Evan’s Remains is untidy, its themes barely cohesive. But if it were not so unusual, if it had simply doubled-down on puzzles and pretty screens, I do not think it would have left half the impression it did.
Read MoreAn update on our regularly scheduled programming. Links to support the protests and black creators.
Read MoreEpisode 12 of Kritiqal Care switches things up by having two guests! Kiki & Alicia (she/her) of the Youtube channel Transparency join me to discuss how they approach video production, the differences in their writing styles, and how The Last Jedi is objectively the best Star Wars.
Read MoreOn episode 11 of Kritiqal Care, I was delighted to get to talk to Jay Tholen (he/him) the developer of one of my all time favorite games, Dropsy. Jay is an indie game dev now based in Germany, who last year released the faux-internet moderation game Hypnospace Outlaw.
Read MoreSaving You From Yourself is not meant to be subtle. It is raw and messy, screaming for you to get it and do better. Backgrounds and character models form collages across the screen as scenes shift and the situation becomes direr as if each image barely has time to come together. There is no room for bad faith interpretations, the experience is too provocative, too direct.
Read MoreKate Olguin (any/all pronouns) joins me to discuss her upcoming project, Call of Karen, why games culture is so humorless, and the stigma around game design students.
Read MoreHad Signs of the Sojourner allowed the player to fail without having the door slammed in their face, it would be easier to forgive some of the flatness present in its card system or the brevity of its script. But by framing conversations as games to be won without anticipating how often they’d be lost, huge chunks of the game become sequences of frustrating nonsequiturs.
Read MoreOn the last of the single digit episodes of Kritiqal Care, designer and community activist Elaine Gómez (she/her) joins me to discuss E-Line Media’s upcoming BBC partnership Beyond Blue, which adapts the Blue Planet documentary series into an underwater adventure game.
Read MoreChristina Neofotistou (she/her) joins me to discuss how she approaches a project, what she values in pixel art, and teases an upcoming project for the Playdate console. She also gives some backstory on the Steven Universe game that almost was (maybe some day)
Read MoreAubrey Isaacman (she/her; they/them) comes on to discuss how her games approach intimacy and emphasize player emotion, and the importance of physicality in game design.
Read MoreJoe Russ (he/him) joins me on Kritiqal Care to discuss the release of Jenny LeClue: Detectivu last fall, how its structure evolved from episodic to a two part series, and how Apple Arcade influenced the game’s development.
Read MoreJack King-Spooner (he/him) is my guest on episode 5 of Kritiqal Care. We discuss the importance of seeing the people behind art, how queer has evolved (and is still evolving) from a derogatory term to one of self acceptance, and the way our desire to find a "silver-lining" in all of this might be blinding us to the real pain caused by the pandemic.
Read MoreLeo Bunyea (he/him) joins me on episode 4 of Kritiqal Care to talk the biases of game engines, how to make academia more accessible, and the joys of the Animal Crossing tag system.
Read MoreNear Death consistently hits the highs of the best survivalist fiction, so engrossing as to cause me to turn up the heat in my own home out of fear. But it is a story we have heard before.
Read MoreWelcome to episode 3 of Kritiqal Care. I'm joined by indie game dev Marina Kittaka (she/her), known for her work on Even the Ocean, Secrets Agent, and Anodyne 2. She joins me to discuss authenticity in art, returning to old projects, and how nice it is that we're (mostly) not in winter anymore.
Read MoreEpisode 2 of Kritiqal Care features tabletop rpg designer Jamila "Jammi" R. Nedjadi of Sword Queen Games. Jammi's games focus on queerness, filipino culture, and accessibility. They join me to discuss their creative process, what life looks like in the Philippines during the Covid-19 pandemic, and why Bioware won't let us look at Garrus' butt.
Read MoreOn episode 1 of Kritiqal Care, I speak to indie developer Florian Veltman, creator of Lieve Oma, The Endless Express, and previously of ustwo. He is currently working on The Other Side, a puzzle game about ghosts learning to understand life in the afterlife.
Read MoreKritiqal Care is a show about games, community, and hope in the midst of a global pandemic. It is my small attempt to give people something positive while life feels incredibly bleak.
Read MoreOrwell tries to introduce safeguards into the surveillance operation but in doing so further highlights how futile these measures are in protecting from false imprisonment and machine bias. If we are beginning the conversation at “how do we ethically implement a mass surveillance system” we have already lost.
Read MoreZoomed out, Corruption 2029 looks like what you’d expect The Bearded Ladies to do next. But there is no soul, no justification for the game’s existence, and numerous moments where it feels actively inferior to a game that came out two years ago.
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