Another year has come and gone. It was an eventful year at that.
How Was 2024?
Plenty of things have happened this year, and some things changed. The blog earned itself 14.4K views, and I made 29 posts on it. Interestingly, I wanted to focus on my New Year Resolutions, and yet I was fairly active on my blog. That was for a simple reason: I engaged a lot with online TTRPG design communities. Oftentimes, someone would come there with an idea they want to do, and I'd go "I would do it this way". Then, they wouldn't use my idea, so I'd post it here. Another frequent source of blog posts for me was "thought dumping": since I was focusing a lot more on my goals, I didn't want to get distracted by random cool ideas too long, so I'd put them here to rediscover and use them later.
Resolutions from 2024
I've set two goals for this year, and I am glad to announce that I have accomplished both of these. First, the shorter one...
The Runehack RPG is out! You can purchase it right now on itch.io, and sometime at the start of 2025 I want to work out how to do community copies on it for those who can't afford it. I knew all throughout the year that I could publish my game, but I didn't know how finished it would be. Since I didn't have a lot of work done halfway in, I was considering cutting content. At some point, I was considering making a game only with the parkour pillar. But in September I got a jolt of inspiration and kept working on the game for several months straight. I have to say that I surprised myself with how much work I got done. Not only does the game feature the Tech pillar (formerly Hacking) as well as the Spy pillar (formerly parkour/freerunning/sprinting). It also features the Job pillar, a way to wrap up the core mechanics into a comprehensive single unit named Social pillar, a Lore section, an example map for the sprinting, several cities, aaand... the GM section. All in one neat 80-page document (though I also offer a player variant without the GM section, just in case they wouldn't wanna be spoiled). Is it perfect? Heck no, I had nearly no time, energy, nor drive to playtest this thing, and I feel bad about that. But then again, I knew what I was going into at the start of this year - I wanted to publish it, not finish it. And I know there's plenty of work still ahead of me regarding this game.
I played 12 good games. Not only that, I actually played 26 of them! I kept a list of them, including their rankings and when I played them. I'll however reveal only the rankings of the top 12 and a little something I learned (or relearned) in each game.
My only regret regarding this is that the only games I was counting were video games and TTRPGs. I played a couple of good board games this year that I didn't record anywhere or rank, and with those included, I could have had over 30 entries here. Who knows what others I could have tried if I didn't restrict myself like that.
12. Hunter: The Reckoning (Aug 9th)
I've kept the World of Darkness games on my radar for a while now. During the summer oneshots event on the D&D server I moderate, one of our members who's very much into Vampire the Masquerade offered to GM us a oneshot. The mechanics of the game were interesting, and the story was quite good, ... but the whole oneshot ended because of what felt to me like one bad die roll that happened because of a misinterpreted thing said by one of the players (specifically me). For quite a while I've been thinking about building trust between the GM and the players. This experience did not feel good, or at the very least the ending did not. I don't know much about WoD in general, since I haven't read its rulebooks front to back, and I'm not really interacting with its community, but if this is the standard there, ... maybe I'm better off just keeping my distance. To be fair though, it's a well-put-together game, and the GM was quite good in all other ways. After the game, we got a debriefing on why the game ended so suddenly, and while it does make sense, sometimes even a thing that makes sense doesn't have to be accepted.
Lesson: I don't want to foster an environment in which the GM works against the players, even going as far as to misinterpret their words. Some will enjoy this sort of thing, personally, I'd rather avoid this.
11. Mothership (Nov 27th)
A friend of mine told me about the Mothership RPG and how much he wants to try it out. We didn't get to try it out together. Fortunately, it was thanks to another member on the same server, this time for the Halloween oneshots event. I have to say, first and foremost, that its character sheet design was interesting. At least the variant that has all the flowchart-like arrows pointing at what you fill out in what order. What struck me as the most interesting about this was seeing the idea of "rolling is not a good thing" in practice. It may not be something I'm all that into, but it's good to be aware of this. In the game design circles, I've heard that a player should have about a 60% chance to succeed at a thing under normal circumstances. I have no idea where this number comes from, maybe some GDC lecture about how the percentages in X-COM are something the players complain about and so they nudge the numbers, or maybe something completely different. Well, the Mothership tosses that aside. In this game, your attributes on their own have roughly a 35% chance of succeeding. You should avoid rolling in this game. And while that feels odd to me, I guess for this game and this kind of genre... it works.
