alright, i'm caffeinated and hydrated, so once again, it's time for a steam sale rec thread.

as ever, i focus primarily on lesser known and/or older titles as big name titles don't need the help and i like getting people to try new shit.

so, onwards!

Treachery in Beatdown City ($12.99) - a semi-turn based beat 'em up/RPG, and easily one of my faves of 2020. a perfectly tuned, brilliant dissection, evolution and fusion of RPG and beat 'em up systems to make one killer title. fight somebody! https://store.steampowered.com/app/762180/Treachery_in_Beatdown_City/

i want so badly to sell you on Treachery in Beatdown City i'm gonna take a second tweet here to include the trailer featuring a killer track by mike eagle, 2mello, and inverse phase. seriously, TiBC is worth it.

Signs of the Sojourner ($16.99) - also already one of the best games of 2020. A narrative deck builder in a not too far off world, where you navigate conversations with cards. You take over your mother's store after her death, and life goes from there. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1058690/Signs_of_the_Sojourner/

Hypnospace Outlaw ($14.99) - my top game of 2019. you're a moderator for an alternate universe geocities-esque 90s internet that can only be accessed in your sleep. surf and investigate a beautifully realized faux-cyberspace. funny, beautiful, bittersweet. https://store.steampowered.com/app/844590/Hypnospace_Outlaw/

Strange Telephone ($3.49) - this one's for the yume nikki fans. you are a girl who awakens in a world with nothing but a floating door before her. use a living telephone, Graham, that can 'dial' into other dimensions to find a way out as you explore. https://store.steampowered.com/app/705290/Strange_Telephone/

Pizza Express ($0.69, nice) - one of the best light sims out there at a dirt cheap price! Cook, Serve, Delicious meets Pizza Tycoon with a bopping soundtrack and a story mode of furries building their way to the top of the pizza empire! fast and addicting! https://store.steampowered.com/app/375250/Pizza_Express/

Yoku's Island Express ($3.99) - a pinball metroidvania featuring the cutest dung beetle you ever did see, who is the new postmaster of mokumana island. pinball your way around the island to deliver mail, solve puzzles, and even fight! https://store.steampowered.com/app/334940/Yokus_Island_Express/

The Shivah ($1.49) - another rec thread, which means another rec of The Shivah. a murder mystery featuring a down on his luck rabbi who has fallen into a suspicious, massive windfall he needs to get to the bottom of, while confronting his own past. https://store.steampowered.com/app/252370/The_Shivah/

Long Gone Days ($11.24) - a modern day military RPG, with a heavy focus on language and cultural barriers. people are the focus much more than the combat here - there are no random battles, and keeping morale up is crucial. still in development. https://store.steampowered.com/app/510540/Long_Gone_Days/

Ancient Enemy ($11.24) - the latest story driven solitaire RPG from the great minds at Grey Alien Games! play through a highly modified combat version of solitaire to win battles on a scarred world! Slay the Spire and Puzzle Quest fans, give it a look! https://store.steampowered.com/app/993790/Ancient_Enemy/

i also highly recommend their previous two solitaire games, Shadowhand and Regency Solitaire, which you can get for $3.74 and $2.49 on their own apart, or $13.10 together with Ancient Enemy! a steal, imo! https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/6129/Superb_Solitaire/

The Lion's Song ($3.99) - a beautiful adventure game set in 20th century austria. you play a different life in each episode, with all of them intertwining back together at the end. emotional, vulnerable, caring. https://store.steampowered.com/sub/106294/ 

Spark the Electric Jester ($5.59) - a retro style platformer that's not satisfied with just having one big influence, it brings in Sonic, Kirby, and Mega Man, smashing them all together into one hell of a package. has a killer soundtrack too. https://store.steampowered.com/app/601810/Spark_the_Electric_Jester/

The Friends of Ringo Ishikawa - ($7.49) - the combat of River City Ransom fuses with the idle wandering of Shenmue to bring you a tale of high school delinquent having a quiet existential crisis in their last year. chill beats to punch to. a personal fave. https://store.steampowered.com/app/846110/The_friends_of_Ringo_Ishikawa/

Arrest of a Stone Buddha - the latest from the creator of Ringo Ishikawa, now the material being fused with lonely, long moments of personal reflection is... John Woo movies. forewarning: it's not a 50/50 balance of quiet to bloodshed. slower moods here. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1151120/Arrest_of_a_stone_Buddha/

i'll throw in the moody trailer for Arrest of a Stone Buddha to help you get a better feel for it, though again: there's gonna be less combat than you think. long moments to breathe and think about the world wrapped around frantically unloading on people.

