Thanks. It certainly looks interesting visually, but since I'm not invested in the genre, I find it hard to define the aspects of it that make it interesting to someone who are.

If you want to help write a recommendation for it, maybe you could post in this thread that I just created?

T.E.C. 3001 definitely fits the criteria too, so I want us to recommend it, but again; I don't think it's a game I'd enjoy.

Do you have a game you're interested in that fits our criteria, but you're either not a group admin or need help writing a recommendation? Post an URL to the game and a draft here, and let us write that recommendation together.

I tried to play The Polynomial, but I didn't get it at all. If anyone else would like to write a recommendation that would be great.

Several of the Humongous Entertainment and Forever Entertainment children's games look like good fits too, but there are many of them, and I think we should just pick a few of the best. (If anyone has any idea which of them that would be.)

I kind of forgot about this, but I actually have The Polynomial, Proteus, Race the Sun and DeadCore, and I've installed them now, so I will give them a try when I get a chance to.

EDIT: I've played Race the Sun now, and it's great, but looking at Steam Charts and Steam Spy, it doesn't actually look very "hidden". Which is great for the developer of course, but it makes it less relevant for us.

Thanks for the suggestions. :) I'll take a look at them.

Here's the list at last, in the form of a downloadable csv file:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/gavv2nj8nffir7y/hidden_linux_gems.csv?dl=0

If anyone prefers a different format, let me know about it. It's not all pure data, since I've separated out a few games that have been suggested and also added some annotations at the bottom.

I'm not sure how to interpret these data exactly, but what's immediately evident is that being in a Humble Bundle boosts number of owners quite a lot. I'd still argue that a game can be owned by many and still be hidden enough to earn its place on our list though, since I'm guessing many just activates everything from a bundle and don't even realize they might have an un-played gem in their Steam library.

Hmm. I'll have to chew a bit more on this.

Thanks for the suggestions! :) I love The Talos Principle, but I think it might be much too popular to be a good fit for this group. Same with AntiChamber. TRI is actually already in the list of games we curate, and ECT is one I've considered too. I've played a bit of it and really enjoyed it. Distance and Axiom Verge is a bit outside of the current requirements we operate with, but I'm not sure if it's right that they should be excluded.

There's a discussion about the requirements here, which uh... reminds me that I forgot to make that spreadsheet I meant to make last weekend. I'll be sure to include Distance and Axiom Verge on the list for comparison. I think we definitely need to tune the rules a bit, but I don't want to include so much that the original intent of the group becomes meaningless.

It would be nice to hear some more thoughts in that discussion.

Yeah, I definitely agree. It has bothered me for a while that a game like Toki Tori 2+ that flopped commercially and is a big favorite of mine, doesn't fit with the current strict rules.

I'm going to compile some numbers from Steam, Steam Charts and Steam Spy for the games we're currently curating, as well as some other games that should probably be on the list, later today to see if we can get a better idea of some good guidelines. I'll post it here when I have something to show.

Either way, I feel like there should definitely be some more wiggle room than we've operated with up until now, and that it doesn't hurt to leave more up to the judgement of the group admins.

Since Steam Spy[steamspy.com] came along and revealed huge gaps in estimated sales and max number of players in some cases, I've become even more aware of how arbitrary these rules seem. I never felt comfortable with them in the first place, but I feel like there should be some sort of measure of what to include on our list. I just haven't been able to come up with anything good on my own. Sales would definitely be a good measure, but in most cases, we only have vague estimates to rely on. Any ideas?

Thanks for writing a recommendation for Toast Time, Brian. And BlaXpirit for writing up Ultratron and Hexcells Infinite (just crossed them off the list).