12 for 12 challenge update #1: Decisions, decisions...

Pick a card, any card!

Green check mark courtesy of juicy_fish on Freepik

I’m playing a helluva lot more games this year!

At least a portion of my gaming entertainment in 2026 is a (very) conservative goal of completing the “12 for 12 Challenge”—twelve games recommended by gaming buds, to be finished within twelve months.

Do twelve games in one year sound easy-peasy to you?

In theory, they do to me, too. In theory. I’m a notorious game starter but not finisher, so I’ll celebrate once it’s done, and not a game sooner.

I wrote more about the challenge and the actual titles on my list here:

This post is the first of several planned challenge updates, in which I’ll cover a handful of games I played as I complete them. Without further ado, the first three are Citizen Sleeper, Slay the Princess, and Inscryption.

Let’s jump right in!

1) Citizen Sleeper

Roleplaying in the ruins of interplanetary capitalism.

Live the life of an escaped worker, washed-up on a lawless station at the edge of an interstellar society. Inspired by the flexibility and freedom of TTRPGs, explore the station, choose your friends, escape your past and change your future.

Developer: Gareth Damian Martin, Jump Over the Age

Steam link

Recommended by IffiMooz’pan 🫶

Citizen Sleeper blew me away. Not entirely unexpectedly, since it came highly, and I mean highly, recommended by several people, not the least of all a dear friend whose tastes align very well with mine. She was absolutely right to offer Citizen Sleeper as one of my 12 for 12 challenge ones—and what an opener it is!

Taking inspiration from TTRPGs, the game is a combination of choices and chance. The choices you make as a character matter much more than dice rolls, but the random nature of outcomes, no matter how minor, introduces twists and turns into the already tense atmosphere of a bustling, every-man-for-themself space station. Your character ends up there, on a precipice of a new life. What story will you end up writing for yourself, Sleeper?

The writing in the game is phenomenal. It is its heart, soul, and, honestly, 80% of the gameplay. It’s not a text-based game per se, but it certainly comes close—Disco Elysium is the only game that comes to mind where I had to do this much reading. It’s not as effortful, though. By the time my first hour with Citizen Sleeper was up, I was completely immersed and craving just one more turn, one more cycle, one more dice roll.

The ending that rolled credits for me was the one I worked towards, but the writing of it still completely broke me. I bawled during the credits and a few times later that day. This is the game I’m definitely going back to. I haven’t seen enough. More. Please, more.

Thank god for Citizen Sleeper 2!

Playtime: 7.5 hours

Verdict: Would die for this game. Not literally, but… Maybe, actually, literally?

2) Slay the Princess

You’re here to slay the princess. Don’t believe her lies.

Developers: Abby Howard and Tony Howard-Arias, Black Tabby Games

Steam link

Recommended by datvivar

Two visual novels in a row, huh?

I went into Slay the Princess completely blind, knowing only that it should be a fairly short game. I’m glad for it, even if I was extremely confused the whole time, and had several running theories as to what the heck was going on, all of which ended up being wrong.

The game is a total mindfuck. Discussing any specifics would be doing you a disservice, but it’s accurate to describe it as a surreal horror visual novel where choices matter. In fact, where the choices are the only thing that matters.

It’s extremely well done. The voice acting is incredible, the art style distinct, and the writing—the heart of the game once again—fantastic, too.

This game is clever. It is art. I disliked playing it immensely. Let’s just say that I much prefer the way Citizen Sleeper delivered its message(s) to how Slay the Princess did it. I’m just a simple girl.

I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend the game still, especially to people partial to horror and great storytelling. The horror is subtle at times and in-your-face in others, and I thought the balance of it found by the developers was masterful.

If you also enjoy impactful-choice visual novels, go for it.

Slay the Princess for me.

The full list of trigger warnings (spoilery) can be found here.

Playtime: 4 hours

Verdict: I have a headache now.

3) Inscryption

Darker still are the secrets inscrybed upon the cards.

Inscryption is an inky black card-based odyssey that blends the deckbuilding roguelike, escape-room style puzzles, and psychological horror into a blood-laced smoothie.

Developer: Daniel Mullins, Daniel Mullins Games

Steam link

Recommended by lazyPYRO 🔥

Inscryption is a game that keeps on giving. Just layer upon layer upon layer of things I didn’t expect, with more rug pulls than I imagined possible.

It’s a pretty slow burn, at first. I wasn’t very good at it initially. I knew very little about it—my knowledge of it was limited by what I saw on the Steam page and the short trailer—and a good thing, that, because Inscryption, of all games, benefits from not being spoiled, like, at all, moreso than even Slay the Princess.

All I will say is that the card mechanics are fun, if a little confusing at first; the lore is hella cool, and creeps up on you; and there are a lot of secrets to discover and puzzles to solve that make the story and the atmosphere richer. Where Slay the Princess is clever, Inscryption is smart. I loved it and can’t recommend it enough.

It is dark and very spooky at times, but it’s not scary, and I found the humour very much my vibe. If you, too, like what you see in the trailer/store page, go ahead. Don’t look into it more. Just get the game and go play it. There’s more than meets the eye in Inscryption—use the eye!

Playtime: 18 hours

Verdict: Fucking meta gaming, amirite?

Up next…

The next trio of games I’m tackling for the challenge is Saltsea Chronicles, Disco Elysium, and Blasphemous, so… you may not hear an update for a good long while.

Stay tuned!

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