Play NYC’s Graffiti Games welcomes the new video game vanguard this year, with the initiative spreading some attention to Black game developers doing big work. This year sees Rockstar Games partnering with Playcrafting’s annual convention - currently live and entirely virtual - supporting individual Black developers in creating soup-to-nuts game projects for which they also retain ownership. Boston-based indie studio Decoy Games (whose four-player shmup Swimsanity! shipped last week) curated the winners, but the best part is: everyone can play these games right now.
Play NYC forged a destination in New York as an independent gaming conference hosting an impressive roster of projects, booths, and panels at the Manhattan Center. An all-ages, highly welcoming and accessible annual convention, it’s become a must-attend manifestation of Playcrafting’s ethos. And, since its start in 2017, the Graffiti Games showcase has been a mainstay of the con, increasing attention for the video games work of marginalized creatives with commissioned gaming installations.
This year, with the dangers of COVID-19’s spread and social distance requirements tamping down the regular con routine, Play NYC has gone online until August 16. The good news: these games are are available right now and for free on PC, with Itch.io hosting the full slate of five projects. The games are introduced below alongside links to download each of them, as well as a little about their creation.
Graffiti Games 2020: Sheep Herder Nay
Namora needs to get her sheep across the road, avoiding an unseen wolf (and occasional car) while grabbing coins on the way. Andrew Augustin’s Sheep Herder Nay is a hand-animated puzzler with some tough levels despite its cute appeal. Essentially, each sheep copies the action of the nearest sheep, so aligning all of them while collecting coins and avoiding hazards requires some out-of-the-box thinking and slight attention to timing, adding a light action element to the game.
Augustin is based out of Austin, TX, and gained attention back in 2013 with his successfully Kickstarted cartoon platformer, Super Ubi Land (later released as Super Ubie Island, after a Ubisoft naming discrepancy). While he has a few different games under his studio Notion Games, Sheep Herder Nay is his first foray into the puzzle genre.
Graffiti Games 2020: Oni Fighter Yasuke
Chicago-based developer Derrick Fields is exploring the intersection of African-American and Japanese culture, an approach demonstrated in Oni Fighter Yasuke. Building off of the story of Nobunaga’s African retainer Yasuke, Fields' game is a 2D hack-and-slash fighter, featuring multiple attacks and a stamina/block function.
Oni Fighter Yasuke seems like a working concept for a larger project. As it is, though, there are a few different swordsmen to defeat as well as a shadow boss fight. Meanwhile, Fields' Onsen Master, a magnificently colorful management game based around a hot spring that caters to demons, looks to be released later this year on Steam.
Graffiti Games 2020: To Be With You
Cara Hillstock’s visual novel game To Be With You arrives with able warning of its content. That isn’t because the game itself is gory or sexually explicit, but because the topics and emotions involved are piercing, cannily targeting the intimate, suffocating veil of comfort and compromise draped over a committed relationship.
To Be With You is particularly successful because it uses one of the best parts of visual novel storytelling: routine. Hillstock's game leverages conflicts which drag the player through the relatable ups, downs, and copious self-doubts of a woman contending with insecure guilt about every action, eggshell-stepping around a partner whose psycho-emotional state looms over every interaction. It’s discomfiting, keenly observed and often gut-wrenching storytelling, and even features multiple endings.
Graffiti Games 2020: Love Self
Michelle "Missy" Senteio’s Love Self kicks off with a gorgeous animated sequence, introducing players to Egyptian goddess Aset, come to help communicate the transformative magic of shared and self-love. What better way to communicate this than in an FPS?
Love Self has players lope through a psychedelic suburb, converting sad strangers into loving followers. Every aesthetic quality is tweaked to elicit the most joy in the player, like the boozy way the camera tilts when turning, and the overblown, chibi faces of the formerly depressed denizens are weirdly enthralling. Love Self is self-care gaming at its best, and an utter treasure.
Graffiti Games 2020: Hello Lantern
Ricardo Lee's Hello Lantern is the first chapter in an interactive storybook-styled game, centered on Kongming lanterns being released into the night breeze. There are actually a few short gentle gameplay segues in Lee's project, where players can count stars and navigate the released lantern through beautiful pixelated scenes.
Lee's game hints at a wider story incorporating themes of letting go, rebirth, and family, but the first chapter is a unique, short tale with wonderful art and animation. In addition to Hello Lantern, his Itch.io page also features Project Remixd, a slick concept demo for a cyberpunk-flavored, music-themed platformer.