Woodling Gameblogging Award Nominees 2019
Dec. 1st, 2019 01:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kjorteoIt's that time of year again! (With a dash of "Aaaa is it that time of year again already, what do you mean this entire post is due today" as usual.)
Game Year 2019 is officially closed; anything we play, complete or abandon, or otherwise write up starting now counts toward the 2020 awards. The 2019 field is set, and... things feel a bit mixed? I feel like the pickings among some categories might be a bit lean, while others have some of the strongest and greatest competition yet, worthy of contesting even among the previous years' winners.
2019 by the numbers: 26 complete, 7 abandoned, 2 ongoing, for a total of 34 game reports in 2019. (Bugs and Kisses was dual-classified as Complete/Abandoned.) This puts 2019 with slightly more gaming activity than 2017, but significantly less than 2018. Still, anything that gets me to write 34 mini-articles in a year has to be considered a success. I know 2019 itself hit our clanmates pretty hard, such that we're the only ones left still doing this this year, but we're still having a good time with it.
Speaking of which, because we both had a blast doing this last year, Sara and I will resume our co-hosting roles. As always, some of these we agree on, others we'll split our votes, some we have no idea what we're going to pick and others are a foregone conclusion that we're just trying not to spoil in this post. Speculation and predictions are welcome and highly encouraged--who knows, you might even change our mind if you make a good enough case.
Rita Repulsa award for Achievements in Backlog Liberation
Some games are long, some are hard, some have just been in the backlog forever. Whatever the reason, this award honors the games whose eventual completion made us say, "Finally! After ten thousand years, I'm free! It's time to conquer Earth!"
Nominees:
Changed
Chocolate Castle
Detective Pikachu
Shovel Knight: Shovel of Hope
Vice: Project Doom
Honorable Mentions:
Arcade Spirits
Sara: So, I promised last year that I was going to try to look at this category as more than the Thank God That's Over Award for Game We Yeeted Hardest Into Oblivion. Last year's winner had connotations and I just had to because it was a special case, but now I'm supposed to be good. ^^; (If I hadn't made that promise, Chocolate Castle would be a lock. :P)
Celine: Well, the Thank God That's Over factor is a valid feeling to at least take into account, even if I'm trying to keep this positive. We're here to celebrate these games, after all.
Sara: Yep! Changed and Chocolate Castle have an element of that due to their difficulty. Chocolate Castle, Shovel Knight, and Vice have it due to how long they've been on the to-do list and how accomplished you feel to check them off at last.
Celine: And Changed and Detective Pikachu have the "now that it's over, I can enjoy the fandom and not worry about spoilers" factor.
Sara: ... As does Changed. >.> So anyway, we have a spread here! Now we just have to pick which faction wins, right? ^^
Celine: Something like that!
Crying Bulbasaur award for Achievements in Emotional Devastation
Whether it makes us cry, warms our heart, makes us think about our lives, or otherwise makes us feel things, this award is to honor the games that took us on a journey through the strongest emotions.
Nominees:
Changed
Adventures With Anxiety
Arcade Spirits
City of Heroes
The Way Remastered
Honorable Mentions:
Detective Pikachu
Pretentious Game
The Racoon Who Lost Their Shape
Robo Recall
Shovel Knight: Shovel of Hope
Celine: HOORAY IT'S CRYING TIME
Sara: I mean, I would say that this category's a bit... none of them are Finding Paradise, because they're not. But it's not one of the leaner ones, at all. These are some of the particularly heavy hitters in one of the bigger showdowns this year. Some of these hit both of us really hard. Like, I know which two I've narrowed my decision down to, and... ow. Ow.
Celine: Yeah. *Hugs*
Sara: *Cuddle*
Celine: ... Okay, so! Changed is a serious and weighty story about you and The Goodest Boy disguised as a furry fetish game, kind of like last year's Monster Mind but not as overtly pornographic. Adventures With Anxiety is an intensely relatable way to approach thinking about and coming to terms with anxiety with a sweet and uplifting messages that a lot of people need to hear. Speaking of uplifting, Arcade Spirits is about hope and fulfillment and finding your passion and "why" in a world where you're used to scraping by despite some really, really painful setbacks. City of Heroes... is an MMO from 2004, but there's a sort of meta-sweetness about it just from seeing the community's dedication to bring back this thing that NCSoft killed dead, buried in a concrete landfill like unsold E.T. cartridges, and posted armed guards around the perimeter of the landfill just to make sure no one ever tries to bring it back, because they're NCSoft and furthermore fuck you. The Way Remastered is a really good Indie Game About Death with an ending that wasn't so much a tearjerker but was incredibly poignant and weighty and made both of us think long and hard about a lot of things.
