I remember last year or a few years ago, there was talk of clawfoot bathtubs being present in a lot of games. From the limited set of games I’ve played so far, I feel like the theme this year is “online”. Of course, maybe I’m biased because of my own entry, but it would certainly make sense that this is the year of the Online.
Games with simulations of a computer interface:
And Then You Come to a House Not Unlike the Previous One
Closure
The Dead Account
extraordinary_fandoms.exe
A Paradox Between Worlds
RetroCON 2021
Silicon and Cells
Universal Hologram
You Are SpamZapper 3.1
Games in which most of the characters are sentient computer simulations:
Universal Hologram
You Are SpamZapper 3.1
Starbreakers
Games that feature an online fandom community trying to rescue a young person from abusive parents (this is a pretty specific plot, so it’s surprising that it’s happened three times):
extraordinary_fandoms.exe
A Paradox Between Worlds
You Are SpamZapper 3.1
Games with elements of “fandom”, broadly construed:
And Then You Come to a House Not Unlike the Previous One
The Dead Account + Weird Grief (furry fandom)
extraordinary_fandoms.exe
Off-Season at the Dream Factory (the fantasy adventuring counts as a fandom, right?)
Very tenuous, but I was interested to see a yellow vs purple theme in Finding Light, when you figure the way out of the opening room and purple/yellow are in opposite directions, and also in Fourbyfourian Quarryin’, where I put allied bishops and knights in rival purple and yellow factions.
Incredibly spoilerific stuff ahead: (general) Two mazes in separate games have a similar way you figure the way through. Those games are Finding Light and Off-Season at the Dream Factory.
Yeah, 2019 was the year of the clawfoot bathtub (thread here). I nominated 2020 as the year of the peristyle (thread here), though there were other themes as well.
I’d second the extremely-online nature of 2021 – maybe a reflection of how many of us spent 2020? @aschultz, your spoilery example is good too , and I think there’s even a third example: the swamp in Libonotus Cup I think works via the same rule, though I haven’t played Finding Light so not sure if there’s a different mechanic you’re referring to.
EDIT: oh, there are also two sailing races when I don’t remember any other games with one: The Libonotus Cup, and my game Sting.
There are two games whose titles begin with “How” and are followed by a bunch of noncapitalized words:
How it was then and how it is now
How the monsters appeared in the Wasteland
There’s a game with “cygnet” in the title and another one (The Best Man) that mentions a cygnet at one point, which is two more cygnets than anticipated.
we the remainder is about a Christian religion (or Christian-like)
The Dead Account contains discussion about Christianity
You Are Spamzapper 3.1 features fundamentalist Christianity as important plot points
At King Arthur’s Feast features Christian chapels and morals
The slaughter of the Christians is mentioned in the Golden Heist
Dr Terror’s House of Horrors uses a cross as an important item
A character in A Paradox Between Worlds is reconsidering christianity
The Best Man features many scenes in a Christian parish church
A Papal Summons is about the Pope
Three other games features Bishops which, while not explicitly Christian, are references to Christianity through their title:
Four by Fourian’ Quarryin
I contain multitudes
After-Words
If this is about who I think it’s about, I don’t think Luna has necessarily renounced Christianity as a whole. She has doubts about the beliefs she was raised in and is alienated from her family’s church, but “I don’t know” isn’t the same as “no”. Sorry if this is a pedantic point, but it’s kind of personal to me.
“Cygnet Committee” is about Joan of Arc of course.
Actually, I tried to make the distinction between Christianity and secularism irrelevant as far as the story is concerned. The main theme is that both parties (insofar as they are organized) have used Joan of Arc’s image as a means to an end.
Writing the AI monologues made me uncomfortable because I felt like I was putting words into the mouth of someone that actually existed. If you read them closely, you’ll notice that those clips are actually the military scientists using Joan of Arc’s voice.
The AI eventually switches to Joan of Arc talking about herself in the first person; at that point, do you believe it is in some way “Joan of Arc” beyond it being a sort of victim? There is no definite answer.
Funicular Simulator and Wabewalker both involve replaying through similar/the same scenarios and doing/organizing things a little differently until you get to a definitive end. The main difference is, you actually are someone different in Wabewalker, and you just talk to diferent people in Funicular Simulator. Also, though one game has a more definitive “right end” than the other, you can decide who to end with (Funicular Simulator) or as (Wabewalker) in each.
Two seemingly dissimilar games have a seriously misguided cult “leader” who is not good for much other than controlling other people, and they make clear he’s a doofus, and your job is to destroy him: Dr. Horror’s House of Terror and Smart Theory.
Just finished The Song of the Mockingbird, and though the tone of it and AardVarK versus the Hype is different, in the finale of each you end the game by playing a musical instrument multiple times.
Here’s a similarity where it’s surprising one title quirk doesn’t seem to have happened recently, but it happened twice this year.
Funicular Simulator 2021 and RetroCon 2021 both have “2021” in their title. Looking back to 2010, we had no games with the current year in their title.
This is random, but I looked up Luna’s popularity as an actual name, and it has exploded in popularity (in the US at least), ranking 14th for girl’s names in 2020! So maybe this is not exactly a coincidence.
Also there are two games that explicitly cite both Secret Little Haven and Digital: A Love Story as inspirations: You Are SpamZapper 3.1 and A Paradox Between Worlds.
I didn’t even notice the purple vs yellow thing in my game. Kind of a neat coincidence since some shades of yellow/purple are complementary.