The end of the year is fast coming up, which means soon it's going to be time to start creating content about the best games that have come out in the 12 months it's taken the earth to perform one complete rotation around the fiery, living giving sun.
Obviously that's going to happen on AppSpy, but I also want to try and do something a little different. I don't want you to think about the best game you've played this year, or the game that you think is the most technically polished. I want you to think about the game that, for one reason or another, has meant the most to you.
It could be because you sunk hours into it over the year. It could be because it got you through some hard times. Hell, it could just be because it revived some glorious memories of happier times when you didn't have to drag your carcass out of bed every day to go and do a job you hate.
Don't worry though, I'll start things off. I know you're all a bit shy around these parts. Please though, if you want to share a story about your best iOS gaming moment in 2017, feel free to chuck some words in the comments section down below. It'll be interesting to see what varied experiences we've had this year.
Everwing on a beach in Scotland
It was on a cold Edinburgh beach in the middle of January. There were some dogs running about doing ridiculous things, and my fingers weren't really warm enough to play the game, but that didn't stop me.
There's something about Everwing, and the better Facebook mobile games in general, that make them horribly compulsive. You want to push on and get a better score, or at least unlock a new character that's going to help you achieve that goal.
I was competing with a girl I was seeing. She was on the beach as well. I think we were also trying to out-do each other in an archery game that I can't for the life of me remember the name of. In the taxi back from the beach we didn't talk to each other because she was so focused on knocking fruit off peasant's heads.
She was always better than me at the archery game, but I was, and I believe I remain, the king of Everwing. And it's strange, because we're not seeing each other anymore, but one of my strongest memories is that beach, watching clouds roll in across the firth, huddled behind a groyne, while an excited dog dug a large hole, the pair of us poking fairies through waves of goblins and monsters.
She swore like a trooper, showed me her scores. Well, she rubbed them in my face. And then, ever the magnanimous winner, I'd let the messenger app send her a notification to let her know that I'd hit the top of the leaderboard again.
I'm not the best Everwing player in the world, and I'm definitely not the best at telling stories about the things that have happened in my life. But that combination of competition and care, of the freezing cold and the weird sparks of new feelings, has stuck with me.
Everwing isn't the best game of the year. I mean it didn't even come out this year. That's just my strongest memory of mobile gaming in 2017. And I doubt it's going to be replaced in the next 33 days. So there you go. If you've got a story to tell, I'd love to hear it.
