Is My Blue Your Blue is a website I found through Cloudhiker and one thing I’ve learned about me recently (along with the fact I’m cross dominant), has been I perceive greens a lot more than blues.
Not sure what to make of it, but it was nice to learn.
Leave a comment on MOPy – A screensaver that was bad for the environment
I saw a post by Ben Daubney that brought back suppressed memories – a screensaver called MOPy, that was controversial due to it’s way you would feed and nurture your virtual pet.
As Ben stated on his post:-
To make your MOPy goldfish happy, you had to buy accessories and food using points generated by making Multiple Original Prints on your (ideally HP) printer. For a while, every kid was spending every lunchtime printing out a single character on a sheet of A4 over and over again just to get enough points to give their virtual fish some virtual bubbles, and hundreds if not thousands of pages were tossed into the bin.
13 year old me didn’t have a printer, so I seemed to remember if the fish went without food, water or their environment enriched by printing out waste of paper, the fish would die. It was incredibly distressing seeing a fish on the surface of the screensaver.
Anyway, there’s a gallows humour joke to be made how a virtual fish ate resources, so ChatGPT could boil the oceans. I’ve not had enough coffee to make it, however.
RIP MOPy Fish, we hardly knew ye.
I lamented in 2024 that video games were beginning a downturn. The games that grabbed me post COVID weren’t going to be a thing going into 2025. I can confirm I was right in my speculations. 2025 was not a good year for video games.
There were good games, no doubt, but again AAA games were all largely disappointing, and indie games – whilst good – weren’t really quite grabbing me. It seems like although art forms require less and less attention spans, video games seem to be sticking with the larger, 40 to 50 hour attention cycle that I just don’t have. Nevertheless, there have been highlights.
The first main one has been being able to explore the Evercade. I’ve a blog post about it within my draft about the systems and why it’s the right mix of curated games and nostalgia (and you physically own the game) mean it’s perfect for those wanting to explore a library but are overwhelmed. It’ll get published soon. But if you end up with one under your Christmas Tree in a few weeks, consider yourself very lucky, as it’s an excellent system.
The second area of joy has been actually making games. I probably should turn the “Games” section of the About Us into it’s own little area highlighting my games, but I get genuine joy when people play or comment on my games. I’ve got a few in the pipeline, but it’s fair to say at the moment I’m preferring making games, rather than playing.
That’s not to say I didn’t have fun playing video games in 2025, oh no. Here’s a list of games I picked up for the first time and enjoyed in 2025.
As always, I begin with video games I sunk some serious time into in 2025. These ones weren’t released this year, but short of a couple of quick blasts, these ones I discovered and I loved playing in 2025.
Probably my game of 2025. Life is Strange is a fantastic story. The tale of Max Caulfield and her relationship with Chloe Price, and the students and characters in Arcadia Bay is a story that grabbed me. The characters are well rounded. Three dimensional characters and a compelling storyline that develops over the course of the game. When shocking moments occur in the storyline they grab you, including moments that you are stressful, moments that shock you, and moments that make you cry. It’s a great story, with a particularlyevil bad guy, that you genuinely want to see get their comeuppance. The last episode is arguably one of the tensest moments I’ve ever been when playing a video game. So much you could eliminate one of the story arcs from the game, and it’ll still be incredible.
It’s not too difficult, but it’s a majestic storyline (which I’m avoiding here to share anything here to keep it spoiler free). It also has some of the best sound design I’ve experienced in a video game, something I’ve written about before here.
It’s well worth your time, and the last chapter has some of the most tense moments in video games I’ve ever experienced.
Life is Strange is available on Steam, Windows, Xbox, Playstation and Nintendo Switch
Those are the games I played for the first time in 2025, but what of games released this year? Here are those games, including my top 3 games of 2025. I’ll be honest, I’ve missed a lot of the top games and some big hitters (Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Blue Prince, Ball x Pit) are on my “to play” list, or I need a better system to play it. Nevertheless here are some of the games released this year that I recommend you check out.