Sara: So classic tearjerker, anxiety, depression, fourth wall adversity, and depression. Most of which have "sweet moving message of hope despite--" in front of them.
Celine: Yeah, pretty much.
Hint Coin award for Most Puzzling Puzzler
This award celebrates the headaches, confusion, and eventual triumph and/or shame in using a walkthrough that come with the best puzzle games and puzzles in games.
Nominees:
Changed
Chocolate Castle
Detective Pikachu
Farnham Fables episode 4: Little Dog Dreams
Pas De Deux
Honorable Mentions:
Hidden my game by mom
Hidden my game by mom 2
I Became a Dog
Qvabllock
The Way Remastered
Sara: ... Did we get Changed nominated in every single category?
Celine: I don't think every... let me check. ... All but five, plus one honorable mention.
Sara: And yet neither of us would argue against the ones it's in. Like, in this case? It does have a properly devilish puzzle section.
Celine: And "find clues to get the password" puzzles even in the sections besides puzzle land. Yeah.
Sara: *Game show host voice* BUT WILL THAT BE ENOUGH TO OVERCOME THE OTHER FOUR??
Celine: Well, Chocolate Castle is just a kjhgpillion actual klotski puzzles. Detective Pikachu and Farnam Fables e4 are varying degrees of puzzle-filled adventure games. Pas De Deux is a clever IFComp title with a lot of decoding notes and one case of figuring out how to wake the tuba player up. I guess we'll see!
Wing of Wyvern award for Most Retro Nostalgia Trip
Whether it is an actual classic game or a modern pixel-fest reminiscent of one, this award honors the games that really take you back to Tantagel Castle.
Nominees:
City of Heroes
Family Dog
Istaria: Chronicles of the Gifted
Shovel Knight: Shovel of Hope
Vice: Project Doom
Honorable mentions:
Arcade Spirits
Plants vs. Zombies 2
Sara: ... Bit of a dropoff between the nominees and the honorables, huh?
Celine: Arcade Spirits is a fantastic game that's up for several other awards including GOTY overall, but as far as its Wing of Wyvern qualifications specifically... kinda, yeah.
Sara: Well, then! Let's see what we got here. CoH and Istaria are actual MMOs from 2004 that have been brought back and kept alive either unofficially or officially (respectively), Shovel Knight is our well-made retraux throwback for the year, Vice is something you'd been curious about since seeing it in Nintendo Power ages ago, and Family Dog is your Family Dog.
Celine: That's about the size of it, yeah! Competition in this field is not wide this year, but it is deep. Not as many heavy hitters but the ones we have are incredibly good choices that could go against anyone.
Little Cup award for Achievements in Fluff
Not every game needs to be a long and serious epic. This award honors the light and/or little palate cleansers, because games are fun.
Nominees:
Adventures With Anxiety
Becalm
Bugs and Kisses
The Racoon Who Lost Their Shape
Qvabllock
Honorable Mentions:
Family Dog
Hidden my game by mom
Out
Polygoneer
Skies Above
Sara: Tiny games. They're so cute and little. *Makes finger and thumb "I'm crushing your head" gesture*
Celine: "Cute and little" is a great way to describe this year's crop. I think Adventures With Anxiety and Bugs and Kisses are tied for longest, most substantial games here, and Bugs and Kisses is a cancelled demo.
Sara: But when you compare them to Becalm which is more a meditation backdrop...
Celine: ... which I guess leaves Racoon and Qvabllock bringing up the middle?
Sara: So three dialogue-reading sims, a tiny puzzle collection, and a screensaver. And they're all great!
Celine: Yeah! Like, I really wanted to put Family Dog in the main contention because it qualifies (it's like 20 minutes long if you know what you're doing) and it's a real game with a lot of attachment and meaning to me, but there just was nothing the two of us could agree in good conscience it was better than and should replace.
Sara: Oh, well!
Piece of Heart award for Warmest Fuzzy
Whether it's a short indie romp or a long epic, and whether heartwarming moments are in the plot directly or just as a project that feels like it was made with love, this award honors games that make players feel good inside.
Nominees:
Adventures With Anxiety
Arcade Spirits
Bugs and Kisses
City of Heroes
Istaria: Chronicles of the Gifted
Honorable Mentions:
Changed
Family Dog
Farnham Fables episode 4: Little Dog Dreams
The Racoon Who Lost Their Shape
Shovel Knight: Shovel of Hope
Celine: We sure played into the "made with love" end of it hard this year, huh.