Lesson: The magical 60% chance to succeed at a thing is more of a guideline.
10. 10 Candles (Aug 13th)
The fact that this game made it to the 10th place is either a pure coincidence or a mysterious omen of something far beyond us. This was quite an interesting experience. Everything but the setting was made up on the spot - the characters were generated by us collectively by passing each other the traits, the monsters were made up on the run, and the drama was quite something. We started playing it while the Sun was still shining, and we finished long after it had set, with the candles being the only source of light, other than our phones we had to use to shine on our "character sheets", if they could be called that.
Lesson: The right atmosphere can improve the experience a ton.
9. Baba is You (Feb 2nd)
This game looked pretty interesting, and I've received a recommendation to play it a couple of times. When it was on sale, I got it and waited for a good time to play it. It wasn't easy, several levels were quite tricky, but overall I enjoyed its mind-bending madness.
Lesson: Thinking outside of the box is neat. Take something that people take for granted, like Sokoban, and add an unexpected element to it for lots of fun.
8. Chants of Senaar (Mar 21st)
This is a charming puzzle game, in which your task is to go up a tower, learning the languages of its civilizations along the way to solve problems. I liked its visual design made up of relatively simple character models and elaborate environments, I enjoyed its sound design and minimal music, but what struck me as the most inspiring part were, of course, the languages and cultures. While there isn't all that much information given along the way, it's quite interesting to observe how these cultures perceive each other.
Lesson: Languages can provide plenty of space to play around in. Especially interesting is when two words stand for the same thing, yet they have different meanings.
7. Buckshot Roulette (Nov 23rd)
There's a shotgun between you and the Dealer. Several blank rounds, several live, were inserted randomly. You take turns shooting the shotgun - either at yourself or at the Dealer. If you shoot at yourself and it's a blank, you get another turn immediately. It's a bafflingly simple premise, and on the surface, it sounds like coin flips with extra sound effects and gnarly visuals. But with the addition of the special items, randomness gives rise to order. Strategy. Even if the items are random, you suddenly have options on how to control how the randomness goes. This might not be a game I'd play for hours upon hours, but it sure was fun for the little bit I played it for. Multiplayer is fun too, and we even tried the All Live Rounds mode, as stupid as it may sound. I never expected a game of Russian Roulette with all live rounds to actually be made into a tactical game. Well done!
Lesson: Seemingly random chance can be tilted quite a bit with the right tools.
6. Blades in the Dark (Feb 26th)
When I talked about the kind of game that I'd find appealing, Blades in the Dark was recommended to me a couple of times. It's an award-winning game built specifically for sneaky stealth missions, so when I had the chance to try it out, I went for it. The group was fine, the GM was pretty cool, and the story progression was okay, from what I recall we all had a moment to shine here and there. And yet, despite all that, something felt... off to me. I can't put my finger on what, even months later, and that's bothering me. Maybe if I get a chance to play the game some more I could figure it out. It's well made, don't get me wrong. But the reason why it wasn't just right still eludes me.
Lesson: A game may sound like something you'll certainly enjoy, but then you play it, don't enjoy it as much as you expected, and can't tell why. And that's fine.
5. Inscryption (Jan 2nd)
There are so many things I could say about the Inscryption that have been said already. The Magic Circles, the overall visual aesthetics, the satisfaction of its sound design, and the fact that the game has no real HUD (at least in Acts 1 and 3). The one thing that I look back to the most though would be breaking the game with infinite loops. It's fun when numbers go big. While most TTRPGs don't really have acceptable space for this, ... maybe it would be nice to consider it in the future.
Lesson: Infinite loops that happen due to emergent game mechanics can be quite fun. Consider rewarding it if you want to see this kind of stuff, but be cautious of it breaking your game beyond a point you're okay with.
