Game-a-Day Challenge 2021
A stock image of a Gameboy plus a bunch of other stuff I did not play or use this month.
This August, I participated in The Sealey Challenge, a month-long challenge where participants read a book of poetry every day. Created by Nicole Sealey, the project encourages people to read new books, re-read old ones, and to finally get those books you’ve been meaning to read but haven’t. This was my first year joining in on The Sealey Challenge, and while I did not read a book all 31 days of August, I read A LOT more poetry than I’ve ever done in any given month. It was truly a success for me, and it made me realize how much I wanted to do the same challenge for games.
I haven’t been playing nearly as many games as I would like to. I would rather replay the same games I love over and over rather than play something new. My brain goes, “why try out a new game, when I could play an old game I already know I love?” But I know I’m missing out on games I might love, and even playing games I dislike can be informative for me. I want to get out of this bad habit, and I’m hoping this challenge will jumpstart my curiosity toward games again.
The Rules: I will be playing and finishing a game every day for the month of September. That means most games I play must take only a few hours long to beat. Other than that, I can play anything I want. While I’ll be replaying some of my old favorites, I will prioritize games I’ve never played before. My goal is to get back into the habit of playing games regularly. Hopefully by the end of this, I’ll have no fears about jumping head first into a game I’ve never played before.
I will be updating this post with little blurbs about the games I play this month. I encourage anyone to play along. Don’t feel bad if you miss a day, or even several days. Don’t beat yourself up if you stop within the first week. Do what you can, and just enjoy the games you play!
Game 1: Seedship
How Long to Play: ~20 minutes
In Seedship, you are an AI ship holding the last survivors of Earth. You’re tasked with finding a new, suitable planet for your cryogenically frozen inhabitants before your ship is either destroyed or wears down from time. This game feels like FTL: Faster Than Light (another one of my favorite games), but with text. Seedship is distilled suspense. Each planet you reject means more time drifting into space, looking for the perfect planet, if ever a planet existed. This time, it took me 10 planets before I finally settled on one with low gravity but rich resources. The surviving humans quickly made war between themselves, and I quickly regretted ever finding them a home in the first place. But in Seedship, your just the ship tasked with finding humans a home. Whatever happens next is out of your hands.
Game 2: Lieve Oma
How Long to Play: ~30 minutes
I’ve owned Lieve Oma for years but have never played it. Now that I have, I regret not playing it sooner. And yet, playing it now, in the beginning of September, feels like I played it exactly when I was meant to. In Lieve Oma, your a child who has been forced by your grandmother to join her as she looks for penny bun mushrooms. It’s a quiet, sweet tale about a kid whose feeling down, and a grandmother who wants to make her grandchild happy. As the game states, Lieve Oma is a “tribute to the people who give us the time and space we need as a child.” It’s sweet and melancholic, and the autumn colors remind us that things will constantly change; it’s up to us how we handle it. Some change will be difficult, but we can all survive it when we’re supported by those who care for us.
Game 3: Pizza Boy
How Long to Play: ~10 minutes
I love the hand drawn feel of Pizza Boy. The way your hands wiggle remind me of Ed, Edd, and Eddy or Home Movies. It’s that erratic nature that makes Pizza Boy so fun to play. You go around throwing pizzas to people who may or may not want a pizza right now. You’re not delivering pizza boxes, but individual slices, which makes the game even more chaotic. I love it. I also love seeing what can be done in a short space in Unity.
Game 4: Earthtongue
How Long to Play: Forever? (It’s a sim; you stop when you want to stop.)
I think this Steam reviewer said it best when they said “i have no clue [whether] at any given moment in this game i am succeeding or failing but i am stressed about it.” In Earthtongue, you’re tasked with caring for a small ecosystem consisting of fungi and bugs. You have limited abilities in what you can do to help this strange world. Every time I tried to help, I felt like I was hurting. I still don’t know if anything I did was good. I resigned myself to mostly watching the ecosystem grow on its own, as it clearly did not need me for much help. And I’m totally fine with being an observer or a bunch of bugs eating fungus and other bugs.
