Hi all, I know this question has probably been posted on the internet millions of times, yet I would like to receive some Lemmy-oriented answers. :) What are your favorite places, websites, or creators for discovering new games in your favorite genres?
Statistically speaking most people can find new games in their library they bought and never touched for years. It’s a genius marketing strategy on steam’s part.
Front page of GOG and Steam + the steam next fest when it is on
One of my main tools has been SteamDB’s instant search - it’s basically a giant list of all steam games, sorted by review score, with a TON of different filters you can apply. Looking specifically for something released this year? You can filter for it. Looking specifically for a co-op action shooter, or a singleplayer 2d platformer? You can filter for those too. Wanting to exclude early access games or exclude games with a min/max number of reviews? You can do that too. Very handy tool
Very nice pointer, thanks for that!
Just think of all the poor indie games filtered from my findings because of my “Exclude: Roguelike” filter.
Who cares? I exclude genres I don’t like too. Play the games you like. I’m sure those poor indie games will do just fine despite a guy on Lemmy saying he excludes them.
Steam’s storefront and various gaming communities on Lemmy.
Steams discover queue + Splattercat on youtube for indie games.
Word of mouth. YouTube. Pretty much anything that isn’t an actual ad because the only games that I usually see ads for are games I do not give a shit about.
Honestly I just watch streamers like Cohhcarnage or Lirik as they pretty much only play new and indie games and they tend to give honest opinions on what they play. Literally just bought an indie game today after watching Lirik play it.
Browsing the deals section of the playstation store or reading about them on lemmy.
Honestly even though I don’t do torrents. I found 1337x website to be helpful because it doesn’t really seem to be biased and no company will invest into making there product on top there.
Gamescom, then I bookmark the trailer of games I’m interested at with their release date. A few months later I can just open the bookmarks and know what is releasing this month. Whenever I find out a game is delayed, I edit the bookmark with the new date. It’s very easy to keep track of new releases that way.
I do it this way, because I’ve had quite a few good games that I completely missed because of not checking the news in that week.
The bulk of my finds come from chat either on Lemmy communities (!jrpg@lemmy.zip, !patientgamers@sh.itjust.works, or this one) or a couple Discord servers I’m on. Sometimes a game will catch my eye unexpectedly while I’m on OpenCritic looking up something else, too.
Otherwise it’s generally gaming news. I get that from also Lemmy/Discord, my RSS feed, or showcases. I always end up wishlisting half a dozen games during the summer showcases. My RSS feed right now is DualShockers, Eurogamer, Gematsu, PCGamer, Rock Paper Shotgun, Siliconera, and Denfaminicogamer (Japanese site). Always open to more suggestions for the feed; the problem is not everyone does RSS these days.
Nowadays? If you want to get a game in my face, it has to be via word of mouth or be blown in by the winds of Steam.
I took a look through my game library and these are the broad categories of how a game ended up there.
- Friends (though I tend to be the recommender for my friends)
- Path of Exile, Cobalt Core
- I liked the demo at Steam Next Fest
- Moonlight Pulse, Laika: Aged Through Blood, Cassette Beasts
- Announcement through a game I already like
- Jackbox series, Slayers X, Vertigo 2
- YouTube channels
- Game Maker’s Toolkit: Neon White, Toodee and Topdee, Assault Android Cactus
- From other channels, but I don’t remember which: Gunfire Reborn, A Short Hike, Bug Fables
- Sheer luck
- I found Corn Kidz 64 from a tile at the bottom of a Steam store page, before it was released
- I found Hypnospace Outlaw from Steam’s discovery queue…
- …and following through the music credits got me to Queenjazz’s Bandcamp site, where I found an OST for a different game, Grapple Dog!
- Friends (though I tend to be the recommender for my friends)
Honest truth? I have enough games to play, so I only really look into the few that are able to break through the noise. If a streamer/content creator I like isn’t interested in a game, it’s probably just not worth my time vs something I’m already playing.
I bought V Rising because I literally watched an ad video for it, and it worked on me. I’m not proud, but it is kinda fun.
I think I’m on the cutting edge of game releases, mostly focused on indie games. I have a huge Steam collection. This is also my nerd hobby.
Im subscribed to a bunch of game sales (like isthereanydeal) and casually browse steam pages every few days. I often play a genre then search for “games like X”. Lately it was metroidvania games. I found a game called Rabi-Ribi, which looks really uncomfortable to play. But the reviewers said to skip the dialog and ignore the loli, because it has really strong game mechanics. (And it does!)
Searching for indie games using steamdb with under 5000 reviews (lately I’ve been searching for games under 500 reviews), and checking them out.
I also make indie games as a hobby (nothing fancy!), so I like to look for inspiration from other indie game developers.
Lastly, Rock Paper Shotgun or Giant Bomb covers any big budget games I should know about.
