Actually I should have posted this comic five days ago, because I did the translation one year ago. I originally made this comic strip in German in 2009.
I'm not one for "New Year's resolutions", but I am one for overly ambitious projects.
For 2023, Project365 is "One New Game Per Day".
Given that I have 634 unplayed games in my Steam account and {mumble} unredeemed bundle Steam keys, there's a reason my unplayed collection is tagged "Pile of Shame".
I'll pin this to my profile, and give a brief summary here each day (or x, if I miss x days due to work or stuff).
I'll play 15-30 minutes of (at least) one new game I've never played before (or played less than 15 minutes of). I'll give every game at least 15 minutes, even if I hate every minute of it.
I'm also open to suggestions; if you reply to this thread with a game, I'll schedule it, or tell you what I thought of it.
One of the things that's come up is that I have a bunch of games that I've played once, and not touched again.
Platform: Steam PC
Release Date: Feb 9, 2018
Library Date: Dec 24, 2019
Unplayed: 1105 days (3y9d)
Playtime: 19m
This game came in a Humble Choice bundle, and it had two things going against it:
Pixel graphics
Platformer
I was there for 8-bit & pixel graphics the first time around. My first "gaming" computer was a PC XT clone with an amber monochrome monitor. Our only gaming was a pong clone.
I think these are the reasons I lack rose-coloured glasses for that era of gaming.
It's a 2D platformer. Like many #autistic folks, my fine motor control is not the greatest, nor is my hand-eye coordination. Platformers have been one of the major sources of frustration for me over the years, as I regularly mashed the wrong keys on the keyboard.
Which turned out to be a part of the problem.
When I got to grips with an Xbox controller to play Forza Horizon 4, it was an eye-opener, not just in terms of racing, but also for platformers.
Aegis Defenders is a 2D platformer mash-up with a Tower Defense game. Explore, find the target, defend it, upgrade, rinse and repeat. It remains to be seen whether I'll want to come back to it repeatedly, so for now I'm giving it a rating of:
Jan 24, 2023 - Day 24 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 31
Game: Black The Fall
Platform: Steam PC
Release Date: Jul 11, 2017
Library Date: Feb 3, 2018
Unplayed: 1816 days (4y11m21d)
Playtime: 35m
Black The Fall is a stressful game. It's very minimalist, both in terms of colour palette, and control scheme.
Part sideways scroller, part puzzle, part stealth game. You are unarmed, and you will die. A lot. Timing is everything, but it's not in a frenetic, bullet-hell kind of way, but in a tense, and drawn-out fashion.
A couple of levels in, you get the one device you can use in the game. It is not a weapon. Even that device leaves me feeling uneasy.
I am genuinely unsure of how I feel about this game. It's challenging. Spotting the solution to a puzzle, even if it's obvious, is satisfying. On the other hand, it's also quite stressful.
The stylised graphics, and the audio design are very well done
I'm not sure this game is fun, but Black The Fall is:
Feb 10, 2023 - Day 41 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 47
Game: Shady Part of Me
Platform: Steam PC
Release Date: Dec 11, 2020
Library Date: Feb 10, 2023
Unplayed: 0 days
Playtime: 18m
It finally happened. I missed a day. On-call, and yesterday was a hugely eventful day in my personal life. Woke up this morning, and realised that I'd missed my NewPlay (and that's why I built a buffer!)
Shady Part of Me is a perfect example of why I still subscribe to Humble Choice, AND why this project is worth my time. When this month's games showed up, I decided I'd play one of them as a NewPlay.
Shady Part of Me is a platformer. It is visually exquisite, a mix of 2D and 3D animation, a limited palette, with watercolour washes everywhere. The audio is sublime. The storyline is, thus far, intriguing.
I've said before that I'm not a big fan of platformers, but this is one I want to come back to.
If it wasn't so late, and I wasn't so tired, I'd have kept playing.
Shady Part of Me is beautiful, and may be the first time I've given a platformer a review of:
Feb 11, 2023 - Day 42 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 48
Game: Last Inua
Platform: Steam PC
Release Date: Dec 11, 2014
Library Date: Jul 26, 2021
Unplayed: 565 days
Playtime: 19m
I didn't intend to play two platformers in row, but it's the downside of going in without warning.
Yesterday and today were chalk and cheese, and unfortunately for Last Inua, it suffers greatly in comparison to The Shady Part of Me.
Last Inua is moody and atmospheric, but in a way I find unsettling. It's the story of an Inuit father and son, fighting to survive in the Arctic.
Unfortunately, both the controls and the gameplay are frustratingly opaque. There were several sections where timing was required to pass a series of hazards, yet the timing of the hazards appeared to be random, meaning you might get past two, only to be unexpectedly killed on the third one, and next time around you die almost immediately.
Whereas last night I was eager to keep going, and only stopped because I needed sleep, tonight I kept looking at the clock, hoping I was close to fifteen minutes.
I don't know if there's a happy ending to the story for this father and son, and it's unlikely I'll ever find out, because Last Inua is:
Feb 13, 2023 - Day 44 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 50
Game: Steamworld Dig 2
Platform: Steam PC
Release Date: Sep 22, 2017
Library Date: Nov 11, 2021
Unplayed: 459 days
Playtime: 21m
Another platformer... ish.
Broke my rule for game #50, because it was getting late and it was the first unplayed game I hit in the list.
Way back in the dark ages of iOS (2009), there was a game that I became obsessed called "I Dig It". You control a mining vehicle, and you dig things up, and you bring them to the surface, upgrade the vehicle, and go back down to mine some more. Rinse & repeat.
SteamWorld Dig was fundamentally the same model, and I didn't mind that in the slightest. I played for a couple of hours, and then haven't played since.
