This article was originally published on my Patreon, patreon.com/hannahnicklin
As we crawl squinting out of the cave of the end of 2016, 2017 glares at us, shining all up in our faces. Late (as usual) to the party, I grab my laptop and write for you my GOTY (Games of the Year) list. It’s only loosely ‘2016’ – they don’t have to have been released this year, just things I played for the first time this year. And my GOTY has a theme, of sorts (with one outlier I shall tie in because of its diametric opposite to the theme). The theme is non-multiplayer multiplaying – that is, a way of exploring how the best experiences I’ve had with games this year have all been with people, in some way, even though the games weren’t designed that way.
One of the things a game designer can rarely design for (except in an exhibition or installation context) is the layer of play that happens in the place of play. There’s the layer of the game in the console or PC, then the layer of the interface with that game – those things are set and/or within the control of the game designer. But there’s also the layer/context of the place the play happens; a lounge, a bedroom, a party, an evening with the family, after the kids have gone to bed, with your housemate, on a train, your girlfriend’s house, by a bus stop, while you’re supposed to be working, while dinner cooks, with the windows open and a summer thunderstorm outside, etc. Smells, sights, stress, relative comfort, company. In the article on Tony Hawk published recently I talked about the theatre of the game – without an explicit multiplayer format and yet with short free-play levels that connected to the theatre of the sport; ‘look what I can do!’.
The games that stuck with me most this year were played by, with, or around others. Except the last one. And I therefore write this GOTY article in consideration of how that Other Layer of gameplay affects us, that layer designers typically have no control over. Let’s go:
ABZU. www.abzugame.com
I played this on my own first. Well, not on my own, with my housemate Pat in the room, but he was doing something else mostly. I’m not very good with FPS controls so as soon as I pick up a game on a console I’m nervous – do I need to be able to orient myself and react quickly? I felt this especially ABZU, which is about water; swimming.Did you know that I was a competitive swimmer? Did you know that for 10 years of my life I swam everyday except Saturdays? Did you know that there was a time when I felt more at home in water than I did in the air? When I dream about flying, I dream that I am swimming, I dream that I swim strong and powerfully through the air, sculling to stay up when I stop. I was 8 years old when I realised for the first time that swimming was a small kind of superpower. My brother and I went on holiday to Center Parcs – and under the huge ‘Tropical’ dome set against Sherwood forest me and my brother discovered that we had a small kind of superpower, surrounded by people who didn’t know how to move through water, who fought it, who would crick their necks afraid they could not breathe and turn themselves into shapes that sink, make it harder. My brother and I moved through the water… thoughtlessly.
I pick up the PS4 controller and think of the double insult that the game will throw at me if I can not just ‘not control it well’, but not control a swimming game well. But they catch it, they catch it just right, the thrill of the speed, but also the thickness of it, how it slows you, how you scull and slip and slice your way through. Diving! The thrill of power behind acceleration, the slower-than-air grace of a spin or somersault, a rip, a clean entry. The tasks are there because it’s a game and it has to move you about a bit. Show you progress. They’re not all tasks I don’t want to do, the most alive bits are when I chase a shark, or gasp at blue whales, I do a lot of noodling around. I make friends with fish.
My favourite thing about ABZU, though, is showing it to my brother. My brother visits my house for the first time since I moved in. In the day we look at some huge pieces of metal in a gallery near King’s Cross. In the evening I make us dinner and we play ABZU and Virginia. ABZU is a thrill to watch him play; what he discovers that I don’t. I remember how he would swim differently to me. I remember that my brother was long and tall, always a head above boys his age. I remember how his stroke almost seemed lazy, the way he would have to move his arms through such a long path. I remember how I was always a sprinter, punchy, backstroke was my best, I loved the rush of a perfectly executed backstroke start: good grip on the wall with your feet, tensing at ‘take your marks’, the gun, the arc, the rush, cutting into the water, dolphin kick to the surface, first breath and knowing that you already found a second on your nearest competitor. He plays ABZU dramatically differently to me, the way he would swim, it’s methodical almost.
