goty's of the year 2023

these are games

in no particular order

finally published, right on time, in february of 2025

sky cotl: was this on here last time? whatever. i'm not opening up last year's list to check. holdng hands with my friends and running around makes me so happy. ok wait pause i did in fact open up last year's and check and it was not on there. i'll say a bit more, then. i've forced a few friends to play sky with me, or to pick it back up after they'd stopped playing for a bit. it made me kind of emotional to run around holding hands and being silly with my friends. i also spent a lot of time in 2023 teaching myself little songs on the musical instruments in sky. i'd find a nice place to sit, and i'd play along to youtube videos. i liked going to kind of spooky places to do this, to make it a little sweeter. i also liked hiding up in the corners of big spaces players occasionally have to pass through so they wonder where the music's coming from. anytime i saw somebody else playing music, i'd go quietly sit in front of them and have my little guy wave a light back and forth like you would at a concert, and then i really enthusiastically had my guy clap and cheer and express how good the music was. i made a few sweet little friends in the game this way, and i got to listen to a lot of incredibly talented musicians.
sky cotl again but that bullet point was getting long and this one's specific: there's a little rolling emote, where instead of walking around you essentially sommersalt around. it's kinda slow and makes a squeaky noise. when i learned how to do this, i went through the scariest and most difficult level and i just insisted on rolling the whole way through, even when it took like three times longer than normal and made things so so so much harder. two or three complete strangers saw me doing this, seemingly thought it was fun or funny or silly, and joined me - even though this meant we all got hurt over and over in the game, way more than if we'd just been running. it was so silly and i had so much fun.
yes ok one more bullet point about it. i had a lonely year, especially in the beginning. i spent a lot of time laying in bed, wasting away, feeling a million miles away. learning that little instrument and running around and being nice to strangers in the game gave me something to do and something to focus on and something to enjoy and feel excited about. ok now that's the last bullet point about it. carry on.
genderwrecked: replayed it this year til my computer got mad at me and made me stop only partway through. still, kicks ass. always good.
blazin' 8's, that discord voice chat game: when i play this with friend a, we're pleasant. we're two colleagues enjoying a lovely little game. we occasionally each give the other a win purposefully. we send little hearts back and forth. when friend b and i play this game, it becomes an all-out war. we are tearing each other apart on the battlefield. we are employing the dirtiest, most under-handed, most cheap, most bad-faith techniques known to man. we are saying things to each other in outrage that cannot be taken back. one time i just said "i wanna fight" and they said "ok" and opened up the game immediately.
bard tale: friend b from above made this game. it kicks ass, and you know i mean it bc i would normally jump at any opportunity to tear them down.
you died on a tuesday: this is a beautiful game. made me tear up, gave me goosebumps. just really beautiful.
open world shutter: another win from jonny. who is surprised.
heart break impact: another win from sam and jack. who is surprised.
being held hostage on the phone while my friend sings horrible parodies of already over-done songs at me that he heard on instagram and apparently relistened to and rewatched enough times to memorize all the fucked up horrible little lyircs: one of them is creep sung in peter griffin's voice... they do the impression and everything... if i wait too long between performances before responding he starts over at the beginning... they make me clap every time
you have one ability... the ability to fuck this up!: why haven't i put more ttrpgs on my goty lists in the past? anyway i love this one, i've gm'd like probably 5 ish games using it over the last couple years. rules-lite and fun and the title always makes people laugh.
soccer: like tje sport.
mondays: a sisyphean typing game: haha :)
trying to find a job: *whispering weakly, head barely lifting up from where it's pillowed against my arms at this point* still fun i'm still having so much fun
reaper's goodbye: really cool game, really fascinating list of influences in this devlog.
editing one discord message to add sentence after sentence one at a time, going from "hey guys i'm gonna be muted bc i'm feeling a little sick, gotta wait til it subsides" to "hey guys i'm gonna be muted bc i'm feeling a little sick, gotta wait til it subsides (edit also i am convinced taco bell will genuinely help & have experience that suggests it will. can i charge this taco bell order to medi-cal. prescription taco bell. prescribed a medicinal bean and cheese burrito. shaking out a bottle of medication and it's just a vegetarian crunchwrap supreme i squished into there thunking out into the table with a horrible wet thwap. pouring little bits of baja blast into a like cough syrup cap to drink it. just kidding baja blast would i think deal the killing blow on me right now but isn't it a funny image anyway. a scene from like a movie where somebody is tenderly caring for me while i'm sick like i'm an old west cowboy and they're mopping my forehead with a towel wet with fire sauce. they gingerly feed me a potato soft taco in flickering candle light, tipping my head forward to help me eat. squeezing the cinnabon bite filling out into their hands and rubbing it over my skin like it's a topical treatment. putting the warm package of a three-cheese quesadilla against my stomach like it's a hot compress to ease pain. calling the doordash driver out like the town physician, and they deliver the food and then walk out drying their hands with their shirtsleeves rolled up and they face an anxious crowd and, after a pause, shake their head grimly. crushing up tortilla chips and queso into a gritty paste and applying it like a poultice, not even to a wound or anything, really just sort of throwing it all at the wall to see what sticks at this point.)": i'm gonna be honest i did this one on 12/29/2023 so really came in just barely under the wire but boy did i have a fun time with it
vanitas: whew. yeah. ...yeah. really good. really well executed. ...sigh. yeah really good game.
when my life begins: yeahhh.....
i'll figure it out: really good zine/essay/anti-poem
[ABSOLUTE TOP GOTY ALERT!!!!!]
sitting across from my friend in the kitchen, rolling a large lemon and a mostly-empty plastic peanut butter jar back-and-forth across the table, switching who has which each pass, for so long that it gets dark outside.

these aren't all games that came out in 2023. also, i linked to all smaller games but i don't think anybody needs me to link to like. animal crossing and jackbox or the bigger indies.

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