9 Incredible Games To Get For Cheap During Steam's Big Indie Festival Sale

This narrative cooking game has a runtime of under two hours, but it packs an emotional punch. Venba focuses on the story of an immigrant family from India trying to make a life for themselves in Toronto. That includes a father who works a boring office job he hates, a young boy born in Toronto who is ashamed of his culture, and a mother who can’t quite figure out how to fit in and holds on to her past through cooking.

The mother is the titular Venba, and you spend the game playing a series of cooking minigames that produce delicious-looking traditional Tamil cuisine. It all made my mouth water. Through these interactive sections and dialogue-heavy cutscenes, Venba paints a deeply emotional story about the struggle of an immigrant family, and how food acts as a representation of culture that we can hold on to and pass on to the next generation. Be warned, you’ll probably want to buy some Indian take-out after playing this.

I’ll be honest, this is just an excuse to tell you to buy my favorite game of this year so far. 1000xRESIST is only slightly discounted, but still worth a buy.

1000xRESIST is a sci-fi narrative adventure with shades of NieR and 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim. More than anything, it’s a story about the Asian diaspora and generational trauma. As a member of the last society on earth, you have the power to dig through your god’s memories—experiences that reveal a complex young girl forced into the role of messiah and god. 1000xRESIST feels so confident and stylish in its aesthetic and narrative presentation, creating something unique that you should experience for yourself. I promise it is worth it.

One part deck builder and one part visual novel, The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood was one of 2023’s standout indie titles. Its fascinating world is populated with unique characters, like protagonist Fortuna, a fortune-telling witch serving out a thousand-year sentence for predicting the collapse of her own coven. Fortuna summons a demon to help her out of her situation and gains the ability to create her own tarot deck.

Building cards takes the form of an MS paint-like interface that makes each player’s deck uniquely their own. As former friends and foes visit Fortuna, she reads each person their fortune—something you have some sway over, which adds weight to every decision.

If you enjoy a walking sim, then you probably want to give Dear Esther a look, considering it’s in many ways responsible for the modern genre. Released in 2012, the game drops you onto a gorgeous but seemingly abandoned island with little in the way of a goal. As you walk around, you uncover bits of information about a small cast of characters you’ll never actually meet.

The game is a somber and meditative experience, one that ties together its threads into a fuzzy story about the unhappinesses we experience in life. What works so well about Dear Esther is how its narrative becomes less clear the deeper you go, forcing you to make your own conclusions about what is going on. And while the game’s overall vibes might make you worry it could tip over into horror, this really is just a walk… even if you see something mysterious in the distance.

The best part about the erotic visual novel Ladykiller in a Bind is how unabashedly queer and unconventional it is. The protagonist of Ladykiller in a Bind is a woman crossdressing as her twin brother, who then proceeds to seduce the men and women around her into some steamy BDSM scenes.

What makes Ladykiller in a Bind’s premise work so well is its writing. The game delivers its sexyness, its humor, and its seriousness with a deft hand, resulting in fascinating characters that make the seductions so much more involving. While the game bills itself as an erotic comedy, it’s also a caring and celebratory showcase of unconventional sex and gender, with a high respect for consent.

The Case of the Golden Idol is a game all about solving a series of progressively complex murders and other crimes. It starts with what appears to be as simple as a single death, but with tendrils that spread out into a grand conspiracy over decades. Each case is presented in the form of a snapshot of a scene, where you can see all the people at the exact moment of a crime and must, through tough detective work, put together what actually happened.

This is done through a Mad-Libs-esque book that has you plugging in answers that explain the scene. For example, if you are able to discover the name of a suspicious character by reading a contract they signed, then you could plug that name into a sentence accusing them of being the killer. The experience takes a lot of logical reasoning and deductive work and a notebook is a necessity. You might struggle at times, but finally cracking a case is a feeling that never gets old.

Mediterranea Inferno is a visual novel with a lot going on. It has a psychedelic art style that is mesmerizing to look at, telling a story about the Covid pandemic, queerness, and figuring out identity. Following three friends who are reuniting for the first time since lockdown started, the game takes place during a dreamlike summer vacation that quickly blurs the lines between memory, imagination, and reality.

Mediterranea Inferno is one of the best pieces of media about how an entire generation of youth lost years of their lives to a global pandemic, and the unique trauma that leaves behind. So often the game’s characters just laze about as if nothing will ever happen, and who can blame them? For so long, their lives have been stuck in limbo.

As the name suggests, A Short Hike’s objective is to complete a journey to the top of a mountain. Along the way you’ll encounter loveable locals, all with their own little tasks they need help with and stories for you to fall into. Rendered in a low-fi take on Animal Crossing’s cute aesthetic, A Short Hike wraps a touching story about growing up and the realities of life and death into a short, sweet package.

Umurangi Generation works as a great companion piece to Mediterranea Inferno, both of which are games about dealing with the Covid pandemic and feelings of being lost. For the cast of Umurangi Generation, the world is quite literally about to end, and every action towards living feels like a last radical form of protest. The game is also about documenting the lead-up to the end of the world, a photography game that tasks you with exploring its pre-apocalyptic world and sneaking into areas to take pictures of every last detail.

There’s a dissonance to the photography you’re tasked with, as you wonder who you are even documenting things for, but still you’re able to find pockets of joy and love. As well as being a commentary on the mishandling of a global pandemic, Umurangi Generation also seeks to be a piece of decolonialist art. The game takes place in New Zealand, and heavily features Māori culture and language as part of its themes of protest against the remnants of colonial powers that exist today. All of these many pieces of Umurangi Generation are pulled together by stunning art, making the end of the world an eerie delight to get lost in.

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