I really enjoyed playing Gone Home. There are a multitude of subtle cues and silent mechanics which together create a wonderful marriage of game and story. One complaint is that the house is ugly.
After you play it, there is a lot of great stuff to read written about the game.
Proteus is wonderful. So wonderful it needs more space, variability, events, structures, animals, plants, time, music, feedback, etc.
Antichamber was more fun to play as a demo a couple of years ago. It went from purely logic puzzles to mostly cumbersome block puzzles, though the start still maintains the heavy use of proverbs+insight. Certainly a clever game, but its nonlinearity and lack of a decent navigation system cause unnecessary meandering and jerky progression. Visuals are just good enough.
Taylor Clark profiles Jonathon Blow and the state of videogames only a little hyperbolically. The Witness is apparently about existential awareness of ourselves and the world around us— using Blow’s mind and reality as the medium.
Michael Abrash on working at Valve. Also, Handbook for New Employees.
Disasterpeace composed the soundtrack to Fez (a calm and intriguing puzzler).
Austin Wintory composed the soundtrack to Journey (the best “evocative” game I have played). Here he writes on why he is an artist:
Beyond the joy itself, beyond the endlessly stimulating growth through collaboration, the real reason I compose music is the hope of connecting with someone.
Don’t forget to ask questions.
