What I played in 2024 (that I can remember and that was good)
Working in games changes your relationship with games. Like any relationship, you will have your ups and downs. This career has taken me places in life — both fantastic and terrible — that I didn’t know existed when, as a teenager back in high school, I was being asked what I wanted to ‘be’ when I grew up. Funny, that we ask children about work that way. ‘What job would you like to do?’ would be a more accurate question, and yet we insist on imbuing children with this ‘I am the work I do’ attitude as early as they can conceive of work. This ‘you are the work you do’ framing has been poison for my brain. It has taken most of the near-decade I have spent in this space to find the antidote (spoiler: it’s a strong sense of self, good support network, putting ample energy into pursuits outside of games, and healthy boundaries).
2024 saw me slowly wind my way back to enjoying games — perhaps too much, as throughout the winter I finally allowed myself to dive headfirst into Baldur’s Gate 3 (2023), destroying progress towards my yearly 52-book reading goal in the process (RIP), and then having to read 22 books in the last 3 months of the year to reach my goal 🙃 Anyway. I played a few other things besides Baldur’s Gate. Here’s some that I can remember that were great:
Phoenix Springs (2024), by Calligram Studio
A dystop-ish, near-future, magical realism murder mystery game. Featuring a gorgeous-yet-unsettling hand-painted, dramatic art style that took the team seven years to get jussst right. The plot moves quickly, the puzzles are clever but not too hard — and if they ever are the team have put together an exquisite walkthrough to nudge you the right way slowly, without spoilers. It’s a slow and thoughtful play for sure. Will get you thinking and remain etched in your mind’s eye long-after the screen is turned off, faded to black.
Rise of the Golden Idol (2024), by Color Gray Games
You liked Return of the Obra Dinn (2018) but you want more? Color Gray Games have got you covered. The Golden Idol series are compact mystery vignettes featuring a memorable, unsettling art style (it is exactly my type of creepy but I’ve heard many describe it as gross). You must scrutinise vignettes featuring murders, click on all the clues to pull them into your inventory, and deduce what happened. I’ve thought about why it’s so good a LOT and I’ve arrived at this: the thing I dislike about mystery games with exploration is I JUST WANT TO SOLVE THE MYSTERY. I don’t want to scouer the 3D world, hunting for one stupid clue I missed, feeling like a low-ranking police officer on murder scene clean-up duty. I want to use my big brain to put all the pieces of the puzzle together like Hercule Poirot. The Golden Idol games distill the thrill of deducing a mystery down to the most delicious part. Also Lucas Pope (Obra Dinn creator) says it’s good and the first game did so well that Netflix bankrolled this excellent sequel.
Astro Bot (2024), by Team Asobi
Yeah yeah, it’s game of the year now! Everyone knows it’s great. But really: it is great. I hate platforming except for the classics of my PS1/PS2 youth. But I love Astro Bot. Why? Because it’s exceptionally crafted and deserving of all its success. The essence of Japanese craftspersonship distilled into a 2020s videogame. If you’re a PlayStation-exclusive-franchises fan you’ll love the thick layer of Easter Eggs as well.
Stacklands (2022), by sokpop collective
Another example of a pure distillation of genre. I played this when it released back in 2022 but was drawn back in recently by DLC (that I am terrible at). It’s a roguelike survival card game about managing a village of people. Like if the boardgame Stone Age (2008) was single player and had magic stuff. The art style and UI design is highly functional yet a bit plain jane — but don’t let that worry you. It’s typical of sokpop who release games at an astonishingly interval (roughly once a month) and who favour gameplay over visuals. Or rather, visuals SERVICE the gameplay in sokpop games (as should be the case in all games imo). Stacklands is a management game where everything is cards, time is always moving (you can pause it) and your goal is ??? A tasklist provides some direction, but really Stacklands is intoxicating because it’s a bit mysterious and toylike — you have to play with it to see what it does. Be warned: this is the type of game you can give eight hours without realising. Eight hours well spent but you have been warned !
