Dave Hoffman (they/them) is the creator of Mixolumia, an arcade puzzle game combining contextual soundtracks with diamond-based combos. They came on the show to dig into the spontaneous origins of the game, how it continued to evolve and incorporate player creations, and the difficulty of marketing puzzle games in a streamer attention economy.
Read MoreWe emerge from the gaming mines into the Nevada desert. It’s over. We’ve finished 999. As we depart in our Zero Escape promotional SUV, we reflect on our experience playing and replaying the game, now able to see it in totality. Did the mystery payoff? Is Zero morally justified? Did Nathalie get any predictions right? Next time we meet the snow will have fallen, our hair will have grown, and we will have have shed our tattered socks. But know this, listener: I will never forget you.
Read MoreIt's relatively easy to create monsters that horrify and unnerve, more difficult to create ones that get under your skin and linger, and harder still to effectively use unreality and uncanniness to build worlds that work like nightmares. Rule of Rose and Silent Hill demonstrate the power of this mode of horror.
Read MoreThe end of our 999 playthrough draws near as we stumble into the last (for real this time) bad ending. We finally get some answers about who’s been knifing everyone, discuss how the game begins to assert itself as an independent actor, and lament Clover’s continued degradation. Also, where’s Santa??
Read MoreCosmo D (he/him) is a game developer and musician whose work explores urban life, the creator economy, and giant pizza demanding buildings. Hot off the release of Betrayal At Club Low (2022), Cosmo D sat down with me to detail his dramatic pivot out of music into games, finding a medium that inspires you to keep growing, and chasing his space trucker sim white whale.
Read MoreWhen I was younger, I used to be extremely into Urban Dead, a text based MMO set during a localized zombie epidemic. Years later, the covid pandemic brought me back to the game’s undead infested streets. Fear makes you crave familiarity, and I wanted to return to a place from my childhood where the pandemic and quarantine were all just normal.
Read MoreThe last Bad End is here and it sure lives up to it! Axe and Nathalie continue their playthrough of 999 , working through the ax ending and all its disappointing conclusions. Elsewhere, they discuss the different mechanics of mystery vs puzzle box media, continued disappointment at who Lotus could have been, and Nathalie makes a lot of predictions that are all true (even the ones that contradict each other).
Read MoreMax Miller (they/them) is a composer, writer, and game designer. As part of new studio Pitter-Patter, they released Commonplace (2022), an ordinary adventure game about working in an office. For this episode, Max spent some time talking about the game’s experimental development, how they approached writing the soundtrack, and a desire to make games that push against consumption driven mechanics.
Read MoreWe’ve made it to route 2 of our 999 playthrough, not far enough to escape the Nonary Games but able to glimpse the sub just out of reach. This time, Axe and Nathalie went through doors 4-3-2, leading everyone to a terrible end but a terrific route to get there. We dig in to what it means for this to be a failure route, lament frustrating character tropes, and get owned by bad puzzles.
Read MoreSonic Unleashed is about transformation and monstrosity. In his Werehog form, Sonic is viewed as a monster, his new appearance terrifying the characters around him. His cutscene dialogue communicates frustration at the involuntary changes of his body and at not being recognized as himself. Through the Werehog, Sonic Unleashed asks: what does it feel like when your body looks and acts in ways you don’t recognize? What does it mean to be seen as something that you know you aren’t? What is a monster? And what does it mean to suddenly become one?
Read MoreWayward Strand (Ghost Pattern, 2022) is an upcoming adventure game which follows Casey - a teenager and aspiring journalist - as she explores a hospital airship floating above the Australian country-side. Two of its developers, Goldie Bartlett (she/her) and Jason Bakker (he/him), joined me on this episode to dive into the game's origins, how the continuous in-game clock allows for new forms of storytelling, and how collaborating with indigenous and mental health advocacy groups helped the team tell richer, more honest characters.
Read MoreWelcome to episode 1 of Zero Context, where we kick off our Zero Escape playthrough with the trilogy’s first game, Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors. We dive headfirst into the game’s lore-heavy exposition, speculate on how 999 fits within the death game media landscape, and, like all good podcasts, issue some corrections from episode 0.
Read MoreIt would be unfair to expect What Comes After to be a playable therapy session, but as it addresses issues involving suicidal ideation and suggests a solution, it is worth discussing how media can meaningfully talk about mental health, analyze whether this attempt can be considered successful, and where its limitations lie.
Read MoreWelcome to Zero Context, a show where Nathalie (she/her) and Axe (they/them) play through the Zero Escape series. Join us as Nathalie learns what a visual novel is, Axe reveals the depths of their cursed fandom knowledge, and we try to figure out how exactly you podcast branching narratives. Enjoy this table setting before all hell breaks loose.
Read MoreNight in the Woods’ anti-Capitalist politics were seen as revolutionary at the time of its release, but while the game had a lot to offer, praising it as a radical text feels like a stretch. In this essay we will look back at the five years since Night in the Woods’ release, examining how its political allegory has held up, the critical conversation surrounding the game, and what roads of analysis may still lay unexplored.
Read MoreAdam Le Doux (he/him) is a game and software developer best known for creating the tiny game engine, Bitsy. Just shy of Bitsy’s six-year birthday, Adam came on the show to talk about Bitsy’s unassuming origins and surprising evolution as part of the tiny games scene. Later, we discuss how Bitsy’s form sets in in opposition to conventional, capital driven games and software, the importance of the engine’s community, and how to preserve these games against the forces of tech oligarchies.
Read MoreSpiders (they/them) are an alt game dev specializing in queer, grimy, anti-tech industry experiments. In this episode, we chat about their upcoming anthology game, The Museum of Radically Obsolete Futures, the tension between wanting to make shit that’s cool vs shit that sells, and how vital communities like The Queer Games Bundle are to the weird game scene.
Read MoreIn collaboration with utopian collective Trust, designer Son La Pham (he/him) and developer Francis Tseng (he/they) created Half Earth Socialism (2022), a browser game companion to Troy Vettese and Drew Pendergrass’s book of the same name. As part of the game’s launch, Son La and Francis joined me on the show to discuss how the collaboration began, the challenge of building a global planning simulator as a browser game, and the importance of going beyond raw calculations to allow players to become emotionally invested.
Read MoreFantasia Malware are an experimental game label specializing in mega-maximalist un-game performance art. They crowded into KRITIQAL’s digital podcast booth to discuss grotesque beauty, games as instruments, and creating art that can’t be wiki-fied. Later, they recommend birds.
Read MoreStudio Oleomingus is an art practice and game studio based Chala, India, whose work explores magical realism, post-colonial landscapes, and redacted authorship. Studio founder Dhruv Jani (he/him) joined me to talk through his unique history with modern videogames, his skepticism at the necessity of systemic interaction, and how employing fictitious external authors connections Oleomingus’ work to a larger history of post-independence Indian storytellers.
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