Some overlooked Native Linux games may be potential gems - September 2026 edition

Want to find something a little weird and wonderful? A potential little gem that's overlooked? GamingOnLinux has you covered here.

Just recently we went over some of the best VR games released on Steam in 2026 so far, on top of that also the most highly rated Steam Deck Verified games for August 2026 and additionally the most highly rated Native Linux Steam games for August 2026.

Now we're back with something a bit different.

Scrolling back through the ever-growing catalogue of games releasing on Steam all the time to find some quirky games, I set a few limits here: Native Linux support, no generative AI notice, at least 10 user reviews but no more than 100 user reviews - in the hope to find something you perhaps missed recently.

Here's some interesting finds for you to have a look over from the last few months.

Dodo Duckie

Review Score: Very Positive (80 reviews)
Release Date: 23/07/2026
"Waddle into a reality-bending odyssey where simply being a duck is your greatest superpower. With the help of your magical cap, switch instantly between 2D and 3D to uncover hidden paths, outsmart aliens, and rescue your kidnapped chicken friends in this wholesome puzzle platformer adventure."

Fairtravel Battle CCG

Review Score: Very Positive (51 reviews)
Release Date: 31/07/2026
Early Access
"Let your magic run wild in this fast-paced fantasy card game, with a unique resource system, back-and-forth battles, moddable cards and multiple unique game modes. Play alone or with up to four players online, without needing to pay for new cards."

Stop and Smell the Flowers

Review Score: Very Positive (51 reviews)
Release Date: 27/07/2026
"Relax in your shady garden and watch the flowers grow. Seeds have a chance of mutating into a new species of flower -- follow the chart to complete the collection of over 100 flower types!"

The Stone Ship

Review Score: Positive (43 reviews)
Release Date: 30/07/2026
"In The Stone Ship, paintings, maps, and photographs expand into living scenes, revealing hidden paths that lead back in time to the origins of an ancient megalithic monument. It is a single‑player, first‑person mystery‑exploration game featuring puzzle elements and navigation challenges."

Tyrania Enforcers - Visual Novel

Review Score: Positive (37 reviews)
Release Date: 27/07/2026
"Faced with evil... would you pull the trigger? Tyrania Enforcers is a story-driven visual novel exploring morality, duty, and the cost of enforcing order in a world on the brink of conflict."

Cloud Keeper: Shrine of Dal

Review Score: Positive (28 reviews)
Release Date: 31/07/2026
Early Access
"Summon an army of clouds in this roguelite bullet heaven survivors-like inspired by Korean folklore! Recruit and fuse cloud companions, befriend shrine visitors, and uncover the mystery of the moon goddess!"

Utopia: Birth of The Heroes

Review Score: Positive (27 reviews)
Release Date: 27/07/2026
Early Access
"One war and three heroes on opposing sides. Love, conviction and sacrifice will define them. Utopia is a story-rich visual novel about creating a perfect society, and the cost of reaching it."

LURRUNA - The Island of Towering Automatons

Review Score: Positive (25 reviews)
Release Date: 31/07/2026
"It's the GRAVITY-BOUND BOMBER!!! LURRUNA is an homage to CLASSICVANIA gameplay. Pelt bombs, beat baddies and cross chasms in a mysterious island adventure."

Bad Pixels

Review Score: Positive (22 reviews)
Release Date: 31/07/2026
Early Access
"Back in the days of the wild west, everything was much more rudimentary and raw. Drinking water had bits in it, shoes had holes in them, and computers only had 8-bits of processing power. With limited colors, resolution and audio, you too can relive those gritty days of old. It was Bad, Bad Pixels."

WATERPUNK

Review Score: Positive (21 reviews)
Release Date: 30/07/2026
"A roguelite action game inspired by the legendary Enter the Gungeon and Nuclear Throne, set in a post-apocalyptic aquatic world. Shape your strategy by choosing which abilities shine by day and which awaken at night."

Smashing Bottles

Review Score: Very Positive (96 reviews)
Release Date: 24/08/2026
"Smashing Bottles is a short and satisfying incremental game where you break bottles to earn money, upgrade your bat, discover new bottles, and cause chaos! Will you smash enough bottles to buy the universe?"

This Is Golf

Review Score: Very Positive (89 reviews)
Release Date: 18/08/2026
"This Is Golf is a casual but challenging first-person golf game with randomly generated holes. Shot shaping and distance are based entirely on mouse motion. Play solo or in lobbies of up to 8 players, and enjoy a fun, competitive, and slightly goofy golfing experience."

