We're on our fifth day of Autumn Sale 2026 coverage, and today, we're breaking the ice. Hi! I'm Dominic, and I've been writing about games for... at least twenty years now, on and off. And today, I'm going to shine a spotlight on some games that are especially special to me, with steep discounts on most of them.

While I could include some of the big cornerstones of gaming like Doom, Quake and XCom, you probably already know those, so let's get a bit more indie with it - let's begin:

Radiant Silvergun PC

61% Discount - While the studio now seems to be in hibernation, Treasure are still one of my favorite developers of all time, and Radiant Silvergun is still a very special shmup to me, that still plays like nothing else. It's long, tough, and you've got seven guns right off the bat, each bound to a different fire button. There's a complex chaining-based scoring system. There's a soundtrack from the composer of Final Fantasy Tactics that sounds like a funeral march. And that fits, because despite the bright colors and retro anime character designs, the game tells the story of a desperate suicide mission into the heart of a world entirely taken over by an alien intelligence.

Jimmy and the Pulsating Mass PC

30% Discount - Not the biggest discount, but the game recently re-launched with a bunch of new content to accompany the console release. This is one of the best Earthbound-inspired JRPGs I've played, set in the mind of an empathetic eight-year-old kid who can transform into monsters that he's thought enough about. Jimmy's off on a whimsical cartoon adventure with his family, and only occasionally falling into dark intrusive thought-spaces that immediately turn the game into a genuinely unsettling horror experience. It's mostly bright and cheerful though, with some great gags, loveable characters, and the ability to tear your heart out when it decides to. The mostly-solo developer is now working on Hymn To The Earless God, a much darker RPG set in cruel world of insectoid people.

ASTLIBRA Revision PC

30% Discount - Another smallish discount, but you will absolutely get your money's worth here. Developed almost entirely solo across 15 years, this game looks... kinda weird. The visuals are almost all stock RPG Maker assets, and the music (while excellent) is from free media libraries. But if you give it a chance (there's a big demo which you should play first as it's important to the plot) you'll find a fantastic Falcom/Vanillaware-inspired hack n' slash platform RPG with an absolutely unhinged time-bending narrative and SO many interesting build-crafting mechanics. There's five game's worth of ideas in here - it's a testament to human obsession. The roguelike DLC is best saved until after you finish the main game.

Fight'N Rage PC

65% Discount - I've always loved side-scrolling brawlers, but there was a long, dark age where very few people were making them, and those that did had forgotten the ways of Capcom and their complex combo mechanics. This one's almost a decade old now, but I'd say it's the first of the 'current' crop to really get it. Not only that, but it's just one of the best of all time, with a branching, replayable story, tons of hidden and unlockable bits, deep combo and scoring mechanics, and a sky-high skill ceiling. Completing the game on Normal feels daunting at first, But it's very possible to 1CC this on the most absurd difficulty where every enemy darts around like a mosquito and hits like a truck. Oh, and the soundtrack whips.

Jet Lancer PC

80% Discount - One of my favorite indie games of the past decade - I keep coming back to this one just to soak in those bright blue skies and amazing math-rock soundtrack. On the surface, this is a relatively unassuming looking aerial arcade shooter, inspired by Luftrausers, but there's an interesting story that continues all the way through into a New Game+ run, some fantastic boss fights against giant superweapons and mechs, and a dodge-roll that lets you gracefully no-sell even the deadliest of attacks as you dance and tumble through the sky. And at this price, you really should give it a shot. It's just a joy to play.

Fantasy Maiden Wars - DREAM OF THE STRAY DREAMER - PC

30% Discount - A recent English-language release (after being out in Japan since forever), this one sits at the perfect intersection of my interest in the Touhou shmup series, and my love of the Super Robot Wars series of strategy RPGs. Originally released as four separate games, this stitched-together, expanded monster is a sprawling SRPG that retells an expanded version of the shmup series' story in turn-based tactical fashion. No knowledge of Touhou or Super Robot Wars is needed - this game is a great introduction to both, featuring some of the best boss fights I've seen in a tactics game, and continually escalating mechanics that continue all the way into New Game Plus as well.

Freedom Planet PC

50% Discount - From early in the indie boom, this was one of the games I first interviewed a developer for. Freedom Planet feels like if Treasure made a Sonic game, with great flow-state movement across multi-route levels, punchy melee combat and SO many bosses made out of segmented sprites. Great music, a fun story, and high replay value as each of the three main characters get a slightly different route through the world, and have very different play-styles. I also recommend this mod/unofficial patch which fixes some old bugs and makes two more prototype characters fully playable too. The even more special sequel (but a little less important to me, personally) is also 50% off, and you can get both together cheaper, plus the neat Grapple Force Rena in this discounted pack.

Copy Kitty PC

75% Discount - I've been hooting and hollering about this one for about a decade now, and I'm not going to stop. Don't let the quirky rendercore aesthetics put you off. This is an incredibly smart platform shooter set across hundreds of bite-sized levels (reminding me of Treasure's Bangai-O) where you steal up to three weapons from enemies and can combine them into screen-obliterating combination fireworks displays. The story continues all the way through a totally remixed NG+ mode, there's a second playable character with totally different mechanics, tons of unlockables and secrets (including some WILD hidden levels), and even Steam Workshop support if you ever run out of levels. Everyone I've convinced to try this one has loved it. I think you will too.

Infinifactory PC

50% Discount - I've always liked Zachtronics games (the studio now rebooted as Coincidence) - all open-ended puzzle games that ask you to build or process something, and give you a huge open toolbox to solve it your own way. But Infinifactory's chunky blocky world (fun fact - Zachtronics' Infiniminer predates Minecraft) and tactile heft made it really click for me - this was the first one I loved. Plus, I vibed with its story about being abducted by industrious but unimaginative aliens, and pressed into creating innovative new factory solutions for their cosmic empire. There's no one 'right' solution, so finding a particularly elegant answer is its own reward. There's mountains of user-made puzzles, too!

Labyrinth of Galleria: The Moon Society PC

70% Discount - Sometimes a game comes at just the right time in your life. Mostly bedridden for a week, I still had to review this one - a maximalist Wizardry-ish dungeon crawler from the developers of the Disgaea series. Turns out it runs perfectly on Steam Deck, with minimal battery drain, owing to its roots on the PS Vita. This game is an unhinged rabbit-hole, with the ability to build a 40-character party, a dark but very human story that's also its own sequel, a multi-thousand-floor endgame mega-dungeon, and some wild mechanics. In a dungeon crawler, the walls define your path. Here, one of the first abilities you unlock is kicking down walls. The vast majority, destructible. And all manner of clever surprises await for those with busy boots.

There's so many more games I'd love to cram in here, like LISA: The Painful, Rain World, The Void Rains Upon Her Heart, Cave Story, House of the Dying Sun, Baldr Sky and Distance, but you'll just have to dig into those for yourself. But for now, that should be enough. Until tomorrow, then, and don't forget to check out our Autumn Sale 2026 Hub here!