UFO 50 Marks Its One-Year Anniversary
UFO 50 is celebrating its one-year milestone today, September 18, 2025. This occasion provides an opportunity to reflect on a year spent exploring the game week by week, revealing a profound impact on the players and the gaming community.
A Groundbreaking Gaming Experiment
UFO 50 stands out as one of the most daring experiments in the gaming landscape. The concept—a fictional collection of 50 complete retro-style games interconnected by sequels and a complex meta-narrative—captivated me from the start. Upon reviewing it last year, I found it to be one of my top favorites. However, I was unprepared for how this collection would consistently re-emerge in my gaming life throughout the year, offering continual lessons about game design.
Exploring the Collection
While I tried my hand at all 50 games, I didn’t manage to finish them all. Yet, I played enough to grasp their diversity in genres and select a few favorites for deeper exploration. This initial sampling provided sufficient insight for my critical assessment.
A Year of Discovery with Eggplant Podcast
Simultaneously, I discovered an ambitious initiative from the Eggplant: The Secret Lives of Games podcast. Hosted by independent developers, including former game journalist Nick Suttner, the show had been delving into various indie games for years. With the launch of UFO 50, they dedicated a year to exploring each game in a “book club” format. Familiar with Suttner from his previous work, I was intrigued by the promise of a more in-depth analysis, which compelled me to tune in. A year later, I believe this method of engaging with UFO 50 is ideal—focusing on one game at a time, enriched by insightful discussions.
Barbuta: An Introduction to Challenge
The podcast kicked off with an examination of Barbuta, a simple yet traditional metroidvania game. Most players’ first encounter with Barbuta mirrors a common experience: taking a step to the right only to meet an untimely demise. There is no tutorial—players are simply dropped into a room, and conditioned to read screens left to right, they instinctively move right. This harsh punishment serves as a statement for the entire collection: challenge your preconceptions, tread carefully, and embrace the unique nature of each game. It’s also an amusing twist, underscoring the humor in unexpectedly punishing gameplay.
In-Depth Analysis Through Developer Perspectives
The Eggplant podcast explored these themes with a depth that only those with real game development experience could convey. I found myself engrossed, committing to follow the discussions weekly—if not completing each game, at least investing enough time to gain a deeper understanding beyond my initial review. The experience felt akin to attending panels at the Game Developers Conference, offering a glimpse into a space where developers share insights with one another, rather than catering to consumers.
Learning Through Gameplay
Throughout the year-long journey with UFO 50, I learned a wealth of information about how various classic game genres were influenced by board games, the prevalence of golf mechanics in several games (including two dedicated to golf), and how the collection intricately blends 1980s influences with the early 2000s flash game culture. Additionally, I discovered that UFO 50 engages in a profound dialogue with Bernard Suits’ 1978 book, The Grasshopper: Games, Life, and Utopia. While this may have been evident to those formally educated in game development, it was a revelation for me, and I expect to carry these insights with me for years to come.
Unpacking the Meta-Narrative
As the year of UFO 50 drew to a close, the podcast began to delve deeper into the overarching narrative. Throughout the collection, subtle Easter eggs hinted at larger conflicts among the characters of the fictional studio, UFO Soft. Having now grasped the full narrative arc of this fictitious, struggling development studio, the overall experience has become richer and more nuanced. I discovered multiple plot twists that I would have otherwise overlooked had I not engaged in this journey of exploration.
A Multifaceted Gaming Experience
Consequently, UFO 50 surpassed my initial expectations. It is not only a compilation of 50 unique games, many of which stand out on their own, but it also functions as a cohesive entity, with each title contributing to a broader commentary on game development, corporate culture, play, artistic expression, and more. The collection tells the story of a non-existent game studio, and when viewed as a whole, it represents an extraordinary accomplishment that can inform our perspectives on actual developers, the nature of art, and the challenges faced in blending creativity with capitalism.
Community Engagement Enhances the Experience
My regular engagement with UFO 50 has significantly enriched the experience. I highly recommend the podcast to anyone interested in this format, and to facilitate access, the Eggplant Podcast has created a dedicated encore feed for UFO 50 episodes. Listeners can find the episodes on major podcast platforms or add the RSS feed.
Embracing Community in Gaming
Even outside of podcasts, experiencing UFO 50 is best done within a community. The UFO 50 subreddit has become a vibrant hub for in-depth discussions on rankings and modifications. Many games have inspired dedicated speedrunning communities, with players recently organizing a charity event called Cherry Rush, where top UFO 50 players collaborated to achieve the ultimate “Cherry” completion status for each game in the collection in just one weekend. This prestigious achievement signifies not only completion but mastery of the gameplay mechanics.
A Tribute to Game Development
UFO Soft, the fictional developer behind this project, was primarily created by Derek Yu, known for Spelunky, along with developers Jon Perry and Eirik Suhrke. While UFO 50 was already ambitious at its inception, my year-long exploration of it alongside a community and my deeper understanding of game development have made its accomplishments even more remarkable. Experiencing it through the lens of developers has been a rare and valuable opportunity that is sure to leave a lasting impression.
