The Gameyard

I remember as a kid watching people play this game when it came out and because of how popular it was and the youtubers it attracted my brain convinced me for years that this was some middling youtuber slop horror game. It is not, it is genuinely such a good game. You can especially tell it's a step up from Frictional's last game Penumbra in particular their decision to get rid of the glow stick which made there be no reason to use the flashlight. Another game that just has a look to it I wish more games had. Also shoutout to my friend Lucy who had a copy of this in her inventory from back when you could have copies of games in your inventory on steam and gifted it to me, we joined the same steam family later so it didn't actually matter but thanks!

Oh boy this game. It certainly has it's problems the translation for starters is not good and it's definitely got some stuff to it that even I had to like choose to overlook, the bosses are all completely pointless too, but man... it's really fucking fun to play. I like shooters but I'm not a big shooterhead so I couldn't tell you what it is that makes it fun but it just is. I'd play it for a couple hours before work everyday to the point I pavlov'd myself into thinking I had to get ready for work after playing before remembering it was satruday. Also the gore is pretty good it's definitely a gore pervert game which is what got me interested in it even if it doesn't do anything for me being female characters but I did enjoy the gore especially as a sort of feedback of your shots. I've played quite a lot of gore fetish games and this is the only one I've ever played that is actually like. Good. This has raised my standards for not just gore pervert games but all pervert games. Playing this game and seeing how many people like it is honestly really inspiring to me too like "I could make the gore pervert games I wanna make and people may even like them" and it definitely led to me formulating an idea for a game I want to make so it's definitely one of my top games.

This is a game that isn't fully out yet with only chapter 1 having been released and because of that I hesitate to include it but GOD. I genuinely think this is the best fucking art direction to come out in 2025 fuck Claire Expedition or whatever, I was fucking awed by this game and there's so many like little things I spent a lot of time watching videos about secrets and stuff in the game. VIDEO GAMES ARE FUCKING AWESOME!

I fucking love this game dude it's so fucking cool. The visuals are definitely it's strongest suit with grotesque portraits and enemies and an environment that takes advantage of parallaxing to create moments that really awed me. My biggest complaint is that some of the items were basically useless and I had an overabundence of things so resource management wasn't very difficult. Still it's a game that really inspires me and recently they annoucned a sequel that's apparently being created by the Pathologic devs, I was skeptical at first due to the visuals being much more lacking but apparently a statement was released saying they're gonna work on that so excited to see. Funfact this game is marked positive for hate speech on doesthedogdie cause the Wolfman calls you meat ignoring the actual derogatory term for gay men that appears at one point.

Gob is a demo that came out in 2021 and was last updated in 2022, the developer's twitter isn't particularly active with the last tweet being in 2024 so who's to say if it's still being developed but god. I really fucking hope it is. I adore this game and while obviously I'm biased I find the environment to be so beautifully done, it's gorgeous, it honestly has raised my standards in games somewhat because part of me wonders "why can't more games look like this?". And like. I love me a good point and click puzzle game and the wordless design is a very interesting approach. I will say though I did get stuck at least twice and had to look up a manlybadasshero video to see how to progress.

So fucking good, like by no means a perfect game (I personally dislike the weapon breaking mechanic) but it's such a good RPGmaker horror game especially one that's actually also an RPG. The enemy designs are so creative and interesting it's hard to even choose a favourite design though the Hellride fight kicks ass. The pixel art is absolutely wonderful and does a great job conveying the creatures it makes me want to make pixel art. It's also the type of game that gets me thinking about it's themes, how the characters have all been mutated into strange forms and yet they're still people yknow?. I still need to do another run of the game now that 2.0 is out and there's much more in the game now. My favourite character is Lyle cause I'm biased towards stalkers especially gay stalkers lol.

An amazing puzzle game where you have to determine what happened to each inhabitant of the now empty ship the Obra Dinn. Ever since I played this it has left me craving for a puzzle game that itches my brain the way this one does, I am saddened by the fact I can't wipe my memories and play this again for the first time. Not to mention an awesome visual style that has gotten me into learning interesting things about dithering.

