Perfect Tides: Station to Station is you, me, and Meredith Gran at 18

Meredith Gran knows how to control space and time. For 10 years, Gran practiced the art of perception through Octopus Pie, a beloved webcomic that's since been compiled into printed collections. A generous blank sky — a single bird marking the horizon — slows down a blissful morning in the woods; nine or so panels in a similarly sized space overwhelm the page with the frantic energy of a vicious fight. Gran stopped publishing Octopus Pie in 2017 (save for the occasional, rare follow-up) and has moved on to a new medium: video games. 

Here, she can still manipulate space and time, publishing under her studio Three Bees. Gran's debut is Perfect Tides, a point-and-click adventure that's a startlingly accurate portrayal of life as an early 2000s teenager. Her second game, Perfect Tides: Station to Station, takes that teenager, Mara Whitefish, off her tiny island home and into the big city.

Mara is in college in Station to Station, doing all sorts of things that people in college do: crashing on a friend's questionable couch, dramatically falling in love — several times! — and getting way too high at the pierogi shop. Gran described Station to Station as autofiction, a blend of autobiography and fiction. "What I'm writing is all based on the truth, but the specific details, the specific events, are fiction," she told Mothership. Her storytelling (deft, funny, and honest) lays bare that truth in a way that's both stunning and excruciating; it's one of the most affecting games I've played in some time. Station to Station's moment-to-moment rhythm — how Gran creates tension and emotion without language — is especially impressive.