A cosy logic game, Is This Seat Taken? (Steam) is a game with a fairly simple game where you have to arrange people to sit in locations based on their preferences. Every puzzle is possible. There’s a simple story but has some moments that makes you chuckle. Not too taxing but will keep your brain occupied for a decent length of time.
I wasn’t sure if I liked or hated Keep Driving (Steam) when I started it. I abandoned my first run because I wasn’t sure what I was doing. Nevertheless, I started again and I enjoyed it. A driving simulator involving everything but driving. For anybody who has ever completed a road trip, a lot of the game would resonate. Being able to pick up hitchhikers, a great soundtrack (that you have to buy in game), and some interesting side missions, there are multiple ways to complete this game. Best played after an enjoyable road trip.
A fun little Amiga romp, Roguecraft DX (Evercade) is a great little Roguelike where you descend into a procedurally generated dungeon to take on monsters such as scorpions, snakes, and errr… chickens. Has a Rogue like dungeon crawler been done better? Absolutely. Fatal Labyrinth for one for the Sega Megadrive. However it’s a great game, and well worth picking up.
For the longest time this was in my top 3 games for the year, but it dropped off. ReMATCH (Steam) is a third person football game that’s online. Combining the likes of Libero Grande from the arcade and Rocket League, this game sees you play short – 5 minute football matches – with various people online. You can communicate effectively without voice chat, and the game runs and plays well. The shooting system is a bit like Three Lions for the PS1 (remember that?), but plays pretty well. It ultimately dropped off as although I had some really tense moments (including a “golden goal” draw that lasted for a good 15 minutes), I did drop off, as folks got better, and I didn’t, and it took too long to level up and unlock things. Good fun mind!
Honestly, this will once it’s complete, may be the Game of the Year.
Dispatch is – at it’s core – a real time strategy team where you play a Dispatcher for a bunch of misfit superheroes. You have to send out your super heroes to respond to various incidents in the town you are in, and play to their strengths – send out a charismatic member of the team for community outreach work, send out a tall one or one that can fly to rescue a cat from a tree, that kind of thing.
However, at times, the superheroes can act on their own accord, and this is what is engaging. There’s an in depth story here, with a framing of a new employee navigating a brand new workplace. You have choices and there’s a un-nerving “XYZ will remember this” that flashes up whenever you have something that can affect you. I’m at the end of Episode 4 (episodes are framed based on a single day, and take about an hour to complete), and had a choice at the end of it that brought flashbacks to the choices in Life is Strange – where it feels so consequential. I went “Oh no!” at the end, as you do build bonds with these characters, and right now there’s a sense of foreboding….
With a great graphics, a fantastic presentation that sees your choices highlighted wonderfully at the end of each episode, and a compelling list of characters, Dispatch may – when it’s all said and done – by my GOTY 2025.
19th December 2025: I’m now at the end of Episode 5. The song that plays at the end of Episode 5 is up there with the theme from Snake Eater, “Still Alive” from Portal and “Gigi’s Song” from There Is No Game as my favourite song from a video game ever.
Dispatch is only available on Steam.
This was joyful.
Öoo I picked up on a whim, and you play a character with 2 bombs that follow them around (in effect, what the typography of Öoo) is. It’s a fun Metroidvania, whose twist is you get the items all very early on, but you are sent on a loop of a cavern learning tricks with said items. Usually, the last trick will get you into the next cavern. It’s hard to explain but it’s very cleverly done. It offers the “aha” moment that means so much to me in games.
It’s ultimately a speedrun game. Even on a casual playthrough you’re likely to complete it within 3-4 hours, and it’s incredibly charming. The music has that Bubble Bobble-esque loop that is memorable, repeatable but doesn’t get repetitive, and the music evolves as you go through the game. The game is unpolished in a charming way, and well worth picking up for cheap.
Öoo is only available on Steam.
One of my favourite games from the last 10 years has been The Return of the Obra Dinn, and any game that scratches that itch will always do well with me.
Add some beige box early internet, well, that scores huge.
