Christmas is here! Ish. Need game ideas for my girlfriend.

[Mr F.]

The title says it all.

For Christmas I intend to give my girlfriend a steam account loaded with random indie games. I do not really have much in the way of cash so I am trying to exploit the hell out of the steam store (She is a gamer but does not have steam for some reason.) but even with so many wonderful titles out there at knock down prices I still do not know what to get.

So, denizens, what on earth should I buy? And does anyone have any random duplicates of indie titles that they do not want/need? Getting "Don't starve" as she has already mentioned loving the look of it and I know LIMBO is out of the question due to her watching a LP of it and deciding there is no point in doing a puzzle platformer after watching all of the puzzles (Which is very fair IMO even if it is a massive pity, Limbo is oen of my favourite games.

She already owns and loves FTL so that is another thing that is out of the question. And overall I am thinking of buying about 30 pounds worth of games, with a tenner already disappeared into Don't Starve.

EDIT: Just made the rather intelligent call of asking her what style of indie game she likes. To directly quote 'Novel, original and/or cute'. She likes puzzle games (with the consideration that the puzzles should be logical, at least to a degree) and she doesn't think much of platformers.

Double Edit, What has been bought (Hit my spend limit on first Christmas together. And what with being a student, that limit was not that huge):
Solar 2
NightSky
World of Goo
Psychonaughts (Not an indie game but 1.49! She will LOVE IT. Its impossible to NOT LOVE IT.)
Plants VS Zombies
Don't Starve (Helpfully I get a copy of this for free. And, bar night sky and this, I own everything else on this list xD)
Bastion
Portal
Space Pirates And Zombies

All of that comes to 30.85. Or double my weekly food budget and half of my overall budget. The things we do for love.

 

[Sp3ratus]

-snip-

Well, as for puzzle games, I'll recommend Machinarium. As with most other games right now, I think it's on sale and it's great little game. It fits both the cute and puzzle criteria. Most of the puzzles are quite manageable and if you get stuck, there's s a clever hint system built into the game.

As for indie games I quite like, Eufloria a different take on the RTS genre than you'd normally see and a nice, simplistic interface/feel of the game.

EDGE is another neat little game. It's puzzle/platformer(I think), where you control a cube around various set courses, collecting minicubes and trying to beat the course time. It's slight reminiscent of Lode Runner 2(at least to me), so I greatly enjoyed it.

My two last recommendations are Osmos and Solar 2. Osmos is a sort of puzzle game, wher you have to figure out the optimal way absorb various different objects, depending on the level you're currently playing. Solar 2 is a game where you start as an asteroid and the goal is to build your way through the cosmic bodies, such as becoming a planet, then a start and a black hole at the end, again through absorbing other cosmic bodies. Also built into the game are various different challenges and modes of play.

They might not all be to your girlfriend's liking, but I urge you to check them all out, regardless. They're all great, little indie games.

 

[StupidNincompoop]

Tiny bang story. It's a point and click game, with some puzzles and a pretty interesting environment.
Machinarium and botanicula are also two other similar games which i have yet to play.

Unmechanical looks like a pretty good puzzle game.

Thomas was alone and puddle also looks interesting, i haven't played it but i'm going to end up buying it soon.

Also, little inferno has definitely interested me, but i'm going to wait until it's on sale, because £10 looks to be a little too much for it.

There was one other suggestion i had, but i can't remember what it was now.

Edit: Oh yeah, Sp3ratus' post above mine already mentioned unmechanical. Eufloria was what i was going to say. It's almost always on sale.

 

[Rumpsteak]

Snapshot
Chantelise: A tale of two sisters
Shad'o
To the moon
Space pirates and zombies
Insanely twisted shadow planet (platformer..ish)
Osmos
Crayon physics deluxe

With the exception of the one noted these are what came to mind reading through you post. It's a little hard to quantify what "cute" is but I did my best to match the common use.

 

[StriderShinryu]

Thomas Was Alone sounds like it could be a perfect match.

Also, Trine 2 is great. Plus, it has co-op multiplayer so it's a rare puzzle platformer that you could play together.

 

[epidemia]

Put together a heavily modded version of minecraft for her. It will have the personal touch like a heart made of macaroni but much more difficult to assemble. plus minecraft has the best mods especially 1.2.5

 

[Sp3ratus]

Botanicula

Oh, I definitely have to recommend this as well, thanks for the reminder! It's a sweet little game, made by the same guys that made Machinarium. It's a puzzle game as well and the puzzles in the game are fairly simple, so should be a great fit.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

The title says it all.

Botanicula, To the Moon. Maybe Bastion. Is Bastion considered an indie title? Definitely To the Moon and Bastion if Bastion is an indie title.

 

[Full]

I second Bastion. A wonderful game. Braid and Costume Quest are on sale right now, those are great. Braid especially.

 

[Chknboy]

World of Goo because it hasn't been mentioned yet, both of the Trine games are indeed awesome, and Bastion was lovely. Can't go wrong with any of those.

 

[bafrali]

A novel, original and cute puzzle game ehh?

Does it have to be indie? Cuz Portal just fits this description. It is original, has a short sweet campaign and cute little turrets with adorable voices.

 

[StupidNincompoop]

Botanicula

Oh, I definitely have to recommend this as well, thanks for the reminder! It's a sweet little game, made by the same guys that made Machinarium. It's a puzzle game as well and the puzzles in the game are fairly simple, so should be a great fit.

Oh yeah, there's also samorost2. those three games were made by the same developer.

She might also enjoy demolition Inc.

 

[Irridium]

Here's the ones I've played and enjoyed.

Bastion
Darwinia
Costume Quest
Ben there, Dan that
Time Gentlemen, Please
...

Yeah, I don't play many "indie" games.

Oh! Get her Half-Life 2 + the Episodes and install The Stanley Parable [http://www.moddb.com/mods/the-stanley-parable].

The Stanley Parable is niiiiice.

 

[janjotat]

I was beat to the punch, but give her Bastion. It has been the best game I have ever played, and it fits her description of what she likes.

Oh can you post what games you ultimately chose for her?

 

[KapnKerfuffle]

Terraria!
My girlfriend and I had a great time playing co-op. All you need is another computer and it's system requirements are not steep so you can run it on a spare crappy laptop or something. Not exactly a puzzler but a great platformer. I think you can get it for a song now at the Autumn sale ($2.50 usd)

Edit- 3.39 USD actually. So a mere 6.80 for both of you to play.

 

[Racecarlock]

Kerbal space program. One hell of a puzzle game, to be sure.

 

[Mr F.]

I was beat to the punch, but give her Bastion. It has been the best game I have ever played, and it fits her description of what she likes.

Oh can you post what games you ultimately chose for her?

The list of what I have ultimately chosen is up at the top. Might add a few more things to it as time goes by up to christmas.