Games That Were Important To Us in 2023

And the Capy tradition continues! We put together another retrospective of games that were important to us this year. Not all of these came out this year, but they kept us occupied throughout 2023!

Super Mario Bros. Wonder

“Aptly named, Super Mario Bros. Wonder is just that. I have felt that games were for kids and just weren’t fun as I’ve slid into middle age, I’ve become a grumpy old gamer. Playing Super Mario Bros. Wonder is just charming and silly and entertaining and it’s easy to replay levels again and again to get all of those juicy rewards. The mechanics never cease to amuse! And I haven’t even tried playing with other people!”

-Christian, Designer

El Paso Elsewhere

“Bought, installed, played and finished! That alone is high praise for games these days but let me continue. I definitely enjoyed playing a level or two after a long day. This love letter to Max Payne doesn’t try to hide its influence. Radios can be found playing episodes of ‘Pill Cop’ which are an absolute treat! You’ll come for the gameplay but you’ll stay for the story, I found myself finishing levels just so I could watch the next cutscene.”

-Jon

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

“I spent so much time in the Depths. I love how everything is just pitch black there. Before you get the flying technology and the autobuild, it’s such a fun loop of scavenging for resources, making a car, seeing if you can get to the next light root, repeat. For a simple copy of the overworld, it shouldn’t have been that engaging.”

-John, Programmer

Suika Game

“Suika is a silly game that I enjoy very much. Each session is long enough to be satisfying, but short enough to not be too much of a time sink. One of my coworkers told me an important part of the game is just to sit and wait after you drop a fruit, cuz sometimes the board will shift slightly as all the fruits push against each other, and make some matches for you. That waiting really builds anticipation. It feels like you took a shot in pool and you’re eagerly watching the pieces resolve. There are physics bugs and some grating stock music, but that just emphasises you’re supposed to have fun with it and not take the game too seriously.”

-John, Programmer

Hello Kitty Island Adventure

“Hello Kitty Island Adventure got a lot of playtime at my house since its launch on Apple Arcade. A very full-featured cozy game, Island Adventure caught the eye of my daughter immediately. We discovered a game content to let us explore at our own pace, without any timers or deadlines forcing us down a specific path — this is great for younger gamers. The great dialogue lead to some impromptu reading practice — and who doesn’t love Badtz-Maru?!”

-KPD, Programmer

Factorio

“I rediscovered my love for Factorio in the fall after putting it down for a long time. It was the perfect game for me in that moment of my life — super easy to put down and pick up, even for just a few minutes, and a very satisfying brain teaser. After discovering community blueprints the game really opened up to me and I learned a lot. I finally launched a spaceship!”

-Kaitlin, Producer

Tchia

“Tchia was such a charming openworld game inspired by New Caledonia landscape and culture. I think I played this game in 2 sittings and thoroughly enjoyed it. You can shape-shift into almost any object in the game which ended up being super entertaining. There’s also a ukulele in the game you can play and I definitely sunk a few hours into that alone! The art is so beautiful and it’s apparent the devs put so much work into representing the New Calendonian culture respectfully. This game was a standout to me in 2023.”

-Farah, Producer

Jusant

“Jusant is the perfect relaxing game for a Sunday afternoon. It looks gorgeous (great example how to use the GI from UE5 for an artistic intent) the world has a real sense of belief with great prop design and architecture.
It’s also mechanically engaging and fun to solve the climbing challenge. I was really impressed with this game and hope to see more games like this from Don’t Nod.”

-Sylvain, Artist

Cocoon

“I still don’t understand how a game like Cocoon was designed in the first place. The enigmatic and minimalistic organic world is a pleasure to navigate and discover. The puzzles were a real joy to solve, challenging but always logical and gave you an incredible sense of satisfaction and progression (I was weirdly laughing hysterically at how ingenious some of those puzzles truly are) All of this without any cumbersome UI or Menus which makes it even more impressive. Even bosses which I’m usually not a fan of were fun to solve and beat. Can’t wait to see more from this team.”

Additional comments and runner ups from Sylvain:

“Both games are well balanced and I never felt stuck or infuriated over an odd design decision that would make me want to stop the game for a while.

Cyberpunk 2.1 Update: Incredible world and visuals. Recent updates really make the game complete now.

StarField: A bit of a love and hate relationship with this game. Some incredible moments bogged down by a constant menu/inventory management and tiring world traversal. Love the world design and zeroG fighting is really fun. I’m hoping to get more time with it in 2024.”

-Sylvain, Artist

Citizen Sleeper

“Last year in our retrospectives I covered In Other Waters, by Gareth Damian Martin, and I’m not surprised that I’m back this year talking about their work again. This time its their latest release, Citizen Sleeper!

