I write this sitting in an airport ready to come home from my first semester of college. 2013 has been a transformative year for me, filled with new experiences, a fresh start, and learning to handle things on my own. 2013 has also been a transformative year for games, with new consoles, a focus on games with meaningful story, and a rise of the little guy, as so many great indie games came out.

Honestly, picking 10 games that came out this year is incredibly hard, especially games I played, as I spend the beginning of this year playing catch up with a whole bunch of games from 2012, but I managed to whittle it down to these 10:

10. Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons

I couldn’t think of 10 better games this year, Brad was right. Brothers is a short, emotional punch to the gut with the force of a heavyweight champion. Brothers manages to tell a heartwrenching story with no words, but instead, careful, film like direction of events. Makes sense, as the lead designer, Josef Fares is a well-known Swedish director, who based the game off of real life events that happened to him. It takes all of 4 hours to play, and it’s worth playing.

9. Divekick:

Dave Lang’s silly Flash game may be the only fighting game I will ever like. It is stupidly simple, with only 2 buttons, and no movement, but that’s part of the joy. When you fuck up, you KNOW what happened, and you know never to do that again.

8. Bioshock Infinite:

While Bioshock Infinite’s combat may not have been the greatest, the story, as a Bioshock game should be, is top notch. While Elizabeth did get a bit ‘plot-robot’-y near the end, Bioshock Infinite delivers a well-crafted and thought out story about another man, lighthouse, and city.

7. FJORDS:

FJORDS is this year’s answer to last year’s Starseed Pilgrim. You are PIZZA DELIVERY MAN. You are asked to deliver to SCIENCE MOUNTAIN, where SCIENCE happens. But getting there is REALLY HARD. To get the plain-jane ending, you have to break FJORDS in some of the most interesting and mind breaking ways imaginable. And I know I haven’t seen all that FJORDS has to offer, as some screenshots show levels of craziness that I can’t even fathom.

6. Antichamber:

Turn left, now right, and go back again. Then walk backwards, but look at the floor while doing so, otherwise the floor doesn’t exist. Antichamber delighted me by absolutely destroying every thought process I had. It’s a living MC Escher dream, and I’m certain there are some secrets and puzzles I haven’t found and solved yet.

5. Desktop Dungeons:

Take a Rogue-like, put it in a blender with Minesweeper, and an egg timer set to 15 minutes. Blend vigoursly. When done, pour into a glass, and serve with a little bit of kingdom building. Desktop Dungeons is the rogue-like for those who don’t have time to learn the ins and outs of rogue-likes, or “randomly generated death labyrinths” as the cool kids these days are calling them. A single dungeon can be cleared in about 10-20 minutes, but you’ll want to play so much more.

4. Tearaway:

Tearaway is one of the most inviting and comfortable games I have played this year. It beckons you in, and makes you part of the game, whether you want to or not. Using your face, voice, and movement of the Vita system, the game blends you into the experience and delivers a tale with so many surprises and delights around every corner that I was grinning from ear to ear. Literally. The game took a picture of me doing so.

3. Papers, Please:

Dull, drab, mundanity. Clock in, clock out. Glory to Arstoska. Papers, Please blends the simplistic fun of the “Find the difference” section in Highlights magazine with a deep, mature story of trying to survive on job raffle pension in Communist Europe. I may be biased towards it, as an edited version of my name appears in the game (and in Giant Bomb’s Quick Look!), but Papers, Please is worth playing no matter what.

2. The Stanley Parable:

As a big fan of the original mod from 2011, The Stanley Parable was probably one of my most anticipated games of this year. A biting critique of narrative and games, Stanley charms you til it hurts. And then it does it more. And then it does it more. And then it does it more. Equal parts dry and irreverent, and silly and clever, The Stanley Parable is comedy in games done right.

1. Gone Home:

Gone Home is a beautiful example of “Show, Don’t Tell”. You arrive late one night at a new house your family moved into, while you were away on sabbatical in Europe. Where is everyone? Why are all these pizza boxes here? Why is someone screaming “SAM!” into the answering machine? Gone Home gives the player little to nothing about the story, only focusing on the main thread, and even then leaving gaps to your imagination and clever environmental story telling. Top notch sound, visual, and story design leave you wanting more, after the credits roll.

Runners Up:

Spelunky HD:

This would be on my #1 spot, if it weren’t for the fact that it came out last year. The 360 version of Spelunky is like a beta to be honest, and the PC/PS3/Vita versions make it so much better, with daily challenges, improved multiplayer, and texture mods on the PC version.

FEZ:

I finally got around to playing the PC version this year, and I fell in love with FEZ. The atmosphere, art and music put me into a trance like state as I explored a magical world and decoded ancient writings, and secrets. Don’t let Phil Fish put you off playing this awe-inspiring game.

Persona 4 Golden:

I bought a Vita for this game. As a recent member of Giant Bomb, I figured I might as well watch the Endurance run. About 18 episodes in, I had to stop watching it, and play this game for myself. Bring on Persona 5!

