This is very well written. I especially liked the bit about critics being part of marketing. It's wild that stories and characters with such significant emotional meaning to us are just line items and budgets to the corporations. The stories mean nothing to them, they're just a means to a profit.

There's non-game "favorite of the year" honorees too! Like @vdoozer.bsky.social, @benstiller.redhour.com, @rianjohnson.bsky.social (x2!), @nakedgunmovie.com, @dennisetaylor.bsky.social, @lizmoorebooks.bsky.social, and @benblacker.bsky.social.

Congrats to all the winners!

🧵/5; fin.

And finally, my 🥉honorable mention games of 2025

* Leap Year (@managore.bsky.social)
* Nine Sols (Red Candle Games)
* Citizen Sleeper 2 (@jumpovertheage.com)
* Wilmot Works it Out (@hollowponds.bsky.social)

Each of these does something awesome worth calling out, which I detail in the post!

🧵/4

My 🥈runner-up favorite games of 2025:

* Blue Prince (@blueprincegame.bsky.social)
* Strange Jigsaws (@flebpuzzles.bsky.social)

Each of these was spectacular in its own way. Funnily enough, they both had delightful senses of discovery, despite being pretty different games.

🧵/3

My 🏅favorite games of 2025:

* The Roottrees are Dead (@roottrees.com),
* Neon White (Ben Esposito, @annapurna.com)

To win my coveted gold medal, a game has to go above and beyond. It must excel at what it sets out to do and that thing has to be fun. These were both so good!

🧵/2

I... am tentatively interested in this! I'm short on writing time right now but I'm also currently working on own my GotY post. So especially if part of that can get repurposed / reused, it'd make participation much more manageable.

It's probably a skill issue on our part then. We caught a lot of the rules (e.g. 4s come in pairs) but consistently hit walls where we had no obvious information and too little health to reveal anything safely. We'd probably benefit from watching someone play who knows what they're doing