With multiple generations of gamers growing up on Pokémon, it’s no surprise that “creature collector” has become a popular genre, especially with indie developers.
PC store Steam is highlighting the expansive genre with their latest sale. The Steam Creature Collector Fest features discounts and demos from now through May 19.
Here are the discounted creature battlers, RPGs, roguelikes, and cozy games you don’t want to miss!
Bloomtown: A Different Story ($12.49, 50% off)
Bloomtown is as much a creature collector as Persona (or Shin Megami Tensei), which is to say, the creatures are supernatural demons! Once acquired, they act as equip-able power-ups for your character as they uncover a Stranger Things-like dark mirror world beneath their own. Don’t let the retro art style fool you, this is a full-on JRPG inspired by Persona, with daily activities, dungeon crawls, and lots of monsters to battle, capture, and fuse. Oh, and a corgi party member named Hugo that gets totally Swole in the other world!
Dicefolk ($6.74, 50% off)
Many indie games are inspired by Slay the Spire, but few are also creature collectors! Dicefolk trades cards for dice in a roguelite adventure. Players take on challenging runs, gaining Chimeras and upgrades while battling in turn-based combat. Dicefolk features over 100 hand-drawn Chimera, but players need to also manage their dice rolls and rotations between their Chimeras and the enemy team.
Kamaeru: A Frog Refuge ($13.39, 33% off)
My 13 year old daughter is quick to remind me that nothing in life is cuter than chibi frogs, making Kamaeru one of the cutest games of the Steam Creature Collector Fest. As the warden of a cozy frog sanctuary, create a relaxing biome worthy of your warty friends, play mini-games, and take pictures. And yes, you can absolutely pet the frogs.
Monster Sanctuary ($7.49, 75% off)
Monster Sanctuary brilliantly blends two entirely different genres, creature collector and metroidvania, into one pixelated package. The Terraria-like, 2D pixel world is humongous, and features areas that require certain creature abilities to access. But battles are entirely turn-based, using a party of captured and trained monsters. Each monster has its own stats, skill trees, and rarities, and can equip items for further optimization. Players who have grown out of Pokémon’s simplicity would enjoy diving into Monster Sanctuary’s more complex combat system.
Ooblets ($17.99, 40% off)
Ooblets combines a farming sim with the titular and adorable creatures. But these creatures don’t battle — they dance! Challenge other Ooblet teams to hilariously cute dance offs using a turn-based card system, in between expanding your farm, exploring the land, and growing more Ooblets.
Paleo Pines ($11.99, 60% off)
Stardew Valley with dinosaurs? Yes, please! The island of Paleo Pines is filled with friendly dinosaurs who are eager to help out at the farm, digging holes, watering crops, or smashing logs. Search the island for more dinosaurs to befriend, expand your farm, and meet the friendly non-dinosaur locals as well. Discover if your starting dinosaur and trusty steed, Lucky, is the last of her kind, or if the island holds the mystery to the lost parasaurolophus.
Palworld ($22.49, 25% off)
Palworld launched last year to nearly unprecedented success for an original indie game. That craziness has since leveled off, though Palworld remains an incredibly popular indie title that cleverly combines Pokémon-style creature collecting with real-time survival crafting, and a large open world. In many ways it feels like a modern Pokémon game without the anime storytelling or kid-friendly focus. Note that Palworld is still in Early Access.
Slime Rancher ($4.99, 75% off) and Slime Rancher 2 ($20.99, 30%)
Easily the GOAT of first-person creature collectors, Slime Rancher infuses an incredibly charming art style, adorable slimes, and an alien world that just big enough to explore without getting lost or overwhelmed. As Beatrix LeBeau, players wield their vaccum gone to acquire slimes, feed them, and make a proft from their, uh, “plorts.”
The sequel takes the beloved gameplay and adds more of everything, more slimes, more secrets, more buildings, etc. Though it should be noted, it’s been in Early Access since 2022.
The Steam Fest also features a free avatar, foil frame, and frog sticker that Steam users can download and use. Simply scroll down the Steam Fest page and click on the Free Point Shop Items banner.
The Steam Creature Collector Fest ends May 19. Some sales may last longer, check individual store pages.
