A year has passed, and what a year it was. Terrorist attacks, Syrian refugees, Donald Trump, Israel vs Palestine (for like the 60th year running, woo), cultural clashes, a further decline of international relations…

Whatever, though, video games are here to make it all just a bit more bearable!

You’ve already learnt what the best games of 2015 are from, well, everyone, but did you know people also make rad small indie titles that aren’t Five Nights at Freddy’s clones?

It’s daunting, finding actually fun games and all with the increasing pool of games and attention the site gets, so that’s why this year I set up a crack team of expert judges to go out and find the very best Game Jolt has to offer. We called it The Jolties, and by the end of the year (give or take a week) we managed to agree upon the “best” from the site.

And so, I proudly present a Completely Objective List of of the Top 5 Game Jolt Games of 2015!

3rd (Tie) - Stoppa!

Stoppa! revolves around every level tasking you to get your dude to a goal, the shtick being that you don’t control the character, but can freeze time temporarily to move around objects and avoid traps- kinda like Lemmings. The developer doesn’t get bogged down with old tricks, every level exposing you to new designs and concepts to keep things interesting. I’m sure the exclamation mark in the title only adds to your excitement.

3rd (Tie) - Codename: Nuclear

The experiences of playing the games of young like-minded indies with their overly-ambitious ideas are something of a sweet memory when I first discovered the indie scene. That is something lost to me nowadays- with the explosive popularity of cult-like franchises such as Slender and Funny Simulator Insert Year Here, many of the young’uns are inspired to make fangames intertwined more with pop culture. And those who don’t tend to make experimental games for their own benefit, which whilst interesting, are not terribly exciting for me.

But Codename: Nuclear, with artwork that looks like it was made in the default Game Maker sprite editor and a story so ridiculously random while maintaining a level of innocent childishness- this one gets me excited. And it’s actually alright- it’s unashamed, unpolished nature only adds to the experience. If you’re not going to play it for laughs then be a pretentious git and play it simply to marvel at the beauty of the accessibility this medium offers to the young creative minds of the next generation, or something.

3rd (Tie) - Ruby & Majesty: Treasure Team

Do you like co-op puzzle games but don’t have any friends? Then Ruby & Majesty: Treasure Team is for you! Control both “Ruby the Person” and “Majesty the Bat” as they venture inside an ancient ruin in search of treasure, the two bringing distinct skills to the table so they can stay alive and go deeper. What sounded like a chore pleasantly gave me a good ride in what is a smart puzzle game with a streamlined design.

2nd - Skelemania

It’s late, I’m too tired to write more, so I’ll just leave you with this nice quote regarding Skelemania from GJ user ericmhunter.

Skelemania is the embodiment of what is described as a “Metroid” style game. An entire map to uncover piece by piece, discovering new abilities that require you to backtrack to previous areas to unlock new parts of an insanely large map. This is 2D platforming at the height of its popularity and Skelemania has it. Secrets galore, puzzling statements from skittish frogs, and unraveling the story that brought it all together, Skelemania should be on the top of anyone’s playlist.

1st - Ananke

Ananke takes a pixel art style reminiscent of Lucas Art point n’ clicks and transforms it into the realm of 3D to create a lovely looking short adventure game. Explore the mysterious Exafan company as a humble cleaner, interacting with a diverse cast of surprisingly well-written characters, every day at the office bringing you a step closer to the truths that lie within. My only problem was that this game was too short, so here’s hoping the dev will fully realize these concepts in times to come.

Well that was fun, but we’re not done yet. Here are some other games that didn’t quite make the cut but definitely bring something to the table. Presenting the judges’ superlatives choice awards!

Excellence in Spooky Award - Anxiety

Horror has had a renaissance in recent years, hasn’t it? We’re seeing innovations of all kinds within the genre. What interests me most are 2D horror experiences that push the constraints of how immersive a game with only 2 planes of existence can be. Anxiety is a great example of this with the fear and anticipation you’ll feel in-game.

The Strangely Scary Award - Afterglow

Here’s another horror game, 3D this time. But instead of going for a realistic art style, Afterglow looks a weird abstract contraption that really intertwines with the subtle sound design to makes you feel like you’re on some intoxication trip. No surprise there, as the developer is the mastermind behind other psychotic works such as Gallergy and The Legacy. It’s also going to hurt your brain and scare you sh*tless, if that’s your thing.

It has voice acting Award - Code 7

And Code 7 is also pretty good! In this self-described “modern text adventure”, you are that much more immersed into the tale due to the “polish” which comes from voice acting, a fancy UI, and some subtle special effects- this interactive novel ain’t some cheap Twine game, is what I’m saying.

The game you want to love Award - Grimstorm

Grimstorm is an intense 2D action platformer, boasting a very groovy soundtrack and pretty pixel art style that you’d come to expect from its developer Nik “Where’s-Atloria” Sudan, making for quite the immersive “I’m going to kick some ass” experience. It’s just too intense for my liking, being impossibly difficult for me so it leaves a sour aftertaste. But this guy thought that beating such a challenge only added to the adventure, so maybe you will too.

The hero we need, but do not deserve Award - Paul Hack

Paul Hack would be a good name for a video game protagonist, and by extension a video game title. But no, I’m talking about the man who is actually called Paul Hack (so cool right?), and he’s the guy behind more than you realize.

He has played thousands of Game Jolt titles to curate the featured listing on main, and writes about some of his more special experiences on Fireside (this “blog”), exposing us to otherwise unheard of games in an ever-saturated indie scene. He is, let’s say, an expressive writer, giving out poetic impressions of games and their developers to really try and inspire excitement in the community for this brave new world that we’ve all come to know and love.

Paul does a lot of other stuff too, organizing events and partnerships that help grow Game Jolt to become a better… “thing”, shall we call it. He’s playing a big role as Game Jolt tries to find an identity in today’s crazy indie scene, so I feel it’s good to commend him for his part.

So that’s a final farewell to 2015. A lot was established in the way of infrastructure and partnerships for Game Jolt that will surely make 2016 a blast!

A big thank you to the judges: DarkBloodbane, EZ7, Barry, Jupiter Hadley, glaap, Zein Okko and Paul. With 39 nominated games to get through, they did a bloody good job in making sure every game was given its fair due and coming up with a reasonable personal top 5 from the submissions. This couldn’t have happened without them.

Here’s to an excellent year ahead!

#jolties #bestof #gamejolt #free

Edit: As per user Barry’s request, I have added him in the acknowledgement of the judges for the one game he “judged”. Good job Barry.