Kevin Wong (he/they) is a game designer, producer, and scholar who has worked on projects as varied as Chambara, Lucah: Born of a Dream, and Manifold Garden. On this episode he recounts his experience as a student game designer and how anti-hierarchal art movements and Twitch Plays Pokemon inspired the apocalyptic photography game, Dear Future.
Read MoreNathan Blades (he/they) is a tabletop designer, streamer, and voice actor with a particular love of queer cyberpunk. He sat down with me to chronicle his introduction to TTRPGs, the rewards and frustrations of running an actual play show, and finding the line between passion projects and accidentally making yourself a second job. Afterwards, Nathan reminds us that no amount of Twitter arguing can substitute just sitting down and making the damn thing.
Read MoreKat (she/her) makes video essays on games and pop culture as Pixel a Day. Her work seeks to diversify games criticism by invoking her knowledge of art and psychology, interrogating unexplored aspects of games and games culture. In this episode we discuss what drew her to video essays as a form, the importance of looking outside of games, and the challenge of getting noticed as a smaller channel.
Read MoreNilson Carroll (he/him) is an archivist, MFA student, and ROM hacker working to preserve obscure and queer internet culture. His thesis project, Video Games Have Been Queer, chronicles his history with games and the queer culture within and around them which is often ignored. We talk about his early experiences with ROM hacking, the importance of preserving digital culture, and the earnest, wondrous possibility of glitches.
Read MoreLena NW (she/her) is a multimedia artist, rapper, and game designer whose work touches on the messy, fraught, and darkly humorous effects of fringe internet culture. Her MFA project, Nightmare Temptation Academy (2020), crystalizes her experience growing up on the internet and becoming desensitized to shock content, while also exploring digital alienation and collage creativity.
Read MoreCassandra Lugo (they/them) creates compact procedural games under the name prophet goddess. Their work explores the unique abilities of generative content, the lack of win conditions, and glitchy digital aesthetics. We discuss the origins of their interest in procedural generation, the frequent pitfalls with how it is utilized, and the sorts of games prophet goddess wants to see more of.
Read MoreNem (they/them) runs the leftist tabletop studio and occasional publisher, Sandy Pug Games, creating games exploring anti-capitalism, alternative forms of interaction, and what it would be like if DMC’s Dante was in Dungeon World. Recently, they have helped facilitate the Our Shores Kickstarter, allowing members of the South-East Asian TTRPG scene (RPGSEA) access to funds and exposure they had previously been denied.
Read MoreColin (he/they) of melessthanthree makes crunchy action games about catholic guilt and queer acceptance. He joined me to talk about early adventures goofing off in coding class, bucking publisher marketability, and Lucah: Born of a Dream’s intriguing and often confounding narrative structure.
Read MoreIndie game dev and co-found of Abyssal Uncreations, Hyacinth Nil (they/them) makes games about cosmic horror, broken technology, and how manufactured online identities. They took some time to walk me through their early efforts of longform LARPs as a kid, looking back on Transfer (Abyssal Uncreations, 2017), and the ways systematized morality reveals the empty politics of many games.
Read MoreTaylor McCue (choosing not to disclose pronouns) is a game developer whose work explores trans identities, bodily autonomy, and the dehumanizing impact of institutions. We discussed the flawed act of asking for pronouns, what led Taylor to make games, and the using Gameboy ROMs as a form of preservation.
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 MoreDave Gilbert (he/him) is the founder and head of Wadjet Eye Games, creators of numerous modern adventure game classics including Unavowed and the Blackwell Saga. Dave stopped in to discuss the studio’s history, moving into publishing, and the emotionally intense experience of closing out Rosa Blackwell and Joey’s story with The Blackwell Epiphany.
Read MoreKaile Hultner (they/them) joins me on this episode to dive into their philosophy of how to write about games as cultural objects, the need for games journalists to adopt ethics standards, and how good it is that you can pet the eagle in The Pathless (Giant Squid, 2020).
Read MoreSkeleton (they/them) of DEEP HEEL DOT COM joins me to discuss the site’s identity, our frustrations with the state of games writing (go away Kotaku), and the importance of building alternative media that is not embedded with advertising and a callous middle-class aesthetic.
Read MoreOma Keeling (they/them) is an experimental game designer and critic. Their work explores queer history, poetry, and punk art in ways that are messy, inspiring, and often hard to explain. Oma joined me to discuss their early games work at art school, the complicated relationship games have to history, and how they seem to keep making games about falling in love with vehicles.
Read MoreI've been intrigued by the project since playing the opening track, Copy Machine, and was so glad to have the opportunity to speak with its dev team trio: YenTing Lo (she/her) whose music forms the basis of each game, Vanja Mrgan (he/him) who produces art and contributes to design, Ferran Bertomeu Castells (he/him) who handles programming along with design.
Read MoreMaria Mison (she/they) makes games exploring identity, trauma, self-expression, and doing difficult things, as well as the form games can take and our relationship to cultural symbols. They join me to talk about their prolific first year as a game designer, the way games help inform their theater and dance practice, and the importance of taking care of your players, before enthusiastically closing out on our shared love of shōnen manga boys.
Read MoreI sat down with GMG’s communications director, Isra Shabir (she/her), to learn how the camp began, what the process was like shifting to online, and what they have planned moving forward with more online events.
Read MoreMatthew Pusti (he/him) makes synth-driven electronic music as Makeup and Vanity Set. He joined me to discuss how he began in music, the move to working in games and podcasts, and the inspiration for his latest album.
Read MoreHannah Nicklin (she/her) discusses how she went from being a playwright to a games author, how Mutazione approaches domesticity and time, and how she is building a more diverse team for Die Gute Fabrik’s next project.
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