The Eternal Castle [REMASTERED] ($4.99) - an update of a 1987 game that never existed. an incredibly stylish prince of persia/out of this world inspired platformer in a moody, deadly, incredibly animated CGA colored sci-fi world. https://store.steampowered.com/app/963450/The_Eternal_Castle_REMASTERED/

The Mummy Demastered ($9.99) - hey, remember The Mummy (2017)? oh you only remember it for that trailer with like no sound? huh. yeah, me too. well, it had a tie-in game that's like a combination of Contra with a metroidvania and it actually fucking rules? https://store.steampowered.com/app/630310/The_Mummy_Demastered/

Sine Mora EX ($1.99) - a story driven SHMUP about time traveling furries fighting a war they cannot win, going through the motions of a tragedy they cannot stop. fantastic soundtrack by akira yamaoka (!). play with the Hungarian voice acting on, i insist. https://store.steampowered.com/app/606730/Sine_Mora_EX/

Californium ($2.79) - a strange, psychedelic homage to Philip K. Dick, placing you in the shoes of a writer who is not only having an existential crisis, but is also rapidly being warped back and forth through both space and time. https://store.steampowered.com/app/402060/Californium/

Heart&Slash ($3.89) - a 3D roguelite brawler with a distinctly Mega Man Legends influence, fight your way through always changing dungeons as the innocent robot Heart, unlocking new weapons, new abilities, and more as you keep trying to reach the end. https://store.steampowered.com/app/326840/HeartSlash/

Cthulhu Mythos RPG - The Sleeping Girl of the Miasma Sea ($2.99) - a loving tribute to the original survival horror game, Sweet Home. a group of teens must work their way through a haunted mansion and survive long enough to uncover its bloody secrets. https://store.steampowered.com/app/938240/Cthulhu_Mythos_RPG_The_Sleeping_Girl_of_the_Miasma_Sea/

Starship Titanic ($1.49) - hey, did you know douglas adams once wrote a text parser sci-fi comedy adventure game with a stunningly and thoroughly in-depth dialog system and monty python voice actors like john cleese

"do what now"

well now you do https://store.steampowered.com/app/467290/Starship_Titanic/

Dandara ($5.99) - a wonderful atmospheric metroidvania with an utterly unique form of movement, having you flip from surface to surface to get around. made by brazilian devs who pull heavily, fantastically from their history and art. https://store.steampowered.com/app/612390/Dandara_Trials_of_Fear_Edition/

Diaries of a Spaceport Janitor ($2.49) - one of my favorite games, ever, period. in a world full of spacefaring adventurers, you are the one who cleans their trash and dreams of having more - while haunted by a screaming skull. beautiful, bittersweet. https://store.steampowered.com/app/436500/Diaries_of_a_Spaceport_Janitor/

killer7 ($9.99) - suda51's incredible and incredibly bizarre adventure/shooter/??? game. take on the consciousness of a collective of assassins fighting living, screaming bombs called 'Heaven Smile', w/a surreal story that explains less than Dark Souls. https://store.steampowered.com/app/868520/killer7/

okay, that's enough for now! i might come back later tonight to add more recs, but i'll definitely be adding more as the sale goes on till the end. hope you found something new and interesting for yourself!

if you feel like throwing me a coupla bones for the recs, i do have a sale of my own going on at itchio now for my pack of creepy local maine photography... https://spacetwinks.itch.io/a-place-without-bodies

or if you bizarrely feel like giving me money just cuz, i also have a ko-fi.

