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Area of Effect
A stock photo of an oil barrel painted a bright red.

Ka-Boom

By Jay Castello • April 15th, 2025

I truly, genuinely, do not think I have ever been as frustrated with a videogame in my life.

Area of Effect
A photograph of a lush landscape in Argentina features a stunningly massive waterfall emptying into a large lagoon flanked by green trees.

Worldbuilding

By Jay Castello • March 11th, 2025

I’m building worlds in my brain and I’m being in worlds in real life.

Area of Effect
A screenshot from Chants of Sennaar shows a lone figure standing on a tower balcony overlooking a vast desert landscape.

Language Roots

By Jay Castello • February 11th, 2025

Chants of Sennaar’s world is pieced together from bits of ours that make our understanding of it slot together piece by piece.

Area of Effect
Students mill about in droves and crisp blue blazers in a grand hall at Durham University.

The Local Horror of Dark Academia

By Jay Castello • November 13th, 2024

Babel is one of the books most keen to explore the dark part of dark academia; the power behind it, not just the hue of an 18th century wood-panel library.

Area of Effect
A screenshot from Venba shows a woman with dark hair fretting over a pot cooking on a stove.

Molokhia

By Jay Castello • October 9th, 2024

I wish I knew my grandmother’s recipes. I wish I hadn’t been taught to be mean to her about them.

Area of Effect
A photograph of the Rollright Stones showing a well-trod path curving alongside the stones.

Signalled Space

By Jay Castello • September 10th, 2024

The feeling of together-aloneness is the same in both Elden Ring’s digital world and the damp field of the Rollright Stones in real life.

Area of Effect
Red, yellow and white onions piled on a counter.

The Play Space

By Jay Castello • August 13th, 2024

Wandrer.earth logs all the roads you’ve walked on (via a Strava integration). There is no way that these numbers will move considerably, ever, but seeing where I’ve been is compelling enough.

Area of Effect
A rendering from Hades II shows the three-headed dog Kerberos snarling and a trespasser.

Can You Kill the Dog?

By Jay Castello • July 16th, 2024

If Cerberus’s anger is anything to go by, this may be a more nuanced look at the mythology the Hades games pull from.

Area of Effect
A screenshot from Hades shows Achilles And Patroclus finally reunited in the underworld.

Supergiant’s Scrappier, Better Underworld

By Jay Castello • June 6th, 2024

So much of Hades, and by extension Hades II, can be seen in the primordial soup of Pyre.

Area of Effect
Two characters from Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley gaze up a lovely blue lighthouse.

A Wilderness of Thoughts Grown in Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley

By Jay Castello • May 7th, 2024

The garden is not the park, although the tension of its civilizing influence is never resolved.

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