This past year has been an absolute rollercoaster. The insanity of the day-to-day news had me looking to games for an escape and for a reminder that the world is still great. My top games of 2017 (presented in no particular order) were games that inspired hope and exemplified the best in people and in our industry. This was a year where developers dared for be honest and personal with their work, something I appreciate now more than ever.
Monument Valley 2
The first Monument Valley was a game where the protagonist embarks on a quest for forgiveness. In this sequel, set in the same universe, a mother and daughter are on a “journey of discovery”, where they must solve puzzles of impossible geometry to navigate the world. Though we’ve seen a lot of fathers and dad-role characters in recent years, it’s refreshing to watch a nurturing relationship flourish between a mother and daughter as the game unfolds. As with the first game, the music and visuals of Monument Valley 2 bring the whimsical world to life once again and captivated me immediately. For someone who always claims “I don’t really play mobile games”, Monument Valley 2 had me cuddled on the couch with my dog and cup of tea, spending hours exploring the puzzles and environments of the valley once again.
Butterfly Soup
Butterfly Soup is about BASEBALL, it’s GAY AS HECK, it’s FREE TO PLAY, and if you haven’t already played it you’re seriously missing out. This visual novel is available for PC and Mac and was recently nominated for an IGF award for Excellence in Narrative. Butterfly Soup is genuinely funny and real as it follows a group of friends as they grow their friendships and discover themselves. It’s a story of self-acceptance that (in my opinion) really reflects how it feels to be a young queer girl who is just trying to navigate life and tell decent jokes, but usually doing a bad job in both regards. Check out this game for witty dialogue and characters that you wish were your real friends, and consider throwing the developer some money for their amazing work.
Lost Memories Dot Net
Somewhere between designing IGF nominated Tacoma and releasing a visual novel game titled Kimmy, Nina Freeman somehow had time to also create the fantastic Lost Memories Dot Net in collaboration with Aaron Freedman. The game is about interacting with the internet as a young girl in 2004 and absolutely captures the curiosity and awkwardness that comes with being a middle school aged girl. Navigating through a sequence of three days, players can choose which friends (or strangers) to chat with, how to respond to messages, customize a personal blog, and visit web pages that other characters have designed. The game is so genuine in its presentation of the content, that I felt immediately transported back to my middle school self, a mindspace I never thought I would ever willingly want to revisit. In Lost Memories Dot Net, your character places the utmost importance on navigating love triangles, supporting friends, and worshipping anime characters. This game reflects the personal experiences of the developers, but also made me feel that my internalized struggles growing up were experiences that helped me relate to others. Check out this free to play game for lots of nostalgia.
Little Nightmares
Little Nightmares is terrifying in a smart way; putting noises and movement where you don’t expect them, letting the player recognize patterns and then deviating from them, and making the player character feel small and powerless in a setting where all is eventually consumed. In the dark bowels of the Maw, a mysterious waterborne vessel, the protagonist must elude gluttonous larger creatures as they platform their way to an escape. I loved this game immediately because of the obvious care that went into its development. The environments are filled with small details that are meticulously crafted to be as creepy as possible and I often found myself wide eyed with horror as pieces fell into place and I realized just what exactly was going on here.
Horizon Zero Dawn
With robot dinosaurs, an expansive and gorgeous open world, and a red haired heroine, Horizon Zero Dawn gave me everything I never knew I wanted from a game. Released for PS4 early in 2017, Horizon Zero Dawn was notable to me because it went the extra mile to offer a variety of difficulty levels and make the game accessible for a variety of players. This game made me hopeful for the future of AAA games, by acknowledging in their design and narrative that many types of people play games for different reasons. Aloy is a heroine whose curiosity and disregard for rules makes her admirable and fun to play and the importance of her existence must be recognized, as less than 10% of video game protagonists are women. With over 100 E3 nominations and record sales, Horizon takes the “games about women just don’t sell” argument and crushes it into the dirt under 100 tons of robotic dinosaur. On top of Aloy being the heroine that the games industry needs right now, Horizon Zero Dawn has proven itself to be a tremendous world that feels real and that I wanted to get lost in.
