Detention (2017) from Red Candle Games (PC, Switch)
Detention is a puzzle horror game that takes place in 1960s Taiwan under the rule of the Communist Party. This is the height of paranoia among the Communists, where anyone can be disappeared at any time based solely on suspicion.
The game takes pieces of Taiwanese mythology and creates a chilling atmosphere out of creatures you’re totally unfamiliar with — and that makes them all the more terrifying. You know what a vampire is, you’ve seen them a thousand times. You don’t know The Lingered, how they’re tied between the afterlife and this one. You don’t know the legend of Hei Bai Wu Chang, the ancient cursed deity. And if you do, congrats on your Masters Degree in Asian Mythology.
Detention is a game with a message that captures a very specific part of the world and a very specific time, a time and place you are very likely totally unfamiliar with. Wei and Fang are compelling protagonists and will immediately remind you of real people you knew in high school, or perhaps even yourself. The ending is sobering, but I won’t spoil it for you. This is about a 5 hour game, and you can get it done in one night. Set up with some snacks in a dark room on a Saturday night and for the love of god, bring a friend.
Elegy for a Dead World (2014) by Dejobaan Games (PC)
Elegy for a Dead World is a strange little game in which you are an intrepid astronaut, exploring the post-apocalyptic planets in the farthest reaches of space. The landscapes you discover are dotted with monuments to wars long forgotten, factories that look a little too much like ours, and cities that once meant something. The story could be really interesting or really boring, but that’s dependent on you — you write the story.
I implore any prospective writers to play this game. You get a Mad-Libs style prompt as you venture through these worlds, and fill in the blanks with whatever you’d like. The cool thing is that you are trying, to the best of your ability, to figure out what happened in each of these haunting landscapes to cause the apocalypse. After you’re done exploring, you can read your entire story as one document and release it to the internet. Other explorers will be able to read through your story and compare it to their own. Elegy for a Dead World is the ultimate creative writing exercise. Crush that writer’s block!
Parkasaurus (2018) by Washbear Studio (PC)
For some reason I could never pin down, I never could get into the Zoo Tycoon games. I love animals! And I love building and managing. Planet Zoo, the 2019 reboot of the franchise, looked promising and graphically stunning, but was a long way off at the time. I remember seeing an ad for Jurassic World: Evolution, the Dinosaur Park management game, and thought “Almost!” But I wanted something more focused on fun, and collecting cute animals. That’s the Pokemon Master in me, I guess. Enter Parkasaurus.
Parkasaurus is a pretty easy sell — it’s Zoo Tycoon but for dinosaurs. Most of the stuff you’re already familiar with from other management games, but Parkasaurus does them all in an undeniably fun and colorful way. Hiring employees is its own little minigame, trying to figure out if a former Fighter Pilot can handle working the velociraptor enclosure or if Gertrude from sales can crack it as a Ticket Clerk. The simplified graphics are a plus for me, making it easier for your imagination to install detail where there is none. Building the landscape, building layout, and amenities for the park is fun, but the real good stuff is raising these vividly colored little dinosaurs. This is a low stress (or no stress on creative mode) management game that’ll have you thinking you could actually run a functioning Jurassic Park.
Port of Call (2015) by Underdog Games (PC)
To be honest, there isn’t a whole lot I can say about Port of Call, considering that it’s about an hour long at most. This free game is available on Steam, obviously with no microtransactions. How they pulled that off is beyond me, because this is a pretty good game I would gladly shelve out $5 for in retrospect. You wake up on a storm dock with no memory of who you are, and are conscripted to work aboard a ferry by an eccentric old man. You will learn about life and death, the differences and ties that bind them, and that only one thing matters when you go. And it’s really hard to go wrong for the low, low price of 0 US dollars.
Shelter (2013) by Might and Delight (PC)
Shelter is a sobering tale about what it means to be a mother. I can’t claim to really know what a mother goes through every day, but if it’s half as stressful, rewarding, saddening, and glorious as Shelter portrays it to be… I want to say a quick thank you to mothers everywhere. You’re doing a wonderful job. And I think I’m going to call my mom real quick, just to tell her I love her.
This game is about 75 minutes long. If you’re able, I really think playing it with your mother would be a great bonding experience.
I’m breaking into some of my backlog indies now, so hopefully I’ll make up another list soon!