The Roottrees are Dead is a fun, 10 hour or so mystery where you examine who inherits the vast Roottrees fortune. Only blood relatives can lay claim to it, so your job is to build the family tree to discover who are actual biological Roottrees. Find their name, their job and what they look like. Dig through library archives and 1998 internet to find out information about individuals. The satisfying elements are when printers whir into action, meaning you’ve uncovered a clue.
I don’t know why it resonated with me so much, probably because it was a simple interface and vely little hand holding meant you had to write notes, interpret documents and – eventually – uncover a secret that ties everything up nicely, works well and is a genuine twist. I’ve talked about the game before on this site as it’s slightly controversial start, but this cosy adventure is well worth 10 hours of your time.
The Roottrees are Dead is only available on Steam
What was your game of the year? Leave some games you enjoyed in the comments!
Today sees my game – Mari Lwyd’s Pantri Panic – launched, as part of the Pico-8 Advent Calendar Jam 2025.
I’ve done a lot of travelling this year and on planes I saw a lot of folks playing versions of a “place blocks to make lines” mobile phone game. I found a copy that I like (Romeow & Julicat – which has been on the Evercade) so thought I’d turn it into a game, themed around the great Welsh export – Mari Lwyd. I added elements to both Welsh Christmasses and some video games I like, so I feel like this is one of the favourite games I’ve built so far.
You can play it below.
Hope you like it! If you do, I’d really like the following:-
You can download the game for free on Itch.io for Raspberry Pi and the source code for you to build in Pico-8. If you donate £2 or more you get the Windows, Linux and Apple Mac executables. I have also a Ko-Fi page which I am using as a generic “support my endeavours in various things” page. You can make a one-off donation or memberships.
Or you can just play online. Let me know your high scores, my best is 72625.
I am the 378th quickest runner ever at the Y Promenad, Llandrillo-yn-Rhos Parkrun (at the time of writing).
On Saturday I got up 6:30am from a tip off from my brother the week before. There was rumours that Rhos-on-Sea, a suburb of my hometown, was starting a parkrun that day. Previously being an achievement on the 5k App, attending the first parkrun in a location is not quite as prestigious as before – it’s not promoted to stop the newbie run directors being overwhelmed with people coming to attend. So much so, that it felt a little bit underground, a bit hush hush attending the event. Like a drinker in a prohibition era United States, as murky as my half 6 start in Newton-le-Willows.
Although the weather was terrible when I set off, the drive to North Wales was constantly getting better, so it was a cold crisp morning as I parked up. Word had got out a bit, as about 500 parkrunners and walkers showed up at the event. They were ushered into the garden next to the tourist information to get the first timers briefing. With everybody was a first timer nobody was skipping it. After folks were briefed I said a quick hello and goodbye to my brother who showed up with his dog and set off on the route.
The route is perfect for personal bests, running along the Colwyn Bay promenade, from Rhos-on-Sea, past Toad Hall pub, under the pier and just by Porth Eirias before doubling back again. I was surprised that the coast I walked many a time was only 2km or so. It feels a lot longer, certainly looked it. There is a loop but it’s largely flat and concrete – with only sand deposited from the North Sea causing issues. There’s even 2k marked out in the promenade’s mosaic to somewhat time yourself.
Anyway, it wasn’t a day for a personal best due to the numbers attending. I did get rather close though. Probably about a minute back on my personal best. I did push it too hard too early on (I managed my first 1k and 1 mile to be under the goal of a 30 minute 5k), meaning I was struggling towards the end, but I got home in a respectable 33:30 – really only hampering. My goal was to get a photo of the token to proudly declare that I was in X best runner in this blog post, as they had only 450 tokens in total.
Which I did.
It’s nice to have an email with 1 and a name as on the inaugeral parkrun page although the 5k App still lists the run as “Unknown” for now, meaning although I didn’t get the elusive “Y” for my Parkrun alphabet, I did pick up the U!
Overall, the time wasn’t the goal today, it was just to attend, and support, and just be a part of something good for my home town. It gets a bit of stick and having a parkrun there is another thing it’s got going for it. It’s a gorgeous location and looking forward to attend again.
