I saw this Lemmy post, but a huge list of games with no discussion isn’t very interesting! Let’s talk about why the games that influenced us had such a big impact - how they affected us as people.
For me, it was the PC game Creatures. It’s a life simulation game featuring cute little beings called ‘Norns’ which you raise and teach.
You can almost think of it like a much cuter predecessor to The Sims, but which claimed to actually “simulate” their brains.
As a thirteen-year-old it was the first game that made me want to go online and seek out more info. What I discovered was a community of similar-interest nerds hanging out on IRC chat, and it felt like for the first time in my life I had “found my people” - others who weren’t just friends, but whom I really resonated with.
I learned web development (PHP at the time!) so I could make a site for the game, which became the foundation for my job in software engineering.
And through that group I also discovered the Furry community, which was a wild ride in itself.
So yeah, Creatures. Without that game, I think I’d have become quite a different person.
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.
My older cousins got me into it, and they were the coolest.
My first playthrough took months to finish. I would just roam fighting every enemy, cutting every bush, charge into every tree, sprinkle magic powder on every living being to see if they would transform. I loved that it felt limitless in the secrets and exploration. It’s definitely the main reason I’m so into the Dark Souls games as an adult.
I think as adults we’re still looking for a game that recaptures that childhood wonder.
One game that comes very close is Tunic, which is a zeldalike with a lot of spirit. I won’t spoil it for you or anyone else who may not have played, but it’s brilliant and I highly recommend it.
Best enjoyed on a lazy Saturday morning snuggled in a blanket pretending you’re nine years old again.
I played TUNIC fairly recently and I also love and recommend it.
Yay <3
Tunic felt to me like being 3 or 4 again. Unable to read the instructions, working it out from the pictures and button icons.
I didnt complete it, I got stuck against some baddy quite early on and just sorta lost interest, but its on my list of games to go back to.
You should definitely go back, it’s so fun to learn about the inscrutable manual pages.
Rather than feeling like I was four, my experience was more like as if I was a kid in the 90s and my Dad was a businessman who brought home Zelda from Japan but it was all in Japanese and I didn’t know Japanese lol.
One thing to note about Tunic is that it has really good accessibility options. You can go in and give yourself extra hearts, or you can even turn on invincibility if you are really struggling and need to.get past a tough part sonyou can continue with the.story :)