My Favourite Games from the GMTK Game Jam August 2025
After the GMTK Game Jam 2025 I played and rated 74 games, and tried several more games but couldn’t get them to launch. I filtered those down to 30 favourites, and here are my top 10.
Top Ten
RECORDECA
RECORDECA, in the words of the developers, “is a revolutionary spin on the rhythm game formula”. My first thought was the 2009 rhythm game DJ Hero and its sequel. The basic concept is the same, hitting notes as they come around the record. But RECORDECA uses a computer keyboard (D, F, J and K), making more accessible than DJ Hero. Fitting with the “loop” theme of the jam, and similar to DJ Hero’s rewinds, parts of the song loop a few times.
I liked the game enough to adapt an old project, converting a DJ Hero turntable to work with PC, into a controller to play RECORDECA. Keep an eye on this blog for a post about that soon.
My only wish would be to move the point you hit the notes at to the side of the record, rather than the top. That would match how DJ Hero did it and how the keys are on the keyboard, and feels more natural to me. The developers are looking at adding an option for that now voting is over.
Tickets, Please!
I was immediately drawn to the art style of Tickets, Please!, which was created by team member Damien Stadden during the jam. You’re the conductor of an old steam train, tasked with checking tickets - similar to Papers Please. But as well as fare evaders there are mysterious “visitors”, and your task is to identify and banish them before the train reaches its destination. Fail, and you’re back at the beginning of the line, but with more knowledge to help you next time.
I only played one cycle of the game but I will certainly play more.
Sequenseer
Sequenseer is a game where you reverse engineer loops of beats to get back to the original sequences. Your keyboard functions as a small beat pa, and timing is key to hit the right beats. Across several levels addition notes and multiple tracks are introduced, eventually requiring sequences to be layered atop one another.
Noir Hotel
Noir Hotel was a last minute entry to this list. Thomas played my entry shortly before voting closed but I felt I should play his in return. And I’m glad I did.
You’ve arrived at a hotel, but reception is unmanned. Ringing the bell does nothing, so you decide to make your way to your room. You’re faced with a corridor of ten doors, and a card at the end directs you to Room 105. And what’s behind door 105? Another corridor, and another puzzle to solve, leading to another puzzle and another. You have to be observant, looking at letters, candles, in mirrors, behind you, and at the passage of time.
I like the aesthetic. It feels old timey, and looks like you’re peering through the grid mesh of a vacuum fluorescent display or Nixie tube.
The only change I would make, were this developed into a full game, is to randomise the levels so each run is different. Change the extra letter, change the candles, change the knocks on the door, change the time on the clock, change which floor comes when, and it makes subsequent playthoughs more challenging.
OUROBOROS
Snake but you want to eat your tail. You’ve just got to get it in the right spot. While the game looks simple the puzzles can be quite challenging, but the game eases you in gently across its 24 levels. There are some head-scratchers, with with perseverance they’re solvable in an “ah, of course!” fashion. I found it continuously engaging and never frustrating, just as a puzzle game should be, but still a challenge.
Please Hold
Please Hold is a short game reminiscent of Flash games from the early 2000s. The answers to thw questions put to you, you’ll have to search the virtual desk. Maybe read your book of dreams or rummage in the fruit loops box.
Everyone Hold Hands!
In Everyone Hold Hands, you have to make a round paper chain of dolls. Sounds simple, right? But the dolls also have coloured bracelets that you have to match, or they won’t hold hands.
The art, which the team created themselves, is beautiful, and the game gradually introduces more complex mechanics across its eight levels - multiple colours, multiple loops, and dolls with only one bracelet. Even the start screen teaches you the holding hands mechanic before you can actually start.
Ouroboros Or Not
One commenter said this isn’t really a game. I disagree. You play as an ouroboros, eating his own tail and along the way some “noms”. Tastier than his tail, I’m sure. Collect enough noms, and you can unlock a little more freedom than going in circles all the time. Eventually you graduate from being an ouroboros into an ouroBUS, transporting small blue kangaroos from bus stops to their homes.
It’s a simple idle game - there’s just one control to choose whether to go left or right at the next junction, and a menu of upgrades to click. I think it could easily be expanded with more upgrades for a longer playtime.
Looplash
The developers describe Looplash as “a fast-paced arcade survival game where you fight off enemies using a rotating skill circle.” Enemies come at you from all sides, but you can only attack when the blue and purple markers for your two attacks - a small area rotating attack, and a shorter duration but larger area attack good at dispersing enemies - come round to the top of the skill circle. Time advances slowly while you stay still, but speeds up as you move. Thus movement becomes strategic not just in positioning to make and avoid attacks, but to ensure the attacks come when and where you want them. I hadn’t played a game like this before.
See if you can beat my score of 205 980.
Loop The Loop
Loop the Loop is a flying game with only two controls - the throttle, and when you flip the plane and the loop it’s flying over. Gentle throttle movements, are the key, timed correctly to let you adjust your position as you fly loops around enemies to defeat them.
The game is fun once you’re past the tutorial, but I found the tutorial didn’t help as much as it could as you’re artificially limited by the screen boundary, and thus unceremoniously bounce off if your loop is a tad too large.
See if you can beat my score of 165.
Complete List
The complete list of my favourite games is shown below. You can view the collection of them on itch.io.
| Rank | Name | Creativity | Enjoyment | Narrative | Artwork | Audio | Average | Engine | url |
|---|
Statistics
Engines
24 games were playable in a web browser, with the others only available for Windows, Linux and/or Mac.
- Unity – 14
- Web – 12
- Desktop – 2
- Godot – 9
- Web – 6
- Desktop – 3
- GameMaker (Web) – 4
- Bevy (Web) – 1
- HTML5 (no engine) – 1
- LÖVE – 1
Themes
Many games settled on the same basic interpretation of “loop” - time loops, looping audio, or physical loops such as going round in circles, whirlpools, or actual circles.
- Physical Loop – 14
- Time Loop – 7
- Audio Loop – 3
- Ouroboros – 2
Enjoy Reading This Article?
Here are some more articles you might like to read next: