There is a developer, Lu, who puts small games on Steam. A lot of them prominently feature big titty furry girls, which might turn some folks off, but even getting past that, there's a certain layer of jank to them that I think will turn just as many off. They're first person with tank controls, for starters. They're very short, don't really explain what they're about or what they expect from the player.
Last year, I played one of these, MAZEMAZE, and I couldn't tell you a damn thing about it and it might be my favorite thing I played last year. I ran through HOLEHOLE tonight and it might be my favorite thing I'll play all year.
Light spoilers ahead, but first, a genuine offer: This game's fifty cents until the 27th. If you're a mutual, and you're curious, shoot me a message on Steam or Discord (or here, I 'spose) and your Steam deets and you can just have a copy. It's like an hour long tops, and I will make it free for you. I don't expect everyone in my circles to like it, necessarily, and that's fine. I think I want people to experience it.
So, the thing about HOLEHOLE is that it, and I'm being serious here, kind of feels like another run at what The Beginner's Guide was, at least in how it conveys its story (maybe not the narrative point of the story or what . It's an abandoned space within a video game. Items spawn correctly sometimes, the characters around you have accepted that they are stuck in a forgotten dump and they are not sure the surface world exists. Small loops are broken up by a story in a different art style, its real-world details gradually revealing why things are the way they are in the space you're in.
It is not necessarily a happy game, all the way through. There's a fair bit of gore (and some dismemberment) at one instance, and it is ultimately about a world that the creator isn't there for anymore. But the people in this game have carved out a space for themselves, found things and people around them they love.
I described it in a one line steam review as "a video game for experiencing every emotion at once," and I'll stand by that. I'm going to have to hit the rest of this dev's library in the near future, but this one? Might not shut up about it for awhile.