I have spent most of my waking life resentful of “end of the year lists” that pop up every december, partly because when I was a musician I never ended up on one, but also mostly because it always seems to be the same 5-10 bands who end up on those lists. Even if it’s a list of indie bands, even if it is a list of unheard of bands, or a list of bands made up of members from marginalized identities. People just do not seem to try very hard to look for new music that is coming out. I originally put out a call on my facebook, claiming I would post a “Best of” list made up of the first ten bands posted to the status, as long as they weren’t posted by bands who were promoting themselves. Even with this random aspect added in, it still felt like more of the same (plus, too many straight white dudes), so I scrapped the project.
However, this year I took a pretty big personal dive and risk into the world of indie game development: something I have dreamed of doing since I was 8 years old. I remember sending a letter into Nintendo describing a Kirby Baseball game I thought would be a wonderful idea. They were nice enough to send a very pleasant rejection letter back: wishing me well on my path to video game design glory, wish I had kept it! During my time learning how to code and make pixel art, I have been given the great pleasure to happen across a large multi-faceted community on twitter of small folks like me making games and projects.Then, as december rolled around I saw the same “List phenomenon” start to happen, but I also saw a key difference.
In “Best of” lists, regarding video games, there seems to be a lot more variety. You are just as likely to see a freshly released game by a new, lone developer that has been played by a grand total of 5 people as you are a AAA game designed and distributed by SONY. Many more consumers type out their own personal “Best of” lists, regardless of if they have a big blog platform or not: many publish lists on their own twitters with great results. I have found so many fun and unique little games that I would have never otherwise come across. I think the indie music community has a lot to learn from the indie game community in this regard: gamers seem to take their content consumption into their own hands, telling the blogs and review sites what they like, while as music listeners we kind of just seem to take a passive stance on it all. But it is simple! Make your own “Best of” list! Tell the world about a band that you think nobody knows about, whether it is your friends band or some small act from Argentina! Spread the word of the indie music you know, not just the “big deal” indie music, but the little diy bands that hardly get any notice as well. You don’t even need a blog, just use facebook and twitter!
Alright, preachy moment over, here are the lists of the best games I played this year. There is no “theme” to this list, but many queer readers will be thrilled to know that folks just like you worked on many of these releases! I could not decide an order, so I took a chance and rolled dexterity checks on a 20-sided-die to see who went first:
1.Rxcovery
Rxcovery is a wonderful & cute RPG about being stuck in a nightmare hospital having to pay your criminally expensive insurance bill. Produced by L.O.V.E. games studios, this game takes influence from two of my favorite game series from Playstation and Gameboy respectively: The SaGa series and the Final Fantasy Legends series (although, it turns out they were actually all part of the same games, but that is another story). It also has mood and feel elements which remind me of OFF, another spectacular indie game. Rxcovery is a great example of what happens when the “old school top down” RPG style is elevated by interesting game mechanics which work together with the plot instead of in spite of it. L.O.V.E games is actually a one person operation, and the developer also created the bad ass soundtrack featured while playing. More of their solo music can be found on their bandcamp, which is totally worth checking out. Between that and their past games, this is a treasure trove of new content.
The only game on this list made by a bigger company: Life is Strange as a series took the world by storm last year, exploring the awkward college drama/supernaturally spooky/and maybe a bit queer-baity relationship between its two main characters. Before The Storm is its prequel, and evolves right from queer-baity to full on gay adventure game. It is somewhat of a walking simulator, but tells a great story of self discovery, choices, and teen angst. The UK based rock band “Daughters” wrote the score for the whole game, using grunge indie pop rock feels to further accentuate the emotions of its protagonist couple.
Twin Peaks meets Veronica Mars meets Rock Band meets Those Tumblr Webcomics About Punk Weasels and Emo Foxes, Night In The Woods tells an amazing story about returning to a small town after having been away and been given a chance to grow. There are a few games on this list telling “coming of age” stories, but this is the one on this list that has the best writing, in my opinion. The interactions between Mae and her friends are great, but the dialogue written between her and per parents really nails down the intersection between frustration and love that many of us feel for our families. The depictions of mental health issues also really spoke to me and made me feel seen and heard as a player.
This is my one and only “cheating” entry on the list because it came out in 2016. It is such a unique game though, it somehow has a main narrative and also….doesn’t? In Spaceport Janitor you play a self ascribed low class service worker on a bustling, colorful, sci-fi city in the stars with one job: collecting trash and burning it. The soundtrack is a rotating playlist of offbeat experimental pop which fits interstellarly with its colorful 3d pixel art of a gameworld. This game actually comes off to me as somewhat more meditative: it is easy and inviting to dive in to it’s confusing, swirling metropolis for 30 minutes at a time and just get lost, over and over again. Will for sure be returning to play this fantastical version of my life being crushed under capitalism, all while being chased by a screaming skull, over and over again.
Longstory is a visual novel written by Bloom Digital Media, and runs about 5 hours long to tell the tale of a possibly genderqueer protagonist finding their way through a new school in their final year of highschool. You are allowed to choose your own avatar, pronouns, and who you are looking to date in this game, and it was obviously written for queer folks in mind. I enjoyed this even as someone in my 30s because I will admit: Degrassi is a guilty pleasure. Those of us who grew up during a time with no media made for queer kids, and no role models to look up to, have a nice chance to go back and feel something good by experiencing content that explores the more awkward teenage transactions that we possibly missed out on in our youth. Also, a great folky soundtrack to boot. Check it out!
As with most of these games, Dujanah was made by lone hero of a programmer, poet, and musician Jack King Spooner creating an amazing gameworld for us to explore. Unlike most of the other entries on this list though, Dujanah is a digital re-interpretation of claymation and models: every game piece and most of the settings were painstakingly handmade as physical objects in real life before being transferred into a digital realm. The developer also wrote over 50 tracks of music which range from punk rock to experimental jazz, and you can even find small venues in game and find small indie bands rocking out for crowds of art-seeking onlookers. This game reeks of effort more than anything I have ever played before!
Localhost is coded on Twine: an easy to learn narrative writing tool which makes it accessible to create text based choose-your-own-adventure games. However, it stretches the boundaries of what twine can do: creating a suspenseful graphical interface where you are given the task of getting intelligent computers to let you shut them down permantently. This game can be soul crushing, but it boldly says so many things about how we feel about death, as well as disposability. Developed by Aether Interactive, and including a team of rad artists and musicians, it can be bone chilling or tear jerking depending on which route you take.