GDC 2015 - These are the 6 Best Games We Saw at This Year's Game Developers Conference

There were a lot of really cool and interesting games on display at this year's Game Developers Conference, which made narrowing down this list extremely difficult. Just because a game isn't featured here doesn't mean it didn't impress me, but if you happened to be in San Francisco last week and saw an iOS game you'd like to mention then by all means please do so in the comments below.

And so, let's take a gander at 148Apps' top picks from GDC 2015.

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Does Not Commute

Mediocre Games

I've already gushed a bit about how much I enjoyed playing Mediocre's upcoming reflexive driving puzzle game., and I'm going to gush more. It's a fantastic idea that's a lot of fun, plenty challenging, satisfying to play, and the way you sort of become your own worst enemy as you plot out various driving paths is the best. Does Not Commute can't get here fast enough.

Piloteer

Whitaker Trebella

I normally don't enjoy games that are meant to be super-difficult very much, but Piloteer is definitely an exception. It's totally crazy without feeling unfair, and even when failure does inevitably occur it's really quick to jump back in and get back to awkwardly flopping around the skyline. The goofy story that goes on in the background is just gravy.

Mini Metro

Dinosaur Polo Club

I wasn't exaggerating when I said that they had to take the iPad away from me when I was checking out Dinosaur Polo Club's incredibly stylish subway puzzler. I've since been able to get my fix by playing the Steam version, but I'm really looking forward to the day that I can just pull out my phone and start dragging metro lines around.

Kill Me Again

Toast

I think it's the special abilities you can trigger and the need to constantly match stuff to not get overrun by zombies that has me so interested in Kill Me Again. The puzzle stuff is fine and all, but there's this underlying tension to it that both forces you to act fast (rather than ponder too many moves in advance) and tends to make you more prone to screwing up. This will probably end up being the first match-3 puzzle game that stays on my phone for more than a week.

The Westport Independant

Double Zero One Zero

It's easy to compare The Westport Independent to Papers, Please since both deal with an oppressive atmosphere and storylines that can be pieced together by events rather than narration, but it's more than just a newspapery version of a cult classic/critical darling. Your decisions on what to print and how to contextualize it can have all sorts of subtle - and plenty not so subtle - effects on your staff, readers, and the city itself. I was only able to print and distribute two editions during my hands-on time, but I definitely can't wait to ship a lot more.

Downwell

Ojiro Fumoto

This list isn't really in any particular order, but if I had to pick a number one out of the lineup it would be Downwell. It's such a simple, accessible, challenging, satisfying, and fun game that also somehow manages to scratch my itches for exploration, character upgrades, and seemingly endless replayability. July seems so far away right now...