Hannah 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.
Read MoreWelcome. We made it. 2020. Wow, what a year. A lot has happened as I’ve been trying to write this list, but what’s important is that video games are good and here and should definitely be allowed to exist.
Read MoreMelos Han-Tani (he/him) is a game designer, musician, and half of Analgesic Productions. On episode 22 of Kritiqal Care he joined me to talk making games that recognize the humans behind them, why he likes writing music for games, and some of the musicians he looks (listens?) toward for inspiration.
Read MoreI’m not asking Abzu to just be Journey, but if it is already working from that point of reference it’s strange how little Abzu understands why Journey worked at all. If Journey was a ballet Abzu is a SeaWorld show. Flashy, controlled, at times inspiring, its artifice fully on display.
Read MoreHaving begun as an indie dev with games like Fragile Soft Machines and Visual Out, MadameBerry (she/her) has since left games and is now pursuing live painting on Twitch.
Read MoreThe Last Survey is a two (arguably one) man play about justifications and the failure of modern liberalism to try to both hold on to capitalism and appear sympathetic to our concerns. It holds you in this limbo and dares you to justify your way out.
Read MoreWhitethorn Games founder and CEO Matthew White (he/him) joins me on Kritiqal Care to talk what makes a Whitethorn game, appealing to non-gamers, and growing sustainably.
Read MoreWe need more games like Tonight We Riot and Anarcute, and more which go beyond what either of these is capable of saying.
Read MoreRachel Tanner (she/her) is a poet and prose author who writes the monthly column Extra Lives over at Video Dame. She joined me on this week’s Kritiqal Care to read a few of her poems and talk about how she got started writing video game poetry.
Read MoreMutazione imagines a beautiful and complex life founded on small, self-sustaining community and a respect for the natural world. It is charming and warm but also plain about the challenges of sustaining a community like this. It reckons with the contradictions of colonialist greed and asks if things couldn’t be rebuilt without hierarchies and violence.
Read MoreSomething new on this week’s Kritiqal Care, I’m joined by experimental software developer Nathalie Lawhead (they/them) to talk about the weird side of the internet. Nathalie specializes in small art tools with 90s sensibilities and lots and lots of potatoes, and recently released Electric Zine Maker for anyone looking to become an amateur publicist.
Read MoreIt was difficult to play Hyper Light Drifter and not feel a deep empathy for the drifter, also alone, also dying from an invisible disease. It’s an easy connection, but when the world is on fire all you can see are embers.
Read MoreThe Off Score Project feels similar to actively listening to vinyl by being a playable album, each track accompanied by a game that ties into the song’s lyrics and mood. A group project between musician YenTing Lo, artist Vanja Mrgan, and programmer Ferran Bertomeu Castells, Off Score is being released a track at a time with the first, Copy Machine, available now on itch.
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.
Read MoreThis week on Kritiqal Care, I was so excited to talk to the core dev team of ValiDate (upcoming), a dating sim about the weird complexities of dating as a twenty-something that features an all people of color cast, queer characters, different body types, and challenging personalities.
Read MoreYou could sketch Crossing Souls on a napkin, and it would probably be a smarter, more inclusive game. But I won’t ask you too.
Read MoreThis week’s episode is a little different, featuring Quinn K. (she/her, they/them) and Kyra (she/her) to discuss collaboration, the daily uncertainty of work during Covid, and old internet lore I somehow missed.
Read MoreOn episode 14 of Kritiqal Care I talk with artist and curator Eva Khoury (they/them) about their approach to different mediums and how they define themselves as an artist. Then we go way to deep on refrigerators.
Read MoreGames can often feel like some kind of sorcery, impossibly complex and created by people with inhuman ability. But they’re just people. Highly talented people, but still. Anodyne 2 is not sorcery, but it is a kind of magic, an ordinary magic that is all the more exceptional because of it.
Read MoreThis week I had the absolute joy of talking to the developer of one of my all time favorite games, Wandersong, Greg Lobanov (he/him). Greg is an indie game developer known best for the musical adventure game Wandersong, and is currently working on the upcoming dog-with-a-paintbrush game Chicory.
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