SkillUp’s “This week in video games” videos are great both for news about the industry, and what’s coming up and worth keeping an eye out for. Listening to podcasts is another good one. I listen to MinnMax every week in particular.

Statistically speaking most people can find new games in their library they bought and never touched for years. It’s a genius marketing strategy on steam’s part.

The bulk of my finds come from chat either on Lemmy communities ([email protected], [email protected], or this one) or a couple Discord servers I’m on. Sometimes a game will catch my eye unexpectedly while I’m on OpenCritic looking up something else, too.

Otherwise it’s generally gaming news. I get that from also Lemmy/Discord, my RSS feed, or showcases. I always end up wishlisting half a dozen games during the summer showcases. My RSS feed right now is DualShockers, Eurogamer, Gematsu, PCGamer, Rock Paper Shotgun, Siliconera, and Denfaminicogamer (Japanese site). Always open to more suggestions for the feed; the problem is not everyone does RSS these days.

Front page of GOG and Steam + the steam next fest when it is on

Nowadays? If you want to get a game in my face, it has to be via word of mouth or be blown in by the winds of Steam.

I took a look through my game library and these are the broad categories of how a game ended up there.

• Friends (though I tend to be the recommender for my friends)
  • Path of Exile, Cobalt Core
• I liked the demo at Steam Next Fest
  • Moonlight Pulse, Laika: Aged Through Blood, Cassette Beasts
• Announcement through a game I already like
  • Jackbox series, Slayers X, Vertigo 2
• YouTube channels
  • Game Maker’s Toolkit: Neon White, Toodee and Topdee, Assault Android Cactus
  • From other channels, but I don’t remember which: Gunfire Reborn, A Short Hike, Bug Fables
• Sheer luck
  • I found Corn Kidz 64 from a tile at the bottom of a Steam store page, before it was released
  • I found Hypnospace Outlaw from Steam’s discovery queue…
  • …and following through the music credits got me to Queenjazz’s Bandcamp site, where I found an OST for a different game, Grapple Dog!

For multiplayer, look at Steam charts for most active players. Any of the top 20+ games are probably worth playing, even if old.

I recently got into The Division 2 and that’s YEARS old. There isn’t much multiplayer until you reach endgame (very quick for essentially an MMO) but then there’s a decent community still.

I think I’m on the cutting edge of game releases, mostly focused on indie games. I have a huge Steam collection. This is also my nerd hobby.

Im subscribed to a bunch of game sales (like isthereanydeal) and casually browse steam pages every few days. I often play a genre then search for “games like X”. Lately it was metroidvania games. I found a game called Rabi-Ribi, which looks really uncomfortable to play. But the reviewers said to skip the dialog and ignore the loli, because it has really strong game mechanics. (And it does!)

Searching for indie games using steamdb with under 5000 reviews (lately I’ve been searching for games under 500 reviews), and checking them out.

I also make indie games as a hobby (nothing fancy!), so I like to look for inspiration from other indie game developers.

Lastly, Rock Paper Shotgun or Giant Bomb covers any big budget games I should know about.

I started a community for free games and now other people post free games there too and I’m accumulating new games to play faster than I can play them!

Gamescom, then I bookmark the trailer of games I’m interested at with their release date. A few months later I can just open the bookmarks and know what is releasing this month. Whenever I find out a game is delayed, I edit the bookmark with the new date. It’s very easy to keep track of new releases that way.

I do it this way, because I’ve had quite a few good games that I completely missed because of not checking the news in that week.

Steam’s discovery queue is a great source for finding new games. It shows you a list of games based on the games you own and never repeats itself.

I’ve been playing Gamedle recently. I tend to discover interesting games both as answers and while researching the info I have.

In posts like this or from friends😄

https://sh.itjust.works/post/23190256

Word of mouth. YouTube. Pretty much anything that isn’t an actual ad because the only games that I usually see ads for are games I do not give a shit about.

Steam’s storefront and various gaming communities on Lemmy.

I look at sales. steamdb, isthereanydeal etc. And if something stands out, I look for details.