focused on fast combat and weapon variety. It encourages experimentation with builds and movement.

Nonentity Galaxy

A space-themed roguelite emphasizing exploration and procedural systems. It mixes progression with sci-fi aesthetics.

You Know The Drill

A roguelike centered around mining and resource extraction. It emphasizes risk-reward gameplay loops.

🧠 PUZZLE

Chants of Sennaar

A linguistic puzzle game where you decipher unknown languages by observing context and patterns. It builds understanding gradually without tutorials, making discovery central to progression.

Chess, Texas

A chess-inspired puzzle game that bends traditional rules into unusual problem-solving scenarios. It forces players to rethink familiar mechanics in creative ways.

Creature Kitchen

A whimsical crafting puzzle game centered around combining strange ingredients and experimenting with outcomes. It rewards curiosity and trial-and-error logic.

Great God Grove

A surreal puzzle adventure built around communication, interpretation, and strange divine logic. It blends narrative absurdity with structured problem-solving.

Human Fall Flat

A physics-based puzzle platformer where movement itself is the challenge. Solutions are often emergent and chaotic rather than strictly logical.

Is This Seat Taken

A logic puzzle game centered around seating arrangements and social constraints. It requires deduction and pattern recognition to solve spatial problems.

King of the Bridge

A strategy puzzle game focused on controlling movement across constrained pathways. It emphasizes planning and spatial reasoning.

Lorelei and the Laser Eyes

A surreal puzzle adventure built around mystery, codes, and layered logic systems. It encourages deep observation and notebook-style deduction.

OneShot: World Machine Edition

A metafictional puzzle adventure where the game interacts with the player outside traditional boundaries. It emphasizes emotional storytelling combined with puzzle progression.

Out Of Sight

A perspective-based puzzle game focused on visibility and environmental manipulation. It uses spatial reasoning as its core mechanic.

Slider

A minimalist sliding-tile puzzle experience focused on pure logic and optimization. It strips gameplay down to fundamental spatial reasoning.

TOEM: A Photo Adventure

A cozy exploration puzzle game where you solve problems using photography. It emphasizes observation and creativity over difficulty.

While Waiting

A philosophical puzzle experience built around patience and timing. It turns everyday waiting into structured gameplay challenges.

Out Of Hands

A card battler with experimental mechanics and unpredictable systems. It focuses on adaptation and strategic flexibility.

🕵️ DETECTIVE

Casebook 1899: The Leipzig Murders

A historical detective game focused on interrogation and structured deduction. You must analyze evidence and construct logical conclusions.

Dahlia View

A small-community mystery investigation game centered on uncovering hidden truths. It emphasizes dialogue and environmental clues.

Dinocop

A comedic detective game featuring absurd cases and light investigative mechanics. It mixes humor with simple deduction puzzles.

Duck Detective: The Ghost of Glamping

A cozy detective adventure starring a duck investigator solving lighthearted mysteries. It focuses on accessible logic and humorous storytelling.

Jason Maxx

A noir-inspired detective adventure with stylized storytelling. It emphasizes investigation and narrative discovery.

Mind Diver

A psychological detective game where you reconstruct memories to solve a case. It blends investigation with emotional narrative layers.

Paper Perjury

A courtroom-style detective game focused on contradiction analysis and evidence breakdown. It emphasizes logic and attention to detail.

Paradise Killer

An open-ended detective game set in a surreal island mystery. You gather evidence freely and decide your own conclusions.

Return of the Obra Dinn

A deterministic deduction masterpiece where you reconstruct the fate of an entire ship’s crew. It relies entirely on logic and observation.

The Roottrees Are Dead

A genealogical deduction game about reconstructing a family tree through evidence. It emphasizes careful reading and logical elimination.

The Seance of Blake Manor

A supernatural detective game set in a haunted manor with layered mysteries. It blends occult themes with structured investigation.

Unheard: Voices of Crime

A unique detective game where you solve cases by listening to audio scenes out of order. It focuses entirely on auditory deduction.

🧠HORROR

Butchers Creek

A rural psychological horror experience focused on isolation and decay. It builds tension through environment and implication rather than action.

Caretaker

A slow-burn horror experience centered on isolation and fragile perception. It relies on atmosphere and uncertainty rather than explicit threats.

CARIMARA: Beneath The Forlorn Limbs

A surreal horror game filled with symbolic imagery and dreamlike progression. It emphasizes interpretation and fragmented narrative structure.

Daemonologie

An occult horror experience inspired by historical demonology and ritual texts. It focuses on investigation, atmosphere, and creeping dread.

Deep Sleep

A surreal horror adventure set in dreamlike underground spaces. It emphasizes exploration and psychological unease.

Eclipsium

A surreal atmospheric horror game built around distorted perception and environmental storytelling. It focuses on mood and psychological instability.

