Here are six of my top games from this past year.
A Mending by Shing Yin Khor- I finally finished this game! After 2 years of careful stitching, I have completed this map. In this game, you stitch your way across the map to go visit a friend, answering prompts about your friendship along the way. This beautiful fabric map now hangs above my bed where I can see it for all the years to come. I was utterly satisfied by this game. I told all my friends who love to sew about this game. I bought a copy for my best friend. I got two other friends to play it. If you like to sew and you like games, go go go!
A Sage’s Salary by krushna – I played this game several times this year! In this short game, you start off as a young apprentice-type to a sage. You grow up to sage-hood yourself, then can play the game again by seeing how you raise a young salary yourself. This game could really be endless if you wanted it to be. It has supernatural elements in it which add a bit of drama to the story. You could explore religious abuse in this game if you wanted to go that route, or if you want to have some kind of master nun kickass character, you could do that too. It’s up to you.
Monstra City Bakery (demo) – this was a delightful queer video game about being a human baker in a town full of cute monsters. I really want the full game to come out so I can romance the giant spider. Best of all, there’s no jealousy, so you can romance everyone!
Tending: A Game of Devotion by tori truslow. I adored this game. It’s a mixed media game where you are a pilgrim at a religious site, helping to build various structures. There are four mini-games in the game that take you through a seasonal year at the site. You can journal your experiences or just use the collage mechanics to craft something beautiful. I really had fun connecting back to my love of art.
The Magus by momatoes – This was a really interesting game about a mage’s pursuit of power. There’s various mechanics that bring you closer to power or sacrifice. I’d like to replay this game again sometime and go really dark just to see what happens. The creator is doing a Kickstarter campaign to release a physical book and companion oracle deck with 28 hours left to go! If you like games where you get to be a powerful mysterious wizard or witch, I really recommend this one.
Fox Curio’s Floating Bookshop from Lost Ways Club. In this game, you’re some kind of animal-folk who owns a bookshop-boat. You pass through the seasons floating up or downriver. You meet customers and friends. You experience holidays and changes. This game is meant to be like a solo version of Wanderhome from Possum Creek Games. I’ve set up the Notion app to track the game for me, rather than using a Google doc. It’s an interesting change for me–but after four sessions of play, I find it hard to maintain the motivation for a solo campaign. Perhaps I ought to just skip ahead to play a few days in each season, and leave it at that?
I also played the beginning of Baldur’s Gate 3 this year, but didn’t get a chance to continue because finishing grad school really swamped me. I hope to play more this year!
What games did you play this past year? What was your favourite? (Did you have a least favourite?)
Oliver Porter 