This is the kind of game that I enjoy coming back to every once in a while because that's exactly what it's meant for. It has a sort of atmosphere that really works for me - it's cozy and friendly but not artificial. It's not all sunshines and rainbows like the newer games, and I don't mind that; it presents challenges and mild hostility at times, but they're still in a safe environment. This game's personality-filled writing is just what I hope to one day implement into my own creative projects. Its soundtrack is something which I play in the backgrounds of my days a whole lot, and the memories I've made in this game with other people are seriously important to me.

The atmosphere, writing, and general concept of the world feel very much like things which, if shown to someone else, could give them a good illustration of the sort of world I'd want to make in my own media. Like other artistically inspirational games on this list, it's just the sort of blend of light and darkness over an animal-filled world that brings about a feeling that little else does.

I played the fuck out of this from around 2015 to early 2017. Its impacts on me were all incidental: I consider it to be my primary training for being good at FPSes as a whole, and I met some friends-of-friends through here who have been close to me ever since.

This represents itself as well as the Elder Scrolls series in general. I hold it all close to my heart and consider myself to know a good amount of the series' core lore, and I've had many a fun conversation with friends and acquaintances about them. I played this particular entry the most back in high school on my shitty laptop, and while I never got close to beating it, i had hours of fun. Nowadays I try to come back to it when I can just to run around as I used to, though now I try to actually make progress. The weirdness and atmosphere of Vvardenfell are fun, and I like to look to this and its series as inspirations for more fantasy-esque world concepts I come up with.

If I had to pick one game which summed up my high school experience, this would be second only to Minecraft. I played this game so damn much and finally 100%ing it was one of the most satisfying things I'd done in forever. It felt like a sort-of friend I'd carried with me for a solid 7-8 years all the way through high school and college, which is something few other games can claim. It's not really got a Rencore style or world or anything, but there's something about the way it plays which clicks with me.

The game I cite as one of the first I ever played, and one which I still love to come back to. Lots of fun and pretty for its time, with a soundtrack and simplistic story that touches my heart to this day (seriously, the Triforce chamber as a story beat and OST track is underrated).

This was an early childhood game that I never got to play in its entirety until I was a preteen. I only had the demo for it, but damn if I didn't play the hell out of that demo. While this game hasn't exactly inspired me in any meaningful way, I have an irrational love for it and I think it's a good way of representing my love for LEGO back then.

This is a game I have played with more people than any other barring massively multiplayer ones. I have played the multiplayer of this with friends, family members, people I don't even know, and other loved ones. It holds up well for what it is, and it's a game I put a lot of time into breaking with Action Replay codes.

Representative of itself as well as Bionicle in general. Bionicle is definitely a formative part of my imagination as I followed it for the entire first half of my childhood. A world completely devoid of and divorced from humans, a world in which strange mysticism emanates from every corner... it's the kind of world I love. It feels like you can do just about anything, and a sense of child-friendly danger and safety is mixed together especially well on the island of Mata Nui. I didn't get to play MNOG until I was a teen, but I immediately loved the style it was going for and it very well sums up what was great about (early) Bionicle.

This's a game which I had played when I was very young but never got far in, then picked up again with a loved one in the late 2010s to play with him and bond with him over. It's not a good game, really, but it's special to me. Not really the kind of world I like, and not even really the kind of game I like, but it's those memories and experiences which matter here.

Maya Amano is the very first example of a "role model" I'd ever had in my life, and I can say beyond a shadow of a doubt that my taking after her has brought me to a much better place in my life. When I turn 23 - her age - I'll definitely want to measure up and see if I've really become the kind of person she'd be proud of.

I failed on my first run of this game, and I felt riddled with anxiety the whole way through because of how badly I was playing and how little time was left. But... on the next run, I improved and did everything I could to finish the game fast, and I did it. It felt great to actually get things done, to make progress and help poor Captain Olimar back home. I love the tiny and wild world design they went for, and it sparked my imagination plenty from the unique angle it presented. Overall a game which I wouldn't immediately name as Rencore off the top of my head, yet undoubtedly has had influences on me as an artist and formatively as a more independent person.

The first game I ever bought, and likely one of the reasons why I adore the GBC/GB aesthetic and sound as much as I do. Games like this have good enough graphics that you can at least tell what's going on, yet still ask for you to use your imagination a lot which I love doing.

