Gaming

Firewatch - recommend you wait for a sale but its a great story game that is on steam and gog and even native Linux

tabletop simulator - tons of card and board games that you can play with your friends if it exists it might be ported has native Linux

golf with your friends - great mini golf game to play with your friends similar to tower unite golf but better has native port

american/europe truck simulator - trucking game that real truckers say is the most realistic trucking game and they try to help with all issues and is even native Linux

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1641020/my_brother_lives_in_a_canyon - my brother lives in a canyon - great story game that is made by one person and it does not take long

Bloons tower defence 6 - tower defence game where you pop the bloons to defend your base

Super Kiwi 64

Retro 3D platformer in the vein of Banjo Kazooie.-

A bunch of my favorites have already been listed, so I'll just mention the one that wasn't: Antichamber, a first person puzzle game that's probably somewhat like Portal in terms of how it requires you to rethink your assumptions about how space works, but it's a very different game, both mechanically and in tone. I don't want to give away too much, but it's a mix of weirdly unsettling elements (although it is by no means a horror game), a design that's actively trolling you in ways that will make you laugh, and mechanics revelations that will have you scream "Wait, I could have done that this whole time?!" It's one of those games that I wish I could delete from my memory and play for the first time again.

If you were ever a fan of Rollercoaster Tycoon, check out Parkitect. It's a phenomenal and fun themepark game!

One of my favorites over the past few years is Prey(2017) it was made under Bethesda so I wouldn’t say it’s underground, but It didn’t get the popularity and fan base it deserves. Essentially a open world (as open as a world can be in a giant space ship) that allows you to explore and fight creepy creatures. It also gives you multiple ways to solve the problems you face as well as Multiple endings and story branches to choose from. I played for 33 hours and it was so worth the price it was on sale, (wish I could remember) but it would also be worth $60 as well. It reminds me of a high polished Skyrim at certain points. Would highly recommend

I can't really recommend this because its more or less a dead multiplayer beta that's not even legitimately available anymore but Shattered Horizons was a microgravity first person shooter that was really cool. So, uh, if there are any indie devs in this chat, uh, please steal this dead idea!

If you liked Hades, play Ember Knights. It’s in early access but I legit put 6 hours in my first session cuz it scratched that Hades itch juuuuuust right

Superflight

Really engaging game with a short, easy to understand mechanic. It's fun just to put on and fly around for a bit every now and then.

Lost Pig And Place Under Ground

An old-fashioned text adventure, one of the best ones I've played.

Pig lost! Boss say that it Grunk fault. Say Grunk forget about closing gate. Maybe boss right. Grunk not remember forgetting, but maybe Grunk just forget. Boss say Grunk go find pig, bring it back. Him say, if Grunk not bring back pig, not bring back Grunk either. Grunk like working at pig farm, so now Grunk need find pig.

Check it out

Some games I recommend:

Alina of the Arena: A roguelike deckbuilder game. It has turn based tactical battles. There are lots of cards and builds you can try, but there is a fair amount of randomness to it. So you have to go with what you get.

Unreal Life: A really strange, surreal adventure game with a talking traffic light. Great visuals and music.

YumeCore: Just a short little game where you beat up people in a hospital. Why? Why not?

Flood of Light: Great little game with pretty much one core mechanic (direct lights). The Engliah translation isn't the best, but I really liked the atmosphere.

Brotato: Is it a hidden gem? I don't really know, but it is a fun "Vampire Survivor"-like game and a huge time sink. Great shop mechanic and large amount of characters and items.

Gunpoint

S.P.A.Z.

Eufloria

Astroneer

Manifold Garden

Massive Chalice

The Pedestrian

Solar 2

Snakepass

Stacking

Super Auto Pets has replaced Hearthstone for me, it's fantastic.

I’ll say CrossCode. 2D hack-and-slash set in a futuristic MMO. Way too good, way too unknown for the genre that it is.

As a big metroidvania fan, I'd like to introduce a few of my favorites that go beyond the obvious choices like Hollow Knight and Ori (which of course are excellent). All of these are straightforward and while difficult, they don't focus on confusing menus or min/maxing statistics.

Astalon: Tears of the Earth: If you play one game on this list, play this one. You play as 3 characters, each with their own abilities, and can switch at certain save points. You die a lot and have to start over from the entrance every time, but the game gives you plenty of shortcuts and upgrades that you can quickly go back to where you were. The map is great to explore and there's a lot of content to keep you busy like a boss rush and new game+ modes with different characters.

Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight is a short but sweet experience. It's difficult but not unfair enough that you want to stop playing, the world map is well designed, and the pixel art is great.

Rabi-Ribi: This game looks like it was made for a very specific (horny) crowd, but there's a surprising amount of depth to the world and the bullet hell boss girls that inhabit it. It's an interesting mix of bullet hell and platformer that somehow makes up for the nonsensical story.

Ooh, I love finding obscure indies. There are an awful lot of games on Steam and Itch and other platforms that are amazing experiences, but that almost no one has ever played or even heard of for one reason or another.

One of my recent favourite zero-budget indies is Sally Can't Sleep, a strange first person platformer with a lot of focus on fun, versatile, and exploitable movement mechanics. The dev sacrificed visual polish for quantity and style, so the game has a lot of interconnected levels with a big variety of different mechanics and visual styles - it's a really good example of how much a solo developer can accomplish.

Another one is Worlds, which is a 3D stealth-shooter-platformer-adventure? I like it for the same reason as Sally Can't Sleep, it's ambitious and creative, and you can really feel the developer pushing against their limitations to release something that punches far above its own weight.

Also, both these games are very cheap, even at full price!

Tape to Tape. It's a new indie roguelike hockey game. I don't play many indies but the devs are attentive and I have been loving it.

Does Tunic count?

Best to jump in without spoilers, but it's way more than a Zelda/Souls like. So. Many. Layers.

And at a similar depth, but from many years ago. The Ur-Quan masters (space game) https://sc2.sourceforge.net/

always way too many to list without some guidance on what you're looking for(!)

worth mentioning guacamelee 1 and 2 (notable indie metroidvania games ) are currently free on the epic store: https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/guacamelee-stce-7cdbc8 https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/guacamelee-2-ac4977

Owlboy was better than I expected it to be.

night in the woods!

Hyper Light Drifter is a really pretty game with tight controls, fair difficulty, excellent music, and some of the best atmosphere of any game I've played.