Sara: It's really saying something when Changed is relegated to the honorables.
Celine: Well, wait, I guess it's... just about half and half? Adventures with Anxiety and Arcade Spirits are more from the end of the pool where they're about love, with their uplifting feel-good messages, and Bugs and Kisses, City of Heroes, and Istaria are all more about how much the developers and/or community clearly cared and poured their hearts into something they believed in.
Sara: And those three all are or were endangered at one point, and one of them didn't make it. And the way in which the other two did is part of their Piece of Heart appeal.
Celine: ... Whoof. Yeah.
Furry Little Body award for Achievements in Anthropomorphic Appeal
Because sometimes you just need a silly little award to acknowledge that one character you want to bang.
Nominees:
Adventures With Anxiety
Bugs and Kisses
Changed
Detective Pikachu
Istaria: Chronicles of the Gifted
Honorable Mentions:
City of Heroes
Family Dog
Farnham Fables episode 4: Little Dog Dreams
Moss
The Racoon Who Lost Their Shape
Sara: *Blushes intensely* They are all intensely full of Would. Moving on.
Golden Pheasant award for Artistic Achievement
Regardless of what the game actually does with them and whether it works overall, this award celebrates the truly outstanding and impressive feats in a game's assets, be the graphics, music, voice acting, game engine, or anything else.
Nominees:
Bugs and Kisses
Changed
Moss
Shovel Knight: Shovel of Hope
The Way Remastered
Honorable Mentions:
Becalm
Farnham Fables episode 4: Little Dog Dreams
The Racoon Who Lost Their Shape
Robo Recall
Vice: Project Doom
Sara: Ooh, this is tough. This one's always tough, huh?
Celine: It is.
Sara: We have two masterfully done 8-bit throwbacks in Changed and Shovel Knight, each with amazing graphics and music. Bugs and Kisses and Moss are more contemporary graphical gorgeousness, and The Way Remastered is basically a less artsy Superbrothers, which won my pick last year. Will the equivalent do so again this year? It's going against some stiff competition in the other four, though. Hmm. Hmmmmm.
Celine: One thing to watch for this year: this doesn't apply to Sara, but my picks have been under a kind of curse where whoever wins Golden Pheasant also wins overall GOTY, even though I made those two different categories specifically to give the beautiful and the effective games room to shine without stepping on each other. Can that happen again this year? Well, there are two Golden Pheasant nominations that are also Woodlings' Choice nominations (Changed and The Way Remastered), so if either of them win here, then it's certainly possible they could win there as well. I'm consciously trying to break that pattern--I want the two categories to showcase different games--but I'm not going to rig it to deny a game like Ori in 2017 or Tadpole Treble in 2018 its well-earned rightful place atop both fields. If Changed or The Way Remastered really deserves to be this year's equivalent, then so it goes. But do they? Well, we shall see, I suppose!
Trap Devised by Satan award for Game Most Likely Not Done Yet
Backlogs are immense, time is finite, and most games can be crossed off the list and moved on from once completed. However, some games deserve a special mention for their lasting appeal and replay value. This award honors the ones that don't want to be over.
Nominees:
Arcade Spirits
Becalm
Chocolate Castle
Family Dog
Farnham Fables episode 4: Little Dog Dreams
Honorable Mentions:
Polygoneer
Shovel Knight: Shovel of Hope
Sara: Ooh. Okay. Another "not wide, but deep" field.
Celine: Yeah. Arcade Spirits is a VN that practically begs the player to go back and see all the routes, Becalm is there whenever we need a pleasant backdrop, Chocolate Castle has the Hanano Puzzle "may as well be new because I forgot the solution anyway" effect, and Family Dog is a 20-minute retro thing I come back to from time to time. Farnham... episode 4 had a lot of subtext that made even me uncomfortable, and there are a lot of Easter eggs in there I'd be deliberately going out of my way not to trigger because I emphatically don't want to know, but there is still a nontrivial amount of fun stuff and replay value, dialogue I probably missed, etc.
Extra Life award for Most Deserving of a Second Chance
Not every played game is completed. Most of the abandoned ones were abandoned for a reason, and quickly forgotten. Could some of them find redemption and a path back onto the active to-do list, though? Maybe these ones could....
