Everyone talks about this year being bad for games, but I wrote them out and holy shit a lot of good stuff came out this year.
- Neon White
Holy FUCK does this game go hard. Writing is cringe but the level design is fucking amazing and everything is so well put together to basically be the best single-player FPS experience in a hot minute
- Squishcraft
Seriously. This game looks like a shitpost, but it genuinely has the most innovative puzzle design in years. The way it seamlessly blends the discrete and the continuous, the way it keeps taking ludicrous ideas to their logical conclusion - squishcraft is outright brilliant.
- Norco
Gorgeous writing and It always bugged me that all cyberpunk took place in some hyper-modernized megacity, and Norco is an exploration of the people and communities that urbanization has left behind.
- Immortality
The world's best creepypasta.
- Crystal Project
Imagine someone who really liked Final Fantasy and had really interesting ideas on open world design made a massive RPG. That's basically Crystal Project. The writing is miserable and the visuals are uninspired, but the sheer audacity and ingenuity of it's level design earns it a place here.
- Shadows Over Loathing
Basically the best parts of West of Loathing, and the writing is even more consistently funny. I still haven't gotten around to finishing it.
- N Step Steve Part 2
The best compliment I can give N Step Steve is that the game feels complete. There isn't a new puzzle I could think of making with those mechanics, and it keeps pushing the boundaries of what its mechanics are allowed to do.
- Tunic
Do you think you've discovered all the secrets this game has? You're wrong.
- Trombone Champ
Brass instruments are inherently funny, and Trombone Champ takes that comedy and turns it into a shockingly smart rhythm game.
- Last Call BBS
It's a Zachtronics game, and it's the last Zachtronics game. It might also be the most Zachtronics game.