Yeah, it’s late as always. For me January’s gone by as quickly as the year which preceded it which means this list already a bit out of date.

But that’s part of the charm of these things, isn’t it? Taking a snapshot of your feelings at a particular time so you can look back at a later date and be baffled by your choices, like finding an old photo of yourself in terrible attire. That’s not to say that there’s anything embarrassing listed here (quite the opposite – all indications are it’s going to be another ripper year for gaming), more that I’ve probably overlooked some games which ought to be here.

Each game has a number in brackets indicating where it was in last year’s list and, in some cases, the list before it (yeah, there’s a few games returning for a third appearance). I didn’t refer to last year’s list when I compiled this one so a game’s prior placings shouldn’t affect how it fared this year, though you’ll notice a trend of the older stuff being pushed further down the list by the new entries. This makes me wonder if game devs should hold off on announcements until a game is nearing the end of development – which admittedly goes completely against the current climate of early access, crowdfunding and pre-orders – to avoid having the initial rush of excitement slowly ebb away as time goes on. Then again, I’m still going to buy them all.

OK 2015, show me your good stuff.

40 (NE) A Good Snowman Is Hard To Build

Oh, this one is so sweet and lovely. I discovered it when Philippa Warr did a livestream of some of its earlier puzzles and made a point of hugging every snowperson once they were built. There should be more hugging in games.

39 (NE) Yes, Your Grace

I should point out that I only know about this one because the devs contacted me and asked for coverage. Whether or not that constitutes a grave breach in GAMES JOURNALISM ETHICS is up to you. I backed their Kickstarter too (which is true of every crowdfunded game listed here) because it looks like a really intriguing take on the whole medieval kingdom management thing.

38 (NE) Classroom Aquatic

I’m aware that it will probably amount to a one-note joke whose novelty wears out within the first few minutes. I don’t care.

37 (NE) Hac

Wow, where to start? It’s billed as a Gone Home-like with an emphasis on interaction, though it’s still early days and the design could go anywhere. However, the devlog is already a constant source of wonderful things. I’d probably have placed this higher if it was a bit further on in development and less up in the air, but it has my complete attention regardless.

36 (NE) Cibele

At this point this one’s even more vague than Hac, but the key beats – Nina Freeman making an autobiographical game about sex featuring fake MMO sections interspersed with real video footage – are more than enough to get me on board.

35 (12, 11) The Witness

Three years on and it still looks amazing, even if its much-delayed release is diverting my attention towards fresher things.

34 (14) RainWorld

They’re still so cute! And the devlog remains a treasure trove of animated gif delight.

33 (NE) Drift Stage

Probably more style than substance, but I’d wager that’s the point. I’d live in that orange drenched retro-future if I could.

32 (NE) The Next Team Batsu Joint

Based solely upon my love of Dog Of Dracula 2 – those brilliant, mad bastards.

31 (NE) Life Is Strange

I rarely venture into AAA console land these days, and happening upon something which catches my eye once I’m there is rarer still. Still, that’s exactly what Life Is Strange has done and the welcome decision to release it on the PC means I won’t have to miss out on its charms (you hear that, Red Dead Redemption? Yeah, still bitter).

30 (NE) Sunset

Tale Of Tale are one of my favourite developers, and that’s in spite of them never having made a game that I really liked. I love them because they always make interesting games about unusual subjects, and they always mean it. In a medium which (still!) struggles to move beyond self-identitying as mass-market consumer toys that’s a rare and welcome trait – as with all artforms, sometimes hearing what someone has to say wins out over personal gratification.

That said, Sunset is showing every sign of being the first Tale Of Tales game which I enjoy as much as I appreciate.

29 (NE) Chaos Reborn

Oh I know, I could be playing this one already in its early-access guise. Truth be told, it’s on this list only because I haven’t got around to trying it yet. Lazybones!

28 (1) Satellite Reign

Then again, I did dive into early access Satellite Reign and I didn’t have the grandest of times. There was brilliance evident beneath the bugs, but I do wonder if I’ve spoiled it for myself by not waiting for the final product – you can’t go back to your first time and all that.

27 (9) My Twin Brother Made Me Crossdress As Him And Now I Have To Deal With A Geeky Stalker And A Domme Beauty Who Want Me In A Bind!! or: Ladykiller in a Bind

Love Christine Love.

26 (21) Interstellaria

To be honest I haven’t checked in with this one in a while, but I’m still dead keen on seeing what they do with it.

25 (NE) That Dragon, Cancer

Man, the bravery. It’s amazing that this game even exists.

24 (NE) Scale

Joyfully bonkers in all the right ways. That resizing superpower would have come in handy the last time I moved, too.

23 (24) Tangiers

Much delayed but hardly suffering for it – still looking like the darkest recesses of my barren soul. Sweet.

22 (30) Volume

A year on and I still haven’t quite got a handle on it, but for some reason that just makes it all the more inviting.

21 (NE) Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number

Making headlines for all the wrong reasons, but hopefully there’s still a great game lurking in there beneath all the controversy.

20 (7) Soma

Another game which has been sparing with details only to intrigue me further.

