Kenshi, or noita are the 2 indie games I can think of

Kenshi is unique in a way that it doesn’t give you main character vibes. You’re a nobody like mostly everyone else.

The game is definitely not for everyone, but ProsperousUniverse kind of stands alone when it comes to people’s descriptions of niches/genres.

The game is an economy/real-time MMO with no real PvP. “Real-time” not like an RTS but as in “this operation takes many hours or days” and everyone has that same time burden.

It’s a game where planning far outperforms “always online” gameplay, so people end up learning spreadsheet software to optimize everything for themselves.

In addition, the UI is modular like a Bloomberg terminal, so it feels right—you feel like a trader.

Getting Over It - the controls themselves are your enemy. A different take on the same concept: Octodad / Manual Samuel.

Maybe Antichamber? It‘s a first-person puzzle game like Portal, but based on the idea of the „rooms“ changing as you go through them, so each room basically has its own mechanic to figure out

Tunic and Outer Wilds

Both have a heavy focus on using knowledge as your core resource in the game, and obtaining new knowledge as a primary gameplay loop.

Fez: a 2D plateformer in which you can change the perspective to create ways to unreachable plateforms

Baba Is You: a puzzle game in which you move blocks with words written on them, combining them to create small phrases which become new rules of the game.

Hey, I might have a few for you!

1. Majesty (Majesty 2 is okay, but lacks the charm of the original, but YMMV) - you run a kingdom full of heroes. The catch? You don’t command the heroes. They have their own AI and goals and you have to offer incentives and place the necessary buildings appropriately to both enable and encourage them to do their jobs of saving the kingdom.

2. Ronin - a stealth/platformer. Combat is turn-based. No, combat is not mechanically separate from the stealth OR the platforming. Relatively short but very fascinating.

3. Pawnbarian - Roguelike, but movement and combat is done by chess rules.

4. Exanima. Combat is based entirely around physics/momentum and positioning. It’s hard to get the hang of, but is immensely satisfying once you get your “He’s starting to believe” Matrix moment and successfully block a few attacks in a row.

5. Crusader Kings 3. You know those map-painting Grand Strategy games, where the goal is to conquer other territories? One of those, but you’re running a noble dynasty whose fortunes rise and fall, even passing between the overlordship of different countries and kingdoms. A lot of personality. I guess it’s not as innovative as it once was, since it’s spawned imitators at this point. Hm.

6. Ring of Pain. It’s… hard to describe.

7. Phasmophobia. Multiplayer only. You hunt ghosts. Not like, ‘combat’ hunt ghosts, like ‘You need to find evidence of ghosts’ hunt ghosts. But the ghosts definitely hunt you back - in a much more malicious way.

8. Death Stranding. Walking simulator. No, not like ‘You don’t do anything but hold down the walk button’, like ‘You need to keep your balance while carrying things’ walking simulator. Immensely weird.

9. Star Trek: Bridge Crew. Multiplayer only (at least practically speaking). Each person plays a separate member of the titular bridge crew, and cooperation to achieve even simple tasks is key.

10. Gods Will Be Watching. A series of puzzle scenarios about calculated risk, failure, and learning the rules anew each time.

The World Ends With You (DS): Asymmetric action RPG where your left hand and right hand are playing different games in parallel, which is deeply connected to the game’s themes of individual experience and semiotics. The switch remake unfortunately ditches the core gameplay to make it more widely accessible but the original game is worth getting into.

Soul Reaver comes to my mind. Old game but i think it‘s still holds up.

Ancient Art of War. Really old RTS where food, morale and exhaustion are all-important. You’d think it’d be a micro-management nightmare but it plays smoothly. Unfortunately not multiplayer and never remade or even imitated, for some reason.

Battlezone '98: One of the first notable RTS/FPS hybrids. You drive hovertanks and you build bases and you command other tanks. Set in a secret live war on the Moon, Mars, and Venus between the USSR and the USA during the cold war.

Neon White: A parkour FPS puzzle game where you cards are your weapons

Rollerdrome: Best way I’ve heard is described is: Doom x Tony Hawk

Death Stranding

I’ve never played such a unique big budget game. The core mechanic is terrain traversal to make deliveries, and the game continues to give you tools throughout it to accomplish that.

Life is Strange - At least the original, the sequels are not quite as unique. It’s an interactive story (though still in 3D) where you can rewind time to redo conversations, effectively making “save scumming” a core mechanic. The designers use the fact that you deliberate on your own actions quite well. The story is also pretty unique, but unfortunately there isn’t a good way to explain why without spoiling any of it.

Inscryption - On the surface, this seems like your run of the mill card game. But once you get familiar with the mechanics, some other genres start blending with it.

Edit: Should also add:

A Normal Lost Phone - The premise is that you find a phone that someone has lost, and you can use it to slowly uncover the story of the person who lost it and why.

Kenshi has a lot of unique elements. It’s sort of like a post-apocalyptic Sims game.

It’s very addictive and is one of those kinds of games that surpises you with how much freedom you’re given. I’ve not really seen anything quite like it.