Luke Beeman
@lukebee.bsky.social
Software engineer, ace/aro, any/all pronouns. I'm into all kinds of media (especially indie games and anime), media criticism/analysis, and politics.
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Luke Beeman
@lukebee.bsky.social
· Jan 13
My Favorite Video Games of 2024
Over the past couple months, much digital ink has been spilled on whether 2024 was a good or bad year for video games, although as far as I…
medium.com
I finally finished my GOTY 2024 writeup! If you enjoyed it, please let me know or share it, it would mean the world to me.
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1. Pentiment
2. Inscryption
3. Hades
4. Baldur's Gate 3
5. The Legend of Zelda: The Breath of the Wild
6. Super Mario 64
7. Metroid Prime
8. Balatro
9. Half-Life 2
10. Papers, Please
2. Inscryption
3. Hades
4. Baldur's Gate 3
5. The Legend of Zelda: The Breath of the Wild
6. Super Mario 64
7. Metroid Prime
8. Balatro
9. Half-Life 2
10. Papers, Please
Of the 31 games that won the 'now' votes, rank as many as you can. That could be just voting for your favourite, or a top 3, or 10, or just go mad and rank all 31.
I will NOT count ties
I will NOT count the same game in multiple ranks
If you need help deciding: czeckd.github.io/preference-r...
I will NOT count ties
I will NOT count the same game in multiple ranks
If you need help deciding: czeckd.github.io/preference-r...
January 13, 2026 at 10:22 AM
1. Pentiment
2. Inscryption
3. Hades
4. Baldur's Gate 3
5. The Legend of Zelda: The Breath of the Wild
6. Super Mario 64
7. Metroid Prime
8. Balatro
9. Half-Life 2
10. Papers, Please
2. Inscryption
3. Hades
4. Baldur's Gate 3
5. The Legend of Zelda: The Breath of the Wild
6. Super Mario 64
7. Metroid Prime
8. Balatro
9. Half-Life 2
10. Papers, Please
Reposted by Luke Beeman
“Why one small American town won’t stop stoning its residents to death,” an AO3 fic in which Isaac Chotiner interviews the guy who runs the lottery in Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”, is astounding. archiveofourown.org/works/73396436
Why one small American town won’t stop stoning its residents to death - Charlotte_Stant - The Lottery - Shirley Jackson [Archive of Our Own]
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
archiveofourown.org
January 13, 2026 at 4:55 AM
“Why one small American town won’t stop stoning its residents to death,” an AO3 fic in which Isaac Chotiner interviews the guy who runs the lottery in Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”, is astounding. archiveofourown.org/works/73396436
This is pretty similar to me (except I finished all the Celeste C-sides and Farewell but never even beat the Radiance) and I 100% Silksong without ever needing more than a single-digit number of attempts on any boss or enemy gauntlet.
January 12, 2026 at 7:56 PM
This is pretty similar to me (except I finished all the Celeste C-sides and Farewell but never even beat the Radiance) and I 100% Silksong without ever needing more than a single-digit number of attempts on any boss or enemy gauntlet.
Doesn’t help the muddied waters that there’s such a strong tendency to anthropomorphize the technology (media reporting on Grok “apologizing” and so on).
January 9, 2026 at 9:54 PM
Doesn’t help the muddied waters that there’s such a strong tendency to anthropomorphize the technology (media reporting on Grok “apologizing” and so on).
Yeah, “AI” has always been a pretty loaded term (fictional machine sapience, video game NPC logic, machine learning and related fields of study), but it’s so much harder to work out the meaning from context now that genAI/LLMs are encroaching on everything.