SteamWorld Dig 2 adds platforming, before I got anywhere near digging things up. It required a frustrating timing combo of button presses to work my way through the game, and I was ready to give up, thinking that they'd completely redesigned the game concept.
Nope, you just have to get through that frustrating level to get to the digging. Once into the digging, it feels more like its predecessor.
Unfortunately, it feels a bit like in trying to make SteamWorld Dig better, they made it a bit worse. I'm willing to give it another shot, though.
Feb 20, 2023 - Day 51 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 57
Game: Little Nightmares
Platform: Steam PC
Release Date: Apr 28, 2017
Library Date: Dec 4, 2018
Unplayed: 1539 days (4y2m16d)
Playtime: 29m
Speaking of platformers as I did yesterday... another one.
Little Nightmares is a supremely creepy 3D-ish platformer in which you play a small child, trying to escape from a vessel, possibly a ship, with only a lighter to guide your way.
The atmosphere sends shivers down my spine, the soundscape is perfect. A couple of the visuals could almost have used a content warning, not gory, but traumatic for some people.
Feb 24, 2023 - Day 55 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 61
Game: Valfaris
Platform: Steam PC
Release Date: Oct 11, 2019
Library Date: Aug 4, 2022
Unplayed: 204 days (6m20d)
Playtime: 16m
Valfaris is an old-school pixel-art platformer, with a heavy metal soundtrack. Two out of three of these things I dislike, one I can tolerate. They all come together like a delicious meal of liver, peas, and beans.
I hate this game. Not ironically. I genuinely hate it. I spent the last few frustrating minutes trying not to watch the clock.
Some platformers are forgiving if you don't get the timing quite right on your moves.
This is not one of those. It requires a level of timing and coordination that my brain is not, and never has been, wired for.
Some folks can play this kind of game, and just flow through the game like water. I flow like bricks, and wanted to throw one at the screen.
If this kind of platformer is your bag, more power to you, but for me Valfaris is a straight-up:
Feb 28, 2023 - Day 59 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 65
Game: A Story About My Uncle
Platform: Steam PC
Release Date: May 28, 2014
Library Date: Jan 11, 2019
Unplayed: 1509 days (4y1m17d)
Playtime: 20m
I'm on call this week, and it's kind of messed up my ability to play AND review games, so I played this on Tuesday, but am now getting the review done.
A Story About My Uncle is a first-person 3D platformer. It has something of a push-pull effect on me.
On one hand, the story (as it is), keeps pulling me forward, but the control scheme keeps pushing me away.
Unfortunately for ASAMU, the pull isn't enough to overcome the push.
In terms of design and sound, it's an atmospheric game, that really reinforces the story, but unfortunately, I just found myself repeatedly getting frustrated with the controls.
I'm not ready to delete it, but I'm unsure as to whether I'll be drawn to play it again.
For now, I'll give A Story About My Father a rating of:
Mar 30, 2023 - Day 89 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 96
Game: Seraph
Platform: Steam PC
Release Date: Sep 21, 2016
Library Date: Mar 13, 2018
Unplayed: 1843 (5y17d)
Playtime: 20m
Seraph is a platform shooter, with auto-aiming.
It's the kind of platformer I prefer to play, it's a bit button-mashy at times, and a few times I mashed the wrong button to shoot, but it doesn't rely on perfect timing with lots of unexpected deaths.
In Seraph you play a wingless angel who's spent 30 years in angel prison (I guess?), and who may or may not be responsible for the horde of demons roaming the levels that you have to shoot with your dual-wielded pistols & "gun-fu".
That's some classical angelology right there.
As platformers go, it's much closer to the kind of platformer I prefer, but it's not a great game that's got me rushing to play it again.
Apr 19, 2023 - Day 109 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 118
Game: Super Daryl Deluxe
Platform: Steam PC
Release Date: Apr 10, 2018
Library Date: Feb 2, 2019
Unplayed: 1537d (4y2m17d)
Playtime: 51m
I've said before that games had me stumped for what "kind" of game they were; Super Daryl Deluxe is somewhere beyond that. It defies my abilities to describe in. It's a one-of-a-kind.
I mean that literally. It bills itself as a "RPGvania", which explains the platforming, mashed up with the RPG, and a dash of roguelike, and then liberally doused in Napoleon Dynamite. If you Google "RPGvania", it's the only game that comes up.
The art style is unique, rendered in largely greyscale with some colours in use to make them pop out, and a lot of colour washes.
The quests kept me playing long enough to get me into the rhythm of the game, and I'm curious as to where it's going.
Unfortunately, a lot like Napoleon Dynamite, that style of humour starts to become grating after a while. I'm not sure it can carry my interest for an entire game.
Apr 20, 2023 - Day 110 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 119
Game: Sundered Eldritch Edition
Platform: Steam PC
Release Date: Jul 8, 2017
Library Date: Jan 7, 2019
Unplayed: 1564d (4y3m13d)
Playtime: 45m
Today I found myself faced with a "pure" Metroidvania. I even Googled it to make sure I understood the term.
So, some of the games I've been referring to as "platformers" may actually be better defined as Metroidvanias, and that is to say, I don't like them.
I find them frustrating, and I lack the hand-eye coordination to pull of the moves at the right time, and somehow this morning, none of that mattered.
I thought I'd knock out the game this morning in a quick 15 minute play session, and write up a review, and that would get me focused and into work time.
Some time later, I quit out to find I'd been playing for 45 minutes. Somehow, I managed to pull all the pieces together and find a rhythm, and what a marvellous rhythm it is.
It's an incredibly atmospheric game, inspired by H.P. Lovecraft. Part old-world horror, part technology, dropping through floors, and wall-jumping, killing everything in sight.
While (as usual) I was playing in "easy" mode, it wasn't easy for me, but not so challenging I wanted to punt the controller out the window.
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