Doesn't play all that well, but this game was highly influential to the exact sorts of worlds and characters I enjoy creating myself. I fell in love with its story and characters, but very importantly, I fell in love with the world it was based on. There were plenty of times where I'd just imagine myself there. Because of some personal issues, it was comforting in a really nice, unique way, and I appreciate it. I still try to return to it every few years despite its gameplay not being the best. The fact that it's this important to me as an artist is why it's Rencore.

Possibly my favorite platformer, I have a whole ton of memories of playing this with friends back when i was a tween and teen. I still come back to it every once in a while. Its cartoony style is the extent which I enjoy: not reveling in itself like other cartoon-inspired media, but instead just being what it is and doing it straightforwardly and well.

This was one hell of a first horror game for me. There was a copy of disc 1 sitting in my house for the longest time, and it had been kept away from me because of RE's reputation as a scary franchise. Still, as a preteen I eventually swiped this and started playing it. It scared the utter shit out of me, but I was also endlessly intrigued by its puzzle-based structure. I eventually played through the rest of the game once it was rereleased in HD, and from there it's risen to become one of my favorite games. I love firing it up every couple years in the fall!

Aesthetically this and its sequel are more Rencore-feeling than SF64 and its remake. Still, by most measures it doesn't play as well as the more well-known entry. Despite that, though, I think this entry provoked a lot more thought and imagination from me as an artist. I think that gives it plenty of value even in the face of SF64 being a "better" version of it.

I actually didn't play any of the 'good' Star Fox games until the remake of this came out. I'm glad I went with it, because it's a fun as hell game. I really need to replay it sometime... in any case, the game plays well and feels cramped but not claustrophobic like a lot of its N64/PS1 peers, and the all-animal cast obviously appeals to me.

Buying the 3DS on launch was the first time I ever bought a brand new console for myself, let alone around release. That on its own was big. However, for obvious reasons almost nobody else I knew had gotten the 3DS when I did. I did have a friend who did, though, and you'd better believe we played the shit out of the StreetPass Mii Plaza. Find Mii and Puzzle Swap were our lives. We shared the early 3DS' life together and had a blast. As an early adopter of the console, I wound up losing interest in it a few years in (coincidentally right as it was picking up steam for everyone else). Fast forward all the way to college, and I decided to pick up a New 3DS to replace my old one and try hacking it to see what I missed. This time, by some coincidence a new close friend of mine wound up loving the StreetPass Mii Plaza as well. Thus, every time we saw each other we'd StreetPass, breathing new life into it just as the 3DS was slowly approaching its last days. That made for a whole new set of memories that I cherish. This game and the system as a whole have a special place in my heart even if I missed out on its best years. I stuck it out for the 3DS in its lowest points and I was rewarded with experiences I'll never forget. Games like this one truly were a last hurrah for Nintendo before their collective soul was snuffed out completely.

One of the key games that got me hooked on indies way back when. I'm really glad I was hit by the indie bug back before they got as huge as they were in the latter half of the 2010s, as it's helped me keep a level head about all of it. I think that, to some extent, indies are mischaracterized at the moment; they're becoming safe, stagnant even, at least with the ones getting the most attention. When I go back to games like Transistor, I remember what 'indie' is really all about, and it gives me hope. With how many kids played more uninspired indies and had their minds blown by them, I'm sure at least a few of them are going to make truly stellar indie titles as time goes on. Art inspires art, and nothing reminds of that more than the indies I love - indies like Transistor.

I vibe with the aesthetic, the music, the writing, and the gameplay. TWEWY is an extremely impressive game in a number of ways, but one of the big ones is that it's by far the game with the most deep thematic ties I've seen. Just about every single one of its mechanics is tied into the narrative themes in some way, which as an aspiring game writer I think is just awesome. Even bigger than that, though, is that I think it's exactly the kind of game that I wish I could see more of in the industry. It's an A game which is a fully completed artistic vision that is of the utmost quality. That's extremely special if not important - I aspire to be able to work on a game like that one day if I ever join the industry.

Something of an anomaly here as it's pretty much just an anime visual novel. It's inspired me as an artist in that it's encouraged me to really put forward the ideas and stories I want to do no matter how batshit and weird they are. That's the kinda message I've needed to take and am still working on internalizing.