A psychic baby and whacky control scheme undersell the mundane brilliance of one of my favourite games this year

As unfair as it may be, snap judgments serve a purpose in a gaming landscape where over 1,000 games (at least) launch on Steam every month. I know, 'never judge a book by its cover', but what about 10,000 books by their covers and a few screenshots?

As ashamed as I am to admit it, there's a good chance Goodnight Universe would have never gotten onto my radar if it wasn't for the fact that I was familiar with Before Your Eyes, the game that came before it. I'm glad it did, because otherwise I would have missed out on one of the best games of the year.

If I could attach that judgment to a single focal point, I'd say it's Goodnight Universe's use of your webcam. And, well, the fact that you play as a baby. Okay, there's a lot going on.

Before being allowed to actually play the game, you have to look into your webcam (assuming you have one), close your eyes a couple of times, then feign a smile, a frown, and a neutral expression. Other than using your mouse to look around and occasionally click, those are all the controls you are given.

Playing as the 6-month-old Isaac, the webcam of it all is a good literary device to explain how poor you are at communicating with your family. You are ultra-intelligent and capable of complex thought, yet you struggle to get that across to your family, and don't even know if you want to tell them just yet.

That is, until you discover that you can telekinetically move objects, close your eyes to build structures, and generally wreak tiny baby-size havoc. Thus begins a story of cat and mouse, where you use your powers to subtly help your family, whilst trying to escape the claws of an evil company that may have figured you out.

Despite 'psychic baby game you control with a webcam' being the selling point of Goodnight Universe, this isn't what made me love it so much. What really captured me is the effortless prettiness of its family dynamic and the little nuances that come with it. Looking up at your father, mother and sister, just trying to muster words while they dote on you, is a wonderfully warm experience and one that is made only better with characters that are emotionally intelligent and flawed in their own ways.

Goodnight Universe has plenty of things to say on an existential level, but it's the things it gestures at by the dinner table, or on the family sofa, that make it special. Closing your eyes occasionally gives you the ability to see into the minds of your family, and what pours out are those thoughts your parents don't share with you: worries about money, their life, why they took the jobs they did.

You literally tune into their thoughts, turning your head side to side like you're searching through radio frequencies, and that is just the right kind of novel for a game like Goodnight Universe. It's a mechanic that's cute and quick to understand yet oddly engrossing, and it makes you feel like you're earning the chance to connect to your family.

It helps that these quieter moments are often punctuated with great sound design. Sometimes, that audio takes the form of a gentle monologue and sometimes the strum of a guitar.

The blinking element is well implemented, too. In fact, it's so well implemented that I think you're missing just a little something special by opting for the game's mouse controls. Of course, mouse controls make the game more accessible, and I was certainly worried I'd have to use them given I have facial tics, but Goodnight Universe's difficulty feels finely tuned for the limitations of the human eye (or mine, at least).

It's not a particularly challenging game by any stretch, but it can get hectic when it wants you furiously blinking at your screen like a dumbstruck cartoon character.

The game builds the tension well and even throws a couple of puzzles at you throughout, but I wouldn't quite call it a puzzle game. That's because it feels like the main purpose of Goodnight Universe is to provide a vibe, of sorts.

Sitting among this weird, loving family is a joy, and the headset around your ears and webcam forcing you to sit still all contribute to a feeling of presentness. It's immersive, not through highly detailed textures or the latest frame generation techniques, but just in how cohesive all its elements are.

It's warm, gentle, and made me want to call my mum after I hit the credits.