Nominees:
Downwell
GET OUT of this Dungeon
Moss
Plants vs. Zombies 2
Skies Above
Honorable Mentions:
Robo Recall
Sara: Oh... dear.
Celine: Yeah.
Sara: I see... what... two games you actually liked? So that's at least a contest, I guess.
Celine: Yeah, this category is hard to fluff up with good games, because most abandoned entries are abandoned for a reason, else we'd still be playing them. Moss is about the best circumstances for this category we're ever going to find (a genuinely delightful game that we don't actually own or currently have any way of playing), and Skies Above (was playing on a strict time limit and then it crashed) is pretty solid as well. Between those two, I feel like Moss is the better game that I'm more likely to want to play again, but that involves a heavy investment in VR equipment and possibly a new computer. Skies Above (and Downwell) are solidly okay and also just sitting right there waiting for us to come back whenever we want. This comes down to which angle you think is more important for the rules of this category.
Sara: And the others....
Celine: ... Look. We normally do a pretty good job hyping things up as a plausible five-way fight where everyone has a case to make even when we already kind of know who we're going to pick, but this is the one category where I really, really can't lie. Like, if you want to tell our readers with a straight face that we might consider touching PvZ2 again, by all means, but....
Sara: ... Nah, we're good.
Celine: Thought so.
Stan S. Stanman award for If You Only Buy One Game from This List....
Whether it's an overlooked indie gem or a well known game that deserves its reputation, this award honors the one game each year that everyone reading this really owes it to themselves to check out.
Nominees:
Adventures With Anxiety
Arcade Spirits
Changed
The Racoon Who Lost Their Shape
The Way Remastered
Honorable Mentions:
Family Dog
Istaria: Chronicles of the Gifted
Qvabllock
Sara: Ooh, this is... tougher this year than last.
Celine: Adventures With Anxiety and Arcade Spirits continue to be hopeful messages that everyone needs to hear. Changed and The Way Remastered have incredibly relevant-to-woodlings content that we'd be delighted to squee at you about if anyone else plays them. The Racoon Who Lost Their Shape is witty and entertaining and infinitely quotable. I know we typically don't put a lot of stock in the barrier to entry/ease of acquiring argument when it opposes the one we selfishly want people to play (I mean, we both pushed the entire Freebird crying simulator series on you guys last year,) but for what it's worth, Adventures With Anxiety and The Racoon Who Lost Their Shape are free web games with zero skill required.
Sara: Honestly, they're all good and all worth playing! But we each have to pick one, don't we. Hrmm.
Sqrlmog's Choice award for Sqrlmog's Choice
Another silly for-fun category. We pick five games, and XyzzySqrl picks one among them!
Nominees:
Arcade Spirits
Changed
City of Heroes
Family Dog
Istaria: Chronicles of the Gifted
Honorable Mentions:
Detective Pikachu
Pas De Deux
Qvabllock
The Racoon Who Lost Their Shape
Celine: ... You know, I expectedxyzzysqrl to struggle with these more than she did.
Sara: Yeah, you had this spread of mog bait among the quirky choices, but even being against some other heavy hitters didn't slow her choice down, like, at all.
Celine: Well, we won't spoil which one she picked, of course, but as always we're just thankful to have our awards just a bit xyzzier. Especially after 2019 happened. Thank you for still being willing to do this for us. <3
Sara: Love ya. <3
Woodlings' Choice award for Best Game Overall
The grand prize as well as the most personal one. After all the other categories, after honoring every game for whatever it does best and whatever other demographics that might appeal to, this is the one that we, Celine and Sara Kalante, found to be our personal overall favorites.
Nominees:
Arcade Spirits
Changed
Detective Pikachu
Istaria: Chronicles of the Gifted
The Way Remastered
Honorable Mentions:
Adventures With Anxiety
Becalm
City of Heroes
Family Dog
Shovel Knight: Shovel of Hope
Sara: ... Man. What a year.
Celine: Yeah. Adventures With Anxiety is my "You know these are some good games if this one is stuck in the honorables" pick, although honestly you could flip these and none of the honorables would be a bad choice, let alone the main nominees.
Sara: Nngh. I could rule out some of the ones that affected you more than me and just look at my favorites (which... is exactly what I should be doing, really) and it's still a tough choice.
Celine: Good thing we have a week or two to make it!
Sara: *face*
Celine: *pat pat*
And there you have it! As always, you can keep track of all of this stuff along with past years' info, all in neat sorted spreadsheet form, right here. Feel free to weigh in with your guesses as well as your personal picks--we love talking about games! (I mean, like, as long as you're not a toxic Gamer of course, but I assume anyone bothering to look us up on Dreamwidth is cool.)
