I loved the gaming year of 2019. It was an in-between year for me where I worked on many different things, and very different than the intense 2018 (which was all about Yoku’s Island Express release). But quite a lot of games played:

To start, my game of the year was Subnautica. Released on consoles in December 2018, I played it obsessively in January and was already quite certain the experience would be unmatched for the rest of the year. There are so many things in that game that inspires me as a game-designer: An amazing combination of open-world gameplay with a steady trickle of smart narrative to advance the story. Great balance of deep and accessible base-building. Gameplay progression that isn’t afraid to hold back some of the best (and probably most expensive) features until late – all the way up to the final sequence. Using depth as a soft progression blocker was super-effective and gave many wonderful tense moments. And doing all this as a small team using early access is such an impressive achievement. I’m struggling every day to stop myself from playing the upcoming expansion until it’s out of early access.

First half of the year wasn’t a very active one for me due to finishing up the development of our own Yoku’s Island Express. However, after shipping Yoku, I’ve dedicated a good chunk of time to making my games-backlog smaller. The Game of the Year contenders for me this year was all indie: Celeste, Dead Cells and Hollow Knight. (This might be because I haven’t yet gotten to the AAA beasts of God of War and Spiderman, but I will!)

Continue reading Games Retrospective – 2018 →

PS4 – The Witness, No Man’s Sky, Dark Souls III, The Last Guardian, ABZÛ

Xbox One – Inside, Trials Fusion

PSVita – Knytt Underground, Child of Light, Need for Speed

iPad – Hearthstone, Crashlands, Reigns, Super Mario Run

Mobile – Pokémon Go

PC – This War of Mine, Stardew Valley, The Flame in the Flood + 20 more

Pretty awesome year, right? Even the Vita got some love, but I’m very much looking forward to next year’s Switch for a new portable gaming console. The Witness takes home my Best Game of the Year award, with Stardew Valley and This War of Mine as the runner-up. This was the year of the survival/crafting game for me. I feel the mechanic has been very explored now, but I can’t help myself from getting dragged into it. This War of Mine was the most inspiring one for me, due to its phenomenal mix of procedural and designed content in combination with its intense narrative wrapper.