Like its predecessor, this game puts you into a speculative science fiction future where people try to navigate life under capitalism and probe deeper meaning to their lives. For Citizen Sleeper, a focus on an attrition survival mechanic takes the stage, as you must balance gig work to maintain your failing synthetic body, and helping similarly vulnerable people amongst a space station on the verge of collapse. How you choose to spend your focus and energy is vital to the texture of the experience, and the game does an incredible job of providing weight to those choices with a deep branching narrative via a dice rolling system. Mechanically, the experience was sometimes high strung, as I often felt I was teetering on the edge of failure — just enough to tangibly believe the fraught theme of living with disability in a xenophobic society.

The writing is particularly standout in this title, giving the NPCs on the station nuance, complexity and humanity, as they struggle to carve a life for themselves in a cold world. The idea of radical community and compassion despite the banality of crushing bureaucracy is thoroughly explored. Fantastic art and sound design do a lot of heavy lifting here too, further giving the game a specific flavour within the sci-fi genre.

To know there is a sequel to this world coming in the future is such a treat. I bet I’ll be back in this space next year talking about it!”

-Ben, Artist

Attack of the Friday Monsters! A Tokyo Tale

“In the process of working on my backlog of games, this charming little game stuck out to me initially as a game made in the ilk of the Boku no Natsuyasumi (My Summer Vacation) series, which has a completion time of just ~4 hours. What I didn’t realize was the impact that those 4 hours would have on me, where I now often find myself daydreaming back to my time playing as ten year old Sohta, who recently moved to a rural Japanese town. The story is told through the perspective of Sohta, as he misunderstands that a kaiju battle TV show is being filmed in his town, for an actual alien invasion! Wrapped into this story is a surprisingly fleshed out card game, for which you collect the cards as you explore Sohta’s new hometown and learn about the town’s citizens and their experience with the kaiju battle show being filmed in their small town. 10/10 game for immersion, I want to live in this town myself.”

-Keegan, Programmer

Grindstone

“I’ve grinded my whole life. Grinded school, grinded work, grinded my teeth. Makes sense I’d enjoy grinding in Grindstone! It’s especially fulfilling that it rewards me with new levels and free hats every now and then. Grindin’ 4 gold with a pickaxe is incredibly rewarding!! And being around to celebrate its 4 years is even more so 🥳

For real, I’m grateful that both CAPY and Grindstone came into my life in 2023. It has been life changing to work with such a wonderful team on such an addicting game. I am also terrible with completing games as I constantly move from one to the other; but I can proudly say I finished a game this year… and it was Grindstone!”

-Bianca, Community Manager

Baldur’s Gate 3

“I know this was so many people’s GOTY but I played a lot of Baldur’s Gate 3 this year! This might be the best collaborative multiplayer video game experience I’ve ever had. My partner and I played it every day for months. We called it Baldur’s Date. The balance of investing in my own character and story, along with sharing in a collaborative adventure together was remarkable and incredibly fun. We loved strategizing on shared battles and thinking through how to navigate the complex narrative of the game together. A game that had me marveling at the unique interactive experiences possible in games. Thanks Baldur’s Date!”

-Eileen

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

“There’s already a ton of YouTube videos, essays, and articles on TOTK. All I can say is that the Legend of Zelda is a series that means a lot to me and whatever game comes out will automatically be in my personal GOTY list. But just for the sake of this list, here are some off the cuff bullet points.

• 100 foot long bridges made out of anything and everything I could glue together
• Low Battery anxiety/exhilaration
• Rauru’s Gift, more like Rauru’s Death Trap
• Skydiving to my death because I didn’t do another quest first. And not realising this until I googled it after skydiving to my death for the 20th time. I was so sure the game wasn’t doing what it was supposed to.
• ‘I didn’t realize that until now!’ (map structure)
• ‘Protect them all!’… I still have chills.”

Anthony’s Honourable Mention

Cocoon — Great puzzle design, atmosphere and art direction.

-Anthony

Fallout 4

“According to Steam I’ve played for 167.8 hours. I remember I didn’t get to Diamond City until 30hrs, and was over 100 by the time I got around to visiting the Institute. Fallout is one of the few RPG worlds I’ve gotten into. I’ve been a fan of the world since I started with Fallout 2 (I played 1 later) which still has one of my favourite intros. I played over 100 hours on both 3 and New Vegas. I tend to explore everywhere and read everything, easily taking an hour to explore each building. A few of those 50s hits got stuck in my head too.”

-Drew, Programmer

That’s all, here’s to another great year of games! We’re looking forward to what 2024 brings!