34: The End of Autumn
I record every game I play and I post them weekly [well, not really anymore]. Here are links to one, two, and three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty, twenty-one, twenty-two, and twenty-three, twenty-four, twenty-five, twenty-six, twenty-seven, and twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thirty, thirty-one, thirty-two, and thirty-three.
Up until I started teaching, I consistently posted the games I played every week. However, prepping for 12 hours of presentations per week is taxing, so I could no longer dedicate 3–4 hours to writing about these games. I just lost the habit, so I haven’t posted recently.
In order to be better at this, I’m aiming to do quick posts instead of fussing over words. There are instances where I’ll want to write more about a certain game, and I’ll be posting those separately (probably). There is great pleasure in recommending games, and the more I can do it, the better it is for everyone.
I’m also about to start posting for @gamejamcurator. I’ve been on board for a bit, but haven’t posted yet because I’ve got to figure out a workflow to produce GIFs. I’ve made some before, but they weren’t satisfactory for me.
I also decided that, unlike most publications/people, I prefer to group games by seasons, not years. Being that Winter begins tomorrow, I’m making a post for all of the games I haven’t written about that belong here…
Autumn
Just like most people can understand that horror movies are best watched at night, so many games feel more appropriate during certain seasons to me. Abridged examples: Winter = cold, dark, scary games, Spring = verdant flora-heavy games, Summer = bright sunny cheerful games, and Autumn games have these characteristics:
- Scenery that depicts the Autumn, of course! It’s wonderful to see bright yellow, orange, and red leaves on my screen and outside my window.
- Deep hues. Spring has bright colours as the sun makes itself more known, and Autumn marks the impending darkness while still maintaining a lovely palette. The screenshots below will really make it clear.
- Games that have a Halloween/horror feeling to them.
- Sometimes a game just feels right in Autumn for no particular reason.
For commercial examples I didn’t get around to playing this season:
And now…
Arseholevania by marbenx: Castlevania but with physics and shredding. One of my favourite game endings of all time.
Bellular Hexatosis by Neotenomie & Porpentine: Besides having a title that pops into my head randomly, this game contains a narrative as vibrant as its visuals. My attention span is usually too short to enjoy interactive fiction (yes, even Bitsy games), but I was hooked the entire way through.
hall2 by Sam Blye: A procgen eerie hallway. I can’t explain why I love it, but I really do.
Rose Dust Blood Ruins by Deleted_Itch: A randomized name, a randomized space, a randomized story. It’s probably unbeatable, and not too much to it, but a nice little bit of atmospheric creepiness.
In The Kingdom by Amon Twentysix: A short and excellent horror FPS. Gameplay is tight, but the between-level scenes were by far my favourite bits.
Nth Dimension[al] Hiking by Zachariah Chandler: One of those games where you gotta figure it out on your own. Simply wonderful.
POTiON by ERYANGI: Obviously gorgeous. Took a bit for me to figure out, but it was definitely worth it.
The Static by Pol Clarissou: I’d love to be inside of this as long as I knew I’d be okay.
Note: DUSK is an Autumn game for me, but I need to give it its own post. It doesn’t need more press than it’s already receiving, but it’s something I need to write more than a couple sentences about it for personal reasons.
Other media that have an Autumn vibe for me
Atypical (TV show): A show starring an Autistic kid and his family. It just shows one possible representation of the disability, and it’s cool to see some of the overlap I have with the boy.
s/t, La Mia Vita Violenta, Fake Can Be Just As Good by Blonde Redhead; s/t, Nook, 12, Shrink by The Notwist: I purchased all of these (except Shrink) in Portland all at the same time because they were inexpensive. Both are two of my favourite bands starting from the albums Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons and Neon Golden, respectively. The previous albums before these two I think are pretty good, but the further back in time, the less I enjoy them. However, I do feel that the more I listen to them, the more they’ll grow on me once I shed my expectations of what these bands sound like now.
This Is Meant To Hurt You by These Arms Are Snakes: I heard the song “The Blue Rose” because it was on a compilation disc for the video skate magazine, 411. I thought it was pretty cool and I picked this up at a local record store. It’s great, and fits into Autumn well because Reasons.