Game Year 2019 is officially closed; anything we play, complete or abandon, or otherwise write up starting now counts toward the 2020 awards. The 2019 field is set, and... things feel a bit mixed? I feel like the pickings among some categories might be a bit lean, while others have some of the strongest and greatest competition yet, worthy of contesting even among the previous years' winners.
2019 by the numbers: 26 complete, 7 abandoned, 2 ongoing, for a total of 34 game reports in 2019. (Bugs and Kisses was dual-classified as Complete/Abandoned.) This puts 2019 with slightly more gaming activity than 2017, but significantly less than 2018. Still, anything that gets me to write 34 mini-articles in a year has to be considered a success. I know 2019 itself hit our clanmates pretty hard, such that we're the only ones left still doing this this year, but we're still having a good time with it.
Speaking of which, because we both had a blast doing this last year, Sara and I will resume our co-hosting roles. As always, some of these we agree on, others we'll split our votes, some we have no idea what we're going to pick and others are a foregone conclusion that we're just trying not to spoil in this post. Speculation and predictions are welcome and highly encouraged--who knows, you might even change our mind if you make a good enough case.
Rita Repulsa award for Achievements in Backlog Liberation
Some games are long, some are hard, some have just been in the backlog forever. Whatever the reason, this award honors the games whose eventual completion made us say, "Finally! After ten thousand years, I'm free! It's time to conquer Earth!"
Nominees:
Changed
Chocolate Castle
Detective Pikachu
Shovel Knight: Shovel of Hope
Vice: Project Doom
Honorable Mentions:
Arcade Spirits
Sara: So, I promised last year that I was going to try to look at this category as more than the Thank God That's Over Award for Game We Yeeted Hardest Into Oblivion. Last year's winner had connotations and I just had to because it was a special case, but now I'm supposed to be good. ^^; (If I hadn't made that promise, Chocolate Castle would be a lock. :P)
Celine: Well, the Thank God That's Over factor is a valid feeling to at least take into account, even if I'm trying to keep this positive. We're here to celebrate these games, after all.
Sara: Yep! Changed and Chocolate Castle have an element of that due to their difficulty. Chocolate Castle, Shovel Knight, and Vice have it due to how long they've been on the to-do list and how accomplished you feel to check them off at last.
Celine: And Changed and Detective Pikachu have the "now that it's over, I can enjoy the fandom and not worry about spoilers" factor.
Sara: ... As does Changed. >.> So anyway, we have a spread here! Now we just have to pick which faction wins, right? ^^
Celine: Something like that!
Crying Bulbasaur award for Achievements in Emotional Devastation
Whether it makes us cry, warms our heart, makes us think about our lives, or otherwise makes us feel things, this award is to honor the games that took us on a journey through the strongest emotions.
Nominees:
Changed
Adventures With Anxiety
Arcade Spirits
City of Heroes
The Way Remastered
Honorable Mentions:
Detective Pikachu
Pretentious Game
The Racoon Who Lost Their Shape
Robo Recall
Shovel Knight: Shovel of Hope
Celine: HOORAY IT'S CRYING TIME
Sara: I mean, I would say that this category's a bit... none of them are Finding Paradise, because they're not. But it's not one of the leaner ones, at all. These are some of the particularly heavy hitters in one of the bigger showdowns this year. Some of these hit both of us really hard. Like, I know which two I've narrowed my decision down to, and... ow. Ow.
Celine: Yeah. *Hugs*
Sara: *Cuddle*
Celine: ... Okay, so! Changed is a serious and weighty story about you and The Goodest Boy disguised as a furry fetish game, kind of like last year's Monster Mind but not as overtly pornographic. Adventures With Anxiety is an intensely relatable way to approach thinking about and coming to terms with anxiety with a sweet and uplifting messages that a lot of people need to hear. Speaking of uplifting, Arcade Spirits is about hope and fulfillment and finding your passion and "why" in a world where you're used to scraping by despite some really, really painful setbacks. City of Heroes... is an MMO from 2004, but there's a sort of meta-sweetness about it just from seeing the community's dedication to bring back this thing that NCSoft killed dead, buried in a concrete landfill like unsold E.T. cartridges, and posted armed guards around the perimeter of the landfill just to make sure no one ever tries to bring it back, because they're NCSoft and furthermore fuck you. The Way Remastered is a really good Indie Game About Death with an ending that wasn't so much a tearjerker but was incredibly poignant and weighty and made both of us think long and hard about a lot of things.
