I had a moment to think about why I like certain games, and I have figured out some criteria for myself,
- Vibrant colours
- Simple/Cartoon-ish looks
- Mid/High level of complexity in mechanics
That’s why my current favourite game is Splatoon 3, followed by Minecraft, and the list consists mostly of Nintendo games.
What’s your criteria?
The Factory. Must. Grow.
I’m really into Factory games atm. Factorio, Dyson Sphere Program, Astro Colony…
Those games are also very cool. I have Mindustry.
The Crust https://youtu.be/6TH6JAz2nNA
- zombies
- shooter
- wasteland
-> fallout3
As I’ve gotten older and had more sporadic time windows to play games (kids, work, life), I’ve gravitated more and more to rogue-like/lites and soulsborne style games. Having games that have a core gameplay loop that is 20 minutes to an hour is perfect for me, and I can kind of pick up and put down whenever I want without losing my place in a grand overwhelming open world that is miles wide, but inches deep (Starfield, I’m looking at you…).
With the rogue-like/lites, I can do a run and just go to bed and say “I’ll get further next time”, while with soulsborne games I can clear out an area and do a boss, then come back to do the next area/boss another time. If the lore seems interesting, vatividya will probably have a video on it some point to catch me up on whatever I missed.
The first thing I check for is if a game is Terraria. If it isn’t, I play Terraria instead.
All kidding aside, I tend to enjoy games that involve exploration, character development, and pleasent visuals. Good sound design is also a must, and I prefer games to be at least somewhat action oriented.
None of these things are hard and fast rules for me, of course. I like a lot of different games.
I just realized sound design is probably also an important thing for me. A lot of the games I like also have great soundtracks.
This usually doesn’t factor in to my desisions that often, but I like games with that old-school, grainy, low-poly look, especially for horror games.
Lost in Vivo is one example that comes to mind.
At moment : price and steamdeck compatibility.
Mainly rogue-lites, fps and plateformers as of late.
Figuring out northstar to get some titanfall2 going :)
Having a blast on tmnt and midnight fight express.
It has to be $10 or less in my local currency (~USD$6).
That makes the list much shorter, so from there I’m usually happy with my purchase. If I end up spending 5 hours on the game then I’ve won out better than going to see a movie.
I used to be a freebie gamer. At some point I realized the quality of free games are dwindling, and so I tried to finally purchase games.
Because I’m very aware that my financial status isn’t that great, I usually spend way more time with these paid games.
Can be a combination of certain traits:
- The game is a complex AND continuous/incremental puzzle;
- Doesn’t have a boring/idle part;
- Emulates real world. (optional);
- Player can produce creative output. (optional).
Games that I like: SimCity4 (2003), Europa Universalis 4 (2010s), Touhou series (1997-now), Taisei (2012-now), Minetest and many Tycoon games that used to be popular in 2000s.
Programming and math satisfies all 4 traits :) When I started programming 10 years ago, I became less interested in games.
Hmm.
- Usually open world. I like occasional other types, but a world with an explorable world map is more likely to keep my attention.
- Has to at least start more green than city. Cityscapes/Sci-fi settings bore me visually. This applies to real life too.
- Bright. If I need to play at night with lights off to see where the heck I’m going, I don’t like it.
- Usually some creature in the world to catch my interest. Like (inklings/octolings/salmonids in Splatoon).
- A good story is nice but not at all needed. I like environmental storytelling and aimless wandering.
- No “game complete”. I want to keep my save file forever.
Not hard rules of course, I have exceptions.
Like Metroid sounds perfect for me in some ways, but because it’s so dim and sci-fi, I can’t stay interested. Splatoon has amazingly dark lore that’s only visible past it’s bright happy exterior that I LOVE. Stardew Valley/Minecraft/Animal Crossing are in my alley.
I think in general I tend to ask myself these questions:
- can I role play as someone else?
- is there a branching storyline that can be replayed in different ways?
- is there an open world with tons of nooks and crannies to explore?
- can I dress up? :)
- is there a fun and novel gameplay mechanic?
Usually I’m invested if it ticks several boxes. I love long, story heavy rpg’s like BG3. But also visual novels like Roadwarden, open world like Shadow of Doubt, or more experimental like Book of Travels.
Have you played the Shadowrun games? They also have some custom campaigns in the steam workshop.
Oh yes, definitely!
Though I haven’t thought of trying the custom campaigns. Thank you for reminding me! :)Some of them are really good. Same quality as an actual game.
Hmm.
- Usually open world. I like occasional other types, but a world with an explorable world map is more likely to keep my attention.
- Has to at least start more green than city. Cityscapes/Sci-fi settings bore me visually. This applies to real life too.
- Bright. If I need to play at night with lights off to see where the heck I’m going, I don’t like it.
- Usually some creature in the world to catch my interest. Like (inklings/octolings/salmonids in Splatoon).
- A good story is nice but not at all needed. I like environmental storytelling and aimless wandering.
- No “game complete”. I want to keep my save file forever.
Not hard rules of course, I have exceptions.
Like Metroid sounds perfect for me in some ways, but because it’s so dim and sci-fi, I can’t stay interested. Unlike Zelda, which usually starts with brightly lit forests that keep me in.
Splatoon has amazingly dark lore that’s only visible past it’s bright happy exterior that I LOVE. Stardew Valley/Minecraft/Animal Crossing are in my alley.
i’d say i choose the almost all games i play based off of one or more of these questions:
- is there automation in the game? (i.e factorio)
- is the game largely mechanics-driven?
- how much room is there for skill expression?
- does the speedrun look fun?
other than those, i pretty much only play co-op party games with friends and ~1 rpg every couple years. right now i’m playing fortune’s run, an imm sim i’ve been looking forward to since the last steam next fest - very fun so far.
I don’t game much but the games I gravitate toward are ones where I’m the only character (& maybe with an antagonist narrator) and I have to escape a certain place. This includes Portal, Portal 2, The Stanley Parable, and Superliminal.
Even though the most recent game I’ve bought, Detroit: Become Human, has many characters and interactions between them, I liked the storytelling, cinematic aspect. Plus both Detroit and The Stanley Parable have multiple possible endings depending on the decisions made during the game.
I am someone who likes to solve problems, so strategy / management games tend to be my preferred. For instance I recently did a run of Factorio with no belts.
I also like trying new things even if failure is an option, in fact failure should be expected if you’re trying hard enough. So KSP is another one of my favorites.
makes sense, Nintendo makes consistently fantastic games. even their less than good ones are often times better than most other companies. I cannot describe my process for picking games other than watching gameplay videos and seeing if it looks fun to me.