For those who don’t know, I’m part of the amazing team over at Sidequest. We’re a collection of writers of marginalized genders who embrace the strange and the unconventional in video games. If like us you love a good challenge, Sidequest is here with the ‘20 games to play before 2020‘ challenge to help you get through all of those games that you’ve been meaning to play. To make things a little bit more fun (and a little bit difficult) Sidequest have provided 20 prompts to diversify your 2019 gaming TBR.
As Soco points out, this isn’t a “spend all my money” challenge. Any games including mobile, tabletop and free-to-play games count and you can use one game for a combination of the prompts. I’m aiming to play one game for each prompt but the majority of mine will be backlist games that I want to get through before the end of the year!
1. A game released in 2019 – Anthem
2. A game with a WoC protagonist – The Walking Dead: A New Frontier (Clementine)
3. A game that has won an award you think is meaningful – What Remains of Edith Finch (BAFTA 2018 Best Game)
4. A game that focuses on written narrative – Rakuen
5. A game set in the future – Metro 2033: Last Light Redux
6. A game that someone recommended to you, specifically – Divinity: Original Sin 2
7. A game you would like to gift (or recommend, if it’s free) to someone you love – Gris
8. A game from a genre you don’t usually play (not a genre that you hate) – SOMA
9. A game without written narrative – Horizon: Zero Dawn
10. A game that reminds you of your childhood – Spyro: Reignited
11. A game made by a WoC (Games are usually made by more than one people. For this challenge, look for a WoC credited in a prominent role) – After Hours (Bahiyya Khan)
12. A game made by people from a culture other than your own – Never Alone (Upper One Games, Alaska Native)
13. A game about animals – The Last Guardian
14. A game that you’re embarrassed you haven’t played yet – Dishonored
15. A game with an LGBTQ+ protagonist – Life is Strange: Before the Storm
16. A game you’ve had on your wishlist for a while (treat yo’ self) – God of War
17. A game made by LGBTQ+ people – The Hayseed Knight (Sandra Molina)
18. A game set in the past – The Banner Saga
19. A game made in an ‘underdeveloped’ country – Political Animals (Squeaky Wheel, the Phillippines) / Aurion: Legacy of the Kori-Odan (Kiro’o Games, Cameroon)
20. A game made in a game jam – Don’t Starve
If you want to print off or save a pdf version of the prompts then you can find one here
If you want to sign up to do the Sidequest 2019 Challenge then please tag me in your sign-up post so I can check out your game selections and be sure to tweet us @SidequestZone and #Sidequestchallenge2019!
Red Rocket Panda 
I just finished What Remains of Edith Finch and really enjoyed it. It’s short, but it really showcases some brilliant things you can do with video games in little short snippets.
I absolutely love Horizon Zero Dawn (it’s one of my top five games of all time), but I”m curious why you put it in the Game Without a Written Narrative category? Because it definitely has a plot and cut scenes and the whole shebang.
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It definitely does have a plot and cut scenes! Sidequest has allowed for flexible interpretation of its prompts so I’ve interpreted “focused on written narrative” as a game which uses text-based narrative and “without written narrative” to include non-text based games!
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This is an amazing list of games and such a cool challenge!! I don’t think I’ll participate as I don’t have a very broad taste (or range of skills) in gaming, but it’s so cool to see what you’ve picked for each category! I really want to play Gris and What Remains of Edith Finch too!
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I’ve seen so many rave reviews about Gris, it looks so beautiful and WRoEF has been on my list for SO LONG. I want to play more walking simulators but never get round to them
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Wow, so many awesome-looking games!! I really don’t have a budget to spend on games but I’ll definitely check out the free or cheap ones.
I own Never Alone but I haven’t played it either 😦 And Dishonored is one of my favourites, although I haven’t played the second one, and who knows when I’ll have the chance to play it since my brother is taking the PS4 with him when he moves.
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There’s some really good free ones on itch.io which is where I got The Hayseed Knight from. Pretty all the rest of my games on my list are ones I’ve accumulated in the sales over the years!
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Yeah, I know – never a good idea to go browsing on itch.io because if I do I’ll end up spending days there 😀 I only download specific stuff from there if I hear others recommend it.
I played Hayseed Knight today and it’s cute so far! I’m kind of meh on the story and I was confused at parts, but the voice acting is pretty neat.
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I have never heard of this challenge but honestly I am so here for it! I am really stoked to see life is Strange and Don’t Starve on your list, both of those I absolutely adore! I am currently (& slowly) playing SOMA as well, love it.
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Yessss, I hope you join in! I played LiS when it came out but didn’t feel motivated to play BtS when it came out (I don’t >love> Chloe) and didn’t even hear that LiS2 was out!
I’m looking forward to playing SOMA but also terrified
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