19 (17, 6) Broken Age

We’re still waiting for the longer – and hopefully, stronger – half of Double Fine’s great Kickstarter experiment to come of age. Fingers crossed that it’s the satisfying conclusion the first half needs.

18 (16) Hyper Light Drifter

If I might wear my grumpy pants for a tiny smidgen: I’m getting bored of the whole pixel-arty roguelike action game thing. It’s to its substantial credit that Hyper Light Drifter still has me positively swanning in anticipation.

17 (26, 38) Gravity Ghost

It’s out now! It was released while I was writing this up and it looks amazing.

16 (11) River City Ransom: Underground

I had a blast of the Nintendo original a couple of months back and it’s aged remarkably well – all the more reason to look forward to this love-drenched tribute.

15 (5, 2) Quadrilateral Cowboy

And so my wait for Blendo’s surrealist code ’em up enters its third year. Happily, it looks like that wait will be entirely warranted.

14 (NE) Night In The Woods

I backed this one when it rode the Kickstarters but hadn’t paid much attention to it since. Then I played Lost Constellation and my anticipation for it shot up like a cat that’s just spotted an expensive tablecloth. Good things will come of this, I’m certain of it.

13 (NE) The Long Dark

Another one I could play now if I really wanted to but haven’t yet – I think I’ll hold out for the rumoured Linux version. I did have a vicarious watch of Matt Lees and Quintin Smith having a quick go of it and it looks splendid.

12 (NE) Invisible Inc.

Again! It’s out on early access and by all reports already in well playable shape, so I probably have no excuse. Should I wait for the finished version? I think I’ll be caving in soon with this one.

11 (NE) Grand Theft Auto V

I guess I’m like a lot of people with the GTA games: I hate the missions, I have issues with the writing, I’m astounded by the sheer amount of stuff they’ve put in it and I straight-up adore the city. I played a bit of the original version on PS3 when it came out a couple of years ago and just loved wandering around the world, regardless of how I felt about all of the other stuff. With the addition of the new first-person mode and upgraded shiny-shiny, the PC version might just become my favourite walking sim yet.

10 (36) No Man’s Sky

It seems that everyone who’s seen this in action reports walking away from the experience with their jaws scraping across the floor. All that scope and mad ambition and it looks like they’ve actually pulled it off. It’s going to be incredible if they have.

9 (NE) Tacoma

Fullbright’s difficult second album. It doesn’t look like it will be a huge departure from their first, but with a very welcome line-up change in the mix there’s no reason not to expect great things.

8 (NE) Her Story

I can’t believe that I only just heard about this one, via Rock Paper Shotgun’s great interview with developer Sam Barlow. That’s the same Sam Barlow who was responsible for the amazing Aisle, one of my favourite games of all time and reason enough to want to play this. But the more I read about this one the better it gets. It reads almost like a re-booted take on those old FMV sleuthing games like Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective, only a hundred times better.

7 (3) Hot Tin Roof: The Cat That Wore A Fedora

We’re at the point in the list now where I’m wanting the games so hard I have to be careful not to hurt myself. Look at Hot Tin Roof for example – it’s like one of those pictures where you’re supposed to find ten things wrong with it, until you realise that IT’S ALL A RUSE because there’s absolutely nothing wrong with the picture. Everything about this looks right as fuck.

6 (NE) Thimbleweed Park

Even though I backed it without hesitation, I confess to harbouring a twitch of doubt about the cromulence of Gilbert and Winnick’s mad idea to create a mid-80s Lucasfilm adventure that never was. That skepticism soon dissipated upon reading their brilliant devlog, where they’ve clarified their design choices and are already demonstrating the fruits of the early engine development. It’s a pleasure to watch and hopefully will be an equal pleasure to play.

5 (NE) Twelve Minutes

Time loops! Anything involving time loops has me on board right from the start. But this already looks exceptionally wonderful.

4 (NE) Return Of The Obra Dinn

Rather than attempt to describe it, I’ll just draw your attention to the demo, and you’ll be able to experience first-hand why Lucas Pope’s newie has me all in a lather. Along with Her Story, this might be one of the first video games which gets sleuthing absolutely right.

3 (NE) Firewatch

The Traveling Wilburys of gaming are making an outdoorsy Gone Home. What’s not to like? Especially when the demonstrations are already pretty stunning/stunningly pretty.

2 (NE) Heat Signature

Between his journalism, Let’s Plays, programming tutorials and writing, Tom Francis just might be PC gaming’s de facto renaissance man. Which makes it all the more astounding that he finds time to do his actual job of being an indie game developer – and all the more annoying that he remains so bloody good at it. With Heat Signature he’s continued his established fascination for mechanically simple games rich with emergent systems to create what looks like his best work yet.

1 (NE) Virginia

Picking up where games like Thirty Flights Of Loving and Gone Home left off and drawing inspiration from the surreal TV shows of the early nineties is a surefire way to win my heart. Virginia, I fear I might be yours forever. And with the recent announcement of a third Twin Peaks series, your timing couldn’t be better – damn fine, indeed.