enjoy videos games! https://ko-fi.com/spacetwinks 

alright, it's almost 7 PM, i got food in me, and i'm listening to KMFDM, who's ready for some more steam sale recs

Ark Noir ($5.99) - a fusion of visual novel and roguelite RPG, with a heavy focus on resource management to stay alive. fight your way to escape a flooding ship large enough to house a whole city, and uncover its secrets as you go. https://store.steampowered.com/app/739220/Ark_Noir/

Rock of Ages 2: Bigger and Boulder ($3.74) - tower defense meets... marble madness... meets... art history? build your own defenses and traps to stop a boulder from smashing through your gates as you try to do exactly that to your enemies. https://store.steampowered.com/app/434460/Rock_of_Ages_2_Bigger__Boulder/

The Yawhg ($4.99) - a randomized choose your own adventure game - with multiplayer too! an evil creature known as The Yawhg is returning - and you must simply decide how you spend your time before they come. gorgeous emily carroll art. https://store.steampowered.com/app/269030/The_Yawhg/

Anodyne 1 & 2 ($17.08) - two games that are strange and unnerving, yet also both pleasant and charming. both take inspiration from the zelda series, the first the 2D games, and the second from the 3D titles. funny, creepy, atmospheric, loving. https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/11556/Anodyne_Franchise_Bundle/

Abyss Odyssey ($2.99) - a roguelite metroidvania in 19th century chile, with a combat system that takes inspiration from fighting games. descend into a dream that has overtaken the world above and stop it at the source. great art direction. https://store.steampowered.com/app/255070/Abyss_Odyssey/

Creature in the Well - a top down hack and slash pinball adventure! travel deep underneath a mountain, fight and solve puzzles by bashing balls of light around the screen, as you work to free the city of a Mirage from an all encompassing sandstorm. https://store.steampowered.com/app/852300/Creature_in_the_Well/

Battle Princess Madelyn ($4.99) - a loving homage to Ghosts 'N Goblins, and just as you expect, as hard as nails like them too. if you're looking for an action-platformer that's gonna kick your ass for a hot minute, hit this up. https://store.steampowered.com/app/603930/Battle_Princess_Madelyn/

Sunless Sea ($6.45) - if you loved the loop of delivering packages in Death Stranding, then you might find yourself with a surprising fondness for this. a topdown boat travel/trade/combat game with writing that feels like lovecraft by way of pratchett. https://store.steampowered.com/app/304650/SUNLESS_SEA/

Sunless Skies ($9.99) - or if boats aren't your thing, you could skip right to the sequel, which makes plenty of quality of life improvements and has you now doing your thing on a flying space train in the unpredictable cosmos. you can also murder a sun. https://store.steampowered.com/app/596970/SUNLESS_SKIES/

Heat Signature ($4.94) - what i can best describe as "sci-fi roguelite hotline miami". break into spaceships, steal (and kill) whatever you need to, and break your way back out - sometimes by throwing yourself out the windows. delightfully wild mechanics. https://store.steampowered.com/app/268130/Heat_Signature/

Pix the Cat ($1.49) - a very fast paced arcade style puzzler that feels like someone threw Pac-Man Championship Edition, Snake, and Chu Chu Rocket into a bottle, then shook it as hard as possible. crank your high score and combos up till time runs out. https://store.steampowered.com/app/330180/Pix_the_Cat/

Dropsy ($2.49) - a unique point and click hugventure with no text. as Dropsy the clown, you'll work your way through a world that can be frightening and cruel - and always meet it with your arms spread wide, wanting to just hug it out. https://store.steampowered.com/app/274350/Dropsy/

Heaven's Vault ($14.99) - if you're wanting to scratch that The Outer Wilds itch some more, check this out. the creators of 80 Days bring you a tale of an archaeologist in space, deciphering the languages of the past to understand the present. https://store.steampowered.com/app/774201/Heavens_Vault/

Unavowed ($8.99) - take the party banter systems of Mass Effect, then throw them into a point and click adventure that lets you solve puzzles differently depending on who you bring with you, then drop it all into an urban fantasy murder mystery. https://store.steampowered.com/app/336140/Unavowed/