4. Slay the Princess (Dec 2nd)
I was aware of this game before its release thanks to the demo. I didn't play it, because I figured it's a visual novel and I could just watch that online. And I could. But then I decided to buy the game spontaneously when it was on sale after the Pristine Cut and played through it myself just so I could include it on this list. I was in for quite a surprise when I discovered one of the new endings added in the Pristine Cut. The Happily Ever After ending was an experience that hit me harder than I thought this game could. Due to my own personal experiences, it felt too real, too relatable. The game easily earned a rightful spot among my top five just because of that, and then it got even greater when I found the Dragon ending. Those who have gone through the game would surely be able to tell what I mean.
Lesson: Sometimes, a thing that you think you know rather well can throw you an unexpected curveball that changes your mind completely.
3. Outer Wilds (Aug 3rd)
I was one of those people who kept mistaking Outer Wilds and Outer Worlds before I looked at them closer. I took my time getting to this game, and I have to give a shoutout to my friend Jay who gifted me a copy when he heard of my resolution for 2024. I played the game, and I was pleasantly surprised. It looks nice, its controls take some time to get used to but it was worth getting used to, and I was surprised many more times over the course of playing this game. Missing the forest for the trees, learning about the Moon, visiting the Sun Station, and the grand finale of the game, all of it made for a stellar experience. There were some things I didn't learn on my own but I found online, and the game thoroughly impressed me. I had no idea that the planet positions were simulated in real time! What I appreciated was that the solar system felt both huge and tiny at the same time and that I could hardly ever get lost somewhere boring. Not because every place had something interesting, but because the interesting places were obviously more interesting than the rest. I can't remember the last time I played a game where I just wandered around to see things and learn about them instead of pursuing some kind of objective. I need to learn more mindfulness... one day.
Lesson: Learn how to reward the player's curiosity. Also, time limits are important.
2. Hades II (May 19th)
I don't care if it's an Early Access game, it's my list so I'm including it. The last thing I'd expect Supergiant Games to do would have been a sequel, but this one was very much worth it. Switching up the main character, new areas, new enemies, the combat system overhauled to include spells, and so many other changes and additions... I did not expect they could improve what was in my eyes a perfect game, but they did it somehow.
Lesson: People who like stuff will generally welcome more of the stuff. I had no idea what to expect of the studio that was about to make its first-ever sequel, but they certainly did not disappoint.
Honorable Mentions
Before I talk about the top of my list, I'd like to list the other games, which are sorted into three separate categories. To keep these short, I'll list only their lessons.
Beyond the Top 12 (Alphabetical order)
- ABZÛ (Mar 3rd). Underwater environments can be both calming and dreadful.
- City of Mist (July 8th). Powered by the Apocalypse isn't for me. The dice rolls took too long because of the time the players needed to add the tags together, and the tags were easy to abuse for high rolls.
- D&D 4th Edition (Aug 1st). Sometimes a system doesn't need that many mechanics to feel like it has too many mechanics.
- Indigo Park, chapter 1 (Oct 13th). I might enjoy this sort of thing in a Let's Play that runs in the background while I do other stuff, ... but I felt too old to be playing it personally. Mascot horror just isn't for me.
- Maid the Roleplaying Game (Nov 11th). Silly fun can occasionally be a good thing. Go ham! And screw the realism, I don't care if it would burn on its way down, a giant wooden stake tossed down from the outer space rod-from-god style piloted by Rasputin to kill a vampire is a fantastic way to finish a silly session.
- Mörk Börg (May 12th). Fantastic players and an awesome GM can run a great game even with the blandest rules. Yes, Mörk Börg has style, but mechanically it was nothing extraordinary to me. This is the game that made me coin the term soup stone game because it's hard for me to call it a good game or a bad game. It's as good as the players playing it are.
- Never Stop Blowing Up (Nov 26th). A premise can sometimes sound way better than how it actually is. Your roll could in theory end up a staggeringly huge number, but the chance of two explosions happening in a row without the player spending a token is 1 in 24 at best.
- Spec Ops: The Line (Mar 3rd). Sometimes, you can be too late for a good thing. By the time I got to experience this for the first time (nearly 12 years after its release), things that made this game special became the industry standard.
Demos
- 12.5 Esoteric Ebb (Jan 15th). Everything hasn't been discovered just yet. New genres are out there, waiting to be unveiled by those who create amazing things. Imitating them is the sincerest form of flattery.