January 9, 2026 at 9:54 PM
Yeah, “AI” has always been a pretty loaded term (fictional machine sapience, video game NPC logic, machine learning and related fields of study), but it’s so much harder to work out the meaning from context now that genAI/LLMs are encroaching on everything.
it’s so so incredible for a million reasons but in particular I’m still obsessed with the episode title card drop at the very end
January 7, 2026 at 1:12 AM
it’s so so incredible for a million reasons but in particular I’m still obsessed with the episode title card drop at the very end
Good list! I’d like to think I’m reasonably aware of what’s going on with indie games and even I’ve only heard of 8 of these and only played one (Lingo 2, which will be on my GOTY list when I finish writing it)
January 2, 2026 at 7:14 PM
Good list! I’d like to think I’m reasonably aware of what’s going on with indie games and even I’ve only heard of 8 of these and only played one (Lingo 2, which will be on my GOTY list when I finish writing it)
it’s so incredible, possibly my favorite Yuasa anime. I read the manga later and it’s also great but it turns out my favorite sequence in the whole thing was actually an addition made by the show that doesn’t even exist in the source material
January 2, 2026 at 11:42 AM
it’s so incredible, possibly my favorite Yuasa anime. I read the manga later and it’s also great but it turns out my favorite sequence in the whole thing was actually an addition made by the show that doesn’t even exist in the source material
I don’t watch nearly as many films as I’d like, but these were my favorites:
2020: World of Tomorrow Episode Three: The Absent Destinations of David Prime
2021: Revue Starlight: The Movie
2022: Everything Everywhere All At Once
2023: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
2024: Look Back
2025: Sinners
2020: World of Tomorrow Episode Three: The Absent Destinations of David Prime
2021: Revue Starlight: The Movie
2022: Everything Everywhere All At Once
2023: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
2024: Look Back
2025: Sinners
January 2, 2026 at 8:26 AM
I don’t watch nearly as many films as I’d like, but these were my favorites:
2020: World of Tomorrow Episode Three: The Absent Destinations of David Prime
2021: Revue Starlight: The Movie
2022: Everything Everywhere All At Once
2023: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
2024: Look Back
2025: Sinners
2020: World of Tomorrow Episode Three: The Absent Destinations of David Prime
2021: Revue Starlight: The Movie
2022: Everything Everywhere All At Once
2023: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
2024: Look Back
2025: Sinners
There are also more esoteric secret puzzles and other various discoveries and surprises (La Mulana is my go-to reference point), and that stuff was my favorite part of the game, but it is still mostly a sokoban game.
December 31, 2025 at 6:57 PM
There are also more esoteric secret puzzles and other various discoveries and surprises (La Mulana is my go-to reference point), and that stuff was my favorite part of the game, but it is still mostly a sokoban game.
Boygirl is more girl, like how with Crayola colors the yellow-green crayon is more green and the green-yellow crayon is more yellow.
December 28, 2025 at 1:19 AM
Boygirl is more girl, like how with Crayola colors the yellow-green crayon is more green and the green-yellow crayon is more yellow.
currently listening to the OST on loop and I can feel the game sliding its way up my GOTY list
December 25, 2025 at 8:28 AM
currently listening to the OST on loop and I can feel the game sliding its way up my GOTY list
Reposted by Luke Beeman
PRESENT DAY
PRESENT...TIME!
PRESENT...TIME!
December 25, 2025 at 1:48 AM
PRESENT DAY
PRESENT...TIME!
PRESENT...TIME!
The really funny thing for me about making the distinction this way is that Bastion was published by Warner Bros and Supergiant was founded by former EA employees.
Honestly I think what this really demonstrates is how vibes-based and arbitrary “indie” is; it’s more a marketing term than anything.
Honestly I think what this really demonstrates is how vibes-based and arbitrary “indie” is; it’s more a marketing term than anything.
December 20, 2025 at 10:50 PM
The really funny thing for me about making the distinction this way is that Bastion was published by Warner Bros and Supergiant was founded by former EA employees.
Honestly I think what this really demonstrates is how vibes-based and arbitrary “indie” is; it’s more a marketing term than anything.
