Games are laboratories for understanding systems, psychology, and myself.
I'm not a competitive gamer. I'm drawn to simulation and management games where I can build worlds, experiment with systems, and watch emergent stories unfold. The best games are the ones that surprise me—where my choices create consequences I didn't predict.
A paid game means I really wanted it. Free games often just pile up. The games below are ones I consciously chose to invest in—with money, time, or both.
Genre: Life Simulation · Playtime: 100+ hours
The Sims is my character psychology laboratory. I don't play to "win"—I play to create people, give them personalities, and watch how they interact.
With mods (MCCC, personality mods, autonomy enhancers), the game becomes something deeper. Sims develop quirks, make surprising choices, and tell stories I never planned.
It's also where I learned to mod—debugging XML files, troubleshooting conflicts, reading Better Exceptions logs. Gaming taught me debugging before coding did.
Genre: Colony Management · Playtime: 50+ hours
RimWorld isn't just a game—it's a story generator. The "AI Storyteller" creates drama by throwing disasters at your colony at just the right moments.
Every colonist has a personality, skills, and relationships. Sometimes your best builder falls in love with the cook. Sometimes your doctor has a mental break and punches the power generator. The chaos is the content.
This game influenced my thinking about emergent narrative in my own interactive fiction projects.
Genre: Rhythm · Price: Paid
Pure rhythm game with zero visual noise. Just two orbiting planets, a track, and the music. The minimalism is the genius—nothing distracts from the feel.
When you hit a perfect run, it's meditative. When you fail, you know exactly why. No excuses, no luck—just you and the beat.
Engineering puzzles disguised as a colony sim. Managing oxygen, water, power, and temperature requires actual systems thinking. The "tutorial" is figuring out why everyone suffocated.
The definitive city builder. Traffic flow is the real game—everything else is just decoration. Hours spent watching cars get stuck at one intersection.
Chinese historical family management game. Build a dynasty across generations, arrange marriages, manage reputation. Like Crusader Kings but focused on family.
Strategic roguelike with beautiful pixel art. Each run tells a different story based on the crew you build and the choices you make.
If I paid for it, I really wanted it. These aren't random free downloads.
¥100+ · Next-gen life sim from Korea. Gorgeous graphics, incredible character creation. My PC can't really run it yet, but I was so drawn to it that I bought it anyway. Waiting for an upgrade.
Extremely fun. Russian roulette against a demon, but with items that let you cheat death. Simple concept, incredible tension. The atmosphere is chef's kiss.
City survival in eternal winter. Makes you confront hard ethical choices— do you institute child labor to survive? The moral weight is real.
The cozy farming game that started a genre. Simple on the surface, but with surprising depth in relationships and community building.
"One more turn" syndrome at its finest. Building an empire from 4000 BC to the space age, one decision at a time.
Medieval dynasty simulator. The stories that emerge from marriages, assassinations, and succession crises are better than most TV shows.