Frog Island

Review Score: Very Positive (88 reviews)
Release Date: 20/08/2026
"Start your new life as a caretaker for an island of frogs in this cozy creature-collector! Build your dream island, discover magical wildlife, and uncover the island's many hidden secrets, to try and piece together the past life you've somehow forgotten."

Lowmoor Idle RPG: An Adventurer's Chronicle

Review Score: Very Positive (87 reviews)
Release Date: 07/08/2026
"A free idle RPG that plays itself. Build your adventurer, shape a 2,111-skill tree and watch d20 combat unfold. Explore three complete adventures with 207 illustrated monsters, collect equipment and earn prestige for your next character. Progress continues while the game is closed."

Dreamcards

Review Score: Very Positive (85 reviews)
Release Date: 19/08/2026
"A roguelike deckbuilder about dreams. Choose cards, by combining 6 different strategies during the day, and at night build your deck while facing the nightmare, to uncover a great mystery."

Knytt Classic

Review Score: Very Positive (77 reviews)
Release Date: 10/08/2026
"Celebrate the 20th anniversary of the indie freeware classic, rebuilt for modern machines! Explore a maze-like planet as the Knytt, a peaceful being abducted by aliens, find your missing ship parts, and get back home in this zen-like atmospheric platformer."

T.W.I.R.L.

Review Score: Very Positive (70 reviews)
Release Date: 19/08/2026
"It's 3am in your childhood home. The year is 2006. Everyone's asleep, but you. Sneak out of your room and do as you're told - "T.W.I.R.L." - whatever that means."

I.T. Never Ends

Review Score: Very Positive (65 reviews)
Release Date: 14/08/2026
"The printer is bleeding, the Wi-Fi is haunted, and Ticket #666 just came in. As the latest hire for a company run by cosmic horrors, your job is simple: Swipe to survive. Make binary decisions to survive the night shift in this dark comedy desktop simulator. I.T truly never ends."

Pight

I actually covered this one with some thoughts recently.
Review Score: Very Positive (62 reviews)
Release Date: 08/08/2026
"Pight is a minimalist puzzle game inspired by the Minecraft redstone system, in which we try to turn on the light by using pistons and different block types. It offers a rich puzzle experience thanks to new mechanics added approximately every 10 levels."

Ground Zero Hero

Review Score: Very Positive (58 reviews)
Release Date: 20/08/2026
"Kill mutants. Absorb their remains. Mutate into something stronger every run. Stack insane power combos and survive overwhelming hordes in this fast, chaotic, highly replayable action roguelite bullet hell."

PizzaBoy

Review Score: Very Positive (57 reviews)
Release Date: 14/08/2026
"Take control of PizzaBoy as he delivers pizza to monsters in this precision platformer. Use all of PizzaBoy's smooth and snappy moves to navigate through dangerous levels or break away from the path to discover who PizzaBoy really is..."

Hocus Focus

Review Score: Very Positive (57 reviews)
Release Date: 07/08/2026
"A cozy gamified focus tool to help you work, study, or relax to soothing tunes. Customize your space and summon your focus with productivity tools. You’re a student in a magic university - control time and weather, unlock new locations, collect cute Mitzkins, and level up in-game and in real life!"

Slime Soup

Review Score: Very Positive (52 reviews)
Release Date: 20/08/2026
"Run a grimy fantasy soup kitchen where you drop and link bouncing slimes to trigger messy chain reactions. Build wild combos with strange ingredients, serve bizarre customers, and turn your filthy cauldron into a chaotic score machine."

What really struck me while doing this is just how many games are being released on Steam all the time.

With 2026 looking like it could easily be the biggest year on record for the number of games released on Steam (SteamDB shows 23,963 games for 2026), it really highlights just how difficult getting noticed has become. New releases are continually pouring onto the store, all of them competing for the same limited amount of attention available from players.

The sheer volume is staggering. It really puts it into perspective just how tough developers have it right now. That applies to everyone, from solo developers and smaller indie teams to studios with considerably larger budgets. Making a good game is only part of the battle. You then have to convince people to notice it among thousands of other games all trying to do exactly the same thing.

There's undoubtedly plenty of games released that barely find an audience at all, regardless of their quality. With Steam continuing to grow and the number of releases showing little sign of slowing down, simply being seen is becoming one of the biggest challenges developers face. Although, according to Valve directly, the amount of developers seeing success is also growing.

Anyway, that's it for this little round-up. Be sure to keep checking back on GamingOnLinux for more quick news tips, reviews, editorials, fun lists and so on!