One Way Trip playstation.com/en-us/games/one-way-trip-ps4
A large number of the games I know about are games I do not play. There’s a great article by Robert Yang about games as thought experiments – there’s a few ways to take that sentiment, and one of them is that understanding the premise and rules of a game are in some ways a way of playing it. Of playing it out in our heads. I mean it more literally here, though. I’m talking about Pat. I have a super great housemate who amongst being clean, tolerant of bike stuff, and nice to be around (best housemate traits) is also an incredible curator of games and collector of games-things. It’s pretty easy to say that the majority of the games I experience are ones I don’t play, but ones I’m around when they’re being played by Pat. As I work on my laptop, emails, or articles, or research, Pat will be sat on the PS4 playing something. Most of the time this feels like a thing I can happily put out of my mind as I work, occasionally glancing up and asking half-interestedly about a monster, character or plot point. This year, however, there’s one game I just couldn’t stop looking at. And in fact, that I specifically asked Pat to play, because I just wanted to be around it.
One Way Trip is a game ported to the US PlayStation Store (it’s v easy to get a US account to play it with in case you’re wondering). It’s a piece of interactive-graphic fiction with the best goddam soundtrack I ever heard. The plot is summarised online as “You, your brother, and much of the rest of the Nation have been poisoned. You have six hours left to live, and you will spend them hallucinating as you die” and has the most inexplicably low review score I’ve ever seen. It’s a masterpiece of aesthetics and low-fi hip hop, it’s hilarious, it’s ridiculous, the animation and illustration is vibrant and hallucinatory and could cover a record or a punk zine, and the music I could listen to all day. Each bit of animation hops in and around the beats and adds in layer after layer to the almost incomprehensible story which as both form and content perfectly represents its premise. I have written to Michael Frauenhofer to ask him to make the Bandcamp albums Pay-what-you-want rather than free so I can give him some money for them. In the meantime, I ask Pat if he can play some more of the game. The tracks seem better in the game than out, somehow.
Lieve Oma vltmn.itch.io/lieve-oma
I’m on a date. It’s not really a date. I’m with someone I’m dating. We’re not really dating. It’s that bit. We’re in Berlin. There’s a room of games and queues in front of many of them. I’m laughing. There’s an excitement in my stomach which is often the thing I miss the most when I think that maybe I should get out there again – the feeling in your stomach like laughter and whisky and GCSEs. There are people around who know us both and we don’t know if this is a thing and can’t really be bothered to get teased or gossiped about. It feels like they’re always looking at us. Even when they’re not in the room. Even though no one has noticed this feeling in my stomach and our attention to one another.
We find this game open. No one’s standing in front of it. I put my glass of ‘it comes in two colours’ wine down, and we spend a few moments playing Leive Oma. The colours are beautiful. I like controlling the camera like I’m shooting the movie. The dialogue which feels a little stilted or in-translation at the beginning begins to feel like ‘actually this is not how my grandma talked to me, but how someone’s specific grandma talked’. Northern English grandmas don’t go in for ‘sweetie’ epithets, but this isn’t a northern England grandma. The game shifts subtly and I know I am not this character, though I could be, as the character I speak as is pleasingly un-gendered. I pause for a second and think about how I’d feel to play this game and ‘control’ the dialogue of the grandma and not the the child.
We move on. I’ll play the game again on my own a couple of months later. This time I’ll play it long enough for the season change and the heron reveal. It captures most that feeling I recognise of seeing a beautiful thing from nature in front of me, suddenly, ordinary and extraordinary simultaneously.
Inside playdead.com/games/inside
This year I became friends again with someone who I used to date. We didn’t talk for a couple of years, but last year we met by accident and remembered that we’re good together. Just not that kind of together. We’re still at the bit where we don’t talk too much about our boyfriends or girlfriends, where we have the occasional moment or hug where we have to suddenly readjust; it’s not feelings, but the space where feelings used to be. It’s not sad, but… you know what I mean?
One weekend, Pat’s away at some festival in Texas, I cook dinner and my friend and I hang out, we’d planned to watch some cycling on the telly but when he arrives I’m playing the first bit of Inside. Instead, we get steadily drunker and solve puzzles together. Our brains function perfectly together, anything I can’t see instantly he can right away. I love the lighting, and the controls, which are light-touch and never make me feel on the edge of my capability. The puzzles are well-balanced, pleasing to tangle with and the animation tactile, the fiction behind the world lightly delivered, if broadly painted. In the space of the evening we get about 3/4 of the way through. We don’t finish it. We get too drunk and laugh too much, and he gets an Uber home. We hug before he goes and he kisses me on the cheek. I still haven’t finished it, it feels wrong, to see how it ends without him.