Sara: So classic tearjerker, anxiety, depression, fourth wall adversity, and depression. Most of which have "sweet moving message of hope despite--" in front of them.
Celine: Yeah, pretty much.
Hint Coin award for Most Puzzling Puzzler
This award celebrates the headaches, confusion, and eventual triumph and/or shame in using a walkthrough that come with the best puzzle games and puzzles in games.
Nominees:
Changed
Chocolate Castle
Detective Pikachu
Farnham Fables episode 4: Little Dog Dreams
Pas De Deux
Honorable Mentions:
Hidden my game by mom
Hidden my game by mom 2
I Became a Dog
Qvabllock
The Way Remastered
Sara: ... Did we get Changed nominated in every single category?
Celine: I don't think every... let me check. ... All but five, plus one honorable mention.
Sara: And yet neither of us would argue against the ones it's in. Like, in this case? It does have a properly devilish puzzle section.
Celine: And "find clues to get the password" puzzles even in the sections besides puzzle land. Yeah.
Sara: *Game show host voice* BUT WILL THAT BE ENOUGH TO OVERCOME THE OTHER FOUR??
Celine: Well, Chocolate Castle is just a kjhgpillion actual klotski puzzles. Detective Pikachu and Farnam Fables e4 are varying degrees of puzzle-filled adventure games. Pas De Deux is a clever IFComp title with a lot of decoding notes and one case of figuring out how to wake the tuba player up. I guess we'll see!
Wing of Wyvern award for Most Retro Nostalgia Trip
Whether it is an actual classic game or a modern pixel-fest reminiscent of one, this award honors the games that really take you back to Tantagel Castle.
Nominees:
City of Heroes
Family Dog
Istaria: Chronicles of the Gifted
Shovel Knight: Shovel of Hope
Vice: Project Doom
Honorable mentions:
Arcade Spirits
Plants vs. Zombies 2
Sara: ... Bit of a dropoff between the nominees and the honorables, huh?
Celine: Arcade Spirits is a fantastic game that's up for several other awards including GOTY overall, but as far as its Wing of Wyvern qualifications specifically... kinda, yeah.
Sara: Well, then! Let's see what we got here. CoH and Istaria are actual MMOs from 2004 that have been brought back and kept alive either unofficially or officially (respectively), Shovel Knight is our well-made retraux throwback for the year, Vice is something you'd been curious about since seeing it in Nintendo Power ages ago, and Family Dog is your Family Dog.
Celine: That's about the size of it, yeah! Competition in this field is not wide this year, but it is deep. Not as many heavy hitters but the ones we have are incredibly good choices that could go against anyone.
Little Cup award for Achievements in Fluff
Not every game needs to be a long and serious epic. This award honors the light and/or little palate cleansers, because games are fun.
Nominees:
Adventures With Anxiety
Becalm
Bugs and Kisses
The Racoon Who Lost Their Shape
Qvabllock
Honorable Mentions:
Family Dog
Hidden my game by mom
Out
Polygoneer
Skies Above
Sara: Tiny games. They're so cute and little. *Makes finger and thumb "I'm crushing your head" gesture*
Celine: "Cute and little" is a great way to describe this year's crop. I think Adventures With Anxiety and Bugs and Kisses are tied for longest, most substantial games here, and Bugs and Kisses is a cancelled demo.
Sara: But when you compare them to Becalm which is more a meditation backdrop...
Celine: ... which I guess leaves Racoon and Qvabllock bringing up the middle?
Sara: So three dialogue-reading sims, a tiny puzzle collection, and a screensaver. And they're all great!
Celine: Yeah! Like, I really wanted to put Family Dog in the main contention because it qualifies (it's like 20 minutes long if you know what you're doing) and it's a real game with a lot of attachment and meaning to me, but there just was nothing the two of us could agree in good conscience it was better than and should replace.
Sara: Oh, well!
Piece of Heart award for Warmest Fuzzy
Whether it's a short indie romp or a long epic, and whether heartwarming moments are in the plot directly or just as a project that feels like it was made with love, this award honors games that make players feel good inside.
Nominees:
Adventures With Anxiety
Arcade Spirits
Bugs and Kisses
City of Heroes
Istaria: Chronicles of the Gifted
Honorable Mentions:
Changed
Family Dog
Farnham Fables episode 4: Little Dog Dreams
The Racoon Who Lost Their Shape
Shovel Knight: Shovel of Hope
Celine: We sure played into the "made with love" end of it hard this year, huh.
