My gaming adventures of 2023: A mix of digital and analog delights

Another year is winding down, and what better way to celebrate than with a list of the games that kept me entertained? Here are my top picks for both digital and analog.

DIGITAL GAMING

The pedestrian


Balatro


Saviorless


Lorelei and the laser eyes


Planet of Lana


Plucky Squire


Neva


Iron Lung


ANALOG GAMING

Cat in the box


Cheez tricks


The green fivura


Mycelium


Tatsu


Zombies and Zilches


#GoGamers

My list of the top 10 videogames I played this year!

Here it is! A small list full of epic games!

1.Silt



2.Source of Madness



3.TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge



4.A Short Hike



5.Akane



6.Cult of the Lamb



7.Moonscars



8.Elden Ring



9.Signalis



10.Snap



#GoGamers

My list with the 10 best games I played in 2021!

This year I played around 42 new digital games (most part of them were indie games). It's difficult to select only 10, but I tried. Below, a list with my favorites from 2021:

• Mundaun

The best game I played this year. Mundaun is an immersive deep into a lovingly hand-pencilled horror tale set in a dark, secluded valley of the Swiss Alps. I walked the scenario two times in a row. Everything is perfect in this game: ambience, soundtrack, enemies. If you are a fan of horror games, this one is for you.



• Little Nightmares 2

The first part is awesome and the second is much more incredible. Little Nightmares 2 is an oniric travel inside a disturbed mind with a glorious plot twist in the end. Graphics are insane!



• Curse of the dead gods

Walk, kill enemies, return, do it all over again. A good title for roguelike fans with an Incan theme in the background. The game is a little unbalanced, but fun is guaranteed.



• Linelight

Well, I'm a big fan of abstract games. Linelight is a game created only with lines, points, and dots of light. Puzzles have an interest progression with the gameplay and the soundtrack is very relaxing. Beautiful with simplicity.



• Heal

A game about an old man with dementia. You must solve enigmas from the past of his memories to discover a love narrative fulfilled with pain and sadness. I loved the dark art and the somber atmosphere in the 2D scenario.



• Dead Cells

Little bit old, but excellent. I played this year for the first time. Classic roguelike game with an interesting medieval/high-tech ambience.



• Death Crown

Strange visual. Bizarre ambience. Death Crown, in a first view, looks like an old PC game from the 80s, but there's great mechanics inside the gameplay. A true indie game.



• Kholat

Based in The Dyatlov Pass incident. The incident was an event in which nine Russian hikers died in the northern Ural Mountains between 1 and 2 February 1959, in uncertain circumstances. The experienced trekking group from the Ural Polytechnical Institute, led by Igor Dyatlov, had established a camp on the eastern slopes of Kholat Syakhl. During the night, something caused them to cut their way out of their tent and flee the campsite while inadequately dressed for the heavy snowfall and subzero temperatures. The game explores supernatural forces and puts you as an investigator on the scenario.



• Children of Morta

RPG, roguelike, awesome pixel art, and a very unique narrative. Go get your copy now!



• Hook

One of the most interesting minimal puzzles games I played in my life. The studio created a great gameplay using lines and dots with very clever solutions. Very relaxing game, by the way.



Wow! What a list! I want to play all of them again.

#GoGamers

10 best games I played in 2020

2020 was a terrible year due to the coronavirus pandemic, but it was a good year in terms of games (at least for me). I played a lot of good games this year and I present in this post a list of the 10 that I liked the most. Check it below and I'm crossing my fingers for a better year in 2021.

THE GARDENS BETWEEN
What I liked about the game: beatiful narrative; delicated graphics; great puzzles (using time travel mechanics).



FRACTER
What I liked about the game: dark atmosphere; unfamiliar soundtrack; abstract narrative; awesome puzzles.



CARRION
What I liked about the game: the monster's movement system is epic!; excellent pixel art.



PARATOPIC
What I liked about the game: it's strange (a lot).



THE LAST OF US 2
What I liked about the game: narrative is perfect; graphics are perfect.



ALMOST GONE
What I liked about the game: the "3D" puzzle system is very interesting; narrative is nice.



HYPER LIGHT DRIFTER
What I liked about the game: there's a beatiful story behind the game creative process; awesome pixel art; the dash mechanics is perfect!



PAN PAN
What I liked about the game: cute and clever.



OVER THE TOP TOWER DEFENSE
What I liked about the game: very funny tower defense mechanics; characters are awesome.



HADES
What I liked about the game: insane procedural scenario; combat is great; narrative is perfect; Zagreus (main character) is very charismatic



#GoGamers

10 Brazilian videogames to start 2020 in an epic way

I don’t like to make lists but this one is a special exception. I created a list with 10 Brazilian games that I loved a lot to play in last years. As a Brazilian guy, nothing fairer than talking a little bit about the games created in my country. You can find any of them easily in Steam or the mainstream consoles. I tried to put a small description of each one with a trailer. You can search on Google to know more about them.

