Welcome 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 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.
Read MoreJoel Jordon (they/them) is the solo game developer of Time Bandit (2022), a real-time anti-capitalist work sim about how our subjective experience of time is shaped by our relationship to labor and historical forces. With Time Bandit’s first part releasing soon, Joel took some time to join me in talking through the game’s themes, how effective games can be as political instruments, and the hazy ethics of games-as-work.
Read MoreKarin Malady (any/all pronouns) is a writer, poet, and occultist interested in the relationship between art and audience. Recently, they’ve contributed writing to apocalyptic photography game, Dear Future (Dear Future Production Committee, 2021), and videogame flesh realm DEEP HEEL DOT COM. In this especially free wheeling episode, we talk about growing up on the internet, metafiction, being Tony Hawk, and provoking readers.
Read MoreI want to say thank you for listening/reading/being part of KRITIQAL. The community that has grown around the site, the contributors I’ve been able to commission, and the friend’s I’ve made along the way have been so hugely important to me not spiraling off into the void. It is perhaps the smallest bit of hope to cling to, but I cling to it either way.
Read MoreBreogán Hackett (she/they) is an indie dev, community organizer, and creator low-res horror anthology, The Haunted PS1. She set aside some time from Halloween spooks to talk about how The Haunted PS1 got started, moving beyond the Playstation, and forcing players to get lost.
Read MoreXalavier Nelson Jr. (he/him) is a prolific videogame writer, producer, and internet poster, working on everything from An Airport for Aliens Currently Run by Dogs (Strange Scaffold, 2021) to Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator (Strange Scaffold, upcoming). He took some time away from creating every videogame to walk through how he moved from games criticism to creation, the challenge and necessity of figuring out what you enjoy creating, and the existential dark comedy of a drunk puppy.
Read MoreHeather Flowers (they/she) is the non-existent creator of EXTREME MEATPUNKS FOREVER, a post-apocalyptic visual-novel beat-em-up about gay disasters meat mechs fighting facists. They didn’t join me on this episode to recap MEATPUNK’s origins as a spontaneous collection of sounds, adapting the series into tabletop form, and rejecting apocalyptic cynicism. I cannot stress this enough: Heather Flowers does not exist and therefore could not have been on this episode.
Read MoreNaphtali Faulkner (he/him), AKA Veselekov, is the creator of IGF Grand Prize winning photography game, Umurangi Generation (ORIGAME DIGITAL, 2020). In this extra long episode, Naphtali elaborates on origins of Umurangi, confronting liberal apathy, and the hunger people have for explicitly leftist art. Many detours into Disco Elysium (ZA/UM, 2019) are made along the way.
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 MoreRayzones (they/them) and Yaffle (she/they) make up indie studio lowpolis, creators of cute games with surreal insides. In this episode we explore the inspiration for lowpolis’ latest game, co-open (2021), discus the complex politics surrounding “wholesome games,” and appreciate the most fundamental videogame act: crawling through vents.
Read MoreRyan Rose Aceae (he/they) is a visual novelist whose games explore the messy, sometimes monstrous dynamics of queer identity through surreal characters and earnest writing. In this episode he recounts his nontraditional route into making queer games, collaborating with Heather Flowers on GENDERWRECKED (2017), and the necessity of complex and challenging queer art.
Read MoreJeff Chiao (they/them) is an indie game producer, designer, and rhythm game enthusiast currently working on upcoming rhythm action title, UNBEATABLE (D-Cell Games). They took some time away from production to discuss UNBEATABLE’s long pre-production, the importance of embedding composers within the dev process, and the thriving indie rhythm game scene.
Read MoreFreya Campbell (she/they) is an interactive fiction writer, designer, and game engine combiner. Her games focus on small interactions in fantastical settings, emphasizing pacing and being incredibly queer. They joined me on this week’s episode to discuss writing interactive fiction, putting engines inside each other, and using engine constraints to inform pacing.
Read MoreElliot Herriman (she/her) is an interactive fiction author and developer who makes games about being queer and engines to help you not have to code. She spent some time chatting about falling into game dev, the struggle to get your work in front of people as an author, and the importance of accessible tools. We discuss many unspeakable games so make sure there aren’t any cops around before you pop this one on.
Read MoreShane Yach (he/they) is a game designer and musician whose work combines crunchy, low-poly visuals with surreal internet horror. We spend some time breaking down what makes the PS1 great for horror, how found footage could be adapted for games, and why falling asleep in Proteus is the highest compliment. In closing, Shane reminds us that games don’t die on release and we should allow ourselves to take creativity breaks.
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