3. VIDEOVERSE

Games matter. More than just pleasant distractions, they often carve out a meaningful place in our lives. The second game from indie developer Kinmoku, Videoverse takes place in the final days of a fictional, early-2000s online gaming community, and while it’s packed with authentic and amusing details about the ads and memes of the era, what makes Videoverse special is its exploration of how games can shape our sense of ourselves and our bonds with others.

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Cinema is replete with the works of humanist filmmakers–artists concerned first and foremost with exploring the human condition, who take a compassionate and honest view of people as we are, in all our flaws and all our transcendent beauty. Games, so often transactional in their depictions of relationships, tend to obfuscate rather than illuminate the actual, everyday struggles, yearnings, and triumphs of being human. However, with both Videoverse and the earlier, very good One Night Stand to her credit, Kinmoku’s Lucy Blundell is establishing herself as a great maker of humanist games. As you navigate the message boards of Videoverse, the feeling gradually grows that behind every name and avatar you see on the boards is a real person facing their own challenges, someone who’s here to find connection with others through a shared love of games (even if some of them are real assholes in how they go about it). The result is a game that is by turns hilarious and gently heartbreaking, one that finds so much humor and joy in games and uses them as a way of more deeply viewing and understanding the people who love them.