King of Dragon Pass ($3.59) - part RPG, part strategy game, part visual novel that centers on you telling (and re-enacting) stories as much as it tells the story to you. make myth, survive myth, re-tell myth, become myth! https://store.steampowered.com/app/352220/King_of_Dragon_Pass/

The Last Express ($2.79) - one of the last games of the golden age of point and clicks. in 1914, as WWI fast approaches, you are invited by a friend to the Orient Express - only to find him dead. but there's much more than just a murder mystery here. https://store.steampowered.com/app/252710/The_Last_Express_Gold_Edition/

Yomawari: Night Alone ($4.99) - when her dog goes missing and her sister hasn't returned from looking for them, a young girl sets out into the night of a haunted town to find them herself. big "yume nikki if it was more directly threatening" vibes. https://store.steampowered.com/app/477870/Yomawari_Night_Alone/

MEMENTO ($2.39) - a top down horror adventure. on a school trip to an island museum, you and your fellow students become trapped in the echoes of a war and its victims that refuses to go forgotten. https://store.steampowered.com/app/437030/MEMENTO/

Frog Detective Bundle ($7.18) - two short and sweet (like, an hour or so apiece) funny, goofy, and utterly charming mystery adventure games. great for chilling out and just having a good time. https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/12873/Frog_Detective_1__2/

Artifact Adventure ($2.09) - if you're the type who likes old school JRPGs, and i mean FF1 and NES Dragon Quest games old school, then this is a must grab, especially at this price. a way, WAY bigger game than you'd expect, too. https://store.steampowered.com/app/359440/Artifact_Adventure/

ZeroRanger ($9.59) - one hell of a bullet hell SHMUP. all the tight and frantic shooting, dodging, and high score combo mechanics you'd expect, but also a lot more mystery and story to uncover than you might think. https://store.steampowered.com/app/809020/ZeroRanger/

NEO AQUARIUM - The King Of Crustaceans ($1.79) - if that Fight Crab game caught your attention, then this probably will too. underwater creatures beat the shit out of each other with lasers, missiles, laser missiles, and so on. https://store.steampowered.com/app/355240/NEO_AQUARIUM__The_King_of_Crustaceans/

Ace of Seafood ($3.59) - the sequel to Neo Aquarium. take everything i just said, but make it bigger and stupider. in a good way. https://store.steampowered.com/app/450500/Ace_of_Seafood/

The Swapper ($2.24) - a puzzle-platformer that uses hand made environments to make for a discomforting atmosphere aboard an isolated, abandoned space station. use a device that lets you clone yourself to solve puzzles, uncover mysteries, and escape. https://store.steampowered.com/app/231160/The_Swapper/

okay, wow, i've been at it for like 2 hours tonight? i think that's enough for the night. hope you found something you liked that you didn't expect, i'll keep adding more recs throughout the week. enjoy!

heyooooo who's ready for an earlier edition of some additions to the rec thread

Flashback ($1.99) - the classic sci-fi platformer-adventure, following in the footsteps of the original Prince of Persia - taking it to the future, and later, space. jump, dodge, shoot and solve your way to recovering your memory amidst a conspiracy. https://store.steampowered.com/app/961620/Flashback/

Pikuniku ($3.24) - an adorable puzzle/exploration adventure game, with a lot to do, lot of places to go, people to meet, chilling to do, enjoyment to be had, and comically overwhelming capitalism to fight. you can play with a friend, too! https://store.steampowered.com/app/572890/Pikuniku/

The Silver Case ($7.99) - before No More Heroes, before killer7, there was The Silver Case! GHM's debut game, a fusion of visual novel and walking sim, you go through two surreal intertwined stories to find the truth behind a killer known as 'kamui'. https://store.steampowered.com/app/476650/The_Silver_Case/

Grim Fandango ($7.49) - one of my personal fave point and click adventures. a noir comedy set in the land of the dead, you are manny calavera, a travel agent who helps souls get to their final reward - and falls into a conspiracy that's exploiting them. https://store.steampowered.com/app/316790/Grim_Fandango_Remastered/