Game 5: Six Cats Under
How Long to Play: ~30 minutes
Today was a scramble to play a game before midnight. I had plans to play a longer game but couldn’t beat it, so for the final hour of the day, I searched in the “Short” tag on Itch.io and found "Six Cats Under by Team Bean Loop. It’s a point-and-click puzzle where you’ve just died and you have to use your new ghostly powers to help your many cats escape your apartment. The puzzles were difficult in a fun way, and the story, while definitely sad, is also very sweet. Watching each cat scurry out of the apartment was bittersweet. I highly recommend it.
Day 6: Sayonara Wild Hearts
How Long to Play: ~1 hour
I didn’t plan to play Sayonara Wild Hearts today, but the weather was gorgeous and I wanted desperately to sit outside and play games like I used to do as a kid with my beloved Gameboy Advance. So I took out my Switch outside and downloaded Sayonara Wild Hearts, a game I’ve been wanting to play since it came out and just never did (that’s basically been my M.O. the past few years). It’s a killer musical game. The music is hype, the gameplay is fun, and Queen Latifa’s voice is soothing. I may go back to improve my scores, but overall the story stands. It’s good!
Day 7: Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy Kong’s Quest
How Long to Play: ~5 hours (including game overs; played over several days)
I purchased Donkey Kong Country 2 last week during a trip to a retro gaming store. I owned it as a kid, but unfortunately my copy disappeared in my youth. As I was playing DKC2 this week, I realized how much I consider the Donkey Kong Country games as classics. That in turn made me think about how most classic games were made by people who are still alive. I’m so used to exploring classic works of art made by very dead people. Gaming is still so young. It’s not even 100 years old. Anyway, DKC2 is brutally hard. You have to pay 2 coins to save your game! And accessing the true ending means doing ever bonus room! It’s also funny how much of DKC2 clearly inspired Donkey Kong 64. This game created the collectathon; DK64 finished it.
Day 8: Qomp
How Long to Play: ~ 1 hour
I found Qomp on Twitter in late August and knew I would save it for this month to play. I absolutely love this game. As the Itch.io description says, Qomp is a game about freedom. You’re a pong ball that’s bounced itself out of the game and into freedom. I like the call games like this “popcorn games,” because they’re short bursts of energy/challenge, and leave you wanting more. Except I think Qomp is the perfect amount of challenge and length. It’s so simple in design, but created so well that it feels perfect. I also love games that play off of platformers in new ways, and the way the ball constantly bounces from wall to wall adds extra movement challenge to the game. The best part is that sometimes you can progress in a level simply by leaving the ball alone, and letting it do its own thing without your interference. Now that’s true freedom.
Day 9 (and 10): Tux and Fanny
How long to play: 8 hours, 24 minutes exactly
Admittedly, I played Tux and Fanny because the Itch.io page said it would take about half an hour to complete. Well, it took me about a little more time than half an hour to finish it. And I don’t care because I genuinely love this game. It’s a point and click adventure that feels as carefree as it is dark. It’s packed with little mini games that range from match-threes to watermelon seed spitting. It’s a slow-paced game that really rewards you for meandering, for walking to-and-fro around Tux and Fanny’s shared home. It was always a pleasant surprise when something new appeared in a previously explored area, or when I found an item and knew exactly what to do with it. If you’re into point-and-clicks, then I highly suggest this one.
Day 10: Gun Rounds
How Long to Play: ~20 minutes (How long to actually beat? Who knows)
I got Gun Rounds last year as part of Ich.io’s Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality. It’s great owning a bunch of games and helping a good cause, but it’s also be a bit overwhelming going through the hundreds of games I now own. I was browsing the bundle to find a short game (looking at you Tux and Fanny) and found Gun Rounds. It’s a super fun turn-based shooter with randomized weapon loadout. As the description says, you’re very squishy. You need to time your blocks, otherwise you’re dead. It took me about 20 minutes to get to the boss (though I have not beaten it yet, but because I know who I am, I know that I’ll be playing this for the rest of the night. I’ll update this if I beat the game tonight. Update: I did not finish it that night.