What is there i can even say about Soma that hasn't been said before? It's the type of game that when I finished I sat back in my chair and went "man..." especially as it focuses on a topic of philosophy that interests me. The game is visually great and I love the combination of glowing blue and black liquid (thanks LOWAS from Homestuck). My only complaint is I fucking hated the big fish section at the end and at one point my game bugged out so I was trapped in it's jaws while it rotated in one spot and I had to relaunch the game.

A visual novel where you play a robot maid. I have a lot of thoughts on so called "toxic yaoi" and "toxic yuri" enjoyers especially those that then append their distaste for "abuse shippers" as if toxic relationships aren't in themselves unhealthy and /often/ abusive. Absolutely Perfect Specimen unlike many other isn't afraid to depict an actually toxic and uneven relationship. Apparently the creators are working on a rewrite of it and so whenever that comes out I'm definitely interested in playing it.

Vikintor I need to devour your brain (highest compliment). Seriously Vikintor is out there making games with an aesthetic I adore that heavily inspires me to work on my own art. I will say though I definitely played this in walking sim mode.

Playing this I really understood why it had the reputation it does it's fun and has a great story and the twist in regards to words when you finally meet Andrew Ryan is so good. I was honestly surprised how blunt it was about the politics being literally in your face before you even get all the way down to Rapture. As a note I played the original and not the remaster.

This game isn't particularly standout but something about it charms me. I love the art style so perhaps it gets at my nostalgia centers but I don't mind. Could use more chainsaws and more massacres though.

A horror game where you dredge things out of the water, i enjoyed this game a lot I loved seeing all the weird fish aberrations and enemies and environments. My biggest complaint honestly is I wish it had more story honestly I felt the story was kind of lacking though i did enjoy the twist.

I really enjoy this kind of premise, especially since it's not just spooky demons but fantasy creatures such as spriggans and fae, it reminds me of Halloweentown to a degree. I could play this sort of premise for way longer than the game actually is. I gotta say I really did not expect the ending and I love it, excited for Forbidden Solitaire (< guy who's played way too much solitaire in his life).

A bloody pixel action game and I love fucking love blood. Will say when I played the third boss bugged out I think and the 4th crashed, howevver I'm not counting it as unfinished because the game itself isn't finished and was updated since I played and I guess they're planning on launching a kickstarter? I don't know but I'll consider what I played a demo and keep my eye out for the final release cause even though I'm not good at it I did enjoy it and am interested to see what they do.

I know what you're thinking but hear me out, if you can detach this from being another backrooms game in a slew of backrooms games it's pretty good. Personally I'm not a big fan of the backrooms, in particular the way it has become with the whole "creatures and monsters chasing you" since it ruins what the backrooms originally were. While this game does mention creatures, It doesn't really ever show you any monsters or anything, not until the ending jumpscare at least. I enjoy this approach it strikes a bit of a balance, first game I can think of with a similar approach is Iron Lung, though I'm sure there are plenty more others can think of. Though admittedly the end jumpscare sucks I'm not gonna lie. I love the visual style too I'm definitely a sucker for VHS/CRT filters and grime.

A body horror body modification visual novel. A beautifully done visual style and an intriguing premise and setting with characters to match, a game with a love for the monstrous and grotesque in a way that draws me in. It's also interesting to see a game with a whole written thesis by the creator

Seeing as OFF is my favourite game of all time you'd expect me to put it in the top games however because it's simply a rerelease of a game I've already played I feel it unfair to put it higher. The new soundtrack is also just not as good as the original, with the original soundtrack you can definitely hear ACC's influences such as Silent Hill. When I'm listening to it in my playlists sometimes I have to guess if the song that just came one is OFF, A Silent Hill track, or a NIN song. The new OST though just doesn't have that, it's very much a soundtrack that feels inspired by OFF and nothing but to it's own detriment. The newer content in the game also isn't really much more, though I still enjoyed it, though the new enemies stick out quite a lot since Mortis Ghost's artstyle has changed over time.

