2006/7 games of the year: discussion

[Ellie]

Hi, it's Amy bringing up the past again!

I've been thinking about this some more and drawn up a list of all the games in the GOTY timeframe for 2006-7 and 2007-8. That'd leave 2004-5 and 2005-6 we can't really do.

Completed Games: 2006-7 (27)

Sandfall
Legend of Aetheria
Defeated Journeys
Vendetta
The Search for Thomas
Ragnarok Twilight
Arias Lust
The Cerion Conception
USHGoA
Utopian Chaos XP
Breath of Fire
All is Not Lost
Crepusculum
The Crimson Rune
Aqua'os
The Healer
Under
Kailis
Fluffy and the Gang
Ethereal Dreams
DVT
Tales of Faith
Razkertim
Lucid Awakening
Absence of Vagaries
Undeniably Sexy
Enex 2

Completed Games: 2007-8 (62)

Dark Horizon
Monster Master
Tower Defence
Rise of the Elementals
Atrium of Silence
Atrium of Silence: Armageddon
Apocowlypse
A letter from room 13
The Rise of L-Block
Vonmara
Dark Era: Elements of Life
To Anywhere
The Weak Spartan
Exam Fantasy
World of Thaino
Steve RPG
Black Effect
Empirus Chronicles
Star Destroyer Escape
Universal Struggle
Prophecies of Ria
Walk it Off
Narblyg
Temperence
Incarnate
Versus Xerza
BrainStorm
Lost Souls
Silent Nemesis
La Bussola d'Ora
Imagine a World
Vagrant Blood
Mahoraba Detective Club
A Home Far Away
Spaceborne
Pasadena
Catch the Rabbit
Barkley Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden
World
The Convent
Streets of Rage
Celestial Grace
Fantasy Zone
MetalMule
Language of Deiform
Castarvian Legends
Legend of the Philosopher's Stone
Destinia
Tournament Hero
Pokemon Krobelus
The Mirror Lied
USG: A New Beginning
Ninja Penguin
Ravenwood Horror
The Blacksmith's Apprentice
Reaper
Aedemphia
Epsilon Alpha
Exorsus
Omega Twilight
Idolcraft

If anyone's interested, let's discuss this and come up with a best game from each category, find a download link for it, host it somewhere permanent, and add it to the list on the homepage.

I have edited the list for (some) demos, but not gone any further than that, so I do not know the quality or completeness of the threads.

 

[coyotecraft]

I remember Crepusculum pretty well because I play tested it a hundred times. That was before everyone and their grandma used rpgmaker to make horror survive games.

Lucid Awakening, I'm biased so I can't really say anything.

I liked The Man's games, The Black Effect and Under. They had a unique identity about them that made them remember-able to me for some reason.

Epsilon Alpha, again I'm biased cause I helped with part 2 that never saw the light of day.

Exorsus by Kyoru was made in 2006, but there wasn't really anything to it just some sketches until Kyoru showed up 4 years later with a demo. I followed him a long time on DA. He did mostly graphic design so unsurprisingly his game had nice text boxes. But he rarely took his artwork beyond b&w line drawings which I offered to color. Eventually his art degraded into chibi self portrait comic strips and inside jokes and I lost interest.
I recommend the screenshots be posted to the front page. If only to inspire people.

 

[coyotecraft]

You know, just looking at the number of pages is a good indicator of the amount of interest a game had.
If the topic only has a couple replies then it's probably not a candidate for GOTY.

For the first half.
Lucid Awakening had 15 pages.
Ethereal Dreams had 12 page which is actually a lot for a project that only had a demo.

For the second list.
The Blacksmith's Apprentice had 17 pages.
Followed by The Mirror Lied with 7 pages
and the contest entry U.S.G. ~A New Beginning~ with 6 pages.

But IMO The mirror lied wasn't much of a game. And U.S.G. was pretty amazing, not to mention that it won the A New Beginning contest. The blacksmith's Apprentice has a lot of pages because it was actively developed from 2008-09. And the download link still works which is good cause looking at the screenshots I don't think I ever played it.

 

[Ellie]

I'd be tempted to go with U.S.G for the second, yeah. It's also thankfully still around: http://rpgmaker.net/games/433/

It was the metaphor behind the game that did it for me. I remember everyone being amazed when they found it out :x

 

[Jumping Jack Flash]

Hima trolled everyone into thinking he was ten and then got everyone to play as his sperm. Plot twist.

 

[Ellie]

He/she was a really good game maker though, for making things look nice at least.