I write this sitting in an airport ready to come home from my first semester of college. 2013 has been a transformative year for me, filled with new experiences, a fresh start, and learning to handle things on my own. 2013 has also been a transformative year for games, with new consoles, a focus on games with meaningful story, and a rise of the little guy, as so many great indie games came out.

Honestly, picking 10 games that came out this year is incredibly hard, especially games I played, as I spend the beginning of this year playing catch up with a whole bunch of games from 2012, but I managed to whittle it down to these 10:

10. Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons

I couldn’t think of 10 better games this year, Brad was right. Brothers is a short, emotional punch to the gut with the force of a heavyweight champion. Brothers manages to tell a heartwrenching story with no words, but instead, careful, film like direction of events. Makes sense, as the lead designer, Josef Fares is a well-known Swedish director, who based the game off of real life events that happened to him. It takes all of 4 hours to play, and it’s worth playing.

9. DiveKick:

Dave Lang’s silly Flash game may be the only fighting game I will ever like. It is stupidly simple, with only 2 buttons, and no movement, but that’s part of the joy. When you fuck up, you KNOW what happened, and you know never to do that again.

8. Bioshock Infinite:

While Bioshock Infinite’s combat may not have been the greatest, the story, as a Bioshock game should be, is top notch. While Elizabeth did get a bit ‘plot-robot’-y near the end, Bioshock Infinite delivers a well-crafted and thought out story about another man, lighthouse, and city.

7. FJORDS:

FJORDS is this year’s answer to last year’s Starseed Pilgrim. You are PIZZA DELIVERY MAN. You are asked to deliver to SCIENCE MOUNTAIN, where SCIENCE happens. But getting there is REALLY HARD. To get the plain-jane ending, you have to break FJORDS in some of the most interesting and mind breaking ways imaginable. And I know I haven’t seen all that FJORDS has to offer, as some screenshots show levels of craziness that I can’t even fathom.

6. Antichamber:

Turn left, now right, and go back again. Then walk backwards, but look at the floor while doing so, otherwise the floor doesn’t exist. Antichamber delighted me by absolutely destroying every thought process I had. It’s a living MC Escher dream, and I’m certain there are some secrets and puzzles I haven’t found and solved yet.

5. Desktop Dungeons:

Take a Rogue-like, put it in a blender with Minesweeper, and an egg timer set to 15 minutes. Blend vigoursly. When done, pour into a glass, and serve with a little bit of kingdom building. Desktop Dungeons is the rogue-like for those who don’t have time to learn the ins and outs of rogue-likes, or “randomly generated death labyrinths” as the cool kids these days are calling them. A single dungeon can be cleared in about 10-20 minutes, but you’ll want to play so much more.

4. Tearaway:

Tearaway is one of the most inviting and comfortable games I have played this year. It beckons you in, and makes you part of the game, whether you want to or not. Using your face, voice, and movement of the Vita system, the game blends you into the experience and delivers a tale with so many surprises and delights around every corner that I was grinning from ear to ear. Literally. The game took a picture of me doing so.

3. Papers, Please:

Dull, drab, mundanity. Clock in, clock out. Glory to Arstoska. Papers, Please blends the simplistic fun of the “Find the difference” section in Highlights magazine with a deep, mature story of trying to survive on job raffle pension in Communist Europe. I may be biased towards it, as “Luca Hibbarcurto” appears in the game (and in Giant Bomb’s Quick Look!), but this game is absolutely an example of games as art we should share with the world.

2. The Stanley Parable:

As a big fan of the original mod from 2011, The Stanley Parable was probably one of my most anticipated games of this year. A biting critique of narrative and games, Stanley charms you til it hurts. And then it does it more. And then it does it more. And then it does it more. Equal parts dry and irreverent, and silly and clever, The Stanley Parable is comedy in games done right.

1. Gone Home:

Gone Home is a beautiful example of “Show, Don’t Tell”. You arrive late one night at a new house your family moved into, while you were away on sabbatical in Europe. Where is everyone? Why are all these pizza boxes here? Why is someone screaming “SAM!” into the answering machine? Gone Home gives the player little to nothing about the story, only focusing on the main thread, and even then leaving gaps to your imagination and clever environmental story telling. Top notch sound, visual, and story design leave you wanting more, after the credits roll.

Runners Up:

Spelunky HD:

This would be on my #1 spot, if it weren’t for the fact that it came out last year. The 360 version of Spelunky is like a beta to be honest, and the PC/PS3/Vita versions make it so much better, with daily challenges, improved multiplayer, and texture mods on the PC version.

FEZ:

I finally got around to playing the PC version this year, and I fell in love with FEZ. The atmosphere, art and music put me into a trance like state as I explored a magical world and decoded ancient writings, and secrets. Don’t let Phil Fish put you off playing this awe-inspiring game.

Persona 4 Golden:

I bought a Vita for this game. As a recent member of Giant Bomb, I figured I might as well watch the Endurance run. About 18 episodes in, I had to stop watching it, and play this game for myself. Bring on Persona 5!