(i'll probably throw a few non-IGF things in the mix too, just to keep you on your toes)

first up is "Twin-Stick Arcade Insect Hell" game NIDUS. stunning, confounding, everyone loves a good shmup especially with as many cool original ideas as there are here. its like being in an Alex Grey painting.

COSMIC WHEEL SISTERHOOD made a big impact and is up for several awards. there's a lot more to this than I expected at first glance, and I was really impressed with the character writing, the patience and skill with which details about the plot and the world are revealed, and the attention to detail in just about every aspect of the game.

YEAR UNKNOWN is existential "electronic minds" sci-fi set in an angular superstructure. sort of familiar after watching too much black mirror but well done and doesn't overstay its welcome. there's a lot of polish remaining but the story is there. spoiler/trigger warning, LOADS of suicidal ideation.

SMALL SAGA is a simple, tidy turn-based RPG with excellent art and writing. its almost too tightly designed, with little room for experimentation or variation, but its funny and charming and who doesn't want to mouse around in this world, just look at the screenshots.

VENBA is a pitch-perfect story about 1st & 2nd gen Canadian immigrants. extremely well crafted, affecting & bittersweet without being schlocky or maudlin. many narrative-focused games really struggle with this stuff but it feels effortless here. and the food is ridiculously evocative..

you like mazes right?? 20 SMALL MAZES is for when you need something that is exactly what it says it is

QUASIMORPH is a grim tactical extraction shooter, u can trade skulls and eyeballs to aliens. its pretty early in development and feels a bit lost in a sea of opaque items and mechanics and statistics, but it is sort of fun to poke around and gobble chocolate and noodles on a space station.

YOU USED TO BE SOMEONE is a bleak, funny, depressive autofic city game from squinky. i like the 2D collage environment a lot, look out for the creepy sausage clerk.

ANTHOLOGY OF THE KILLER also has a beautifully handmade, DIY, 2D/3D style. if there was one game this IGF that i'd wear a t-shirt or hoodie of, this would be it. eight murderous short stories with some of the best and funniest writing in anything out there.

MEDITERRANEA INFERNO, a covid era VN about three guys that go on vacation and make each other's lives miserable, or maybe even worse. incredible use of color and illustration, this one is up for a lot of awards and it should be obvious why.

its hard to say much about 1000X RESIST without spoiling it but its one of the more ambitious entries i saw this year, in terms of fidelity, narrative detail and scope. one of the stronger "dramatic" story-focused games i've played recently.

FOREST CATHEDRAL is a short docugame where you play as biologist & conservationist Rachel Carson. she brought a lot of attention to the (highly negative) effects of pesticides on humans. its dreamy, surreal and hilarious, with a vaguely outsider art vibe that i found really endearing.

lot of narrative games this year, did u notice?? HITM3 is a short story about a queer found family in Santiago. its a compelling story if a little fetch questy, but the highlight for me is the music & visual design. i want to track down some of the individual songs, tracklist when it releases i hope

supposedly STRANGE AEONS is "designed around conversations", is "close to a 1:1 mapping of physical actions to digital actions", and is about "escaping gnostic cyber-hell" but idk about any of that. the 90s multimedia cdrom vibe works, I like the speech synth, the pivot halfway through is intriguing

im not even going to try to talk about FLIES FLIES FLIES except to say that i appreciate the puns and im glad im not the only one that finds goldblum a little sus

being on the nuovo jury means i get to play a lot of weird, inscrutable games, and PAW PAW DESTINY is one of the strangest. this has early 80s "completely re-inventing the basics" energy to it, i wasn't able to get very far but this is probably extremely someone's shit

ISLES OF SEA AND SKY is a cute block-pushy island exploration puzzler. similar to myst or the witness in that yr dealing with macro and micro puzzles throughout a large, interconnected space, but it sort of looks like links awakening played on that device that adds a bit of color to gameboy games