Raptor: Call of the Shadows ($1.99) - the absolute best game that came on every fucking shareware CD back in the 90s. still a damn enjoyable shmup, especially at this price. https://store.steampowered.com/app/336060/Raptor_Call_of_The_Shadows__2015_Edition/

White Day: A Labyrinth Named School ($5.99) - a korean survival horror game. hee-min lee walks into the school long after hours to leave a box of candies in his crush's locker, only for the school itself and the souls seeping through it to trap him inside. https://store.steampowered.com/app/466130/White_Day_A_Labyrinth_Named_School/

The Final Station ($4.49) - action horror combines with train maintenance to make for a bit of a twist on the old post-apocalypse. deliver survivors and supplies by train while you try to stay alive. some fantastic level design too. https://store.steampowered.com/app/435530/The_Final_Station/

The Fall ($1.99) - you play as ARID, the largely self-sufficient AI powering a combat suit. a plunge from space and into the earth has damaged the human inside you - and you must do whatever you can in this abandoned world to get them to medical care. https://store.steampowered.com/app/290770/The_Fall/

Where the Water Tastes Like Wine ($4.99) - a narrative adventure game that has you wandering through the USA in the middle of the depression, meeting people, swapping stories, resharing stories, and those stories changing as they pass along the grapevine. https://store.steampowered.com/app/447120/Where_the_Water_Tastes_Like_Wine/

if you need a further push to check out Where The Water Tastes Like Wine, be informed that of the abundance of voice acting in the game, one of the people doing it is singer, actor, and heartthrob of Your Moms everywhere, Sting.

Shadowrun: Dragonfall ($3.74) - one of my personal fave RPGs. a tightly plotted sub-30 hour title in a cyberpunk/fantasy world, things start with what should be an easy job that goes horribly wrong, and rapidly come to involve hunting down a lost dragon. https://store.steampowered.com/app/300550/Shadowrun_Dragonfall__Directors_Cut/

and to once again help sell more people on Dragonfall: this is Eiger. she is an enormous troll woman who is one of your key party members. she takes absolutely no shit, especially not from you. she is the best.

alright, that's enough for this afternoon addition to the rec thread! might be back again later tonight to add a couple more. either way, yet again: enjoy videos games!

hey hey, it's sunday, it's a little after 6 PM, who wants some more steam sale recs

too bad here they come anyway

Kingsway ($4.99) - this game isn't just inspired by Windows 95 aesthetics, it literally uses a knockoff of it as part of the core gameplay. cast magic, defeat monsters, round up loot, all by clicking and managing lots of windows at once in this roguelike. https://store.steampowered.com/app/588950/Kingsway/

428: Shibuya Scramble ($9.99) - an incredibly influential dramedy visual novel, that takes influence from 24's hour-by-hour storytelling model, but to tell something far more bizarre, and far more caring. unravel an interconnected mystery and save Shibuya! https://store.steampowered.com/app/648580/428_Shibuya_Scramble/

Paratopic ($3.67) - this short, atmospheric retro horror game has an aura to it that feels feverish - a sweaty kind of unnerving that hangs heavy on your shoulders and doesn't quite ever let you relax. great soundtrack, too. https://store.steampowered.com/app/897030/Paratopic/

The Witch's Isle ($2.99) - okay this isn't ACTUALLY on sale, but it's 3 bucks, c'mon. on an island ruled by a witch, where everyone has lost their memory, you have been given an ultimatum - find her stolen urn before 4:00 AM, or her curse will kill you. https://store.steampowered.com/app/701860/The_Witchs_Isle/

Commander Keen ($1.49) - all of iD software's classic platformer in one dirt cheap price! kid friendly jumping and shooting on alien worlds in this 90s gem, as well as being the origin of Dopefish, and part of the Doom canon - really! https://store.steampowered.com/app/9180/Commander_Keen/

also not relevant to anything in particular, but i always just get pleased as punch thinking about how the overworld of Cuphead always reminds me of Commander Keen, of all things.

