The wonderful Spiritfarer gets its first dollop of extra content today, in the form of its Lily update.

This adds sequences to the story which centre on Lily, the sister of main character Stella, whose afterlife form is a flutter of butterflies.

Montreal-based developer Thunder Lotus also today announced a new sales milestone for its afterlife simulator, which has passed 500,000 copies sold worldwide.

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Next on Music Week, a look at how a specific movement in art and music might be an especially good fit for games.

Despite being considered the most important composer in the impressionist movement, Claude Debussy was not fond of the label. "I am trying to do something different, an effect of reality... what the imbeciles call impressionism," Debussy wrote in 1908."A term which is as poorly used as possible, particularly by the critics, since they do not hesitate to apply it to [J.M.W.] Turner, the finest creator of mysterious effects in all the world of art."

Debussy was probably wary of the term due to its dubious art world origins: coined by critic Louis Leroy, it was initially used in a derogatory manner to review an exhibition by painters including Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. "Impressionism" was used to ridicule the painters' loose brush-strokes and casual composition, which Leroy (and many others at the time) considered unfinished. The term was then applied to Debussy's music, with critics finding similarities between the painters' use of contrasting colours, light and blurred backgrounds, and Debussy's use of orchestral colour and harmony to make listeners focus on an overall "impression".

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Editor's note: Take a breath. We're almost there. 2020's been quite the year, and it's very nearly over. Across the festive break, members of the Eurogamer team and our contributors will be running down their personal top five games of 2020, before we announce our game of the year - and before, of course, we hand over to you for the annual Reader's Top 50. Thanks for being with us this year, and see you on the other side.

In this unnaturally long year, I found myself seeking out games whose worlds were filled with quiet, relaxing, magic. It's the kind of magic that, rather than bombarding you with rules and consequences, slowly envelopes you until the barrier between it and what might be considered normal has dissolved entirely. These games helped me forget what was happening around the world for a while, transporting me instead to places where the wonderfully bizarre is commonplace.

In Spiritfarer I found the magic of discovery; nearly every island has something you need hidden away somewhere on its shores and I started keeping notes on which lands I hadn't been able to fully explore, so that I wouldn't forget to revisit them. Even the sea has its own secrets - I love sailing through the patches of endless night, because the music and change in atmosphere create the idea that, for a short while, you're gazing upon the true nature of this world. My favourite part of Spiritfarer, however, was, in a year where I've spent six months in the same room, it made me feel helpful. You're not just ferrying the dead, you're healing their wounds, soothing their demons and finding the perfect way to help their souls finally rest.

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Recently-released indie game Spiritfarer came under fire yesterday after some players said it contained ableist writing within one of its storylines - and now developer Thunder Lotus has issued an apology.

The criticism was focused on a particular storyline that suggested a wheelchair-using character could only be free in death, which critics said perpetuated the idea that "being dead is better than disabled".

Thunder Lotus has now said it agreed with the points made, and issued a statement to address the problems with the writing.

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The ferryman has come to collect Stella for her last journey, on a plane between the land of the living and the afterlife. As she sits in Charon's boat, he gives her one final job - to help a few souls let go of the regrets that anchor them to life and allow them to pass on.

It sounds like a stately job. A cosy, tranquil journey. In reality however, Spiritfarer isn't a journey across calm seas so much as a sprint. You're given your own boat and set off to explore the spirit realm. In its towns and mountain villages you find spirits willing to join you, but before they can actually move on to the afterlife, you need to both build them a space on your boat to enjoy and coax out their story so they may eventually find closure.

