Rookie of the Year The New York Times Bestseller List, July 25, 2021 By Matt Marrone • May 9th, 2020 If we make it through all this craziness, Matt predicts that next summer’s must-reads will definitely have a running theme.
1983 and the Future of Videogame Writing By Levi Rubeck • May 7th, 2020 Levi turns back the clock on videogame crit.
In the Business of Adaptation By Amanda Hudgins • April 13th, 2020 A faithfulness to a format that is no longer consistent with the product that you’re making is worshiping at the ground of a false idol.
Towards a Carrier Bag Theory of Videogames By Edwin Evans-Thirlwell • March 23rd, 2020 Applying the lessons of Ursula K Le Guin’s criticism to the art of videogame storytelling.
Best of 2019 The Best Books of 2019 By Team Unwinnable • December 26th, 2019 An idiosyncratic but earnest selection of the reads we considered most worth our time.
Backlog Repeating Being By Gavin Craig • August 9th, 2019 Gavin muses about repetition while he muses about repetition while he muses about….
Boss Fight vs. KotOR By Elijah Beahm • April 23rd, 2019 Elijiah Beahm reads the latest from Boss Fight Books.
Rookie of the Year The Half-Baked Book Review: 1Q84 By Matt Marrone • April 12th, 2019 Matt Marrone had a brilliant idea for a series: Reviews of half-read books. Written for parents of small children.
The Burnt Offering Metal is My Church By Stu Horvath • April 4th, 2019 Stu Horvath ponders the alchemy behind taste as he reconsiders a “cheeseball” artist from his nascent metal education.
Never is that Brief Flash Resented By Levi Rubeck • March 14th, 2019 When a relationship is sent crashing, the unmoored self can be so easily thrashed upon the rocks—it’s necessary to reaffirm that sense of self, to rejoin that once-blended ego.
The Real Dr. Frankensteins By Jen Sisco and Robin Mazzolla • February 12th, 2019 First there was Frankenstein, there there were the scientists inspired by Frankenstein.
Backlog The Stiff Brown Cloth in Which the Knife is Kept By Gavin Craig • February 9th, 2019 Knowing a fable’s end first can change its meaning. Especially when you remember endings are things of fiction.
Exploits Feature Opening Statement By Gavin Craig • February 1st, 2019 We experimented with a different format for this issue of Exploits. Gavin Craig explains.
Making Mulaka – Adventures in Not Making a Game By Malindy Hetfeld • January 28th, 2019 Making Mulaka, a book released through Select Start Press is a about a group of people and their journey to make a game.
Backlog Resolution State By Gavin Craig • November 9th, 2018 With most videogames having half-baked conclusions when they don’t continue on indefinitely, Gavin Craig asks: Can you even have a story without an ending?
The Burnt Offering Binge Reader By Stu Horvath • October 29th, 2018 There are many books sitting on my shelves that I have read in a single sitting. I can’t tell you a single thing about most of them. Re-read responsibly, kids.
A Criticism of Adequacy By Levi Rubeck • October 18th, 2018 Katamari Damacy blindsided videogames with style and simplicity, imploding the paradigm of violence for a brief, fantastic moment.
Rookie of the Year The Running Matt By Matt Marrone • September 25th, 2018 Matt Marrone muses where he’d escape to if faced with the dilemma of Stephen King’s The Running Man.
The Burnt Offering Dungeons & Dragons Is a Double-Edged Sword By Stu Horvath • August 15th, 2018 Dungeons & Dragons is the gateway into tabletop roleplaying, but for many players, it is also the final destination.
Procreation of the Wicked By Astrid Budgor • August 10th, 2018 “They rip him apart as he grins, nerve-endings aflame with the liquor of pain, finally accepting an eternity of obliterative bliss.”
Another Look Hood Cyberpunk By Yussef Cole • August 7th, 2018 Cyberpunk stories don’t generally want, or need, to change society. It seems, rather, that they’re perfectly content partying in the rubble.
Feature Excerpt A New York Adventure By Alyssa Hatmaker • July 12th, 2018 The Blackwell Convergence captures the ambiance and rumble of “old” New York as it tells the story behind one author’s decades-long writer’s block.
Losing a Friend You Never Met By Blake Hester • June 8th, 2018 I kept getting excited reading it, thinking maybe soon he’d put out another book. It felt like getting excited for your friends’ bands – you know, the actual good ones – to put out new albums
Epistolary Voicemail By Levi Rubeck • May 31st, 2018 Enjoying a recent New Yorker online poetry experiment where Natalie Diaz and Ada Limón are explicitly communicating with each other, and we are shepherded on the atmosphere that extends between them.
Poetry at the Crossroads of Self and State By Levi Rubeck • May 23rd, 2018 Sharif, an American poet whose parents were exiled from Iran, is taking stock of her homes and houses in this and all of her work
Exploits Feature Not Enough Time By Stu Horvath • May 2nd, 2018 Look, we’re all going to die. The real tragedy is that we’ll leave unread books on the shelf when we do. Or is it?
A Tumultuous Smoke Break By Levi Rubeck • March 28th, 2018 Emma Kidwell’s Got a Light? gracefully outlines the confusing and powerful internal combustion engine of sentiment, that heavy fire that drives us all to smoking and other activities hazardous to our health.
Excerpt The Man of Many Ways By Kate Gray • March 21st, 2018 Was it Mario who blinded the cyclops or Odysseus? I forget.
Polishing Up the Ol’ Dragonlance By Levi Rubeck • March 21st, 2018 The War of Souls continues the Dragonlance series’ penchant for a willingness to let its characters fail—to be broken down completely while chasing meaningless power, given the chance for redemption, and convincing the reader when they stand or fall.
Magician, Persona, and the Weight of Nostalgia By Sam Desatoff • February 1st, 2018 I grew up as a citizen of Midkemia. Here, in this land filled with elves and dragons and ancient magicians who live in a realm apart from time, I came into adolescence and, more importantly, fostered a love for fantasy.
List-O-Mania – December 2017 By Team Unwinnable • December 26th, 2017 All the stuff that filled Team Unwinnable’s free time this month – now with TV and Movie categories!
List-O-Mania – November 2017 By Team Unwinnable • December 5th, 2017 Books, music and games to help you pass the time as you get ready for the holidays!
Rookie of the Year The Last Word on When to Quit By Matt Marrone • December 4th, 2017 Matt Marrone finds a faint glimmer of hope for Agent Cooper and Laura Palmer in the final Twin Peaks novel by Mark Frost.
List-O-Rama – October 2017 By Team Unwinnable • October 30th, 2017 On tap for October: tons of great games, music and books.
List-O-Mania – September 2017 By Team Unwinnable • September 29th, 2017 Team Unwinnable’s got some recommendations for ya…
Spilled Ink Unemotional Investments – My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness By Austin Price • August 30th, 2017 As unsparing as she is in presenting the minutiae of her feelings, Nabi has also constructed a formal shell that prevents her and reader both from actually engaging with the rawest elements of her story.
List-O-Mania – August 2017 By Team Unwinnable • August 25th, 2017 Need something to read, play or listen to? Unwinnable’s got a few dozen recommendations for ya.
The Burnt Offering Nostalgia Bomb By Stu Horvath • August 18th, 2017 Nostalgia is the bottomless pit into which we willingly throw ourselves.
List-O-Mania – July 2017 By Team Unwinnable • July 26th, 2017 Stuff that Unwinnable likes in July, 2017.