FAITH: The Unholy Trinity

A retro-style horror game inspired by 1980s religious panic and VHS aesthetics. It blends simple visuals with deeply unsettling narrative events.

Fatal Delivery

A horror game centered on isolation and unsettling delivery scenarios. It builds tension through routine turned wrong.

Harvest Hunt

A survival horror experience set in a cursed rural environment. It mixes resource management with tension-driven exploration.

House Of The Vigil

A haunted location horror game focused on exploration and narrative discovery. It emphasizes environmental storytelling and dread.

How Fish Is Made

A surreal horror experience with absurdist and metaphorical storytelling. It uses unsettling imagery and existential themes.

Last Report

A narrative horror game focused on investigation and psychological tension. It blends story discovery with unsettling events.

Loan Shark

A horror experience built around debt, pressure, and escalating consequences. It mixes psychological stress with narrative progression.

Locks

A confined-space horror game emphasizing tension and uncertainty. It focuses on environmental fear and minimal guidance.

MOLE

A subterranean horror experience centered on digging, isolation, and discovery. It builds dread through environment and sound design.

Mouthwashing

A psychological horror set aboard a stranded spaceship with deteriorating reality. It focuses on narrative fragmentation and disturbing atmosphere.

My Peephole: Hotel Harborview

A voyeuristic horror game centered on observation and paranoia. It builds tension through limited perspective and implication.

No I'm Not A Human

A psychological horror game focused on identity, suspicion, and paranoia. It challenges the player’s perception of reality and trust.

PAGER

A minimalist horror experience centered on communication and escalating tension. It uses simplicity to build dread.

PROXIMATE

A psychological horror game focused on proximity-based tension and fear. It emphasizes uncertainty and environmental threat.

Psychroma

A surreal horror experience built around psychological fragmentation and perception shifts. It emphasizes narrative ambiguity and mood.

REVEIL

A narrative horror game focused on memory, identity, and surreal environments. It blends exploration with psychological storytelling.

SIGNALIS

A survival horror game inspired by PS1-era aesthetics and existential sci-fi themes. It emphasizes resource management, exploration, and cryptic storytelling.

Snowfall's Mystery

A mystery-driven horror experience set in a cold, isolated environment. It blends investigation with atmospheric dread.

Static Dread: The Lighthouse

A lighthouse-based psychological horror game focused on isolation and signal-based storytelling. It emphasizes environmental tension and narrative ambiguity.

Stories Untold

An episodic horror anthology blending text adventure, FMV-style sequences, and puzzle gameplay. It evolves into increasingly surreal and unsettling scenarios.

Subversive Memories

A psychological horror experience centered on memory distortion and identity. It uses fragmented storytelling and surreal imagery.

Super Lone Survivor

A survival horror game focused on isolation, resource management, and psychological decay. It emphasizes atmosphere over combat intensity.

THRESHOLD

A minimalist atmospheric horror game set in a confined environment. It builds tension through silence and environmental cues.

Water Womb World

A surreal aquatic horror experience focused on exploration and existential imagery. It emphasizes mood and abstract storytelling.

WORLD OF HORROR

A roguelite horror RPG inspired by Junji Ito and cosmic horror folklore. It combines procedural storytelling with retro aesthetics.

ZERO PROTOCOL

A sci-fi horror game set in a corporate research facility with systemic threats. It blends immersive sim elements with survival tension.

🎬 FMV

Blippo+

A surreal FMV experience combining live-action absurdity with interactive storytelling. It leans heavily into humor, satire, and experimental structure.

Dead Reset

A full-motion video horror experience with branching narrative paths. It focuses on replayability and cinematic decision-making.

Heart of the Forest

A narrative FMV experience blending mystery and supernatural themes. It emphasizes live-action storytelling and branching choices.

The Complex

A sci-fi FMV thriller about a biohazard containment crisis. It focuses on branching dialogue and character relationships.

Not For Broadcast

A satirical FMV-adjacent experience where you control a live TV broadcast. It blends narrative, politics, and chaos management.

🚶 WALKING SIM

Harold Halibut

A handcrafted narrative adventure set aboard a submerged spaceship-like city. It focuses on character interactions, slow exploration, and stop-motion-style visuals.

Mutazione

A story-driven exploration game about a small community dealing with mutation and change. It blends gardening mechanics with emotional narrative storytelling.

Jusant

A meditative climbing adventure focused on vertical traversal and environmental storytelling. It emphasizes rhythm, movement, and discovery rather than combat.

Ember Seeker

A narrative walking simulator centered on emotional journeying through stylized environments. It focuses on atmosphere and reflective storytelling.

Eternal Afternoon

A surreal walking simulator built around dreamlike spaces and symbolic storytelling. It emphasizes interpretation and mood over explicit narrative.

in Death we Love

A psychological walking sim focused on emotional storytelling and fragmented memory. It uses environment and pacing to convey narrative.