Soon, an eclectic group of passengers settles in. Your first passenger, Dawn, for example, is a fawn with fur so plush it looks like she's wearing a stola. She also has a penchant for smoking. Your uncle Atul, a rotund frog, used to be a handyman and loves sharing food with others. Making them feel at home begins with gathering the resources needed to build a personalised cabin for each passenger. Distinct from the in- and outside, these cabins ooze flair and showcase their owners' personalities, but the best thing about them is how they sit on a boat. You stack them on top of each other like a game of management Tetris, and as your boat grows and you gain new buildings, you may have to move them around in order to find a good spot for each. Just watching the stack grow is an amazingly satisfying visual representation of progress. Stella navigates between these buildings like a character in a side-scrolling platformer, and she has similar abilities, too, which isn't surprising given Thunder Lotus' metroidvania roots.

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If you've been eagerly awaiting word on Spiritfarer, Thunder Lotus' "cosy game about dying", today brings a happy surprise; it's out right now on PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.

Spiritfarer has quite an unusual premise, casting players as Stella, a "ferrymaster to the deceased", who builds a boat to roam a mystical ocean and escort animal spirits toward the afterlife. "Spend relaxing quality time with your spirit passengers," says Thunder Lotus, "create lasting memories, and, ultimately, learn how to say goodbye to your cherished friends."

The end result is a genteel experience melding the likes of conflict-free platforming, farming, fishing, cooking, mining, crafting, and more. It can even be played co-operatively with a friend, who's able to assist in the adventure as Daffodil the cat.

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In fantasy terms, Spiritfarer has focused on the equivalent of the Grey Havens, the place in The Lord of the Rings where you go and never return. This is a "cozy management game about dying", which is a very appealing pitch. There's a short demo on Steam that you can play right now. Do play it. Spiritfarer is already wonderful.

You play a ferryperson for the deceased. You have a beautiful boat that appears to have all sorts of dwellings built on it. It reminds me a little of the old London Bridge that was teetering with overhanging buildings like Nonesuch House and whatnot. You take people aboard when they are almost ready to move on. You build them rooms to stay in and you do things for them - in the demo you are tasked with going to retrieve a beloved necklace for someone. There is a lot of gadding back and forth across the sea managing things. Plant crops in a little garden. Catch fish and cook for people. Attend to people's moods.

Spiritfarer is trying to do something very difficult, I think. From the demo you spend a lot of time nudging people's moods to where you want them to be. I worried at first that it was a little transactional. But then I started to wonder if, over the full length of the game, the individual bumps and nudges will smooth out. I suspect the people you're ferrying are not the true passengers, in other words. I suspect that Spiritfarer is trying to make something happen on your side of the screen, as you witness these people moving on and engage with what you are a part of.

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"It's something epic, but something beautiful," says William Dub when asked to explain the etymology of his studio's name, Thunder Lotus. "To me that combination of a thunderstorm that's big powerful and scary, and then the lotus flower which is something very delicate, and really beautiful. And it sounds really cool too! One of [our aims] is to make beautifully powerful games. I think that really reflects the name of the studio."

Thunder Lotus might not be a name you're super familiar with just yet, but they're an emerging talent - first with 2015's Jotun, then with the lavish Metroidvania Sundered and now with Spiritfarer, an ambitious, curious little adventure that caused ripples when it broke cover at Microsoft's E3 conference back in June.

"It's something we'd been driving towards since the beginning of the studio, and to have that opportunity was really special. We were onstage after Keanu Reeves! It was Cyberpunk, Keanu Reeves and then Spiritfarer - and now I've got an awesome story for my friends, if they don't understand gaming. It's the Super Bowl of gaming! We're onstage after Keanu Reeves! They're like oh my god, then they understand the reach and magnitude of it all."

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Last month, one of my close family members passed away. It wasn't a surprise: he'd
reached 90, his health was deteriorating, and we all knew it wouldn't be long until it happened. But no matter how prepared you are, it's always a shock - and on the evening I found out, I spent several hours on the shorefront trying to process my grief.

When we describe death, it's nearly always in negative terms, and loaded with imagery of things like tombstones, skulls and the colour black. Death is the Other we define ourselves against, and even the language we use to describe death ('passed away') distances us from the concept.

Most of the time, we just don't talk about it.

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