Warp Door's Favorite Games of 2016 - Gnome

Warp Door has found and shared 768 games throughout 2016. That's a lot, and there's still plenty that we have missed and are slowly getting around to playing, in hopes of recommending them in the future.

We've been doing monthly round-ups to try to break that mass of games down further. Continuing that effort, as we're at the end of 2016, we've got our most frequent contributors to choose their favorite games that Warp Door covered over the past year.

You can see Gnome's picks in this article and navigate to the other selections using the links below:

Joel

Chris

p.s. unfortunately Tim was too busy over the holiday period to construct a list


t- e ni hтm-are of·`a c ty (Pol Clarissou)

t- e ni hтm-are of·`a c ty

"it is late and i am lost" - Author's description

Download on itch.io (Windows, Mac, Linux)


Kith - Tales from the Fractured Plateaus - Issue 1 (Screwy Lightbulb)

Kith - Tales from the Fractured Plateaus - Issue 1 (Screwy Lightbulb)

"Welcome to Issue 1 of a regular mini-adventure series with a focus on character and world building. In small chunks you will get to know the people and places of this world, and hopefully be charmed by their... charm." - Author's description

Download on itch.io (Windows, Linux)

Support the creation of the series on Patreon


Detectiveland (Robin Johnson)

Detectiveland (Robin Johnson)

"New Losago, 1929 - a town full of creeps, clowns, mobsters and, if you know where to look, the occasional honest citizen. Guide private investigator Lanson Rose through a series of puzzling cases: solve the city's liquor supply problem in Speakeasy Street, track down a missing food scientist in The Big Pickle, and investigate strange goings-on under a dilapidated mansion in A Study in Squid." - Author's description

Play it here (Browser)


Ancient Legends (8 Bit Weapon)

Ancient Legends

"You pack your things, take your family’s heirloom amulet for luck and enter the forest for adventure…" - Author's description

Download on Developer's Site (Apple II)


It is as if you were playing chess (Pippin Barr)

It is as if you were playing chess (Pippin Barr)

"You've always wanted to be a chess master! But you aren't one! Are you! Now you can at least look like one! Pretend you're playing chess! Make moves! Act like you feel things! Smirk! Frown! Weep! Chess!" - Author's description

Play it here (Browser)


Stair Quest (No More For Today)

Stair Quest (No More For Today)

"Stair Quest is a retro adventure game that pays homage to the most enchanting, pulse-pounding moments from the early King's Quest games." - Author's description

Download on GameJolt (Windows, Mac)


Nothing Can Stop Us (Daniele Giardini)

Nothing Can Stop Us (Daniele Giardini)

"A short dialogue-based kind-of-game about people, a hill, and old—but not necessarily good ol'—days." - Author's description

Play on Game Jolt (Browser)


Void Pyramid (Willy Elektrix)

Void Pyramid

"Void Pyramid is a post-apocalyptic RPG set in the spacefaring Egyptian empire." - Author's description

Download here (Windows)

Download here (Mac)

Download on Google Play (Android)

Download on the OUYA store (OUYA)

Trailer


Superluminal Vagrant Twin (C.E.J. Pacian)

Superluminal Vagrant Twin (C.E.J. Pacian)

"A text-only space sim. Ply the spaceways. Make five million credits. Buy back your twin." - Author's description

Play on itch.io (Browser)


Infested (GrahfMetal, OFalconer)

Infested (GrahfMetal)

"In INFESTED you must find your way through an infested space ship and discover a way to escape by using the resources and environment around you." - Author's description

Why play it? Because you have missed adventure games in the ICOM tradition and Infested is a truly great sci-fi homage to them.

Download on itch.io (Windows, Mac)


dungeon decorator (Loren Schmidt)

dungeon decorator

"dungeon decorator is an easy to use, web based tool for making games!" - Author's description

Play on itch.io (Browser)


Zen and the Art of Transhumanism (Deconstructeam)

Zen and the Art of Transhumanism

"a cyberpunk pottery game about improving the human race through technology" - Author's description

Download on itch.io (Windows)

Download on Game Jolt (Windows)


Haunted Cities (Kitty Horrorshow)

Haunted Cities

"A free collection of three short, experimental games previously released as monthly rewards for Kitty Horrorshow's Patreon" - Author's description

Download on itch.io (Windows, Mac, Linux)


Norman's Sky (Ivan Notaros)

Norman's Sky

"Put on some [8bit] ambient music and explore the procedurally generated universe.." - Author's description

Download on itch.io (Windows, Mac, Linux)


From Darkness (Gold Extra)

From Darkness

"From Darkness is a research project by the Austrian artist group gold extra which covers the global interdependency of resources, conflicts and migration in the East of the continent. It’s a hybrid of fiction and reality, documentary and game, allowing the player to experience places, people and their story throughout Eastern Africa." - Author's description

Download it here (Windows, Mac, Linux)


The Narrated City (Gareth Damian Martin)

The Narrated City

"The Narrated City is an experimental, procedural narrative that explores cities as fictional objects." - Author's description

Play on itch.io (Browser)


The Painted Lady (Bakir Kawham, Edu Verz, Adrian Castro, Quike Zarraga , Beícoli)

The Painted Lady (Bakir Kawham, Edu Verz, Adrian Castro, Quike Zarraga , Beícoli)

"This nogame is about a life in a room." - Author's description

Note: The Painted Lady is NSFW, and also deep, sad, and at times depressing.

Play it here (Browser)

Download source and soundtrack


Military Industrial Complex (REPVBLIC)

Military Industrial Complex (REPVBLIC)

"Commander-in-Chief Strom Thurmond and the North Atlantic Protestant Alliance have been at war with Premier Stalintron’s endless cyborg army for almost four years with no end in sight." - Author's description

Download on itch.io (Windows, Mac, Linux)

Play on Game Jolt (Browser)

Read the backstory here


Cartas (Julian Palacios)

Cartos

"Cartas is a short narrative game about the journey of a man adrift. It's based on a couple of letters that were written by inmigrants at the end of the 19th century in Argentina." - Author's description

Download on itch.io (Windows)


Main Course =Director's Cut= (Quantum Sheep)

Main Course =Director's Cut= (Quantum Sheep)

"Uninebriated, a SoMorph is two foot tall, purple, with tentacles and a single, central eye. Its mouth can morph to eat any creature. It has eaten humans before. Absorbed their language and limited knowledge." - Author's description

Play it here (Windows, Mac, Browser)