Taking inspiration from PSX-survival horror games, this is a pretty cool game that I really enjoyed. It's got bugs too! The insect kind! I love a horror game with some bug themes! Though certainly could use more. That said it's definitely got quite a few issues and I think the art could be better honestly but it's worth playing.

A really solid game hidden game prototype. I'm actually a fan of hidden object type games unfortunately the vast majority are pretty low quality but I think this one if developed further could be quite good.

I decided to play through games by Frictional Games after a discussion with friends and I started with Penumbra and god I love it. These games look good and I love the grime of the environment. I will say though they definitely have problems, the flashlight for example is useless I just used the glow stick the entire time. The second game's plot is also very middling with an ending I thought sucked big time and I definitely would rate it lower than the first one but still worth a play, I did enjoy Clarence though I would've let him live in my head.

An 18+ yaoi game that I pirated cause it's not available on steam. Looking at this game you can definitely tell what drew me in, I was looking for sexy figurines of male characters when i spotted one of Towa and had to know where he was from and my god they fucking made this shit to GET ME it's crazy. I back and forth on whether this game is good the translation is certainly a choice that I've seen people who like this game talk about the issues with but I feel there are aspects of it that aren't just the translation. I played Taku's route first and didn't think it was very good and my opinion on that route got worse the more I played the other routes, it feels like fanfiction compared to the rest of it and I was like "why does Taku even have a route??". Rei's route is also really messy and the game has some trends within it I'm not fond of. Ignoring that though I still enjoyed my time with this game and it was pretty fucking hot. I kinda want the Towa figures by virtue of being the only sexy figures that I find appealing seriously it's so hard to find content that appeals to me like this I feel insane.

I love graffiti so a game that's basically a graffiti simulator in a sludge filled environment is obviously gonna appeal to me. Though this is less about the graffiti and more about the exploration as you find every graffiti spot. Sluge Life 2 is essentially more of the same it doesn't really expand on it's predecssor in any meaningful way so I've grouped them together.

A neat little endless game where you climb up falling tetris blocks. It's not super out there and I would say definitely one of the weaker titles here but I enjoy it and the arts quite nice though I'm biased since I love meat and stuff.

This is actually a replay since it had been a while since I last played it. A short point and click puzzle game about serving three meals, definitely a nice little playthrough and apparently the creators have a new game called The Supper: New Blood which I'm definitely interested in.

This game was originally intended to release on Steam but was instead removed and banned from sale which is how I heard about it. I think one thing I appreciate about this game is that it makes it's critique of men who are drawn to horror and disturbing media and their misogyny without condemning horror media, such as by showing women with similar interests. There's a lot to be discussed about horror and it's portrayal of women and of the men drawn to these depictions but too often I see people essentially labelling anyone with an interest in the dark and horrifying as a potential danger, "of course the guy who likes the bad media is a horrible person he likes the bad media" ignoring that a man who say exclusively plays animal crossing or something is just as capable of committing the very same acts of violence to women.

Oh boy this is a controversial game. Second in the amnesia series and developed by The Chinese Room the most notable thing about amnesia is how much it lacks interactibility in the environment like it's predecessor. When put beside other games by The Chinese Room it's pretty good and there's still cool moments and certainly a great soundtrack, I personally am fine with this style of game and I'm looking forward to getting around to their more recent game Still Wakes the Deep. However as an Amnesia game it's bogged down by what came before it and is still messy in parts which makes it hard to recommend, coming to it after playing Frictional's previous games was quite jarring.

One of the many porn games I played because I was interested in seeing what porn games that /aren't/ visual novels do for gameplay. I feel like a lot of the environments are way too busy and I personally didn't do well with the gameplay so I didn't play for very long. I do think the art is cute it reminds me of paper mario a bit in it's presentation (< has not played paper mario). Also it took me way too long to realized the BE was for breast expansion even though I saw the boob growing gif on the page. If you're into that you might enjoy this maybe I don't know

A surreal open world exploration game, it's a neat experience that I enjoyed. As far as I'm aware it doesn't have an ending and is more just a thing to experience and I do think it's pretty neat and worth a play but isn't /quite/ something I recommend, especially if you're photosensitive I think this would definitely cause issues. Sort of just if you're the type who's interested in these types of games with no "purpose" give it a shot.

