Outer Wilds got me good on the single-player story-heavy-but-still-got-mechanics part, I wish there were more things like it. Not more of it, because the story is very tight, but more things like it, where I can somehow immerse myself in a foreign/fictional culture. Really liked Kingdom Come Deliverance and Disco Elysium too.
Beyond that, I really really miss the exact niche Atmosphir used to fill, UGC platformer with enough tools to make variations on the base mechanic, but not a full-blown game-making toolkit. I want making levels to be intrinsically captivating, to create simple new gameplay ideas, but not get lost in the myriad construction details of such things. At the time there were some neat alternatives, like GameGlobe or Project Spark, but nowadays' titles are either too mechanically restrictive (Mario Maker) or too much of a tool (Dreams).
I actually help maintain (together with a bunch of excellent people) an archival/revival server of Atmosphir, but the minuscule community makes it hard to make multiplayer levels, and getting feeback on your creations.
Thanks for the recommendation, I had heard of it and its many praises before, but I usually struggle with D&Dish things (I haven't looked too much into it but I assume it's similar in mechanics to Baldur's Gate, which is an excellent game too but I found the combat and minmaxing not to be my style)
Is the Enhanced Edition available on Steam any good, or should I go for the original release?
Did you play the expansion to Outer Wilds? Wonderful new environment to explore, with a new culture. Fits into the existing game okay, although I was very much wondering whether I was done with it when I was, in fact, done with it.
I did. Went in with a bit of suspicion, because the base game was just so tight in purpose and story, but after I found "That Thing Which I Won't Spoil For Others But You Having Played Know Of" the only thought I had was "damn it, they did it again!"
Had a similar feeling about its ending, but I think it worked out fine.
(and if you're reading this as someone who hasn't played it, stop reading, there's no way to phrase this without some amount of spoilers) did you go back to the base game's ending after doing the DLC ending? "There's more to explore here", as the game would put it ::)
Beyond that, I really really miss the exact niche Atmosphir used to fill, UGC platformer with enough tools to make variations on the base mechanic, but not a full-blown game-making toolkit. I want making levels to be intrinsically captivating, to create simple new gameplay ideas, but not get lost in the myriad construction details of such things. At the time there were some neat alternatives, like GameGlobe or Project Spark, but nowadays' titles are either too mechanically restrictive (Mario Maker) or too much of a tool (Dreams).
I actually help maintain (together with a bunch of excellent people) an archival/revival server of Atmosphir, but the minuscule community makes it hard to make multiplayer levels, and getting feeback on your creations.