Sara: It's really saying something when Changed is relegated to the honorables.
Celine: Well, wait, I guess it's... just about half and half? Adventures with Anxiety and Arcade Spirits are more from the end of the pool where they're about love, with their uplifting feel-good messages, and Bugs and Kisses, City of Heroes, and Istaria are all more about how much the developers and/or community clearly cared and poured their hearts into something they believed in.
Sara: And those three all are or were endangered at one point, and one of them didn't make it. And the way in which the other two did is part of their Piece of Heart appeal.
Celine: ... Whoof. Yeah.
Furry Little Body award for Achievements in Anthropomorphic Appeal
Because sometimes you just need a silly little award to acknowledge that one character you want to bang.
Nominees:
Adventures With Anxiety
Bugs and Kisses
Changed
Detective Pikachu
Istaria: Chronicles of the Gifted
Honorable Mentions:
City of Heroes
Family Dog
Farnham Fables episode 4: Little Dog Dreams
Moss
The Racoon Who Lost Their Shape
Sara: *Blushes intensely* They are all intensely full of Would. Moving on.
Golden Pheasant award for Artistic Achievement
Regardless of what the game actually does with them and whether it works overall, this award celebrates the truly outstanding and impressive feats in a game's assets, be the graphics, music, voice acting, game engine, or anything else.
Nominees:
Bugs and Kisses
Changed
Moss
Shovel Knight: Shovel of Hope
The Way Remastered
Honorable Mentions:
Becalm
Farnham Fables episode 4: Little Dog Dreams
The Racoon Who Lost Their Shape
Robo Recall
Vice: Project Doom
Sara: Ooh, this is tough. This one's always tough, huh?
Celine: It is.
Sara: We have two masterfully done 8-bit throwbacks in Changed and Shovel Knight, each with amazing graphics and music. Bugs and Kisses and Moss are more contemporary graphical gorgeousness, and The Way Remastered is basically a less artsy Superbrothers, which won my pick last year. Will the equivalent do so again this year? It's going against some stiff competition in the other four, though. Hmm. Hmmmmm.
Celine: One thing to watch for this year: this doesn't apply to Sara, but my picks have been under a kind of curse where whoever wins Golden Pheasant also wins overall GOTY, even though I made those two different categories specifically to give the beautiful and the effective games room to shine without stepping on each other. Can that happen again this year? Well, there are two Golden Pheasant nominations that are also Woodlings' Choice nominations (Changed and The Way Remastered), so if either of them win here, then it's certainly possible they could win there as well. I'm consciously trying to break that pattern--I want the two categories to showcase different games--but I'm not going to rig it to deny a game like Ori in 2017 or Tadpole Treble in 2018 its well-earned rightful place atop both fields. If Changed or The Way Remastered really deserves to be this year's equivalent, then so it goes. But do they? Well, we shall see, I suppose!
Trap Devised by Satan award for Game Most Likely Not Done Yet
Backlogs are immense, time is finite, and most games can be crossed off the list and moved on from once completed. However, some games deserve a special mention for their lasting appeal and replay value. This award honors the ones that don't want to be over.
Nominees:
Arcade Spirits
Becalm
Chocolate Castle
Family Dog
Farnham Fables episode 4: Little Dog Dreams
Honorable Mentions:
Polygoneer
Shovel Knight: Shovel of Hope
Sara: Ooh. Okay. Another "not wide, but deep" field.
Celine: Yeah. Arcade Spirits is a VN that practically begs the player to go back and see all the routes, Becalm is there whenever we need a pleasant backdrop, Chocolate Castle has the Hanano Puzzle "may as well be new because I forgot the solution anyway" effect, and Family Dog is a 20-minute retro thing I come back to from time to time. Farnham... episode 4 had a lot of subtext that made even me uncomfortable, and there are a lot of Easter eggs in there I'd be deliberately going out of my way not to trigger because I emphatically don't want to know, but there is still a nontrivial amount of fun stuff and replay value, dialogue I probably missed, etc.
Extra Life award for Most Deserving of a Second Chance
Not every played game is completed. Most of the abandoned ones were abandoned for a reason, and quickly forgotten. Could some of them find redemption and a path back onto the active to-do list, though? Maybe these ones could....
Nominees:
Downwell
GET OUT of this Dungeon
Moss
Plants vs. Zombies 2
Skies Above
Honorable Mentions:
Robo Recall
Sara: Oh... dear.
