Always Autumn Another Meaning of the Words By Autumn Wright • October 12th, 2022 The alphabetical arrangement of Alaska for Looking brings attention to the nonmaterial components of text as a mode, and to the construction of the novel as a form rather than material object.
Casting Deep Meteo The Fresh and Vertical By Levi Rubeck • October 11th, 2022 Lately Levi’s been picking through Severed Steel, a title still honing in on the parkour and the shooting but sidestepping long set pieces for a series of puzzle rooms and time dilation.
Another Look End of Zelda By Yussef Cole • October 7th, 2022 Perhaps in Hyrule, which was apparently inspired by the local woodlands of its designer, Shigeru Miyamoto, we could grasp some of that same fantasy, that escape.
Rookie of the Year Living the American Stream By Matt Marrone • October 6th, 2022 America is beautiful – at least at night, without checking social media, as it streams on Netflix.
Interlinked Acquiring Phantomilian By Phoenix Simms • October 5th, 2022 Games have their own form of communication and language and, in some instances, they include constructed languages, or conlangs, that are foreign to their players too.
Mind Palaces Evil as Can Be By Maddi Chilton • October 4th, 2022 The idea that Elvis would have been happy and healthy and long-lived if only were it not for his life-long manager Colonel Tom Parker is ahistorical.
Here Be Monsters An Introduction and Manifesto By Emma Kostopolus • October 3rd, 2022 The horror of videogames, and a lot of horror more generally, rests on the fear of time.
This Mortal Coyle Ruby Blue from Switchcraft By Deirdre Coyle • September 30th, 2022 Ms. Blue’s aesthetics speak volumes: she wears librarian clichés – cardigans and tortoiseshell glasses – with bodycon animal prints, statement jewelry and long, blue nails.
Self-Insert Hybrid Shifters By Amanda Hudgins • September 29th, 2022 Ultimately you see in hybrid shifter fiction a desire to create people who are closer to their “natural instincts” over reason, a call back to nature. Is the reason usually sexy? Of course it is.
Run It Back 1987 By Oluwatayo Adewole • September 28th, 2022 Tayo’s back discussing two films from 1987, both by trailblazing gay directors, Joel Schumacher’s The Lost Boys and Derek Jarman’s The Last of England.
The Beat Box Noteworthy Hip Hop – September 2022 By Noah Springer • September 27th, 2022 1997 was a good year for hip hop and an even better one for Noah.
Revving the Engine 2020s Tech, 1980s Spirit By Ben Sailer • September 26th, 2022 Dykom Software’s twin-stick side-scrolling shooter invokes 80s geek culture nostalgia while hiding a few twists underneath an absurdist premise.
Feature Excerpt To Be a Bird on an Island By Taylor Hidalgo • September 23rd, 2022 During unsteady times, it’s easy to get caught up in the sadness of uncertainty. Thankfully, there are little animals tromping around an island to remind us that it doesn’t have to be that way.
Feature Excerpt Shark Party By Michael Lee • September 22nd, 2022 The kinds of relationships people form in online spaces can be as meaningful and socially rewarding as physical encounters with human bodies.
Feature Story Blue Keys on a Red Planet By Hilver • September 16th, 2022 The DOOM games show the limits of lifeless worlds as game settings, but it is no coincidence that each time id Software had to reinvent the series for a new generation they returned to Mars.
Nonhuman Meditations Tracking a Mechanical Shark By Alyssa Wejebe • September 16th, 2022 Alyssa follows the adventures of Bruce, the mechanical shark in Jaws.
Here's the Thing I Was Wrong About the Muppets By Rob Rich • September 15th, 2022 A while back Rob posited that the ABC’s The Muppets was criminally underrated, but a recent rewatch has changed his tune somewhat.
Forms in Light Wheeling and Dealing By Justin Reeve • September 14th, 2022 Archaeology as a field isn’t just about what’s in the ground. Sometimes you have to look down from on high to really get a handle on how much of an impact a given activity is having.
Always Autumn Realism, Reality and the Real By Autumn Wright • September 13th, 2022 A statement of intent.
Casting Deep Meteo The Meat Box: Four Quick Bites By Levi Rubeck • September 12th, 2022 With nary a word of acknowledgement, Levi casts such deep meteo he ends up mimicking Noah Springer’s “The Beat Box” column. Good picks, though.