Day 11: Frog Finder
How Long to Play: A couple of minutes. How Long Did I Play it? Several Hours.
Terry Cavanagh tweeted Frog Finder for his Free Game of the Week post. I was automatically interested by its cute frogs and puzzle design. Frog Finder is simple in design, but it forces the player to work to find its complexities. For example, one puzzle is minesweeper-esque in how it requires you to find one single frog in a land full of ravenous sharks who want to bite your finger off. There are clues throughout the puzzle that helps you find the frog, but it’s all visual clues. You have to figure out what the symbols represent; the game won’t do it for you. It’s a game that can be played in a couple of minutes, but the final level had me so stumped, I just wouldn’t stop until I understood the game’s language. Now I speak frog!
Day 12: A Pet Shop After Dark
How Long to Play: 53 minutes
I found A Pet Shop After Dark after looking up short games on Itch.io. Specifically, games that take about half an hour to complete. I didn’t think I was going to play this game at first because it’s tagged as horror, and if anyone knows me well, then they know I’m absolutely abysmal when it comes to anything scary. But looking at the comments, I saw that this horror game was less about pop scares and disfigured monsters, and more about the spookiness of being trapped in a pet shop. The puzzles in this game is very much tied to its narrative, so unfortunately I can’t say much else. But if you’re bad with horror like me, but want to dive into a very light spooky game, I highly suggest this one. (And if you really want to know what you’re getting into, then just look at the comments.)
Day 13: Short Rest
How Long to Play: A couple of minutes
Another game I happened to find thanks to Twitter! Short Rest is a deckbuilding game a la Darkest Dungeon, where a group of heroes head through a dungeon in order to save a town from an immortal dragon. I’ve yet to beat it, but I think I’ve gotten pretty close. Nonetheless, this game was made for me. From its colorful design and playful writing, it’s a game that’s got my name written all over it. Update: I beat it!
Day 14: Office Combat
How Long to Play: ~10 minutes
Office Combat is a great beat-em-up where you fight your way to your boss to ask to leave work early. The game can easily be beaten by button-mashing, but I don’t consider that a problem at all. Sometimes it’s nice to have a fighting game that works with you rather than against you. And despite having to literally fight to get a vacation, it still feels easier than asking for one in real life. Plus who doesn’t love bashing some corporate goons until they finally give you the time off you deserve.
Day 15: Thirteen and Half Cats
How Long to Play: ~10 minutes
After playing a lot of action-packed games like Short Rest and Office Combat I was really craving a relaxing game. Luckily for me, Itch.io comes with a relaxing tag. That’s how I found Thirteen and Half Cats, a quiet game about a cursed witch who must find cats in order to break the spell. I love games like these, because they feel closest to poetry or micro fiction. They are small stories packed tightly around a little world. The mechanics were simple, but the story felt as if I was only viewing the briefest glimpse of a world that will continue without me.
Day 16: Tetris 99
How Long to Play: ~20 minutes
I was super tired today, so for today’s challenge I went with something I almost daily: Tetris 99. Tetris is a great game to play while listening to a podcast or music. I just zone out and watch the blocks stack. Funnily enough, a lot of my opponents now are computers. Tetris99 is not as popular as it once was, and yet I still lose most of the time. Anyway, it’s a fun game. I’m going to bed now.
Day 17: Carrie’s Order Up!
How Long to Play: ~30 minutes
This game takes me back to my time on Shockwave, playing flash games while I listen to Beck on my CD player. Believe it or not, but I still play Diner Dash. I love a good restaurant management game, and Carrie’s Order Up! is just that. There’s lots of great differences between Diner Dash and Carrie’s Order Up, namely that Carrie doesn’t stop moving. Not only do you have to give everyone their order in a short amount of time, but you can’t bump into any of the customers who are meandering over to find a seat. You’ve got impatient eels who hate being late and rude octopi who will throw bananas on the ground. It’s hectic, it’s fast-paced, it’s perfect!
