Indie Rock: Games That Make You Feel Better

I’m sad and I don’t want to talk about it and I just want to play some video games that will make me feel better. – That’s my impression of you. Which I’ve practiced through feeling exactly the same way. I could be the next Jon Culshaw, Alistair McGowan, or someone not shit.

When I’m feeling terrible I have a go-to list of games that I play. They consistently make me feel better. I just feel like sharing them this week. Games like Depression Quest are a decent portrayal of living with exhausting sadness and are uplifting if they’re played correctly but there are times when that kinda shit just isn’t helpful. So here, play these and try to take your mind off whatever’s going on in your dang brain, yeah?

The Sun

I play The Sun every time I have a panic attack.

I play The Sun quite a lot.

The light lowers on a day as a stream of birds fly together. Some of the birds leave and never return. New birds take their place. Their flight paths merge and follow your cursor and you drag it around the screen as you see fit to. And you watch them. And you listen to a beautiful song by a beautiful voice and I guess, for three minutes, there’s some serenity in your life.

There’s also the reading that these aren’t birds at all and actually they’re rad fighter jets doing loop-de-loops and I’m more than ready to accept that, too.

Realistic Kissing Simulator

I think it’s pretty important that Realistic Kissing Simulator doesn’t just open with two faces and two tongues just wagging about and occasionally ending up in eyes and other mouths. It begins with a deliberate message of consent between both people. The lack of control does sort of imply a haphazardness and if I pretend for a moment that it didn’t have an opening screen, that’s just a game with two faces where tongues end up in places the other person might not enjoy.

As it is, though, it’s a silly game about kissing and how fun it is to do kissing and it adds to the list of games that I’m confirmed to like due to their unrestrained body proportions.

Skateboar

Right about when Unity was becoming well known as a free tool that allowed new programmers to quickly create 3D things, Skateboar was novel for being a silly thing with cheekily pilfered assets and a control system that didn’t quite work. Now that’s kinda an entire aesthetic in itself, with games like Bubsy 3D being the best example.

But I go back to skateboar a lot more because you’re a pig on a skateboard and the camera control is terrible and it’s just, ugh, it’s so fun.

pOnd

pOnd is about remembering to take in all that nature has to give you and …accepting all the little surprises along the way.