Stories Untold ($2.49) - "colin, i'm interested in the text adventure games that came before my time, but i need an onramp". well, hypothetical person, this episodic horror series that has you typing out commands on in-game PCs is the way to go. https://store.steampowered.com/app/558420/Stories_Untold/

Zork Anthology ($3.89) - and if after that you're looking to go REALLY diving into text adventure games history, the Zork collection is a must! an incredibly influential series that mashes together the american midwest and fantasy in a comedy adventure. https://store.steampowered.com/app/570580/Zork_Anthology/

Tower 57 ($2.39) - top-down shooting action, but very specifically top-down shooting action for the niche but highly dedicated fanbase for Bitmap Brothers classic, The Chaos Engine. fans of SNK's Shock Troopers series will also wanna give it a looksee. https://store.steampowered.com/app/530950/Tower_57/

Myst ($2.99) - if there's one 90s PC title that i'm "okay no you really do have to try this" to newer generations, Myst is it. solve puzzles on a mysterious island where you find two brothers, demanding you free them - from they're trapped inside of. https://store.steampowered.com/app/63660/Myst_Masterpiece_Edition/

if you're interested in Myst but are looking for a bit of a graphical upgrade, more free movement options, and don't mind spending some extra cash, realMyst is also on sale for $8.99. https://store.steampowered.com/app/244430/realMyst_Masterpiece_Edition/

OFFSITE LINKING TIME - until july 1st, itchio has a bundle of 5 great games for the price of 8 bucks, 3 of them in particular stand outs for me that i'd gladly normally rec in these threads - Mutazione, Later Alligator, and Desert Child! https://itch.io/b/549/itchio-summer-selects-2020

some quick summaries to perk your interest-

Mutazione: you have come to the small island community of Mutazione to care for your aging grandfather, but there's much more to this place than just that. make friends, gossip, relax, garden and simply live life with the people here.

Later Alligator - point and click adventure combines with mini games in Alligator New York City, where you're tasked with stopping a hit on a cute lil gator named pat. funny as all get out, and a great soundtrack by @MelloMakes !

Desert Child - clearly and heavily inspired by Cowboy Bebop, you're a young hoverbike racer who's in a rush to make some money and get off planet before everything goes to hell. style for miles, great music too.

Invisible, Inc ($4.99) - if you're a fan of squad tactics and you haven't tried this yet, where have you been? an immaculately well balanced game of corporate espionage in a cyberpunk world. feels like nothing else when you pull out an impossible win. https://store.steampowered.com/app/243970/Invisible_Inc/

Gato Roboto ($3.99) - a monochrome metroidvania, where the pilot of the power armor is a springy, bouncy, and utterly adorable cat. short and sweet, doesn't overstay its welcome at all, a great long afternoon game. https://store.steampowered.com/app/916730/Gato_Roboto/

Contradiction - Spot the Liar! ($7.49) - perhaps the best game to introduce others to what, exactly, people find so appealing in the camp of FMV games. this live action mystery oozes with charm - with legend Tim Follin as editor, composer, and programmer! https://store.steampowered.com/app/373390/Contradiction__Spot_The_Liar/

Tim Follin, of course, you most likely know from "jesus christ how the fuck did they pull off this banger on this oldass hardware and why for this game of all things", like the title theme to NES' Pictionary.

Kero Blaster ($4.99) - from the creator of Cave Story comes a sidescrolling shooter that puts you in the feet of a frog, whose job is to clean up all the anomalies around teleport pads... and just can't get any time to finally go home for the day. https://store.steampowered.com/app/292500/Kero_Blaster/

Jazzpunk ($3.74) - a stylistic and surreal comedy first person adventure game, where your little fisher-price looking self solves (?) mysteries (????) during an AU cold war. joke wise, takes heavy inspiration from things like Airplane! and Police Squad! https://store.steampowered.com/app/250260/Jazzpunk_Directors_Cut/

alright, that's prolly enough for the night - and i'll still likely have some more as the sale goes on. as ever, i hope you found something to check out that you didn't expect or had never heard of before!