Celine: Yeah.
Sara: I see... what... two games you actually liked? So that's at least a contest, I guess.
Celine: Yeah, this category is hard to fluff up with good games, because most abandoned entries are abandoned for a reason, else we'd still be playing them. Moss is about the best circumstances for this category we're ever going to find (a genuinely delightful game that we don't actually own or currently have any way of playing), and Skies Above (was playing on a strict time limit and then it crashed) is pretty solid as well. Between those two, I feel like Moss is the better game that I'm more likely to want to play again, but that involves a heavy investment in VR equipment and possibly a new computer. Skies Above (and Downwell) are solidly okay and also just sitting right there waiting for us to come back whenever we want. This comes down to which angle you think is more important for the rules of this category.
Sara: And the others....
Celine: ... Look. We normally do a pretty good job hyping things up as a plausible five-way fight where everyone has a case to make even when we already kind of know who we're going to pick, but this is the one category where I really, really can't lie. Like, if you want to tell our readers with a straight face that we might consider touching PvZ2 again, by all means, but....
Sara: ... Nah, we're good.
Celine: Thought so.
Stan S. Stanman award for If You Only Buy One Game from This List....
Whether it's an overlooked indie gem or a well known game that deserves its reputation, this award honors the one game each year that everyone reading this really owes it to themselves to check out.
Nominees:
Adventures With Anxiety
Arcade Spirits
Changed
The Racoon Who Lost Their Shape
The Way Remastered
Honorable Mentions:
Family Dog
Istaria: Chronicles of the Gifted
Qvabllock
Sara: Ooh, this is... tougher this year than last.
Celine: Adventures With Anxiety and Arcade Spirits continue to be hopeful messages that everyone needs to hear. Changed and The Way Remastered have incredibly relevant-to-woodlings content that we'd be delighted to squee at you about if anyone else plays them. The Racoon Who Lost Their Shape is witty and entertaining and infinitely quotable. I know we typically don't put a lot of stock in the barrier to entry/ease of acquiring argument when it opposes the one we selfishly want people to play (I mean, we both pushed the entire Freebird crying simulator series on you guys last year,) but for what it's worth, Adventures With Anxiety and The Racoon Who Lost Their Shape are free web games with zero skill required.
Sara: Honestly, they're all good and all worth playing! But we each have to pick one, don't we. Hrmm.
Sqrlmog's Choice award for Sqrlmog's Choice
Another silly for-fun category. We pick five games, and XyzzySqrl picks one among them!
Nominees:
Arcade Spirits
Changed
City of Heroes
Family Dog
Istaria: Chronicles of the Gifted
Honorable Mentions:
Detective Pikachu
Pas De Deux
Qvabllock
The Racoon Who Lost Their Shape
Celine: ... You know, I expected
xyzzysqrl to struggle with these more than she did.Sara: Yeah, you had this spread of mog bait among the quirky choices, but even being against some other heavy hitters didn't slow her choice down, like, at all.
Celine: Well, we won't spoil which one she picked, of course, but as always we're just thankful to have our awards just a bit xyzzier. Especially after 2019 happened. Thank you for still being willing to do this for us. <3
Sara: Love ya. <3
Woodlings' Choice award for Best Game Overall
The grand prize as well as the most personal one. After all the other categories, after honoring every game for whatever it does best and whatever other demographics that might appeal to, this is the one that we, Celine and Sara Kalante, found to be our personal overall favorites.
Nominees:
Arcade Spirits
Changed
Detective Pikachu
Istaria: Chronicles of the Gifted
The Way Remastered
Honorable Mentions:
Adventures With Anxiety
Becalm
City of Heroes
Family Dog
Shovel Knight: Shovel of Hope
Sara: ... Man. What a year.
Celine: Yeah. Adventures With Anxiety is my "You know these are some good games if this one is stuck in the honorables" pick, although honestly you could flip these and none of the honorables would be a bad choice, let alone the main nominees.
Sara: Nngh. I could rule out some of the ones that affected you more than me and just look at my favorites (which... is exactly what I should be doing, really) and it's still a tough choice.
Celine: Good thing we have a week or two to make it!
Sara: *face*
Celine: *pat pat*
And there you have it! As always, you can keep track of all of this stuff along with past years' info, all in neat sorted spreadsheet form, right here. Feel free to weigh in with your guesses as well as your personal picks--we love talking about games! (I mean, like, as long as you're not a toxic Gamer of course, but I assume anyone bothering to look us up on Dreamwidth is cool.)