Cribbage with Grandpas cribbagewithgrandpas.com
This is the game I have played most this year. This is a game I have played with an array of Grandpas. At the beginning I design my own. The Grandpa designer is perfect, just the right mix of colour matching/blocking, and options, just the right selection of skin colours, features, gestures towards characterisation, and personality, that leave room for you to infer much more. I design 3 grandpas to begin with, each of them a grandpa of colour. I have had no grandpas in my life that I would wish to play cribbage with so my instinct is to design fictional grandpas, it never even occurs for me to build my own. And because I feel like there’s probably a low representation of grandpas of colour in my life, I create three fictional grandpas of colour to play with, something which Pat describes as ‘one of the most Hannah Nicklin things I ever heard’.
I get a lot better at cribbage. I love the characterisations and quips the grandpas add to the game. It isn’t until I describe the game to my friend Alice that I think of real-grandpa grandpa design. I invite her to make a grandpa for me to play with, and her instinct is to make her own. We carefully construct him, she laughs at how weirdly accurate it looks and feels by the end. We set him as a hard-difficulty and for a couple of weeks he is my biggest adversary. Grumpy and largely silent he destroys me game after game. My first victory against him is the biggest rush I feel that whole month (a month in which I am performing daily in front of audiences of 80-100 people).
The month following I drop my phone in a toilet bowl while bleaching it. The phone dies. ‘That’s fine’ I think, I forgive myself, because life is too short to get het up about this kind of thing. I get another phone off eBay. It’s fine, I backed my phone up pretty recently. When I reinstall my new phone, I discover I have only one grandpa. The first; Sanjit. I feel sadder about losing those 3 later-made grandpas than I do about losing a whole month of pictures. I still haven’t made new grandpas and I feel bad about losing Alice’s especially. There’s just me and Sanjit now. 49 wins to his 50.
The Long Dark hinterlandgames.com
I am alone, mostly it doesn’t matter I’m a bit slow on FPS controls, the only time it’s hard is when the wolves come, and really, hard and panicky and not knowing if I can get away feels appropriate. I start to play it at dinner. Pat goes to bed. I play it until the early hours, my eyes scritched open as I wonder if I can make it to the next settlement, supplies are running low here and I’ve managed to craft fishing materials, mended all my clothes, maybe if I find enough food here to move on I can investigate further, learn more, survive better. I’m so tired I press the wrong button. Instead of stashing the fish, for cooking later, I accidentally eat it. I’m tired, and a stupid mistake gives me food poisoning. I was exhausted and a stupid mistake killed me.
That’s how most of us die, if we’re honest, come the apocalypse. With not enough drinking water. Or too cold. Or a small cut and no antibiotics. Not enough knowledge about medicinal herbs. A bit of fish that’s gone off. Cold, alone, and mundane. This is the game I play the second most in 2016. I think most of all I need the fiction that I can have another go.
What’s up friends, how is all, and what you wish for to say on the topic of this piece
of writing, in my view its genuinely amazing designed
for me.
We’re a group of volunteers and opening a new scheme in our community.
Your web site provided us with useful info to work on. You have performed an impressive activity and our whole
neighborhood will be grateful to you.
Hello just wanted to give you a quick heads up and let you know a few of the images aren’t loading properly.
I’m not sure why but I think its a linking issue. I’ve tried it in two different
browsers and both show the same results.
Hey would you mind stating which blog platform you’re using?
I’m going to start my own blog soon but I’m having a difficult time
deciding between BlogEngine/Wordpress/B2evolution and Drupal.
The reason I ask is because your design and style seems different then most blogs and I’m looking for something unique.
P.S Sorry for getting off-topic but I had to ask!
I read this piece of writing fully regarding the comparison of
most recent and preceding technologies, it’s awesome article.
Sedot WC Indo merupakan spesialis jasa sedot wc di Bekasi, kami menyediakan layanan jasa sedot wc 24 jam untuk mengatasi
segala macam masalah WC seperti wc mampet, saluran air mampet, dan saluran pembuangan macet.
Kami memiliki pekerja yang profesional dan ahli dibidang sedot wc.
Kami sudah berpengalaman selama bertahun-tahun dan selalu berupaya untuk memberikan pelayanan yang terbaik dan maksimal.
Kami memberikan layanan jasa sedot wc Malang dan sekitarnya dengan biaya sedot wc
terjangkau untuk kalangan masyarakat manapun. Berpengalaman selama 20 tahun serta didukung dengan peralatan yang modern. Sehingga hasil dijamin memuaskan.
