Letter from the Editor Unwinnable Monthly – July 2021 By David Shimomura • July 15th, 2021 It’s getting hot in here. In the July issue and on Earth.
The Seduction of Solitude By Harry Mackin • July 14th, 2021 Harry Mackin discusses the long lost last year
Paul Raschid on How to Make an FMV Game in the Time of COVID-19 By Drew Byrd • July 13th, 2021 An interview with FMV game director, Paul Raschid.
Traces From the Man Who Sold the World By Diego Nicolás Argüello • July 10th, 2021 “In our struggle to survive the present, we push the future away,”
Traces Intermission: Too Late to Love you By Diego Nicolás Argüello • July 7th, 2021 Welcome Diego back with his haunting look at his own personal Museum of Dwellings.
Try Reading... Magical Grieving By Harry Rabinowitz • July 1st, 2021 Harry digs into some heavier topics via middle-grade graphic novels!
Feature Excerpt Dancing in Solitude By Clint Morrison Jr. • June 10th, 2021 Dance has a long history of media representation during and following “plague” years.
Always Autumn Egress By Autumn Wright • June 3rd, 2021 Autumn explores cycles, hurtling towards the way out of things.
Collision Detection Controlling the Future in Five Minutes or Less By Ben Sailer • June 1st, 2021 Ben gets hooked on pretending to draft players for his favorite football team, and maybe, just maybe, learns something along the way. Or not.
Forms in Light Members By Justin Reeve • May 11th, 2021 The bodily architecture of Xenoblade Chronicles.
Rookie of the Year Rookie of the Decade By Matt Marrone • May 5th, 2021 Happy Birthday to Matt Marrone’s column!
Here's the Thing Getting Back to Gunpla By Rob Rich • March 29th, 2021 I really like building and customizing Gundam model kits.
Framed by Flowers: An Interview with Illustrator Sibylline Meynet By Alyssa Wejebe • March 5th, 2021 Meynet’s art feels delightfully reminiscent of Art Nouveau, like Alphonse Mucha’s illustrations.
Exploits Feature What’s the Message of “The Ugly Duckling” Anyways? By Raven Wu • February 28th, 2021 “It matters little to be born in a duck-yard when one comes from a swan’s egg!”
I Wish Quarantine Was More Like Demon’s Souls By Lucas DeRuyter • February 16th, 2021 Demon’s Souls mechanics also remind me that other people are struggling against the same challenges that I am.
Letter From the Editor Unwinnable Monthly – February 2021 By Stu Horvath • February 14th, 2021 February sure is long for the shortest month, right? Pass the time with the new Unwinnable Monthly.
Terry Pratchett’s Antidote to Copaganda By Hannah Copestake • January 21st, 2021 Why aren’t the police on the side of ordinary people?
Feature Excerpt The Plagues of Dunwall By Alma Roda-Gil • January 21st, 2021 The rich and powerful never think that the problems of the common people will affect them.
Collision Detection Countering COVID-19 Disinformation in Five Minutes or Less with Go Viral! By Ben Sailer • January 8th, 2021 Separating fact from fiction on the Internet and in the media is more difficult than ever. In the middle of a global pandemic, the consequences are potentially lethal. Could a simple browser game be part of the solution?
Traces Marching On By Diego Nicolás Argüello • December 23rd, 2020 “I am the end. Do you understand? This world, and this tapestry, I would devour. It is my purpose.”
Always Autumn Winter’s Wind By Autumn Wright • December 21st, 2020 If death is inevitable in Outer Wilds, then so is Timberhearth.
Feature Excerpt Who Firewatches the Firewatchers By Caroline Delbert • December 17th, 2020 Marshall played Firewatch and thought being a firewatcher sounded good, so he volunteered.
Forms in Light Formal and Vernacular Architecture By Justin Reeve • December 14th, 2020 The game world in Breath of the Wild is filled with interesting architecture
Traces Learning Tetris By Diego Nicolás Argüello • December 11th, 2020 2019 was the year I started learning Tetris.
Collision Detection On Videogames, Accessibility and the Winter From Hell By Ben Sailer • December 10th, 2020 Videogames are more accessible than ever thanks to increased digitization. Facing what will be the harshest winter in a generation, this is a godsend that is easy to miss, but should not be taken for granted.
Self-Insert Tagging By Amanda Hudgins • December 3rd, 2020 Tagging fics is both a conversation and a function in fanfiction.
The Heavy Pour Christmas Time is Here By Sara Clemens • December 1st, 2020 Fact: There is one single, perfect, perennial Christmas album.
This Mortal Coyle The Forest Spirit By Deirdre Coyle • December 1st, 2020 “I would be grateful to see the forest come to life.”
Always Autumn Sagittarius By Autumn Wright • November 22nd, 2020 “Every time I describe a city I am saying something about Venice.”
Here's the Thing On The Legend of Korra and Imperfection By Rob Rich • November 4th, 2020 Korra’s way of bringing some particularly significant character flaws to light through the eyes of their children makes them feel even more like human beings.
Always Autumn There Are Many Ways to Apocalypse. By Autumn Wright • November 2nd, 2020 As much as it is about the extraordinary ways in which people live their normal lives, Adventure Time is comprised of endings.
liberals in new york won’t stop texting me about amy mcgrath By Amanda Hudgins • October 29th, 2020 Next time, if you want to get involved in an election in my state, it would help if you learned something about it first.
Checkpoint Colin Kaepernick, Madden NFL 21 and the Football Future That Wasn’t By Ben Sailer • October 27th, 2020 After punting on social justice for years, Electronic Arts recently patched Colin Kaepernick back into Madden NFL 21. Don’t rush to pat them on the back.
Traces Ghost Stories By Diego Nicolás Argüello • October 23rd, 2020 In fact, you could consider it an anthology of sorts – one on my relationship with horror games, and on ghost stories. I’ll let you decide if they’re fictional or not.
Feature Excerpt Dungeons & Dollhouses By Orrin Grey • October 20th, 2020 I’m not going to claim that society didn’t yet have those concepts, but I hadn’t been exposed to them. I came up in small towns in the Midwest; gender norms were pretty rigid.
Feature Excerpt A Friend at the End of the World By Adam Goodall • October 20th, 2020 But what space do you and your camera occupy in this city? You’re far from an observer, an outside eye; rather, Faulkner positions the player as a site of tension in this world falling apart.
No Accounting for Taste Patterns in the Ivy By Adam Boffa • October 9th, 2020 What can city-building games tell us about climate change?
The Heavy Pour With Friends Like These: A Wasteland Verse of TrickyPixie83 By Sara Clemens • October 6th, 2020 “I take damage, I take damage!”
Rookie of the Year Neighborhood Must-Watch By Matt Marrone • October 2nd, 2020 “I was both there and not there during a gunfight that both did and did not tear through my quiet slice of Astoria.”