I played this before but decided to replay to give it another chance and my controversial opinion is that I don't think Dead Plate is very good. I feel like I should like it more for reasons you can surmise but I genuinely just don't get the hype for this game. If I remember correctly there was a reference in game to Rody managing to burn a bowl of cereal which is a good indicator of the kind of writing in this game. Also the sort of dinerdash segments are not well done in the slightest they're a pain to play.

This is one of those games I really don't remember anything about so I don't have any strong feelings on it. I do remember thinking it. interesting that at one point it makes you go to actual google in your browser and look something up to find a forum post on some tech website.

I'm conflicted on this game cause overall it's very middling and in some ways feels kind of insecure with itself but there are moments that I thought were pretty strong on their own such as the scene wandering to a door at the back of the gas station... only for it to be ruined by the twist. Of note is that the steam page and trailer show scenes that are just not in the game I even datamined the game just to check and the files do not exist at all. If you want a second opinion my friend Aster absolutely hated the game and refunded it (we have steam family sharing).

Simply speaking just not for me. I've enjoyed other colony sims out there but after I finished the tutorial I was really left like "now what". I tried to give it a second shot starting from scratch rather than the tutorial but I sat on the character creation screen for a bit and went "i don't really care", so I closed it. There just isn't really anything that grabs me about this game but I do know this is a popular game and I have friends who like it and I can see how someone could since there's a lot in it, but really not for me.

I don't remember much about this visual novel I'll be real but I did consider putting it under not recommended instead so my opinion is not high. I remember thinking this had some weird choices for the writing and at one point I may have gone "well that was stupid"? I don't know maybe this should be lower but I am admittedly nicer to games with nice art and while some graphics definitely have issues it's overall a nice looking game at least.

I was drawn to this because it was a strange looking game called Teeth Simulator, if you are also drawn to a strange looking game called Teeth Simulator I recommend it, otherwise uhhh decide for yourself. It's an endless game about eating and growing teeth.

One of many yandere visual novels, have to say though this one has interesting ideas and I appreciate that it's not a romance but rather tries to look at that kind of relationship from a third person's perspective. It's the kind of premise that interests me and makes me feel like the writer and I have similar interests in fiction about relationships and what drew me to yanderes originally. It also has some cool visual ideas though in the end I didn't like the writing which is what really brings this down and makes me unable to recommend it.

Gotta give the game credit where it's due never seen any other game have beam of light childbirth jumpscare followed by playing a third person perspective but the camera position is the baby coming out of the womb. Which makes this game sound more interesting than it actually is.

I mixed this up with "start survery" in my head and was gonna make a joke about it showing me a picture of Osomatsu but that was that game not this. I don't know. Survey horror game.

You'll probably notice how many short PSX style horror games are in the not recommended section and there's a lot to be said on that style of game though I think some people dismiss them entirely forgetting that 90% of anything is gonna be bad. I think this is one of the better ones in the not recommended but ultimately still isn't great. Also in my playthrough the dinosaur bugged and got frozen in one spot though it's been updated since so they may have fixed that.

Short horror game, I'm a bit biased towards it being one of the better ones in this section because it has to do with cleaning but ultimately it's not much. I got stuck on a lamppost while driving so bad I had to restart the game at one point thankfully I had just started.

Wanted to like this but god I just did not vibe with the writing I kinda remember the term of endearment for the protagonist's partner being used over and over and over and over every single time, that's not my only issue with the writing but the most stand out I remember.

An interesting puzzle game concept and I do kinda like how it looks sorta but that said I feel like the gameplay and puzzles could be a lot better. Now that I think about it the concept is kind of similar to Ghost Trick you'd have a better time just playing that. Also all the references to things stopped being amusing really fast and was grating good lord.

