Remember bargain-bin games, also known as Shovelware?

A lot of people loathe the term, yet still use it like it is the mid 00s. With the ever increasing rise of Indiegames with cheap production values. The term Shovelware, at least as we know it, seem to become increasingly more meaningless.

Here are some "cheap" games which are worth everyones time and money. One rule though, the cheaper, the better:

- 3030 Deathwar Redux - Elite/Freelancer style action adventure genre hybrid ala "Indiana Jones but in Space". Great unknown but also very unique game.

- Chronicon - Diablo Hack and Slash style action game.

- CastleStorm - Build your own castle and defend it, destroy the other Castle!

- Skelly Selest - Fight stronger and stronger waves in the Arenas of Hell in this 2d action game. Its full of content and different modes, days worth of fun!

- One Finger Death Punch 2 - Fend of enemies Wushu style in this 2d reaction based game. Its also extremly underrated as fuck.

- Superflight - Fly down procedually generated mountains. Stunts bring more points. One of the greatest games ever made.

- Riddled Corpses - 2d Run and Gun shooter, featuring Anime girls with big ol tiddies. Suprisingly fun gameplay loop of failing and leveling up your character.

- Dragon Knight - Suprisingly fun 2d brawler featuring anime girls with even bigger tiddies.

- Theotown - Absolutely fantastic City building game. Kinda like Sim City 2000 meets Cities Skylines.

- Swarmlake - Devil Daggers clone. 5 times cheaper but just as fun.

- Overture - 2d Hack and Slash, but also a Bullet Hell game.

- Warcube - 3d physics based action game. Kinda like The Matrix but with Cubes and Medieval themes. Definitely weird, yet intruiging.

- Rusted Warfare - RTS - Total Annihilation/Supreme Commander clone with excellent modding capabilities.

- Tallowmere - Fun 2d platformer roguelike. If you ever asked yourself what if a Diablo game and Spelunky had a baby, this is your answer.

- Eversion - Cute genre defining 2d platformer that holds a secret.

- Lost Technology - Anime style RTS game where huge armies battle it out. Amazing OST!

- Jump off the Bridge - Kill yourself by jumping off a bridge, but avoid getting killed by obstacles in this Early Access title. Its a meme game which really gets very memey as the game progresses.

There are many more "suprise hits" over at the shovelware paradise also known as Steam and I'm sure a lot of you know even better games that nobody else knows. Please post them if you do.

GREAT THREAD,

But the very first game on your list is over 10 bucks. :P
I think we need to define what currency here.

As it stands, I'm wishlisting that 1st game. It looks amazing.

My apologies, I was absolutely sure that the game was 9,99 dollars, even though it really isn't. Because I assumed it was priced at 10 bucks so I just quickly grabbed the links without checking the pages and the prices. I edit the thread to leave out the "10 buck remark" :P, thank you for checking the price!

EDIT: Thread status, edited!

tbh i dont really know any so uuuuh i think im doin' this threadie wrong

but

i recommend a li'l game called perspective

link quoted as im not allowed to make my own: its fun, makes your brain ache an' is free
check it out

Damn, it looks good, fun and original... Kinda reminds me Portal...

grrrr!

I have been playing this little game for so many years, back in the days, like 300 years ago or so. Totally recommend, ze "UnReal World".

Not for everyone, only for awesome people such as myself! But do check it out, it's a wonderful game.

Cheers comrades! over and out...

Oh yes, 3030 Deathwar Redux has been on my radar for a while. Definitely looking forward to trying it out someday.

Overcrowd looks like a great management game with a visual style that I'd wish more games would experiment with.

Endless Sky is so cheap it's free! Kind of difficult and moderately time consuming though.

Starsector appears to still be under active development and looks pretty impressive.

Lastly, I don't think this really qualifies as a 'hidden gem' but I do have the idea for some reason that people mostly underestimate how great this little known game is: Urban Chaos. Think old-school tombraider movement with melee fighting and vehicle driving mechanics. Also, larger levels with even more hidden secrets (read: permanent character power ups) in hard-to-reach places.

That one's awesome, but pretty short. Absolutely worth it, though!

Smile For Me - You play as a mute flower delivery person who can only communicate by nodding and shaking your head for yes and no, and you're tasked with rescuing a bunch of wacky characters from a creepy happiness cult leader by preemptively making them happy so that they leave. Legitimately one of the best games I've played all year.

Of Gods and Men: The Daybreak Empire - It's like Fire Emblem, only there's a QTE that determines whether you land a critical hit or not. There's also some minor overworld unit/money management stuff that can see you building up ancillary armies to defend against hostile nations when your main units begin conquering. None of this is hugely expansive in scope, but it's definitely a unique sRPG blend.

Malfortune - This is a twin-stick shooter with an Undertale-esque morality system. You have a melee dash attack and bullets, with the former replenishing the latter, but the only way to obtain powerful new moves is to kill bosses that are manifestations of things like time, luck, and joy. Killing or sparing bosses changes the world somewhat as you potentially eliminate their aspect from existence, which is tempting because the boss fights can get a bit bullet hell-y and a lot of the powers you obtain after killing bosses help tip the scales in your favor. Basically, killing them makes the game easier, while sparing them earns you a better ending.

Omen Exitio: Plague - A Lovecraft-inspired gamebook where you play as a doctor searching for the truth behind a mysterious plague. The writing is excellent, and while all paths eventually funnel you into the same confrontation at the end, there are a few different endings that require beating skill checks. I probably played this one 5-6 times in a row trying to optimize my stats around skill checks, and even knowing how the story ends didn't diminish its eeriness.

Azure Saga: Pathfinder - One of many jRPG throwback games, this released with one of the most profoundly bad translations I've ever seen (one that's supposedly been improved since, though I doubt it's flawless even now), but makes up for it with an amazing combat system. You can swap party members in and out at will at the beginning of each turn, and combinations of certain attacks trigger full-party "united" attacks that have tons of different uses. Because of that, random battles aren't boring grindfests, but opportunities to unlock new united attacks that you can then rely on throughout the rest of the game.

Just finished the game, it´s fantastic. Thanks!!!!

For anyone who want to try, it´s more than worth it, pretty much like Portal except without the freaking anoying voice all the time.
It´s short, like 1 or 2 hours (got lost in time), runs pretty much on any pc, download is very small (less than 100Mb) and the prize for finish is "mind bending". After all the cake is not a lie.

This is a hidden gem for sure...

From the original list, I enjoyed CastleStorm.

Under $10? Let's see...here's 3:

Letter Quest: Grimm's Journey RPG spelling game (currently $1.59 in the summer sale)

Bardbarian Arcadey 'tower defense' where instead of towers you have a small army running around jamming on a guitar to power up. This game rocks! Obviously. (currently $3.59)

Reverse Crawl Turn-based combat RPG (currently $2.03)

Another 3 under $5
Highrise Heroes: Word Challenge Word-find your way out of a burning tower with the help of a talking monkey (currently $0.99)

Knightmare Tower Fly your rocket up the tower head-bopping demons and staying above the lava! Because of course you do that! (available free on Kongregate)

Dungeon Journey Minesweeper-style RPG (currently $0.49) I can't recall how much I actually liked this game, but I think I did?

You linked to the wrong game. Having said that, I searched on STEAM for it, and it's actually a nice looking game, which turns out I already own... :)

Oops - I guess Bardbarian was so good I just had to link it twice ;)

Should be fixed now, thanks

:D

youre welcome
mind-bendin' fun, this time without alcohol or narcotics!