Game of the Year: Everything Else Edition: Video Games Industry Memo, 21/12/2023
Categorising games with all the subtlety you’d expect from a very tired man
VGIM rounds off for the year with a final GOTY post celebrating brilliant non-blockbusters from 2023
Good morning everyone. It’s the final VGIM of the year and we’re rounding things off with more reader recommendations for fantastic games they played in 2023.
Before we go into that I have to say a quick thank you to Gareth Dutton for nailing this year’s Christmas card to you, my readers. I think we can all agree he’s done a marvelous, and delightfully surreal, job with the light brief of “make me laugh.”
And with formalities done, I hope you enjoy the final newsletter of the year.
The big read - Video Games Industry Memo Game of the Year: Everything Else Edition
Against the Storm
MJ Widomska - Founder of Yrs Truly and top of this list because I’m scared she’ll hurt me if she isn’t
If you're into city builders, you'll love rogue-lite strategy game Against the Storm. Set in a vaguely post apocalyptic fantasy setting with animal inhabitants, it pits you against the environment as you build settlements – again and again.
You play as the Viceroy tasked with extracting resources from the ravaged lands. Time is not on your side: after a certain period, the apocalyptic forces that brought ruin to your world flood the game map and erase your hard work, freeing up space for new settlements.
It's a unique take on the city builder genre, and if you enjoy strategy games, you may find yourself addicted to Against the Storm.
Storyteller
Shay Thompson - Presenter and master of vibes
Storyteller is a clever little puzzler. As the name suggests, you’re tasked with telling stories that fit into the given title by placing characters, elements and settings that all react to each other. It draws inspiration from well known classics, so you sometimes end up writing reworked versions of Hamlet and Dracula for example.
The story panels can be swapped around and played with, making experimentation not only fun but necessary. If you’re anything like me and find even the most basic puzzle games challenging (I didn’t go to school for puzzle solving, okay) you’ll find this to be a smooth and approachable experience.
I’ve had this game on my radar since I played a demo during LudoNarraCon in 2021 and it did not disappoint. If you’re looking for a short romp to hold you over before you jump into your next 60 hour AAA extravaganza, Storyteller is a solid choice.
Humanity
Theo Litston - Writer, content creator and paragon of charitable virtue
Humanity is a game that effortlessly floats between genres, encompassing elements of platforming, real-time strategy, stealth and even shooters within its inventive and compelling puzzles.
The trial and error of manipulating throngs of shuffling humans around each gorgeous level never frustrates and is consistently entertaining, with failed attempts only ever motivating you to reassess and try something new.
The elation of finally seeing your plans succeed is one of the greatest feelings I've had in all my years of gaming. The final camera pan at the end of each challenge allows you to admire your handiwork with often thousands of bodies flying across the screen at once.
With chilled vibes, endless replay value and mind bending puzzles, Humanity is an unmissable experience.
Dave the Diver
Max Edwards - Agent of chaos (and authors)
Dave the Diver shouldn’t work. A 2D, Pixel sprite, side-scrolling, semi-procedural fishing game, all mashed up with a restaurant sim, with a loveably stupid title? Doesn’t sound promising.
And yet Dave the Diver had me hooked like almost nothing else except Baldur’s Gate 3 and Zelda this year. At first, you think, this is a simple dopamine hit - in-game morning and afternoon exploring a beautifully rendered coral reef, full of pretty fishes and pretty colours, catching a few and avoiding sharks.
At yet, 25 hours later, it’s 1am and the game has thrown yet another creative and brilliant new system at me, and now I have a farm and I’m hunting for one specific fish to make a super amazing recipe that that VIP’s grandma once made, and some mermen have given me a quest to visit a glacier and I’m taking a photo of an eel and and and and…
There’s a gorgeous one-more-day routine to Dave the Diver. There’s an insane level of novelty to it, nearly every time I come back and find a new system. There’s a surprisingly excellent story.
And there’s joy. It’s a game that takes joy and fun, and says ‘this is why we play’. And then it nails that joy and fun. It’s fabulous.
Cocoon
Nick Payne - Lawyer by day, frequenter of George’s favourite coffee shop also by day
Cocoon was a lovely little palate cleanser after I put some heavy investment into Divinity: Original Sin 2. It looks and feels great, the swooshing in and out of worlds is very cool, and the puzzles were about the right level of challenging.
