Today marks our first post for Geekly’s Whatcha Playing series. In this series, the Geekly Gang will share which games (board games and video games) they played over the last thirty or so days. We welcome you to join the Geekly Gang and share the games you played this past month.

Kyra’s Games

Before I get started, I’m not going to include any of my prototypes. Of course, I’ve played my prototypes plenty of times this past month, but I’ll include those games with our upcoming “Fifth Wednesday, Personal Updates” post. Until then, I’ll discuss the games I’ve played this past month that I didn’t design.

Video Games

I fell down The Survivalists rabbit hole. For a week last month, I spent almost every day trying to build each structure and cook every recipe. I’ve never played The Escapists. The Survivalists are set in the same world, and I don’t think I missed too much for not having played the game that inspired its world. This game plays like a low-pressure version of Ark: Survival Evolved. Obviously, I like this game. I played almost forty hours in just over a week. Yikes!

I’ve been keeping up with Wuthering Waves and Honkai: Star Rail. Geekly has a review on both of these gacha games. I haven’t played too many video games this past month besides these three games. I’ve mostly played board games.

Board Games

I played Dice Throne for the first time this past month. It’s a little too combat-heavy for me; I would’ve liked a few more things to do besides worrying about positioning, defense, and damage output, but what’s there is intriguing. I like how each character’s dice are unique, but they retain a six-sided die’s classic numbering. Players can trigger abilities by matching symbols or using numbers. This is a clever mechanism. It makes most die rolls useful, and I like purposing my dice each turn.

I also played We’re Doomed! for the first time, too. We’ll have a review on this one in the coming months. We’re Doomed! is a raucous party game with a real-time element. The world is doomed. You need to work together to build a large enough spaceship for everyone to leave the planet, or you could screw over the players. Players take on the roles of world leaders. Each player has the same five options for actions each round, but the role a player has gives them a bonus for one of those actions. The game’s event cards can disrupt the game flow to a point where the game breaks, but We’re Doomed! is dumb fun.

From one silly little game to another. Don’t L.L.A.M.A. Card Game is designed by board game legend Reiner Knizia. It reminds me a bit of Uno with a twist. You attempt to rid your hand of cards by matching the number on top of the discard or playing a card higher than the card showing. The cards are numbered 1-6. Llama cards count as 7s. Don’t L.L.A.M.A. Card Game is a quick, award-winning filler card game. I highly recommend it.

I could list more but I’ll let Season and Skye share their games. Thanks for reading.

Season’s Games

video games

I don’t think I’ve mentioned this before, but I’m a fan of RPG style farming sims (similar to the Harvest Moon franchise). I’ve lost count of how many I’ve played. I picked up Sun Haven during Steam’s spring sale. It’s got a much larger map than what I’m used to from an RPG farming sim and has options for mounts, pets, and accessories. I’m a sucker for all of these things.

One feature I appreciate about Sun Haven is the ability to choose your race, class, and free initial customization options. Your race and class give you bonuses in the game based on how you want to play. When I say, “free initial customization,” I mean you just design a character without picking a gender. You don’t even get the option to pick a gender, like most of these games require. All romance-able characters are available for the player to choose from and you can increase your bond with them based on picking dialogue options they like in addition to gifts.

I’ve also been playing Honkai Star Rail and Wuthering Waves regularly. They’re a staple of my video game diet, so I won’t go into detail. Good luck on all of your 50/50’s to those of you who play either/both of these games.

board games

Okay. I know this is a collectible card game (CCG). I recently played Magic: The Gathering with a friend and got hit with a wave of nostalgia when I got to play with my fifteen-year-old decks. I’ve only played commander a couple of times in the past, which is the standard way to play Magic: The Gathering now. You have a powerful creature (your commander) who starts the game off the field while the rest of your deck is ninety-nine cards, all of which must be unique (outside of basic land cards). It plays like a normal games of Magic: The Gathering, but you can summon your commander even if it dies, as long as you have the mana.

I’ve played a few prototypes last month, but haven’t played as many board games as I would have liked. I’ve been settling into a new position at my day job, so I haven’t had as much time/energy for board games. I’m hoping to play more this month.

Skye’s Games

Hello, Geekly Gang! Yes. I also enjoy games. So here are some that I’ve been playing lately.

Wuthering Waves and Honkai: Star Rail

Gacha friends, rejoice. I have returned to Wuthering Waves and Honkai: Star Rail. While I’ve always enjoyed these games, they can sometimes be difficult to keep up with. That’s why I took a break from gacha games. Now that I’m trying to loosen up, I thought it was a good time to revisit them. I’m so glad I did!

No gacha game is perfect, but the simple act of building your teams, finding secrets, and yes, owning as many characters as possible is enough to keep me hooked. Since I’ve circled back around to them, it’s been difficult for me to put them down. I’ll admit that grinding gets old. Please implement more multiplayer options. I’m desperate!

Pixel Art

Speaking of loosening up, Pixel Art is my go-to relaxation app. While not technically a game, coloring to your heart’s content is comforting. My favorite aspect of the app is the ability to create your own pixel art creations using images from your phone’s camera roll. Lately, Pixel Art has been my primary method of preserving my memories. Who needs photo albums when you have Pixel Art?

Final Fantasy

Ever since I was a kid, I always loved the Final Fantasy series (even if it was vicariously through watching my parents play it). Lately, I’ve started playing the original Final Fantasy. Since the first Final Fantasy game I played was VII, I’ve taken it upon myself to play each one that came before it. Thankfully, my sister has the Final Fantasy I-VI Pixel Remaster Collection for PlayStation4, so thank you for letting me borrow it. 😉

It’s surreal to see where this behemoth of a franchise started. The story doesn’t always make sense, but the gameplay is still fun. My favorite part is that even though (then) SquareSoft didn’t understand what it was at the time, the game is still clearly a Final Fantasy title. I can see why this is SquareEnix’s golden goose.

The Survivalists

Like other Geekly members, I’ve taken up this quaint yet satisfying game. Since I’ve been a long-time fan of survival sandbox games, it’s been fun seeing Team 17’s interpretation of one. Like most Gen Zers, my first survival sandbox game was Minecraft. It wasn’t hard for me to fall in love with The Survivalists.

Like most survival sandbox games, The Survivalists can become stale after a while. It can take an hour to get things done. If you’re a fan of the genre like me, you’re used to that. The Survivalists will soon join the roster of survival sandbox staples like Terraria, Don’t Starve, ARK: Survival Evolved, and Minecraft. Also, this one has monkeys. Monkey butlers. What more do you want?

Thank you for reading, and wherever you are, I hope you’re having a great day.