Clank Catacombs (2022), by Dire Wolf
I played the original Clank (2016) for the first time earlier this year and fell quickly for its push-your-luck charms. It’s called Clank because you’re all rogues looking to steal the dragon’s treasure from the dungeon and get out before you’re burnt to a crisp — and every time you make too much noise or ‘clank’ (it’s a resource that you don’t want) you increase your chances of getting torched. It’s a drafting card game (much like Dominion (2008)) but you’re using your cards to explore a board representing the dungeon. Clank Catacombs improves on the original design by moving to a tile format, rather than two static boards to explore, allowing for freshness each time you play. It was also created by the same team who developed the original Elder Scrolls: Legends (2017) digital card game, which absolutely slapped while they helmed it!
Pictures (2019), by Christian Stöhr & Daniela Stöhr
Do you like Concept (2013) or Pictionary (1985)? Imagine trying roughly to do the same thing — communicate a concept — but you must use a terrible set of tools to do so. A number of photos are laid out in a grid. Each player is secretly told which one they are to ‘draw’. You are then given your tools, which could be anything from a bag of rocks to some pieces of string. You must recreate your photo with the tools. Simple, but provoked some of the most laughter of any boardgame I’ve played, and accessible for a range of ages and levels of board game familiarity.
Wyrmspan (2024), by Elizabeth Hargrave
The sequel to the much-loved Wingspan (2019), this is a set collecting game about dragons. It’s mid-strength in complexity and offers a satisfying mixture of ways to score points. You’re a wyrmologist looking to attract dragons to your caves so you can study them. As a longtime Wingspan player my biggest question with this was; does it have anything new to offer? And the answer is yes, it absolutely does. They’ve even written the rules in this generous way where rules that are especially different to Wingspan are called out. Satisfyingly complex, stunning art, well-written rules, DRAGONS — need I say more?
TOEM: A Photo Adventure (2021), by Something We Made
The neatest lil photo taking game I ever did play. A memorable black and white artstyle, a cutesy and distinct artstyle, excellent UX (somehow a lot of games with phototaking mechanics screw this up) and relaxing, task-based gameplay. This is a delicious little adventure that doses nostalgia and exploration in just the right amounts.
Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley (2024), by Hyper Games
I came to Moomin through Japan. Living there as an exchange student in 2010, I thought the much-beloved Finnish character was Japanese, thanks to the abundance of character goods available in even the most regional of Japanese shopping centres. I later learnt — through reading Tove Jansson’s excellent Moonmin comic strip, where the character was concieved — that Moomin is from Finland. Norwegian game studio Hyper Games have done a magical job of taking Tove Jansson’s beloved characters and making a game worthy oftheir rich legacy. With beautiful, watercolour-like visuals (how did they make those shaders?!) and simple but pleasing 2D action adventure gameplay, this is a relaxing delight for the senses. Will gently fill your cup.
Chants of Sennar (2023), by Rundisk
I’m so pleased that language-decoding games are becoming a thing. I mean, there are only five that I know of: this, Heaven’s Vault (2019), Tunic (2022), Adventure RPG in Need of Translation (2022) and LOK (2024) (do you know more?? Please tell me about them!!), but people seem to love them and I reckon more are coming to this burgeoning genre. In Chants of Sennar you are a little robed person who must ascend levels of a tower where each level comes with its own culture and language. Deduction and pattern-detection will be the main tools in your arsenal as you progress. Similarly to Sable (2021) the art style is Moebius-inspired, with strong intentionality in the use of colour and bold lines and shadows bringing the world to life. And The SYSTEMS, oh the systems! Systems are key in a game like this and Chants of Sennar does an excellent job of providing all the contextual information you need to have a smooth and ego-bolstering experience as you piece together the languages around you. At first I grabbed a notebook and pen, thinking these would be essential companions for this game, but I was pleased to be wrong. Chants of Sennar conjures a beautiful sense of nostalgia for traveling to a new country and being immersed in a language you don’t understand.
