Yes, I had to do one last one for the ones I couldn’t fit in anywhere else. I thought about doing another entry for innocent VR games, but on reflection, “VR Games for Non-Gamers” seemed a little silly. VR is still a very niche genre, to the point where if you’re interested in VR, you’re not likely to be a newcomer to the gaming scene.
Then again, considering how different VR gaming IS, perhaps I should reconsider. Maybe I’ll do one of these for VR later. But for right now, here are the remaining great, wholesome games that I think more people should be familiar with.
Stardew Valley
Stardew Valley has hundreds of imitators now, many of them quite good–Potion Permit, for example–but Stardew Valley is unquestionably the most iconic of the “whimsical farming and crafting sim” genre. (Not the first, which goes to Nintendo’s Harvest Moon.) It’s not story-based, it’s not puzzle-based, it’s no platformer, but what it absolutely is, is fun.
Stardew Valley is simple and charming. You’re a new man/woman come to the town of Stardew Valley to fix up your deceased grandfather’s old farm. You need to clear the land, plow the soil, plant the seeds, water the crops–but you can also scrounge for food in the forest, dig for treasure in the mines, go fishing, go exploring. You visit with the people in the village, make friends–even even date and marry certain residents. As your farm grows you can purchase cows, ducks, pigs, and horses. You can even raise dinosaurs if you play it right.
But the real charm of Stardew Valley, I’m convinced, comes from the town, or more properly, from the sense of community it provides. Stardew Valley is about the whole valley, all the people in it, and the different yearly festivals that bring people together as the seasons change and shift. The central mechanic is farming, but the enjoyment is in exploring the valley and in getting to meet and make friends with people.
Because I know it’s an issue for some, the game does feature one wizard and one witch, and some ambiguously defined “forest spirits” in the vein of My Neighbor Totoro. But they’re essentially set dressing for a wonderfully innocent and engaging game.
Minit
I’ve mentioned this game before, as a game I had prepared so my nephew and neice could play. The concept is simple and intriguing, where the game resets you to your latest checkpoint every 60 seconds, with all your new skills and equipment saved. It’s quick, it’s short, it’s fun. The plot isn’t much, but there’s a variety of environments, and a sense of urgency to everything you do.
Octodad: Dadliest Catch
Oh man. How even to explain this game. It’s… uh… you’re an octopus… pretending to be a man. And your job is to accomplish normal human tasks like mowing the lawn while being, you know, an invertebrate sea animal. The control scheme beautifully mimics the flailing, non-rigid tentacles a squid might have, and its hilarious to watch your character cause havoc as he struggles desperately to appear normal.
And yes, the octopus has a wife and kids. That’s not meant to be taken seriously. It’s just a bit of ridiculousness.
Townscaper
It’s essentially playing with blocks to build a city. It’s a very calming game, but I couldn’t find any actual challenge or any element to it other than “lets make colored buildings link together with bridges and towers and stuff.
Flower
An odd, simple game where you play a spark of color that jumps around a meadow and colorizes the flowers there. Eventually you get to where you need to dodge power lines, corrupted metal, and other items. It’s very simple, but it’s very pretty.
That Dragon, Cancer
This one may not exactly fit. A game made by an explicitly Christian game developer about his infant son’s struggle with cancer, it’s not a game that most kids will enjoy or even understand. It could have gone in my story-based entries, except there’s not a clear story, as such. The levels and gameplay are more metaphorical than realistic, and a mixture of what the child sees in his imagination (like a racing scene in a hospital hallway) and what the adult is feeling (drowning in the doctor’s office).
But I felt I had to mention it, at least. The game is built from recordings of the developer’s own family, and contains some frank discussions and reflections about how Baby Joel’s condition is affecting their faith and relationships with each other. There’s an especially poignant moment where the game developer and his ever-optimistic wife get in a minor shouting match about their attitude toward the cancer. And then, later, a prolonged segment where the baby is issuing heartrending screams and you’re unable to get him to stop.
It can get a bit too predictable to say “ooh, this game about a kid with cancer is really profound,” but, well, it sort of is. Or at least it definitely is honest, and uses gameplay in different sorts of ways to express the utter hopelessness the developer felt. Since at least part of this list is to increase awareness of oddball games that communicate more that we suppose, I thought I should mention it.
Those are the main games I thought I should mention. There’s many, many more–several that I knew of but hadn’t played and so decided not to include on the list. Others that I think are borderline but omitted out of caution or laziness. There’s games like Heaven’s Vault, which is cool, but I haven’t finished it yet, and it does make reference to some shocking historical problems. Stardew Valley, as I said, has many clones, but I haven’t yet played one that really matched it. My Time at Portia was weirdly animated, and Moonlighter honestly did not offer a lot of variety.
Take ’em or leave ’em. Just know that there’s a lot of stuff out there.
The Solomon Code 