Alex Zandra is a Canadian game designer and light novelist. She makes all kinds of stuff on her Patreon. You can find her on Twitter @zandravandra.
Hey hi folks! It’s been… a difficult year. I hope you’re doing okay. <3
Exhaustion, personal stuff, heavy-duty therapy--and then, the pandemic--have meant that out of all the things I wanted to accomplish this year, only a scant few got done. I had planned to get my latest book out of the way in April so I could move on to other things; it got released in October. Of the half-dozen projects I had on my plate for the last two months, I could only muster enough energy for one and a half. I dragged myself across the 2020 finish line more tired than ever.
Having to strike a bunch of fun projects from my list this year was hard. I wanted to write more! Make some new art! Organize the latest installment of a certain game jam! But, I couldn’t. Still, I got enough done to pull myself back into a relatively safe & stable position. And considering how the last twelve months have gone, that’s probably plenty.
I’m sad I spent most of the Year of the Mouse hiding in my Montreal mouse hole, but in-between all the working, the healing and the resting, I did get to play some games. A few of them stood out: either they helped me grow, they made me part of an unforgettable experience, or they were exactly what I needed at the time. And here they are!
I missed out on a lot of things in 2020, but thankfully writing this list wasn’t one of them. It’s one of my favorite yearly traditions, after all! I’m so glad I get to share it with you once again. <3
10. Arknights
You know what else I miss? Tower defense! So imagine how excited I was to learn about Arknights, which takes the classic formula and mixes in some single-unit tactics in a way that makes you care about each “tower” you place onto the battlefield. Because they’re all cute anime furries! Why design generic towers when your game can have a dragon girl tank, an owl girl medic, a snow leopard swordsmen, a deer lady sniper, and so so many more?
It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a game that was so laser-targeted at me specifically. One of the units is literally a mouse girl streamer!
I really love the gameplay because it’s different enough from what I’m used to with classic tower defense games that it scratches a completely new itch. The team you bring in makes a huge difference, as does where you put each unit down, facing which direction, and with what special ability equipped. A lot of the characters’ skills are complementary in fun ways, too, which has made it a lot of fun to compare notes and strategies with friends. Especially considering how different our teams tend to be due to the pulls we get.
Because this is a gacha game. And that comes with enough baggage that it’s totally fair if this ends up being the dealbreaker for you. It’s the nicest gacha game I’ve ever played, to be clear: it has a cheap monthly pass for extra bonuses, it always errs on the side of giving the player more, it sends gifts to apologize for downtime, it ensures there’s no wrong or sub-optimal way to spend any of its resources…
…but it’s still a gacha. And not even the nicest possible game built on gambling elements can escape them. I really liked the hours I put into Arknights (and the amazing quantity of queer fanart its players have created), but as much as I enjoy it, I can never let down my guard.
9. Super Crush KO
SPACE LESBIANS! Well, okay, only one is from space, but there IS an adorable cat too! It’s what the entire story of this arcade platformer revolves around: an alien lady has stolen your kitten, and you’ve got to fight through her entire robot army to get your companion back! And maybe pick up another one along the way, too.
This game is exactly the kind of pick-up-and-play experience that I turn to when I need a palate-cleanser. It’s a visual delight, the soundtrack’s a slice of heaven, and it’s such a joy to play through the bite-size battles that make up each of Super Crush KO’s levels. Your varsity-jacketed, super-powered character has a versatile arsenal of moves at her disposal, and they all flow into each other so well that just writing about it makes me want to go play a few rounds right now.
This is the kind of extremely polished gameplay that Vertex Pop is known for (they previously made Graceful Explosion Machine and We Are Doomed, both of which approached this philosophy from different genres). Every time I wondered if I could cancel into a certain move, or whether one ability would flow into another, I was delighted to find that the game was seemingly designed with it in mind. It’s so rare to play games that make me smile the entire way through, both for the aesthetics and the minute mechanical details.
I should say that this game was made by friends; I was lucky enough to get to see some bits and pieces of it on a trip about a year and a half ago. But though I instantly fell in love with the characters, I had no idea back then just how well the entire game would come together.
8. A Monster’s Expedition
Another game I count myself fortunate to have seen glimpses of during its development is A Monster’s Expedition (Through Puzzling Exhibitions), here and there over the course of many coffee shop dev hangouts. It never fails to make me appreciate just how much a game changes over the course of making it, especially when the core design is a series of moves and rules on a grid.