PPG Game Of The Year 2024 - 42 - It Was A Tale As Old As Time

These games are essentially all about the narrative. Their perspectives, delivery methods and even mechanics differ greatly, but they all serve the purpose of telling a compelling, engaging story worth sticking with.

Medieval Revenge
Card Based Interactive Fiction
A card based narrative game about a peasant seeking revenge against raiders of their village. Branching paths with alternate outcomes give a sense of personalization to each short tale.

The Witch's Cauldron
Narrative Roguelike
A story focused game that uses a roguelike structure. Experiment with ingredients to learn new recipes helping you puzzle out the hows and wheres of advancing through to complete end.

Lil' Guardsman
(Cute) Papers, Please
Decide who does and doesn't get through the gate into town, but make it fantasy and from the perspective of a 12 year old.

Shanghai Summer
2000s Self Doubt Story
Set in the early 2000s, this period piece mystery focuses on 12 days of the protagonists life that start to blur with surreal dreams had every night.

SANYA
90s Nostalgia Bait
A fairly cozy game about being a kid growing up in the 90s with a warm and fuzzy feel. Smaller in scope, a bunch of little stories woven together as a nostalgic tapestry.

Harold Halibut
Philosophical Claymation Adventure
If nothing else, the lovingly crafted claymation is a joy to experience on its own. Thankfully there's also an intriguing story here to pull you through as well, with questions surrounding the idea of what actually is "home" to ponder as you go.

Grønland
Contemplative Top Down Adventure
A "text heavy adventure" set in an open world based on the Arctic of the 19th century. Strange and thoughtful.

The Palace on the Hill
Chill Rural Indian Living
A chill game about being a young boy in 90s rural India. Distinctive painterly style, tea shop management and relationship building with the people you interact with.

Psychroma
Sidescrolling Cyberpunk Narrative
Play as a digital medium who must exorcise "ghosts in the machine" with some elements of body and lynchian horror, gross cyberpunk aesthetics and psychadelics.

The End of You
Personal Isolation Story
Straight from the description: "The End of You is a short, emotional narrative game about love lost, the ghosts of the past, and the painful crawl towards closure."

Garage Sale
Chill Scavenger Hunt
Basic premise of a garage sale leads you on a low stakes adventure around town, collecting items, uncovering a few secrets and getting to know the locals.

Sunset Hills
Anthropomorphic Dog Period Piece
You can safely ignore the "Mixed" reviews here, this is a gorgeous gem. Many reviews note the game is "incomplete", however the chapters are contained stories that weave together a larger narrative with more to come. The two chapters with 6-8 hours of play time is worth digging into, with more to look forward to in the future.

Coralina: a Memory Tale
Point N Click Art Piece
Genre and reality bending adventure game with isekai elements and cool cinematic pixel art. Has that really strong and singular "indie" feel in away I'm finding hard to describe. Branch off from another game released last year.

Worlds of Aria
DnD Storytelling Engine
A DnD style adventure game narrated by Laura Bailey. Simple enough to be casual in the same way that DnD can be approachable by anyone when the main focus is telling a great story rather than getting in the minutiae of math and arcane rules.

Apartment Story
Life Sim Art Story
Like playing through an A24 art film based in a single apartment as a Millennial just trying to get through life. Plenty of sim-style interactable elements and ideas at play here.

30 Birds
Stunning Original Adventure
A laid back narrative puzzle game with a wholly unique style inspired Persian art. Packs a lot into a smaller space, in a way that makes every corner you turn a delight.

And The Best Story Focused Game Of 2024 Is…

Sovereign Syndicate
Disco Elysium RPG
An ambitious storytelling role playing game with 3 perspective characters in an interweaving steampunk London story. Disco Elysium is clear inspiration, but it's tarot card over dice mechanic along with it's setting gives it a flair of originality that makes for an excellent story experience. Despite playing this right at the start of the year, the plights of Atticus, Clara and Otto have been stuck in the forefront of my mind since. The excellent prose of this story is a triumph.