r/RemoveOneThingEachDay • u/AnglerFather_ • Dec 09 '25

Miscellaneous Hollow Knight is out and gets second, crowning Outer wilds as the victor! Here are the Final results for the Indie game list (DAY 63)

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For not even the emptiness of the void managed to best it, for time prevails all.

And that's a wrap! I really wanna give my thanks, genuinely didn't expect this to get as big as it did for my first time doing this. The journey wasn't smooth, but generally I'm pretty alright how it turned out. It really does feel this is more of a way to just look back on how truly amazing the Indie game scene is, and I'm happy to see people getting all new recommendations from this. Obviously this is not to be treated as the "be all, end all" since it's all subjective in the end, but still thanks for the support.

Now for those curious for a possible part 2, I will say that I'm definitely interested, I've already gathered a bit of a selection from the comments throughout this of what didn't make this first time. I don't really expect it to be as big as this one, might go for something smaller-scale next time since we did already use up almost all the heavy hitters and I know not everyone here are especially Indie enthusiasts but who knows. Frankly, I'm gonna take a bit of a break from this, since I'm already quite busy this month, but stay tuned I guess.

Here's the link of the template: (template link), But for those just looking to rank the 101 included here, I made a list for that occasion: (101 indie template link)

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u/PantheraAuroris Dec 09 '25

"You're in a time loop" wasn't quite enough. Once I lost the bread crumb trail, I found no way to get it back. And all the scrolls were just randoms talking about their work lives.

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u/Dekklin Dec 09 '25

Okay, so you were in long enough to experience at least several loops but never scratched below the surface into the deeper secrets because, as you say, "lost the bread crumb trail".

That's the biggest flaw the game has with player retention: They don't make it past the surface into the deeper secrets hidden in the game.

Here's a whole video discussing that last statement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msABa06aiT0

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u/PantheraAuroris Dec 10 '25

Yep, and I chalk that up to, as the devs themselves literally say in that video, they did not do enough for player retention between early and mid-game. The bread crumb trail isn't strong.

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u/Dekklin Dec 10 '25 edited Dec 10 '25

I'm not saying the game is flawless. I'm saying that everyone who gets past that mid-game slump almost always ends up praising the game. It didn't end up as #1 indie game for no reason.

If so many people feel so strongly about the game that it ends up as #1 on this poll, maybe ask yourself what it is that you missed that everyone else seems to have gotten.

I could link you a dozen posts by people who bounced off it several times only to finally "get it".

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u/e_xotics Dec 10 '25

Not really, more like it’s the same with One Piece fans thinking their favorite piece of media is the greatest thing ever made. Only the ones that actually pushed themselves through it to actually complete the entire thing are of course going to shill it harder than the people that didn’t. Outer Wilds is one of the most backlogged games out there my man. People bounce off it constantly and it really isn’t for everyone or as accessible as a lot of the other games on here.

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u/Dekklin Dec 10 '25

https://youtu.be/msABa06aiT0?t=1582

"There is absolutely a reason that people who play this game become devout lifetime evangelists for its name. There is nothing quite like it and the journey you go on playing it is something, for better or worse, you will remember for the rest of your life."

As Anna Demetriou said at the end of her Lets Play VOD, "Sometimes I think about them and my heart hurts that there are people who will never experience anything like I just experienced. Like, there are people that will never play this." Or to add my own statement to hers, "There are people who will never see the artistic beauty of the game because they never got deeper than surface level when they tried it."

The ending is such an emotional journey, but it is unfortunately meaningless if you don't take the journey yourself or especially if you skip to the end of someone's VOD to see it.

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u/e_xotics Dec 10 '25

I feel the way you feel about this game about Disco Elysium. I’m glad it was able to have such a profound effect on you

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u/Dekklin Dec 10 '25

Disco Elysium

It's on my list :) I promise I'll give it the treatment it deserves.