I wouldn't call it as hidden as the previous contributions, but Emerald City Confidential is both a hidden gem and a good casual entry point for first time point n' click adventure gamers.

Yeah. I'm totally on with the Emerald City Confidential. Awesome game, a genuine pleasure from beginning to end.

1 hour time trial demos of adventure games were very trendy in the late 2000s and early 2010s. That's how I came across Dave Gilbert's Emerald City Confidential. I kept trying to race through the game as quickly as possible before the trial ended. But I frequently found myself stopping to admire the fantastic world-building that seamlessly combined a noir setting with The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The white-suited Scarecrow character was my favourite, for what it's worth.

HitBattousai, did you specifically mention "Emerald" City Confidential as an intentional wordplay for "Hidden Gems"?

There was a game I played ages ago called Metal Dead which was about a slacker metalhead trapped in a medical research facility during a zombie apocalypse. It had a pretty great sense of humor, as I recall.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/302690/Metal_Dead/

If you dig deep into my channel's archive, there's an old Let's Play of it there. I'm not gonna link to it 'cos I don't want to be that guy.

You're polite enough to not engage in blatant self-promotion, therefore I will happily link to your Metal Dead playthrough for you. 

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL...BM34e65qIR

I agree with the mentions of Emerald City Confidential. I remember buying it a long time ago on a whim since it was going cheap in a sale and I'd only recently played through Gemini Rue so I recognised the Wadjet Eye Games name. I might replay it now that I've been reminded of it.

Space Pilgrim and Space Pilgrim Academy are great games with zero critic reviews on Metacritic. I think the lack of coverage is partially the developers' fault. I remember looking up Space Pilgrim on Adventure Gamers, GameBoomers and a couple of other sites, and there was not a single search result. I don't think it would've killed the developers to send out some press releases to make sure there would at least be a news article and a database entry on adventure game sites. (My theory is that the large number of Steam reviews is from the episodes being included in all kinds of bundles, so I suppose they got that part right.)

Another one is Hyperdrive Inn. If we're computing a combined score for high quality and low visibility, Hyperdrive Inn is off the charts.

Space Pilgrim and Space Pilgrim Academy are great games with zero critic reviews on Metacritic. I think the lack of coverage is partially the developers' fault. I remember looking up Space Pilgrim on Adventure Gamers, GameBoomers and a couple of other sites, and there was not a single search result. I don't think it would've killed the developers to send out some press releases to make sure there would at least be a news article and a database entry on adventure game sites. (My theory is that the large number of Steam reviews is from the episodes being included in all kinds of bundles, so I suppose they got that part right.)

Another one is Hyperdrive Inn. If we're computing a combined score for high quality and low visibility, Hyperdrive Inn is off the charts.

Space pilgrim saga is nice, never played all of them (stopped after a hard disk failure) , thanks for reminding them. Never heard of Hyperdrive Inn will give a go, seems very unique

A generally unknown game is "you are watching Icebox!" it's a short (under an hour) original comedic adventure about a fantastical television show by the creator of The Telwynium saga that i also love, now that i think about it, the telwynium games may also qualify in this thread (though i believe are more out there and generally known). Also a fairly underdiscussed game of coctel vision is "Ween: the prophecy",  a very hard first person surreal adventure that among other involves characters like a strawberry eating vampire. An extremely obscure game (at least for western audiences) is Kamaitachi no yoru rinne saisei, specifically I am reffering to a remake of a snes game published for PC in 2018 in English. The premise of this visual novel is solving a murder mystery via multiple paths with an assistance of a path map akin to games like zero escape. The really experimental and original twist is after completing the game. Then you can unlock completely different storylines with alternate realities were characters change personalities and the storyboards become wild, from supernatural stories to a spy action story. A very hard game to track down though (i think its no longer on sale). Lastly games like Death Gate, Full pipe, Donna: avenger of blood, Nancy the happy *hore in the perfidious petrol station, shannara, Mr. Shadow, Lost in time and Duty and Beyond have become kind of lost in time I believe, not mentioned in recent years or never managed to grasp a big audience

Lost Horizon is an absolute game worthy of any golden age adventure. The developer's most recent game that they released is Monolith, which I hear is....okay.

Now, I don't know how "hidden" these are necessarily, but here are a few:



Speaking of Norwegian adventure games, Dude, Where Is My Beer? is a game about a regular guy looking to buy a regular beer, but everywhere he goes they only sell craft beer. I found it to be quite funny, and the art style is quite unique and reminiscent of old newspaper comics.



And another Norwegian game,  Milkmaid of the Milky Way sees a milkmaid ending up going on a space quest. I really liked the story and the art for this one. (And it's only a dollar on Steam right now.)



And speaking of unfinished games, Void and Meddler is a nihilistic cyberpunk point & click game that was being released in an episodic format, with episode 3 slated for release in ... 2022. I think 4 or 5 episodes were planned. I found the story premise intriguing enough, but since we only ever got the first half of the game we don't really get to see it go anywhere, we don't get to see the development of the main character, and we don't get any conclusions. However, I think the game is worth playing through at least once for the visuals and atmosphere, which I thought were quite unique and great, and haven't really seen done quite the same in any other point & click game I've played.



Jabod mentioned A Date In The Park earlier, and I definitely want to second it! It's an experience, for sure. And it's free!



The White Chamber is a game I originally played about 20 years ago, and recently found out it had been rereleased a couple of years ago on Steam. I think it really holds up! It's a short scifi horror point & click game featuring multiple endings based on your decisions throughout the game, which makes it fun to replay a couple of times.



Tiny Echo is a short and sweet point & click experience where you play as a tiny messenger... thing. That has an eyeball for a head, yet is somehow still very cute. It's an easy game, puzzles wise, in a way that feels right for it. It's also 90% off right now.



Another short and sweet adventure game, Projector Face just wants to make friends with the locals, but the only way he can communicate is by showing silent films! Takes less than an hour to play through.



Continuing with the short and sweet adventure games, Lilly Looking Through has very nice art, and an interesting mechanic that lets you sort of "swap between versions of the world". It's a long time since I played it, but I remember it being quite enjoyable!

I have Milkmaid of the Milky Way on my iPad but have not played it. I’ll have to move it up in my queue.

I also enjoy Lilly Looking Through, Guyra, but was very disappointed that they didn't finish the game. The alternate scenes made for some fun puzzle solving.

I have to mention "Keepsake" here. I totally ignored this one when it was released, and don't even know why. 20 years later, I bought it on Steam and I was amazed, I really liked this game. Wish it would be possible to get a remake or remaster for this.

But as of now, the game isn't even available for download in my country on Steam (it would just cost about 99 Cent, well worth it), since there are age restrictions rules and it looks like nobody cares for the game page anymore. They would just have to fill out some documents as far as I know, to make it available there again. It is so sad.

@Jen: I'd recommend it, it's a cute and breezy kind of game.

I absolutely loved Keepsake.

So I'm giving those the thumbs up while I'm thinking of another game. These recommendations/little presentations are wonderful.