Developer:
Honeyslug and Richard Hogg

Content:
A whimsical, colorful game with an emphasis on playful exploration and creativity.

Opinion:
Hohokum should definitely be tried, if only to understand how strange and difficult it is to describe. Not everyone will appreciate its laid-back nature and allergy to guidance. But most importantly, you get out of Hohokum what you put into it. Players who want to explore the nooks and crannies and see everything in every world will definitely be rewarded.

Developer:
Campo Santo

Content:
A game set in the wilds of Wyoming, where the protagonist’s only emotional and physical connection is the person on the other end of a handheld radio.

Opinion:
Firewatch manages to keep you in suspense from start to finish, even when you are doing mundane tasks as a ranger. It’s thanks to the amazing and fascinating conversations with beautiful landscapes that this game keeps the player enthralled.

Developer:
Japan Studio

Content:
An open-world action-adventure game featuring a strange but positively charged woman named Kat, who finds herself in a strange town with a black cat… and the ability to manipulate gravity.

Opinion:
Really unique game with great gameplay, atmosphere, story and characters. Extremely underrated. It may start a little slow, but once it gets going, it quickly becomes clear that the sky is both the literal and figurative limit of what this game can achieve.

Developer:
Queasy Games

Content:
Play, compose and share in a unique take on the classic sidescrolling platformer where your actions determine the music.

Opinion:
Sound Shapes offers a simple, stylish and very entertaining platforming experience that comes up with some really good tunes. If you’re one of those people who likes user-generated content, then this is definitely your thing – and even if you’re not, the clever concept makes it a good investment.

Developer:
White Paper Games

Content:
A first-person adventure game in which the player has the task of recovering the memories of a dementia patient.

Opinion:
An emotionally charged story enhanced by the game’s thematic centerpiece, dementia. A wonderfully thoughtful, moving story with puzzles cleverly embedded in the theme.

Developer:
HumaNature Studios

Content:
A role-playing and interactive story with a large universe to explore and a significant social component.

Opinion:
It fills a galaxy with happy, hopeful, broken and bizarre characters while retaining an infectious, childlike sense of joie de vivre. It challenged me to think about what it means to be human in general, and also what it means to be me. In that respect, at least, Doki-Doki Universe is something very special.