Gold-Plated Games

Yesterday marked the end of Platformebruary 2018, my first big review series of the year. It ended up being a sight better than I was expecting from such a deep dive into the indie pool, with some new favorites in the genre rising to the top. But I did find myself growing a bit tired of the middling games, the ones that weren’t bad enough to shun but not quite good enough to recommend. It got me thinking about how I select games to review and what I should be spending my energy on, and that thinking has led to this update.

I’m returning to the regular schedule I established back in January as of today, which means new reviews every Tuesday and Friday. Before, I would review something small or quirky from Curator Connect on Tuesday, and reserve Fridays for more notable games. I do genuinely love taking hard looks at the games others overlook, but that’s taken a lot of time away from games I might genuinely enjoy. I had a lot more fun boosting games like Odallus and The End Is Nigh last month than I did covering dreck like Rebons or Timen runner, and I’m very much aware of which reviews are more useful, too. So going forward, I’m going to be focusing more on covering new releases with an eye towards particularly promising ones.

One reason I can do this is because I’ve been reaching out to a lot more developers about review copies and have been seeing more and more success. I’ve already got most of March mapped out with new releases I was fortunate enough to score from the source, and I’ll be kicking things off with a review of Staxel tomorrow. Beyond that I’ve got Into the Breach, Where the Water Tastes Like Wine, Abandon Ship to cover, along with some games I’ve been meaning to play for myself like Anno 2205. Today’s Subnautica revision is along these lines in revisiting a game I’m very, very fond of as well, and should be relevant in light of its recent full release.

I’ve got a full plate for March and I’ll be focusing on big reviews, so don’t be surprised if I have to skip a few other features while I get on track. I won’t be posting an article this Sunday, for example, since I’d like to spend more time digging into these new releases. I may reconsider some of these features in the future as well, depending on how many readers they draw compared to my main Steam reviews. Honestly I’d rather not drop anything I’m doing right now but growing my reader base is a big priority for me, and I want to concentrate on what people are actually reading. To that end I’d really appreciate it if you (yes, YOU) could help spread the word about the site and the curator group. These things have a sort of gravity to them; the more people that are visiting or joining, the more visible they appear to others who might be interested.

As always, thanks for reading along and supporting what I do here with your time and attention. If you have any feedback on what you like or don’t like reading from me, hit me up with a comment here, an email, or a tweet or something. I love writing for you folks, and I’d like nothing more than to give you more of what you like.