A game created by Airdorf the maker of FAITH, a game I really have got to get around to playing sometime. I will say compared to other games in this section I do think this is one of the better ones, it's pretty silly on purpose and I didn't dislike my time with it. I think what brings it down is it's just not interesting despite being silly and the fact it's cancelled means there's no full game for it to get better. Fun fact I had never heard of Molly Moonn prior to seeing this game I guess she's popular on Instagram maybe? Which I don't use lol.

I saw someone play this back when it first came out I think and I randomly remembered it existed and decided to play it for myself and uhh yeah I don't have much to say. It's a game about doing taxes that has a dark twist WOAH, i don't know.

Porn guro game i pirated. Total ass game, half the assets didn't even load so couldn't even see the gore, the player characters sprite was overlapping with the hurt sprite the enire time, falling the platforming sections would make the player sprite invisible which made platforming way fucking harder, absolute dogshit. Really just played it to steal ideas from.

Porn game I pirated. I played this cause I thought maybe it'd have some ideas I could steal for whenever I draw bug sex but it didn't even have interesting porn at one point I noticed how many CGs are the same pose and angle. The gameplay also is so fucking boring dude it's literally rock paper scissors. I saw all the porn scenes in the game and it's still in development I think so I count that as completed.

Not terrible but not really worth a play, the itch page says it'll be updated but the last update was in 2023 so no word at the moment on that. The creator's other games look interesting though and I'm interested in maybe giving them a try sometime.

This game is made by Lixian, Markiplier's editor, and I played Lixian's other horror game Late Night Mop which I fucking hated but I decided to see if one of his other works was better. Not by much. Like Rusty Barrel it's inspired by Iron Lung though has a bit more going on for it but really there are better things to do with your time than play this.

After hearing so much about Vampire Survivors I finally decided to give it a try and my thoughts were "that's it? this won awards??". Genuinely I don't understand what all the fuss was about I played for like less than an hour, thought about giving it another try the next day and went "that seems like a waste of my time." so I uninstalled it. That said there's some gmaes I know are horde survival games like this that do interest me so fascinated to see how I feel whenever I get around to those.

A game I bought years back and never played so I decided to give it a try and this shit is doodoo from an ass and literally got my computer the hottest it has ever been before and I wasn't even on high graphics. I played it for maybe 4 hours and that was only cause it's so ass it's funny to torment my friends with by making them watch me play it.

A game that clearly has things to say about the treatment of women in their interpersonal relationships, not a bad game I simply just ran into a crash and when I relaunched it put me back at the start because it is meant for one sitting. Perhaps I'll go back to it some day but we'll see.

I had insane FPS issues on this which is wild since it's a visual novel, so I went to see if there was an updated version that might fix it when I saw a link to the creator's website and I saw her DNI and realized I fit the criteria for it so... don't know how to approach that.

Apparently this game has a wikipedia page lol. It definitely feels like a "ough look how enlightened we are" type games that just sucked to play, apparently one review according to wikipedia said the visuals were stunning which.... no? Give me 5 million awards type video game artstyle.

Created by Digital God Tower who created Abscess, a game I enjoy, so I had good hopes going in but unfortunately I just got kind of frustrated and wasn't into it enough to justify trying to finish it(< guy who's bad at platformers).

A game where you dive for minerals. There's a fish enemy in this game that's such a huge fucking pain in the ass more than it is any sort of intimidating and at one point I got trapped under it and was completely unable to get out and so I stopped playing cause that was real annoying.

Seems cool but it is very rough to play and unpolished and definitely not gonna get worked on since it hasn't been touched since it came out lol. I encountered a bug and stopped play and I was on the updated version that was fixed linked at the top too.

I was stuck looking for one item I couldn't find and I kept dying over and over and I got frustrated and I had to ask the age old question of "do I wanna spend my time doing this" so I stopped and my friend's watching agreed that i should.

This is some random group of roleplayers games with their characters or whatever and doesn't seem particularly interesting but I decided to give it a try and then i died and didn't care enough to try again.