- 10.5 Pip My Dice (Oct 8th). Even a game with a NUMBERS GO BIG game loops can be a valid source of fun. I know Balatro exists, I avoided that game on purpose because I had resolutions for this year.
- 5.5 Rose and Locket (Oct 12th). Art direction can certainly sell a game.
- 4.5 Rue Valley (Dec 30th). Seeing how spots 2 through 5 involved some kind of time loop or an excuse to go through the same story again and again, ... maybe I really like time loops as a storytelling device.
My Own Works
I did not want to include them on the ranked list, so they were in their own separate category.
- Everyone Slays the Princess (Aug 16th). Sometimes, very little is good enough.
- Runehack: Express Deliveries (Jul 30th). An awesome idea can be proven crappy on the first playtest of it.
Now for the top of my list...
1. Disco Elysium (Mar 17th)
An amnesiac detective wakes up in a rented cafeteria room. Behind the cafeteria, a dead body has been hanging on a tree for a week. It's his job to solve this case. I tried to play this game multiple times in the past, but couldn't bring myself to finish it. I started over at least three times before the playthrough and I finally played all the way to the end. To say that this game is a lot of reading would be an understatement, and that's talking about it after it was updated with voice lines on pretty much everything. And that's not even mentioning the flowery language the game enjoys using. It's well written, but I'm not a native English speaker, so sometimes it takes me a moment to fully grasp what's actually being said. That being said, this is truly a genre-defining game and a start of something new. Remember how I mentioned the Esoteric Ebb and Rue Valley above? Those two could be described as 'disco-like', and they are not the only ones. There's already another game in the works called XXX Nightshift that appears to also fall into this genre. And more might be on the way.
The most important aspect of Disco Elysium to me has to be the strangeness of its world compared to ours, and how those who live in it take these things for granted, more or less. The bizarro nature (or lack thereof) of the Pale that surrounds the various parts of the world. The future of Revachol. The encounter that the protagonist of the game has towards the end of the game, those who played the game know which one I'm talking about. The Doomed Commercial Area, where all the companies somehow fail. Literally everything about the Shivers, and Inland Empire. How they don't track their centuries with numbers and don't really question it. The glowing lungs as a divine sign. The detective having entire dialogues with things that shouldn't be able to talk. So many times we make a fantasy world, and yet we stick to the sensibilities of the medieval times, or Industrial Revolution, or ancient civilizations, or the modern era. There's so much untapped potential for new things. The next time you work on something in your fictional world and you're about to put into it something we take for granted, pause. Take a step back, and consider what could it be like if things were different. It doesn't have to make sense. It doesn't have to be a huge thing. But it could be something tiny that could one day bring awe to a person who experiences your world.
Lesson: Don't be afraid to be weird in the worldbuilding, and treat the weird things as real.
Hopes and Goals for 2025
Wow, that took me a long time to write! Now then, what grand goals do I have for the next year, you may ask? I accomplished everything I wanted to do this year, and arguably to an extent greater than I even dared to imagine at the start of the year. Surely I want to aim higher this time.
For this year, I have one resolution only. I want to Make 12-25 Things. It's partly inspired by Jonathan Coulton's "Thing a Week" project, where he composed a song every week for a year. What is a Thing in my case? Honestly, anything that's at least a bit beyond my comfort zone. For example:
- A TTRPG that's more than a page long and has nice formatting, or one page with optional stuff on the other page.
- A YouTube video that's either more than a minute long or a decent Short.
- A song that I'd compose and post on YouTube. Those both would count as one Thing.
Things that are month-long challenges, such as NaNoWriMo or Inktober will count as two Things since I expect myself to make one Thing roughly every two weeks. I know I don't want to count the blog posts as Things since those are already firmly in my comfort zone, so I can't even guess how many blog posts I'll make this year. Honestly, I don't want to list what specifically Things are, because I don't want to repeat the same mistake I made with the 12 Good Games resolution. Who knows, I might find new Things over the course of the year that I didn't consider today. Maybe cooking? Maybe cosplay? Who knows what the future holds!
Thank you for reading! Have a lovely Happy New Year 2025, and may you too achieve your goals!
