I can think of a handful of games that, despite being games that I’ve enjoyed, never really became part of a “genre”. Do you have any like this, and if so, which?
Are they games that you’d like to see another entrant to the genre to? Would you recommend the original game as one to keep playing?
Yeah, it’s technically a deck builder, and that’s the gameplay loop throughout, but it’s not a rogue like deckbuilder like Slay the Spire (well, it kind of is at first). But it plays more like a puzzle game than a deckbuilder, but it’s not quite a puzzle game either.
But yeah, that’s the weakest of the bunch, and I only added it because Pony Island by the same dev is on there (which is technically a run-and-gun?).
Both have a popular genre at the forefront, but the game really wants you to look past that at what’s developing behind the game. And that’s what I think makes them unique. Labeling them as “deck builder” and “run-and-gun” don’t feel appropriate, despite that being the core gameplay loop.
There’s also some console game which I absolutely cannot remember the name of – I never played it, just read about people who had talking about it – that used a similar theme of simulating the game starting to break to try to have a fourth-wall-breaking psychological aspect. IIRC it would misdetect controllers being disconnected and stuff.
kagis
Yeah, I dunno, can’t find it.
https://old.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/biel8o/does_anyone_know_some_good_games_that_have_fake/
This lists some games with that thematic element, but I don’t think that the one I heard about is among those.
DDLC has something similar as well.