Day 18: Several Games
How Long to Play: Several Hours
Obviously the pandemic has kept a lot of people away from loved ones; thankfully I’ve been able to see friends every so often (hooray for vaccines!!). Today I was able to play a bunch of different games with a few friends, some videogames, some board games. Videogames included OBAKEIDORO! and Boomerang Fu; board games included Dragonscales and Pixoid. I never thought about including board games onto my game-a-day challenge, but hey, they count. A game’s a game. But anyway, all the games were fun, and tonight was a great reminder to me to try to maybe fine some more multiplayer games before the end of the month to add to my challenge!
Day 19: Bitsy Games!
How Long to Play: I played several Bitsy games for about an hour.
I love Bitsy. For those who don’t know what Bitsy is, it’s a game-making program used to make small, intimate games. I’ve made my own games in Bitsy; I just love how easy it is to tinker around and wind up with a simple game! Because Bitsy games tend to take a few minutes to complete, I played several. It’s like reading a collection of poetry or short stories. It’s a great! Here’s a list of the Bitsy games I played: Onion Farm, Slow Growing (both games are about growing plants. Very slow and cozy), Endless Scroll (emotional game about past mistakes and fear), Celestial Objects (A Bitsy poem with Spanish and English language options!), Munchies, You May Have One Treat, Clarence (the prequel to Munchies), A Welcome Shower (great rain shower vibes), and Kerry and Alice Run into Some Trouble (Warning: lots of shaky text, but funny space game nonetheless)!
Day 20: Who Stole My Bone?
How Long to Play: ~10 minutes
I spent a lot of time today banging my head against a wall of code. I’m trying to learn python for a game I’m making in Ren’py, and before I knew it, it was already 9pm, and I hadn’t even thought about what game to play for the challenge. So, I went to trusty old Itch.io and searched through the tags. I picked Short and Dog and found Who Stole My Bone? I’m always impressed when people add images and music to Twine; every time I’ve attempted it, it’s been a major pain. Who Stole my Dog makes working in Twine look so easy. It’s short, funny, and definitely worth a play!
Day 21: Big Donut
How Long to Play: Until you die (I played for ~10 minutes)
These last few days have been really brutal on my brain. Learning to code is exhausting. At night, the last thing I want to do is play a game that requires me to use my brain, so I looked on itch for arcade style games, because I knew arcade games rarely require me to use my brain as a narrative game would. That’s how I found Big Donut. It’s like an endless runner, except you’re the owner of a donut truck feeding hungry people until they get big enough for you to run over. There’s also a cop car chasing you that you can eliminate with one of your giant donuts on the top of the truck. It’s an absurd premise, and a great game! I thought about not playing a game at all today, so I’m happy I found Big Donut before I did that.
Day 22: Helltaker
How Long to Play: ~50 minutes
As much as I love puzzles games, I am no good at them. I play them until I get too impatient and give up. I can gladly say that I did not give up on Helltaker, and had a great time. The game even has an option to skip puzzles to progress the story. While I didn’t have to do that, I loved having the option available. If you like demon girls, puzzles, and a techno beat, then you should probably play Helltaker. It’s short, free, and super fun!
Day 23: Solitaire (lol)
How Long to Play: 3 minutes
I’ve actually been craving a game of solitaire for a couple of days, but I was too nervous to do it because I didn’t know if it really counted as a game. But of course solitaire is a game. It’s one I play fairly often. My grandfather used to play solitaire all the time. And growing up, my mother had a CD-ROM full of card and board games. I’ve grown up watching adults play solitaire, and now I play it. It’s my go-to when I want to play something but don’t know what. Weirdly enough, solitaire has achievements now! Today I got an achievement for “playing the Jack, Queen, and King of any suit to the foundation with no moves in-between.” I don’t care about achievements, but I think that officially makes solitaire a game, by today’s standards.