Honestly I think what this really demonstrates is how vibes-based and arbitrary “indie” is; it’s more a marketing term than anything.
it was very funny reading this comment and puzzling over what “shaw’d” meant, and then reading the story, and then coming back to this comment and thinking “oh my god, he did shaw her” (especially since I literally just finished watching Person of Interest yesterday)
December 19, 2025 at 8:59 AM
it was very funny reading this comment and puzzling over what “shaw’d” meant, and then reading the story, and then coming back to this comment and thinking “oh my god, he did shaw her” (especially since I literally just finished watching Person of Interest yesterday)
Baba Is You; Outer Wilds for me
(I didn’t play Outer Wilds until the following year)
(I still haven’t played Disco Elysium)
(I didn’t play Outer Wilds until the following year)
(I still haven’t played Disco Elysium)
December 16, 2025 at 10:46 AM
Baba Is You; Outer Wilds for me
(I didn’t play Outer Wilds until the following year)
(I still haven’t played Disco Elysium)
(I didn’t play Outer Wilds until the following year)
(I still haven’t played Disco Elysium)
Rhythm Doctor, vivid/stasis, and Lingo 2
I also have to shoutout Sudokuvania: Digits of Despair, which rules and is sufficiently obscure and difficult enough that a couple weeks ago I became only the 10th person to ever solve its secret ending despite it coming out all the way back in April
I also have to shoutout Sudokuvania: Digits of Despair, which rules and is sufficiently obscure and difficult enough that a couple weeks ago I became only the 10th person to ever solve its secret ending despite it coming out all the way back in April
December 13, 2025 at 11:13 AM
Rhythm Doctor, vivid/stasis, and Lingo 2
I also have to shoutout Sudokuvania: Digits of Despair, which rules and is sufficiently obscure and difficult enough that a couple weeks ago I became only the 10th person to ever solve its secret ending despite it coming out all the way back in April
I also have to shoutout Sudokuvania: Digits of Despair, which rules and is sufficiently obscure and difficult enough that a couple weeks ago I became only the 10th person to ever solve its secret ending despite it coming out all the way back in April
I imagine that permission was granted before the worst of Blow’s views came to light (and would have been difficult to revoke after contracts were signed); the game’s been in development for a long time (Blow’s previous game was released before Trump’s first term had even begun)
December 12, 2025 at 11:52 AM
I imagine that permission was granted before the worst of Blow’s views came to light (and would have been difficult to revoke after contracts were signed); the game’s been in development for a long time (Blow’s previous game was released before Trump’s first term had even begun)
The rewind effect in that stage is so sick; I remember seeing footage of this boss for the first time back when Rhythm Doctor was just a browser game demo and thinking “oh my god, I have to play this.” Just wait until you see all the other wild shit the game gets up to!
December 11, 2025 at 2:08 AM
The rewind effect in that stage is so sick; I remember seeing footage of this boss for the first time back when Rhythm Doctor was just a browser game demo and thinking “oh my god, I have to play this.” Just wait until you see all the other wild shit the game gets up to!
I spent way too long trying to beat Prisonball and wondering why the hell it was Like That before realizing the joke was on me
December 11, 2025 at 12:04 AM
I spent way too long trying to beat Prisonball and wondering why the hell it was Like That before realizing the joke was on me
Yeah the fail forward thing was… unexpected. I messed up right at the beginning of one of the dream sequences and then failed on purpose to try to start over and make a clean attempt, and instead the game moved on and I had to go to YouTube for the rest of the dialogue. Lesson learned!
December 10, 2025 at 11:45 PM
Yeah the fail forward thing was… unexpected. I messed up right at the beginning of one of the dream sequences and then failed on purpose to try to start over and make a clean attempt, and instead the game moved on and I had to go to YouTube for the rest of the dialogue. Lesson learned!
Had very similar thoughts about Kotaku praising Sabrina Carpenter for standing up to ICE and then concluding with a call to action to stream her music with a link to an article about Spotify
December 9, 2025 at 2:29 AM
Had very similar thoughts about Kotaku praising Sabrina Carpenter for standing up to ICE and then concluding with a call to action to stream her music with a link to an article about Spotify
y'all killed it! I'm going to be riding the high of that finale for the rest of the evening (and then starting tomorrow I've gotta see how much I can perfect before UNBEATABLE comes out)
December 7, 2025 at 3:31 AM
y'all killed it! I'm going to be riding the high of that finale for the rest of the evening (and then starting tomorrow I've gotta see how much I can perfect before UNBEATABLE comes out)