Hi! I’m Penny (she/her), a senior studying CS on the HCI track.
My favorite game of all time is ’80 Days’, a narrative adventure game based on the novel Around the World in Eighty Days, also one of my favorite books! I remember chancing upon the game in the app store when I was 15. Within a day, I played through the whole game probably 5 times, with each run taking about 3 hours lol.
I love the feeling of being immersed in a brand new world, as one can get from reading a fiction book, watching shows/movies or playing role-playing games. I especially loved how each player’s choice in this game contribute to an endless branching narrative with many different endings, that could take many, many playthroughs to explore. Combined with the beautiful graphics that complement the storylines, it was fascinating. Also it appeals to the travelphile and historophile in me since I can pseudo-travel the world in 1800s and visit all the different cities (there are 150 cities/places in the game to explore, some hard to get to like The North Pole), and the player can choose between transport options available at each city. Some cools ones are the Trans-Siberian Express, hot air balloon, or even a sci-fi ‘Ice Walker’.
A recent game that I have been enjoying is Wordle! I love the minimalism of the interface and the rules, and the endless possibilities that is created from such a seemingly simple game. Additionally, I love that the fact that the game is only playable only once a day (the game creator says it is partially inspired by the Spelling Bee and “leaves people wanting more”), and that there is a universal solution among all players in the world in that same day. It somehow unifies people, friends, family or strangers 🙂