Setiap septictank dilengkapi resapan dan rembesan berfungsi untuk
mencegah terjadinya penuh, resapan berfungsi untuk penyerapan air ke dalam tanah setelah melewati proses penyaringan agar endapan kotoran tidak
menutupi pori pori tanah, dan rembesan berfungsi untuk pembuangan luapan air ke
got pastinya setelah melewati filter / penyaringan juga, air yang keluar jernih tanpa adanya ampas kotoran,
apabila salah satu fungsi tersebut bermasalah makan air akan memenuhi septictank sampai ke toilet / Wc
sehingga tidak dapat digunakan lagi,
An interesting discussion is worth comment.
I believe that you ought to publish more on this issue, it may
not be a taboo subject but usually people do not talk about these subjects.
To the next! Many thanks!!
If you desire to take a great deal from this paragraph then you have
to apply such strategies to your won web site.
Hello there, I discovered your web site by the use of Google at
the same time as searching for a comparable topic, your
web site got here up, it seems to be good. I have bookmarked it in my google bookmarks.
Hello there, simply changed into alert to your weblog via Google, and found that it is
really informative. I’m gonna be careful for brussels.
I’ll be grateful if you continue this in future.
Many other people will likely be benefited from your writing.
Cheers!
Someone necessarily lend a hand to make critically articles I might state.
This is the very first time I frequented your web page and to this
point? I amazed with the research you made to
make this actual submit extraordinary. Great job!
Hi there! I could have sworn I’ve been to
this website before but after browsing through a few of the posts I realized it’s
new to me. Regardless, I’m definitely pleased I discovered it and I’ll be bookmarking it and checking back regularly!
I always spent my half an hour to read this blog’s articles every day along with a cup of coffee.
I’m not sure why but this web site is loading incredibly slow for me.
Is anyone else having this problem or is it a issue on my end?
I’ll check back later on and see if the problem still exists.
Everything is very open with a precise description of the issues.
It was definitely informative. Your site is extremely helpful.
Thanks for sharing!
Remarkable! Its genuinely awesome article, I have got
much clear idea on the topic of from this post.
Thanks very nice blog!
I’m truly enjoying the design and layout of your blog.
It’s a very easy on the eyes which makes it much more pleasant for me to come here and visit
more often. Did you hire out a developer to
create your theme? Excellent work!
constantly i used to read smaller articles or reviews that as well clear their motive, and that is also happening with this
piece of writing which I am reading here.
Hey! Someone in my Facebook group shared this site with us so
I came to take a look. I’m definitely enjoying the information. I’m
bookmarking and will be tweeting this to my followers!
Terrific blog and superb style and design.
Great beat ! I wish to apprentice while you amend your site, how could i subscribe for a blog website?
The account helped me a acceptable deal. I had been a
little bit acquainted of this your broadcast offered bright clear concept
I for all time emailed this website post page to all my friends, as if like to read
it then my contacts will too.
I absolutely love your blog.. Very nice colors & theme. Did you create this amazing site yourself?
Please reply back as I’m attempting to create my own personal
blog and would like to know where you got this from or exactly what the theme is called.
Many thanks!
Your way of telling all in this post is really fastidious, all be capable of effortlessly understand it, Thanks a lot.
What’s Going down i’m new to this, I stumbled upon this I
have discovered It positively helpful and it has helped me out loads.
I’m hoping to contribute & assist different users
like its helped me. Good job.
Hello! This is my first visit to your blog! We are a collection of volunteers and starting a new
initiative in a community in the same niche. Your blog provided us useful information to work on. You
have done a outstanding job!
Why viewers still use to read news papers when in this technological world
all is existing on web?
I have been browsing on-line greater than three hours these days, but I never
discovered any fascinating article like yours.
It’s beautiful worth sufficient for me. In my view,
if all site owners and bloggers made excellent content as you probably did, the internet will probably be much more helpful than ever before.
Hello, I would like to subscribe for this blog to get newest updates, thus
where can i do it please help.
Hi there just wanted to give you a quick heads up and
let you know a few of the pictures aren’t loading correctly.
I’m not sure why but I think its a linking issue.
I’ve tried it in two different browsers and both show the same
results.
I am not sure where you are getting your info, but great
topic. I needs to spend some time learning much more or understanding more.
Thanks for wonderful info I was looking for this info
for my mission.
First of all I would like to say terrific blog! I had a quick question that
I’d like to ask if you don’t mind. I was interested to know how you center yourself and clear your thoughts before writing.
