FEARLESS WITH FEATHERS

Ever played a sandbox game and thought "But what if there was a monster"? That's basically what you're getting into if you try this. It's a chill sandbox/exploration game, except the longer you play, the more weird stuff happens around. Some of these events are actual gamer nightmares, like "an unknown deadly thing spawns in the corner of the map and is now slowly coming towards your base". The developer is generally pretty aware of this kind of horror, and the game oscillates in a slow and leisurely manner between a funny sandbox experience and the dreadful realization you've perhaps gotten too comfortable, considering the things that tend to roam out there, and are now roaming out here.
It's VERY creative in MANY ways, and is a big inspiration for me. Notably, it has a gargantuan and ever-growing pile of secrets and rare occurrences -- a delight for a prying fan. However, i haven't personally played it too much, mostly just watching streams and scouring the wiki. It's because you'd need a lot of free time if you wanted to explore the game yourself, and also because i'm a scaredy cat >.>

It's free on itch.io!

It's a singleplayer card game that unravels itself the more you play it. The whole game is played on a virtual tabletop. You start with only a few cards, but they slowly accumulate, forming the big picture -- some cards represent knowledge, some represent people, places, artifacts, even intangible things.
The objective makes itself known only as you keep playing and learning more about the world and the occult through these cards. It's still a game and it's very much possible to lose -- to madness, or sickness, or, if you're lucky, to some truly unusual fate. It's permadeath, and some consider the game to be a sort of roguelike, with how it might take you a few failed "runs" before you really start to figure things out. This game and the other works of its developer company are big inspirations to me!

It's on Steam if you wanna try it.

The second game set in the Cultist Simulator universe. Your goal is to tend to an occult library-castle that hasn't been cared for in a long while. Seasons pass as you slowly relieve the blights that now reside in the dangerously neglected rooms. You often use magic that seems very mundane, though also unquestionably effective -- it's the magic of handling the right task in the right weather, or picking out a cup of right, rare tea to share with a friend you called over before tackling a dangerous curse. The almost-magical blends with the truly magical in this game. You get to research and sort occult writings, figure out the rules and the exceptions of the invisible arts -- and hopefully, eventually, get the perks that come with the rare knowledge. You also help the various visitors who come to the library from all across the world in search of specific lore. For better or for worse, this game is WAY more relaxed and cozy than Cultist Simulator, with no real way to lose -- the games have stark differences that some may enjoy and others may not welcome, and i'd definitely recommend checking out negative steam reviews for this one before buying it. It's kind of an acquired taste...
If you'll be playing this, be ready to take LOTS of notes.

Here's its steam link.

Ooh boy, this one's going to be a bit long, but i'll try to stay concise. This is an old game that runs on an older multiplayer engine. It's played in rounds that last 1-3 hours, though you can leave or join midround. It simulates a shift on a sci-fi space station (with a huge, fully destructible and highly interactive map!), with anywhere from 10 to 50 players taking up various roles with different station access and responsibilities.
It's a unique blend of roleplay and gameplay, its complexity ever amplified by how easy it is to edit the game's code. Every server basically runs its own version of the game, probably based on a modified version from another server. The game's identity is defined by this hectic programming done by many, many people over the years.
Space Station 13 is sometimes compared to Dwarf Fortress for how easily the small gameplay features bleed into the events of each round, creating incredible stories. You can easily find reviews of it on youtube that show off a sliver of the endless experiences the game can offer, but be wary that the game is ACTUALLY kind of a timesink -- the really fun and memorable things are real and they WILL happen to you if you play this, just not on most rounds. Sometimes you take a big role in the action, sometimes you're the person who dies first. Even worse, sometimes you're the person who survives until the end but doesn't have anything interesting happen to them in the 2 hours the round lasted. You can make your own fun, but chasing the cool and memorable experiences often causes careless players to undermine the fun of others, and the game generally has a playerbase that's ready to tear itself apart with the different opinions on what a perfect round's gameplay-to-roleplay ratio is. Just be ready that some players are only in it for the action and others will report you to admins if you accidentally slip up in your roleplay. Thankfully, there's different servers with different priorities in that regard, and most players, like most servers, are somewhere in-between these rare extremes.
With the above in mind, the game is unlike any other, and trust me -- in your first few rounds, even if nothing happens, you'll have fun just stumbling around the map. This game is a HUGE inspiration for me, and my own opinions on its imperfections push me to make my own videogames the way I like them, haha. And, by the way, there's a remake on Steam called Space Station 14 that is way more accessible to the average player. I hear it's a good starting point for a newbie nowadays!

