Yesterday, a book I pre-ordered many months ago finally arrived: The Last Guardian: An Extraordinary Story. Like the game it showcases, it was delayed a handful of times, but when it eventually made its appearance, I was overjoyed.

There it is, on my shelf, smelling delightful. I’ve only done a cursory pass, but one thing inside the book caught my attention: a section on who on the development did what.

It’s not hyperbole to say when I think about Trico I often burst into tears. I’m choked up right now just writing about him. Never in a game have I seen a character so fully realized that I felt he could be real. That’s a feat in and of itself. Trico is already an improbable bird/dog/griffin creature. How they made him seem like a living, breathing marvel astounds me. Again, this isn’t hyperbole. I’ve never seen anything like him in a game.

And so, while I was looking at all those developers, I thought about how much I would sincerely love to meet the people responsible for Trico’s creation and programming. To shake their hands and hug them and give them an offering of fruit and flowers and tell them how the work they did made something that exists solely inside a game seem so real and moving.

Aaand I’m crying.

I told you. This happens.

Another person I’d love to send a thank you to is the creator of Everything, David OReilly.

From the moment I began playing Everything, I was hooked in a profound way. Never as fast has a game shot so far up my greatest games of all time list than Everything. It is moving. It is whimsical. It is thought-provoking.

It’s beautiful in all ways I want something to be beautiful.

I would love to write Mr. OReilly a love letter to his game. I would love to write it in a way that means something on the receiving end. When I talk about Everything, my feelings sound like, again, hyperbole, but I speak in all sincerity. It moved me in a way I didn’t know a game could.

As I’m sitting here, I’m thinking if I made a complete list of all the developers I’d like to say thank you to, it would be a long list. CD Projekt Red for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. The person who wrote the Bubble Bobble theme (Tadashi Kimijima). Bryan Tyler for the Far Cry 3 soundtrack. Ken Levine for the original BioShock. And on and on.

And, you know what? The more I think about this, the more I think, why not? Why not send these people thank you letters letting them know how their creativity has moved and shaped me? Who would not be glad to know their work has had merit or meaning to another person?

I’m going to do it! I think it is so important to express gratitude where possible and, here, it is most certainly possible.

If you could thank any game developers or game-related people, who would you thank and why? I’d love to know. Perhaps we could all send out some thanks yous to brighten the lives of those who have brightened ours?

Also, what will you be playing this weekend? I’m going to try to get in some Friday the 13th with a friend if I can, and I’m also keen on starting Wolfenstein: The New Order. Of course, there are also a slew of other games I’d like to play, so who knows how it will all shake out.