Cecile Richard (they/them) is a graphic designer, writer, and game developer known for their playful Bitsy projects and hypertext fiction. They joined me to discuss cyclical stories, the risk/reward of collaborating with close friends, and how cool underground tunnels are. We also take a moment to proselytize about editors, and I learn about a new, extremely fake sounding sport.
Read MoreIt’s New Year’s Eve, which means 2023 has come and gone, bringing in closing our annual end of the year show. As is tradition, I reached out to past guests of the show to ask what their most impactful gaming memory was from the last 12 months. The responses were as insightful, touching, and playful as ever, running the gamut from industry events, personal milestones, and games that captured people’s imaginations.
Read MoreThe year has come and gone in a Sonic hued blur, and as is now tradition, I reached out to prior Kritiqal Care guests to ask what their favorite gaming and/or gaming-adjacent memory was in 2022. The responses were truly incredible, spanning great games, communities, moments of personal growth, and surprising opportunities. This continues to be my favorite episode of the year, and I’m so glad to get to share it with you. Happy new year!
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 MoreJeremy Couillard (he/him) is an artist and professor, whose games JEF (2020) and Fuzz Dungeon (2021) explore the weird, uncomfortable, and inexplicable aspects of life through humor and alien surrealism. In this episode, Jeremy details how he started creating games out of a frustration with animation, the importance of loitering in digital spaces, and finding community in alt games.
Read MoreGames took a lot of different forms this year and the way we approached them was even more varied than usual, so instead of a traditional games-of-the-year list I thought it would be fun to ask the guests of Kritiqal Care to look back on their favorite game related moments from the year - whether that’s something they played, read, created, or otherwise experienced.
Read MoreGames, even abstract ones, convey elements of the people that birthed them. They reflect the concerns and interests of a period and can be as enlightening about a culture’s values as any text or document.
Read MoreI feel I’m going to quickly start repeating myself in summarizing these zines, but it should be taken as a complement that they are consistently exciting, surprising, and well produced. It is inspiring to see such an artistic range within this issue, the complete lack of pretensions, an appreciation for everyone involved.
Read MoreIndiepocalypse is a monthly zine and collection of indie games featuring weird, quirky, and creative explorations of the medium. Here are some thoughts on issue 8, featuring: 1980s interfaces, angels, and a computer making friends with bumblebees.
Read MoreVery excited to have gotten the chance to this week to chat with Andrew (he/him), creator and curator of Indiepocalypse, a monthly zine featuring games, comics, and an assortment of other curiosities.
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