Games

This is a collection of games. None of the entries is formal critiques. I may describe something, or leave an entry or portions within it blank. Deal with it.

Almost all the entries will be titles I enjoyed or recommend or just want to mention on my website. So, if you ever feel like watching something in a particular genre, you can hopefully find something in here. Inevitably, there would be things you don’t agree with or find faults in. Such is the thing with creative arts.

I do notice and enjoy innovative gameplay, narrative design, UX/UI, gameplay, world-building of video games and they are also the only medium where failure from your own actions can be narratively essential. You’re supposed to lose and resume sometimes as it informs and teaches you something about the story and systems at play. Some games make struggle fun while others make failure meaningful. A book, movie or TV show could not do this effectively. I also like games because they can force you to focus in the moment. Managing limited resources, learning to recognise periodic calm, adapting to intensity and chaos, making difficult choices, understanding consequences, and appreciating the art and landscape from multiple angles are fundamental to games in a way it isn’t anywhere else.

There are cinematic games that are basically interactive films or TV shows with interactive storytelling. Whereas others are pure mechanical joy where a ton of small design decisions make moving through space and story feel perfect.

But describing the world of games requires research and understanding that I don’t see myself investing. I originally built this space just as an experiment mixing web development, automation and AI. But I kept it because it is my personal website after all, and thinking I need to explain any section’s purpose at length seems unnecessary. The published list is severely limited because I have to balance how much I automate vs publish and keep moving.

Overall, I choose to show this space because there’s a human commitment visible in such media. They are fundamentally optimistic acts. To make a film, write a television series, craft a documentary or design a game is to believe that art and storytelling from your perspective matter. You may not appreciate its bits or its whole immediately. You may be halfway into a game’s story before you begin to understand a character’s motivations or a game’s mechanics. You may like a movie only when rewatching it with an unburdened mind. You may care about a documentary’s subject only after absorbing opinions about it online. All this is fine. I don’t believe creative artists ask for an audience that is perfectly primed to be their product’s advocates. This space is simply about listing the titles I liked and reasoning through them as time permits.