chuckro | Games from the Good Psychological Games Masterpost

Found on Tumblr: Good Psychological Games Masterpost

No One Has To Die: Talking will spoil it from the start. Amazing concept and brilliant ending. Takes about 20 minutes to complete, browser game.

Locked-room mystery that comes together better than you would expect, though I was hoping the puzzle segments would be more involved.

Loved: A really short game, but it has a lot of replay value in my opinion.

This is a platformer that wants to play gender-based dom/sub games with your head. Takes 10-20 minutes to complete. Exercise caution if you have emotional triggers. Reading the various interpretations of it on a review site afterwards is really something.

The Majesty of Colors: A simple point-and-click game in which the nameless narrator dreams that they’re a creature of the deep sea. There’s no particular challenge involved unless you want to get one particular ending (and it’s a “bad” ending, at that); it’s more about seeing what ending your actions naturally lead you to. A single playthrough takes less than five minutes.

Good times to be had, messing around as pixelated Cthulhu.

The Grey Rainbow: Don’t be thrown by the art - this game may start off in a fairly usual RPG manner, but the story, though short, will draw you in and may even make you cry. Make sure to check all flavor text. Takes about an hour.

For reference, this is a King’s Quest style adventure game, complete with the usual need to create fishbroomropes. It’s interesting, but feels like it could have used a little more editing to get the pacing right.

Small Worlds: An exploration-based platformer with super-simple graphics, but a fantastic soundtrack and atmosphere. Like the previous game, there’s no real gameplay to speak of, nor are there any other characters to interact with - you just wander about trying to figure out where you are and what happened to bring you there. The answer probably isn’t what you’re expecting. Can be completed in as little as ten minutes, though your first playthrough will probably be closer to the half-hour range.

Basically, it’s “uncover the picture” using simple platformer mechanics. The artwork is very pretty for the super-pixelated style. Similar to Loved, the value is in the interpretation.

Don’t Look Back: A short browser platformer that’s a modern interpretation of the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. Depending on interpretation, the ending can be regarded as either positive or negative, just as many other games on this list.

Less psychological depth, more platformer challenge. (And frustration, given the character is a one-hit-point-wonder, though you’re generally only bounced to the beginning of the room.) The gimmick of not looking back becomes more of a puzzle/challenge element than a thematic one.

Coma: To be honest I’m not 100% sure it fits with the rest of the list as it’s been ages since I played it, but it’s a beautiful game with an amazing atmosphere and everyone should play it at least once. Won’t take very long at all!

Beautiful, relatively straightforward in its interpretation, but a pain in the ass to play—the combination of slippery controls and hard-to-distinguish scenery make it more frustrating than a game you can’t die in has any right to be. Also, the conversation controls are mouse but everything else is keyboard, which is irritating.