I’ve had trouble clearing my thoughts in getting my thoughts out.
I do enjoy writing however it just seems like the first 10 to 15 minutes tend to
be lost simply just trying to figure out how to begin. Any recommendations or tips?
Cheers!
We’re a group of volunteers and starting a new scheme in our community.
Your web site provided us with valuable information to work on. You have done a formidable job and our whole community will be
grateful to you.
Whenever you produce more Search engine optimisation-pleasant
content material, you’ve gotten more opportunities to construct thematic relevance within your site.
The various types of hyperlink constructing methods have been listed below.
Replicate prime-performing weblog content material:
The corporate finds competitor blog posts with excessive link volume and builds better assets round the
identical subject. When multiple pages cover the identical keyword, chances are high none cover it comprehensively.
Get featured on useful resource pages. Seeing which pages of competitors entice hyperlinks is revealing, not just in quantity,
however in context. Analyze competitor backlinks amounts to reviewing which web sites hyperlink to rivals and identifying opportunities to earn comparable or better placements.
This serves as a link building strategy by attracting backlinks naturally.
By writing informative and priceless content for other web sites in your business, you not
solely establish yourself as an professional but additionally earn backlinks to your personal website.
From social media to nontraditional advertising hacks, this text will help you figure out what it actually takes to learn how to
extend web site visitors on your store. With a concentrate on powerful and distinctive options to reinforce gross sales, Broadcast
stands out as one of the premier Shopify themes for Search engine
marketing, crafted by Invisible Themes. They reach out to the referring domains with a pitch for up
to date or more complete content.
Great beat ! I would like to apprentice while you amend your website, how can i subscribe
for a weblog website? The account helped me a applicable deal.
I were a little bit acquainted of this your broadcast
provided shiny clear concept
fantastic issues altogether, you just received a logo
new reader. What could you suggest about your post that you
simply made some days ago? Any certain?
Your style is really unique compared to other folks
I’ve read stuff from. Thanks for posting when you have the opportunity,
Guess I’ll just bookmark this site.
Hi there would you mind letting me know which hosting company
you’re utilizing? I’ve loaded your blog in 3 completely
different internet browsers and I must say this blog loads a lot faster then most.
Can you recommend a good hosting provider at a honest price?
Kudos, I appreciate it!
It’s going to be finish of mine day, except before ending I am reading this
wonderful piece of writing to increase my know-how.
Hi there! This is my first visit to your blog! We are a group of
volunteers and starting a new initiative in a community in the
same niche. Your blog provided us beneficial information to work on. You have done a marvellous job!
I just could not leave your web site prior to suggesting that I extremely enjoyed the standard
information an individual provide in your visitors?
Is going to be back incessantly to inspect new posts
you’re in point of fact a good webmaster. The site loading pace is amazing.
It kind of feels that you are doing any unique trick.
Furthermore, The contents are masterwork. you have done a fantastic process in this matter!
Udenafil is a treatment for erectile dysfunction developed using proprietary technology by Dong-A ST (Dong-A Pharmaceutical) of South Korea. It is a proud new drug that was developed in 2005 as the fourth drug in the world and the first in Korea.
This is very interesting, You are a very skilled blogger.
I have joined your feed and look forward to seeking more of
your wonderful post. Also, I have shared your website in my social networks!
Hey there! I’m at work surfing around your blog from
my new iphone! Just wanted to say I love reading your blog and look forward to all your posts!
Keep up the excellent work!
Thanks for the good writeup. It in fact was once a amusement account it.
Look complicated to far brought agreeable from you! However, how can we be
in contact?
Yes! Finally something about source.
Hmm it looks like your website ate my first comment (it was extremely long) so I guess I’ll just sum it up what I wrote and say, I’m thoroughly enjoying your blog.
I as well am an aspiring blog blogger but I’m still new to everything.
Do you have any tips and hints for first-time blog writers?
I’d genuinely appreciate it.
W Polsce uzytkownicy chwala sobie plynnosc grafiki oraz stabilnosc dzialania Vulkan Spiele.
Vulkan Spiele oferuja szeroki wybor gatunkow gier.
Dzieki temu zarowno deweloperzy, jak i gracze odnosza wymierne korzysci.
Recenzje i poradniki pomagaja nowym graczom zaczac przygode z Vulkan.
vulkan spiele bonus za rejestracj? vulkan spiele bonus za rejestracj?.