1.Horizon Chase Turbo (Aquiris)

Horizon Chase Turbo is a modern take on the 90s old-school racers that we loved the most such as Out Run or Top Gear. It’s the first game in analogic Blu-ray launched in Brazilian Territory. Platforms: PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Android, iOS, Xbox One



2.Chroma Squad (Behold Studios)

Chroma Squad is a tactical role-playing video game influenced by tokusatsu TV shows, particularly the Super Sentai and Power Rangers franchises. Platforms: PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Android, Microsoft Windows, Linux, Macintosh operating systems, macOS.



3.Celeste (MiniBoss)

Celeste is platform game in which players control a girl named Madeline in a beautiful, challenging and metaphorical struggle against anxiety and depression (I really love this one). Platforms: Linux, macOS, Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One



4.Rainy Day (Thais Weiller & Amora B.)

A short and reflective experience about depression on a rainy day. A game to be played right in your browser. Click here. Platform: Internet browsers.



5.Shiny (Garage 227)

Awesome art, robots and puzzles. I'll not say anything more, but Shiny was one of the most immersive experiences I had with a game in the last years. Check the trailer below and try to play. Platforms: PC, Xbox One and PS4.



6.Blazing Chrome (JoyMasher)

Blazing Chrome is a classic co-op run 'n gun with an original arcade feel. Players can choose between Mavra, the badass human resistance, soldier or Doyle, the groovy rebel robot, to kick some metal ass. Are you a Contra lover? You'll love this game. Platforms: PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows



7.Aritana and the Twin Masks (DUAIK)

second adventure of a universe that explores even more the forest’s mysteries, based in the brazilian mythology and culture. With a new weapon, a bow and arrow, the adventure extends gameplay possibilities, bringing 3D movement, big sceneries in open landscapes to explore and powers that helps the player solve several puzzles. Explore a huge lost temple and find artifacts that can be mixed in many special potions and prepare yourself to save the tree of life. Platforms: Xbox One.



8.Sky Racket (Double Dash Studios)

Sky Racket is a mixture of the casual fun from Block Breakers and the awesome action from Shoot ‘Em Ups, which makes it the first Shmup Breaker. Platforms: Microsoft Windows, Linux, macOS, IBM PC compatible.



9.Tamashii (Vikintor)

Tamashii it's a platform game that generates a sense of strangeness for its gameplay and layout. I can't express in words why I liked this game so much. I think it was his strangeness that made me find an experience interesting. The dark ambience soundtrack with the lovecraftian/gigerian creatures/scenarios are the high points of the game for me. About the developer: Vikintor is a Brazilian independent artist and game creator; his work it's mostly about Metaphysical punk, Transgressive Gnosticism and Philosophically subversive themes. Making small and medium-size games with the proposal to conceive experimental interactive medium of expression (text from author's site). Platform: Microsoft Windows.



10.Lenin - The Lion (Lornyon)

Lenin is an albino lion, the only one of his kind, and because of that he feels insecure and constantly discouraged. In fact. Worse, his mother does not understand why his son was born this way, and the whole village despises him and treats him cruelly. At school, he suffers bullying and can’t concentrate on class. Now, hopeless about life, certain situations seem to awaken in Lenin something that is not of everyone’s reality, but only of his. Something he will discover to be the part of something else. Platform: Microsoft Windows.



Bonus Stage: Mind Alone (Sioux)

Time for self-promotion! MIND ALONE is an experimental mobile game that uses puzzle mechanics to create a dark narrative about somebody trapped in their own mind. Each puzzle is a memory and the player needs to solve them to find hints about how it happened. I created this game in a partnership with Sioux, a Brazilian gaming publisher. Platforms: iOS and Android.


Hope you enjoy and happy new year.

#GoGamers

My list of the best games played this year, and a small reflection for 2020

On the last post of this year, I decided to make a list of the best games I played during 2019. Curiously, during the process of this ranking, I found myself reflecting on the content of Jesper Juul’s new book “Handmade Pixels” (2019).

In his new book, Juul discusses how independent games became a historical movement that borrowed the term “independent” from film and music while finding its own kind of independence. The reading of Juul’s book makes me reflect about how truly independent games that I played this year are, and what makes an indie game a really independent product.



Well, I’m still reading the book and I’ll make some considerations about it soon. It’s a really interesting content for game design and game studies classes.

For now, I want to share the list with the best 10 games that I have experienced in 2019. Important: 1) some of them are a little bit old, but I only played them this year; 2) they aren’t listed in a scale “from best to worst”, I just put them together.

• Baba is you
• What remains of Edith Finch
• Blasphemous
• Return of the Obra Dinn
• Cuphead
• Gris
• Gorogoa
• Katana Zero
• Hue
• Resident Evil 2 (remake)

Hope you enjoy it! See you next year!


#GoGamers

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Reference:

JUUL, Jesper. Handmade Pixels: Independent Video Games and the Quest for Authenticity. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2019