Day 24: Animal Inspector
How Long to Play: ~30 minutes
In Animal Inspector you are tasked with judging animals on their usefulness (what usefulness means is kind of up to you). You take up this job so that you can get your own dog accepted, meaning you’ll be rejecting other people’s beloved pets just to get yours through the system. It’s playing off of an Accepted/Rejected mechanic that was popularized by Lucas Pope’s Papers Please, except this one is a bit more comical in its darkness. Just like Paper’s Please, you can get strikes for breaking rules, and I will say I laughed out loud when the game punished me for writing “scawy” in my inspector notes. It’s pretty aware of what you’re doing and why. It’s a short and super smart game.
Day 25: Blazing Chrome
How Long to play: 179 minutes, 27 seconds, 33 nanoseconds
(Final Score: 227670)
I love Contra III. It is on my list of “favorite games of all time”. When I heard about Blazing Chrome back in 2019, I was like “I have to play that!” and I did, but never finished it. And then my weird anxiety around playing games crept up, and I never returned to it. Today I can say I finally played through Blazing Chrome. It’s fast paced, very retro, very pretty, and annoying as hell. It’s great! Blazing Chrome is obviously paying homage to the old run-and-gun games, but it’s a game of its own. And I’m so happy I finally played through it (and will probably play again on hard mode now that I have it unlocked!)
Day 26: Bemuse (Beat Music Sequence)
How Long to Play: ~30 minutes
I love rhythm games. Games like Just Dance, Beatsaber, and Bit. Trip Runner are among my favorites. But I haven’t really explored the type of rhythm games that require you to hit keys like a piano. Usually it’s my whole body that does the dancing, not just my fingers. So, needless to say, I stink at Bemuse. But the music is good, and I still had fun! If BMS (Be-Music Source, I just learned this term today) games are up your ally, I recommend Bemuse! It’s free, open source, and available on browsers!
Day 27: One Night Stand
How Long to Play: ~an hour
I finally played One Night Stand! I’ve always heard great things about this game, but never played it myself. Now I can check it off my list. It’s a pretty game about a very awkward situation. It feels both intimate and intrusive at the same time. Imagine waking up, unaware of where you are, and trying to piece together what happened the previous night. The best thing I can is to just play the game and see how the story unfolds.
Day 28: Cafe in the Clouds
How Long to Play: ~30 minutes
You know, I think I’ve watched a playthrough of Cafe in the Clouds. Something about it seemed so familiar, and yet when I played it myself, I couldn’t remember the story or puzzle at all. It was almost dream-like how I came across this game, which is appropriate for what the game is about. Two chefs Somnia and Remerie enter into their clients’ head to see what’s tormenting them, and create a dish to help ease their clients fears. It’s a very sweet game; I highly recommend it.
Day 29: Last Call
How Long to Play: ~30 minutes
I just learned of this game today thanks to a tweet by one of the creators, Nina Freeman. I can’t describe the game better than the game’s own description: “Last Call is an autobiographical poem-exploration game about love and violence.” It’s a very personal story based off of something Freeman has experienced. It’s slow, methodical, and poetic in its design. It incorporates audio in such an interesting way. Players will have to periodically speak in order to move forward. It felt to me like listening to a friend share a very personal story. You are mostly silent, but chime in periodically to let them know that you’re listening, and that you’re there for them. Sometimes it feels like the right words don’t exist, so you use the words you have. It’s a very special game that I hope more people play. Content Warnings: Text descriptions of: domestic violence, emotional & physical abuse, violence against women, suicide ideation & attempt, sexual content. Use of bright lights and flickering animations.
Day 30: Spooky House
How Long to Play: ~20 minutes
What an appropriate game to play as September ends and October begins. Spooky House is a tiny game about cleaning up a haunted house. It’s an entry in GBJAM 9, meaning it’s designed like a Gameboy game. The screen resolution is 160px x 144px, and the color palate is only four colors. I never owned a Gameboy (I did have a Gameboy Advance and loved it.) but Spooky House makes me nostalgic for a console I never owned. It’s super short and super fun. It feels like a great game to end the month. It’s very tight in its design, and despite having only a few lines of dialogue, the humor and wit is well done! I know I’ve recommended every game I played this month. But seriously, I recommend this one!