Best of Casual Gameplay 2010
Voting is now closed. Results are up! >>
Another year has come and gone, and while you might be ready for 2011 to rock you like a hurricane, let's not forget the past so soon. 
We happen to think 2010 deserves a bit more than a parting affectionate fist-bump or an awkward promise to keep in touch. That's right, dear reader; it's time for the Best of 2010, where you and others like you with a passion for games, creativity, innovation, and fun come together to vote for the best of the best in every category. From adventure to puzzle to emu breeding, they're all here, and we need your help choosing the winners. I wanted to invite all the developers for a massive last-one-standing cage match, but apparently there were *finger quotes* legal and moral issues.
While console games have seen enormous advancement, 2010 proved that the developers of casual PC games are no slouches either; rather than slowing down, the field appears to be gaining steam. Where Flash was once the darling one-and-only, Unity and HTML 5 are now strutting their stuff and making us realise not only their potential, but the advancements that must lie ahead. 2010 was an inspiring year that featured not only mega-hits by favourite recurring developers, but also break-out new talent that showed us there was plenty of room at the podium.
It was, to say the least, an extremely interesting year, and saw the emergence of not only solid genre classics, but many experimental new titles that fused multiple genres together to create something entirely new and unique. Thus, you might find a game categorized somewhere in a place you don't feel is its 100% best fit. We've also had to trim out some titles to keep the categories manageable. In the case of any popular series, we've chosen the best titles for voting. Best of 2010 also features games we've only covered in the last year, not only the games that were released then.
How long do you have to participate? Glad you asked! Voting takes place from January 24th to January 30th; just click the "Vote" button next to the title of your choice. Remember, you can vote for one game in each category, once per day. Check back with us after January 30th when we announce the winners you chose, and the staff highlights any of their own personal favourites.
This event is so important to us because, even more than the games, it's about you; our reader. The person who keeps coming back to us day after day, providing us with valuable feedback, but, more importantly, also a sense of community that has turned this site into a place over the years where everyone feels welcome, and developers receive thoughtful, constructive criticism and feedback about their games. That's all you guys; we're just the glorified word monkeys. Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts, for letting us entertain you, and we wish you golden ponies, sunshine, rainbows and lollipops in the coming year.
But hey, who cares about that, right? On to the games!
Here are the categories:
- Action or Arcade
- Action Adventure
- Point-and-Click Adventure
- Escape
- Interactive Art or Experimental
- Interactive Fiction
- Physics
- Platform
- Point-and-Click Puzzle
- Puzzle
- Role Playing
- Shooter
- Simple Idea
- Simulation or Strategy
- Defense Strategy
- Webtoy or Sandbox
- Word or Tabletop
| And the nominations are... >> |
Walkthrough for choosing your votes:
You know, typing walkthrough over and over again makes me forget its meaning. It seems like a regular thing to write walkthroughs, even though I have no idea what they are. Anyway,
Step one: Read and reread the review of each game.
Step two: Play and replay the game. (no walkthroughs unless your stuck!)
Step three: Make a shortlist of the games you enjoyed the most.
Step four: Do steps one and two for all the games on your shortlist.
Step five: Make a choice!
Step six: Repeat for all other categories.
Only reason you have to go through all these steps is because you only have one choice.
Hi CJ, I just wanted to clear something up. you only have ONE vote in each category ONCE per day. If you vote on one game in adventure and come back tomorrow, you can vote on that same game again or pick a new one. :)
I love the voting system here: one of the best.
I was about to ask why Sarah's Run wasn't in there... then realised you guys reviewed it in January :-/ Ah, well. Hopefully you'll be reviewing the full game this year!
As soon as I saw Hero Core and Super Crate Box in the same category I actually let out a cry of dismay! Two epicly awesome games that I have played far too much. Which one to choose? I think I'll be alternating, and I hope they tie :D
And even if Fault Line doesn't win, it should at least get a mention. It's just that the platformer category has so many great games I'm afraid it'll be overlooked :-\
isn't 'the longest journey' like 15 million years old now? (slight exaggeration obviously).
or did they re-release it or something?
[As the article states, voting is for games we have COVERED (in other words, reviewed) in 2010, not only games that were released during that period. :) Thanks! - Dora.]
The Browser Platformer category makes my head asplode. I love all those games! I don't wanna pick just one! D:
Heart of ice was better than all of the platformers I could choose from. Shame on you.
Sorry Powder Game, as much as I wanted to vote for you I had to choose Minecraft. Better luck in 2012 or so.
Also were was knightfall3!
[I'm sorry Heart of Ice didn't make the cut. Knightfall 3 is called Knightfall Death and Taxes and is found in the casual download section under 'puzzle': https://jayisgames.com/best-of/2010/download/puzzle/ -Jay]
I too can't make up my mind in the platformer category. Good thing I can vote every day, so I can come back and vote for all the ones I liked best!
Woot! This is gonna be my first time voting! So excited!
Gah! Stupid browser platformer category! There are so many great games that even with the "vote everyday" option, I don't think I could even pick my first one to vote for!
Oh well, guess I'll pick this one... or this one... This one... This...
If Exit Path doesn't win, I'm going to be amazed. The multiplayer was just SO addictively fun. Looking forward to seeing the victors :)
Wow. Some of these are going to be tough. And while some of my faves of the year are missing, I don't know if I will have enough votes for all the amazing games in the Puzzle category. Best ever!! I need the whole weekend just to play through some of the Strategy and RPG games I missed this year. Did I say wow?
:D
How could you not pick MM8BDM?(Mega Man 8 Bit Death Match) It was one of the funnest games I played all year! I know some people don't think so, but it is one of the only downloaded games(I have over 60) that I have played this long!(Since the day I got it, which was in November, but that is pretty long for me.)
In case anyone is wondering, the results are taking a while to compile due to the fact that there are 29 different categories this year. We're working as quickly as we can to get the results up. Hopefully we'll have the results up by Monday or Tuesday (Feb 7 or 8).
Thanks for your patience! :)
So its now the 9th. And you still havent posted up the results.... Way to create an anti climax.
Haven't you just got the system set up so that you can instantly get feedback on which had the most clicks. Or are you doing it "old school" with bits of paper and big red X's marked in crayon?
[Yep, doing everything on paper, and spending about 14 hours a day working on it. The results will be up later today. -Jay]
Congratulations to the well deserved winners :D
Update