Rookie of the Year I’m a Record Producer Now By Matt Marrone • September 9th, 2022 Until now, Matt’s musical credits have amounted to little more than a one-night-only metal taco performance at Mercury Lounge.
Interlinked The Hopeful Disharmony of Into the Doomed World By Phoenix Simms • September 8th, 2022 Phoenix talks to Javy Gwaltney about Into the Doomed World, his new short-story collection about 30 self-aware NPCs in a world that’s been sentenced to a slow apocalypse by its player.
Collision Detection Game Guides vs. The SEO Grind: Who Wins and Loses? By Ben Sailer • September 7th, 2022 Physical strategy guides are on their way out. But is the SEO sinkhole that has replaced them better? Spoiler alert: no.
Mind Palaces An Introduction By Maddi Chilton • September 6th, 2022 It is becoming more and more challenging to consume art, to use the current crass colloquialism. We just know too much.
Past Presence Rehearsal By Emily Price • September 2nd, 2022 The Rehearsal has been called manipulative, sociopathic and dangerous by people on the internet. All of these are obviously exaggerations and misnomers.
Eyeing Elsewhere Just Above the Noise By Phillip Russell • August 31st, 2022 The Bear is a show about the traumas that our previous workplaces, managers and family members imprint on us and the struggles we face not only in trying to overcome them, but to break the chain.
The Beat Box Noteworthy Hip Hop – August 2022 By Noah Springer • August 30th, 2022 Well, it’s August and boy is it hot! But this column isn’t about the heat that comes from the atmosphere, just the heat that comes off these fresh drops.
Revving the Engine Creative Constraints in Unbound: Worlds Apart By Ben Sailer • August 29th, 2022 Unbound: Worlds Apart looks like a typical puzzle-platformer. However, thanks to some creative design decisions, it’s much more than that.
Feature Story Team Unwinnable Fireside Chats By David Shimomura • August 26th, 2022 This month, David chats with Unwinnable co-owner and vice publisher, Sara Clemens.
Feature Excerpt The Horror of Finding a Home By Andrei Filote • August 25th, 2022 Path of Exile doesn’t end when the story concludes but when the player’s will to imagine the next character fails.
Feature Excerpt The Chaos Detective By Daryl Li • August 24th, 2022 The Return of the Obra Dinn supports a detective fantasy by casting the player into the role of textual interpreter who seeks to organize the chaos into coherent solution.
Nonhuman Meditations A Dog and Her Friend and the Lockdown in Between By Alyssa Wejebe • August 11th, 2022 Alyssa imagines Isabelle’s friendship with Doomguy while remembering the first year of lockdown.
Here's the Thing The Nostalgia of “New DOOM” By Rob Rich • August 10th, 2022 Rob ruminates on the unexpected way that the new direction for DOOM panders to nostalgia.
Forms in Light Hell on Earth By Justin Reeve • August 9th, 2022 The levels in DOOM Eternal provide a reminder that despite being the predominant forms of architecture for the better part of a century, internationalism and modernism are not without their problems.
Casting Deep Meteo Riff and Tear By Levi Rubeck • August 5th, 2022 Levi comes not to bury the DOOMs, but to praise doom metal.
Rookie of the Year Wolfenstein 3X By Matt Marrone • August 4th, 2022 It’s amazing Matt grew up as well-adjusted as he did.
Interlinked Catharsis through Carnage By Phoenix Simms • August 3rd, 2022 Despite DOOM being about ripping and tearing your way through various hellscapes this iconic first-person shooter is (paradoxically) pure escapism and catharsis.
Self-Insert Hurt/Comfort By Amanda Hudgins • August 2nd, 2022 Hurt/Comfort is what it says on the tin – a character is hurt, so they must be comforted.
The Beat Box The Beat Box – DOOM By Noah Springer • July 29th, 2022 Bouncing around microchips as a micro-man or walking around a 2D dungeon, rolling hits on a gelatinous blob felt like child’s play to the splattering gore of Doom.
Revving the Engine Happy Place By Melissa King • July 28th, 2022 The co-founders of Bluecurse Studios, wife and husband Erisa Liu and Jordan Gonzalez, want to give you a cozy digital getaway – their upcoming game, Snacko.