Backtracking is a blogging project that I’m embarking on in 2024 in which I will play one game from each year since I was born. My goal is to engage with games I’ve never played and divert some of my attention away from new releases and towards older titles. I hope to cross off some…
Game of the Year 2023
It’s finally time for a one-pager(-ish) game-of-the-year list. As usual, this simple annual critical writing exercise has ballooned into a whole operation that sucks up half my holiday break. As taxing as it’s been, it feels good to make it to the end. I’m fairly happy with the breadth of games I played this year;…
GOTY 2023 — #1 Lies of P
Lies of P is a soulslike action game from Korean developer Round8, a subsidiary of Neowiz. It’s a blatantly ridiculous Pinocchio retelling in the moody, gothic style of Bloodborne. Drawing heavily from the entire breadth of From Software’s “Souls” lineage, it unites a variety of ideas while carving out its own iterations and building a…
GOTY 2023 — #2 Venba
Venba is a narrative cooking game from the small team of developers at Visai Games. Its lead developer, Abhi, describes it as an exploration of the relationship between first-generation immigrant parents and their assimilated children. The core mechanical idea of Venba is a series of cooking minigames that are interleaved with the story and dialogue…
GOTY 2023 — #3 Wildfrost
Wildfrost is a roguelike deckbuilder developed by Deadpan Games with character design and art by Gaziter. It joins a genre that’s now well-established, but not yet exhausted. The niche is so popular that any new contender must establish a strong identity and unique gameplay variations to hold its own. Wildfrost may not have the sheer…