It's atmospheric, with a unique aesthetic, a lot of intriguing-yet-vague world building and an ending that is both satisfying and ambiguous (as you would expect from a game from some of the developers of Limbo and Inside).
It's fairly short, at probably five to seven hours start to finish, but it's engaging throughout. I thoroughly recommend it especially if, like me, your gaming time is limited.
Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical
Sav Emmett Wolfe - Master of events, and hearts, at IGEA
Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical is a game like no other. Sure, modern reimagining of Greek Gods are frequent, but Greek mythos remains so popular that Athena is one of the top 100 girls names of 2023.
I do, of course, have a significant amount of bias. Being a queer teenager in the 2000s, my main interests included Greek mythology, musical theatre, and bisexual love interests in games, of which Stray Gods has spades.
Stray Gods sees you playing as Grace, a disillusioned woman looking to find herself. Surprisingly, she ends up finding the Greek Gods, needing to solve a murder, and gaining new and exciting powers as a Muse.
If you’re a traditional RPG lover with an itchy finger for a ‘skip dialogue’ button however, Stray Gods is not for you. Your choices and dialogue are laid out in song, meaning that there’s no speed up option but they blend seamlessly together, so I promise you won’t want to skip anything anyway.
There really is nothing else like Stray Gods on the market currently – the music, the all-star cast, the art and the story all work together to create a truly unique experience.
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
Ric Cowley - PR at Secret Mode, creator of Having a Fettle with Sebastian Vettel
I’ve loved playing The Texas Chain Saw Massacre this year – it’s a thrilling asymmetrical horror game which really delivers an authentic, detailed and terrifying experience very true to the original film.
Whether you play as the notorious Slaughter Family out for blood or as a victim looking for escape, it’s incredibly tense and no two matches are ever the same! I’ve had countless ‘near miss’ moments while playing and have loved getting to utilise the stealth and shadows to plan my great escape.
I'm not normally a horror fan but these films are a rare exception for me, and it’s so fun finding all the small details that pay homage to the original 1974 macabre masterpiece and exploring locations from the film which have been lovingly recreated by the developers.
Loddlenaut
Grace Johnson - Apprentice Programmer at Sumo Digital Academy; soon to be the master
Cosy gaming with an environmental message? Sign me up! Loddlenaut is an open clean up adventure from indie dev team Moon Lagoon which sees you play as an interstellar custodian sent to clean up a polluted ocean planet. It’s a visually stunning game with a really great art style, lush environments and ridiculously cute creatures to care for, which takes inspiration from a lot of early 2000s pet-sims which adds in a layer of nostalgia which I absolutely love.
As part of my apprenticeship, I’ve done extensive research into the environmental impact of the games industry and it’s awesome to see more games carrying a green message being released. It’s a fine balancing act to create a game with clear, environmental-first messaging without it being overbearing, and this tiny Texan dev team really nail it with Loddlenaut.
Venba
Tommy Thompson - AI & Games creator, lunchtime Mario Kart enthusiast
Venba by Visai Games is a narrative game that tells the story of its titular character, an Indian woman who emigrates to Canada with her husband Paavalan in the 1980s in pursuit of a better life for their newborn son Kavin. The themes of financial instability in unknown territory, adopting to new languages and customs, all while attempting to instil your heritage in a child raised outside of it, is a poignant and moving one.
But undoubtedly the game's strength is that it’s a narrative game about cooking. Each chapter focusses on how Venba and in turn Kavin seek to retain a connection to their roots by cooking traditional Tamil recipes. The characters' exasperation as they struggle to remember how their parents used to make these meals for them, is shared by many Western players but in a completely different way. Many of us will have ordered a Biryani or Dosa in a restaurant, but will be perplexed as we try to use ingredients, techniques and cooking utensils that are reflective of South Asian cultures. We share in that struggle, and it in turn gives us greater appreciation for each character's anxiety.
Venba's cultural authenticity is laced throughout it, be it in its story, its use of colour, the soundtrack, and its clever use of Tamil language. It's an incredibly short game - you can, skill and cooking knowledge permitting, complete the game in less than 90 minutes - but it's one that neither feels rushed nor incomplete. Instead it's arguably the most satisfying afternoon of gaming I experienced in 2023.
Some real gems here! My unsung hero is Jusant.
Great group of folks, great list of games.
Risk of Rain Returns is my unsung hero.