Here's the guide on setting up Space Station 13 and here's a steam link for Space Station 14. It says it's closed access as of right now, but requesting access seems to grant it instantly, so don't be afraid.

It's unlikely you haven't heard of Enter The Gungeon, as it is a staple of the modern roguelike genre. Still, i felt the need to feature it here partly to give context for the review below and partly because it has served as an inspiration for many beginner developers, including myself. Beautiful pixel art, dynamic fights and a difficulty that forces you to learn fast, or lose hard. This is my favorite modern roguelike. There's a lot of new things it has pioneered, and old things it has executed masterfully. Notably, the game's approach to movement and the way its combat ~feels~ is something i rely on a lot when thinking of how to design things in my own projects. The game is also thematically very solid, and its collection of creative enemy designs, items and weapons is worth admiration.

Here's its Steam page.

Climb up to the outer atmosphere and PUNCH the orbital laser cannon in the FACE!

And i didn't even spoil anything, as it's far from the final boss. Copy Kitty is a high-octane bullet hell game about robots and explosions. It's indie to the core and is a labor of love, made by two people over the course of what, seven years? Crazy stuff. It's got lots of content, and juicy JUICY boss fights of which there is soo many. The normal gameplay loop, outside of these numerous boss fights, is going through platformer-ish levels with destructibility and fighting various alien robots. Your character can copy enemy powers! That's the main gimmick. In normal fights that means that every foe drops their corresponding magical element, the killer feature being that besides casting the elements by themselves you also get to combine two OR THREE of them together, with all the possible combinations custom-scripted and even given cool names. There's like 10 different types of magic to combine. Cast LIGHT and QUICK together to swing a magic blade instead of a projectile. Cast LIGHT and QUICK and a third basic spell, like TORNADO, and your character now continuously spins a blade around as they whoosh through the air. And during bossfights? Oh boy, you get to copy the boss's power. The game makes you feel like you're the protagonist of an action combat anime where you and your adversaries keep one-upping each other until, ultimately, YOU persevere -- all thanks to the main gimmick of copying enemy abilities that works SO well both thematically and gameplay-wise. I implore you to try and bask in this game's impeccable style, even if the unusual visuals could otherwise put you off from giving it a chance. The Steam version has a free demo with progress that carries over, and oh my GOD is this game a hidden gem, at least in my eyes. It just keeps on giving.

I have a personal story about this game to share too. I used to SUCK at bullet hells. I picked up this game right after a period of playing Enter The Gungeon and not even being able to get to the final boss of Floor 5 despite like 100h in the game (i like EtG!). But Copy Kitty has this thing where if you beat a level with no damage, you get a golden star on it. I decided that if i'm playing the game, i might as well get golden stars on levels right away! It was hard, of course. You get a BIT of leeway, but you take more than one hit in a bossfight and you have to restart it. It was a very rewarding experience still, as Copy Kitty is designed with the no-damage playstyle in mind. So i beat the game, and eventually i go back to EtG. And i suddenly realize that i'm good at this stuff. Like, REALLY good. I proceed to beat the floor 5 boss, beat ALL the 6th character-unique bosses, unlock the true final boss, beat that guy too, get the Lead God achievement -- all while barely ever dying. Playing with no damage in Copy Kitty rewired my brain's approach from "survive" to "NEVER take damage", because i am so used to a single point of damage meaning game over. This game was my personal training simulator that somehow elevated my bullet hell skills to gamer levels despite how much of a rookie i was before. Copy Kitty is THE fearlesswithfeathers action game of choice.

Here's its Steam link. And, just between you and me -- be on the lookout for the developers' next game, Sunfluffs. Copy Kitty is about robots and explosions, and Sunfluffs will be a direct opposite. This little teaser page should sell you on it. Can you tell i'm a bit of a fanboy for these devs? ^^;