Once Alive

A narrative exploration game centered on memory and personal reflection. It emphasizes environmental storytelling and emotional tone.

Title_Pending

A surreal experimental walking simulator that plays with expectations and narrative structure. It focuses on abstraction and interpretation.

🎭 META

There Is No Game: Wrong Dimension

A meta puzzle adventure that constantly breaks the fourth wall and subverts expectations. It blends humor, narrative, and puzzle-solving in unpredictable ways.

Thought Experiment Simulator

A philosophical simulation game built around abstract ideas and conceptual scenarios. It focuses on interpretation rather than traditional gameplay systems.

Refind Self

An interactive fiction experience focused on personality analysis through player choices. It blends narrative exploration with self-reflective systems.

Inhuman Resources

A narrative simulation about corporate systems and moral compromise. It emphasizes decision-making under pressure and systemic storytelling.

🎵 RHYTHM

Rhythm Doctor

A rhythm game where you heal patients by timing a single-button input to their heartbeats. It escalates into complex rhythmic patterns and narrative context.

Fresh Tracks

A rhythm-based experience focused on timing, movement, and reactive gameplay. It blends music-driven mechanics with progression systems.

Starstruck: Hands of Time

A rhythm adventure game combining music-based gameplay with narrative progression. It emphasizes timing and emotional storytelling.

🔫 FPS / ACTION

Diluvian Ultra

A fast-paced retro-inspired FPS focused on aggressive combat and dense enemy encounters. It emphasizes momentum, positioning, and constant movement.

MOUSE PI For Hire

A stylized FPS blending noir detective themes with cartoon-inspired visuals. It combines shooting mechanics with investigative storytelling elements.

Kill It With Fire

A chaotic first-person action game about exterminating spiders in increasingly absurd ways. It focuses on physics-based destruction and humor.

Perennial Order

A boss-rush action game with Souls-like combat structure and atmospheric presentation. It emphasizes timing, precision, and learning enemy patterns.

Frame of Mind

A movement-focused action-platformer with psychological and narrative undertones. It blends traversal mechanics with thematic storytelling.

Skin Deep

An immersive sim where stealth, improvisation, and environmental interaction are central. It encourages creative problem-solving rather than direct combat.

ULTRA0

An on-rails shooter focused on rhythm, reaction, and cinematic action sequences. It emphasizes spectacle and fast-paced engagement.

🧱TACTICAL

Toy Tactics

A physics-based real-time strategy game where units behave like toy soldiers. It emphasizes chaotic battles and experimental tactics.

Shardpunk

A tactical turn-based strategy game with steampunk aesthetics. It focuses on positioning, resource management, and squad survival.

Gnomes

A tower defense game with quirky fantasy aesthetics. It focuses on wave management and strategic placement.

There Are No Orcs

A meta tower defense game that plays with genre expectations. It mixes humor with tactical defense mechanics.

Thronefall

A minimalist strategy game combining base building and defense. It emphasizes simple controls with deep tactical decisions.

🧩 EXPLORATION

Cloudpunk

A cyberpunk delivery game set in a massive vertical city filled with neon districts and hidden stories. You drive and walk through layered environments while delivering packages and uncovering character-driven narratives.

SLUDGE LIFE

A graffiti-focused open-world exploration game set on a polluted industrial island. It emphasizes freedom, exploration, and absurd humor rather than structured objectives.

Just Die Already

A chaotic sandbox game about elderly mayhem in an open city environment. It focuses on physics-driven destruction and comedic freedom.

GULLET

A dark atmospheric exploration game focused on oppressive environments and discovery. It emphasizes survival tension and environmental storytelling.

NaissanceE

A surreal first-person exploration game set in vast abstract architecture. It focuses on scale, isolation, and environmental navigation.

Vessels Of Decay

A post-apocalyptic exploration game centered on environmental storytelling. It emphasizes traversal through ruined landscapes.

Wheelborn

A movement-focused exploration action game emphasizing traversal mechanics. It rewards mastery of momentum and environmental interaction.

The Lotus Holidays

A peaceful exploration experience centered on environmental discovery and mood. It emphasizes calm pacing and atmospheric design.

The Liquid Jet

A surreal exploration adventure with abstract environmental storytelling. It focuses on movement through unusual spaces and interpretation.

The Oily Depths

A dark exploration experience set in an oppressive subterranean environment. It emphasizes tension and environmental storytelling.

The Midnight Walk

A narrative exploration game focused on nighttime journeys and psychological tension. It blends storytelling with environmental progression.

u/losersmanual — 2 months ago

What are these light streaks on my photos?

Shot with the A7III + Tamron 70-180 at wide apertures (2.8, 3.5) and high shutter speeds 1/2500 and 1/6400. Must be lens specific, because it doesn't happen on other lenses. The issue appears only on shots taken above 70mm, and on the same shoot, while changing lenses, occurs only on the images shot with the Tamron.

u/losersmanual — 2 months ago