Ruth Cassidy

omg the talk/speaker lineup for Roguelike Celebration (@roguelike.club) 2025 looks sooo good:
www.roguelike.club/event2025.html

So obviously one of the most vital events in videogames right now, I really hope I can make the time to attend this year.

Exark on Steam Exark is an engine builder about building a city aboard a gigantic ark-ship. Construct buildings, staff them with crew members, and maximise your ark's resource production by exploiting powerful syner...

Aaand Exark, which really got me first with arranging things nicely on a grid, and second with the soundtrack in the trailer

store.steampowered.com/app/3435610/...

Clowned King on Steam In a world made of glass, an exiled Prince becomes a clown to conceal his bloody past behind a mask of laughter. In this tactical JRPG inspired by Brazilian culture, play as the Clown Prince Matheus, ...

wrapping up with some honourable mentions (ie. Some Very Good Trailers)

Clowned King, which I cannot blurb better than it does: "In a world made of glass, an exiled Prince becomes a clown to conceal his bloody past behind a mask of laughter."

store.steampowered.com/app/3195150/...

HeartLinks: A Puzzle Called Love on Steam Solve puzzles with the power of friendship! Each student you befriend gives you a unique item that lets you unlock new areas and explore a wacky anime school! To deliver a confession to your crush, ca...

and last but not least (for today!) HeartLinks: A Puzzle Called Love, which *really* commits to the bit and has very silly puns on top of pleasantly chewy physics puzzles
store.steampowered.com/app/1643800/...

Detective Hindsight on Steam Solve a variety of perplexing cases in the sleuthing shoes of Detective Hindsight - who gets help from Phoebe: a young orphaned girl with dreams of being a storyteller and powers to look into the past...

I have also *really* enjoyed the demo for Detective Hindsight, which is about solving mysteries with the help of the oddly prescient crayon drawings of a little girl. there is also a nun who is an ungracious poker winner.
store.steampowered.com/app/2982950/...

Don't Get Your Hopes Up on Steam You're looking for a new apartment in Amsterdam. Your once-confident search is morphing into panic. Nothing is available. Anything will do. ANYTHING.

from the game devs of colour expo: a whole free game! both *painfully* familiar (does anywhere not? have a housing crisis currently?) and meaningfully specific as a story store.steampowered.com/app/3795490/...

it is one of those rare games that delights me in both a game-as-craft way (this is a VN with *microexpressions* and deeply satisfying narrative reactivity) and a game-as-experience way (it's been two years and I could still rattle off Opinions about all the characters)

Save 50% on Amarantus on Steam Roadtrip across the country. Confront a tyrant. The revolution will be messy—but the relationships will be messier.

I have far too many tabs open from the game devs of color expo event but I wanted to *at least* shout out Amarantus, which is one of my all-time favourites, and is 50% off

store.steampowered.com/app/1941100/...

Just 11 hours left to submit your games, game assets, tools, tilesets, soundtracks, music packs, zines, artbooks, short fiction, comics, whatever you got(!) to the Play for Palestine charity drive.

Funds go directly to the UNRWA in support of direct humanitarian aid in Palestine! Info below. 🇵🇸🍉🎮

thank you!

"Adjacency bonus: It's time to finally put the deck of cards to one side: tiles are the foundation of a burgeoning new genre"

It's a little harder to promote your work when you've been hiding your bylines away in print, but this month I have *two* pieces in Edge, which is very cool - my review of The Alters, and a feature about the growing genre of tile synergy games

A screengrab of our Steam creator page showing where we've recommended a game called Mouthwashing, calling it a bleak and troubling experience (this is a compliment).

I've spruced up our Steam page with all the games we recommended in the newsletter last year. Maybe soon I'll add the ones from this year, but let's be honest, probably next June.

store.steampowered.com/curator/1178...

having just been listening to a recorded interview for transcription purposes I have to say: I have no idea what my accent is anymore. what are those vowels. where are they going.

maybe the secret to being good at video games is not sitting like a shrimp

or! maybe it was a coincidence. but who could possibly say

I spent about 40 minutes on a Clair Obscur miniboss that I was not good at and had the spontaneous thought "what if I engage my shoulder blades" (thank you, physio) and did it in the next go around

so if anyone is looking for any guides writers,

This Year in Videogame Blogging: 2024 Welcome back to Critical Distance’s annual roundup of great videogame blogging! We’ve taken one more trip around the Sun in our ongoing mission to highlight and archive some of the best…

Friends, it's time once again! Check out our year in videogame blogging post to see what works excited and incited us to think differently about games last year!

critical-distance.com/2025/01/01/t...

Unwrapped by ILL OMENS What did *you* listen to this year? Not this, probably.

Disappointed by your Spotify Wrapped this year? Not a Spotify user but want to join in? Don't worry, I've got just the answer. Generate some end-of-year summaries of your (entirely fake) listening habits.

Play it here (currently desktop only): illomens.itch.io/unwrapped

Call for Submissions: This Year in Videogame Blogging 2024 Hello everyone, It’s December 1st, which means it’s time to start compiling Critical Distance’s annual This Year in Videogame Blogging roundup. Through the rest of this month, we&…

It's also time for the annual call for submissions to This Year In Videogame Blogging! Check the public post for details.

critical-distance.com/2024/12/01/c...

I was wondering why Dwarf Fortress feels like such a seasonal game to me when it textually isn't but I just checked the (Steam) release date and that would indeed have done it. I hope everyone else is having a nice Dorfcember

The every lovely @geoffreybunting.bsky.social interviewed me a few months back as part of this piece about Twitch and YouTube content creation as a disabled gamer.

right, it's that something is behind her (and it's a puzzle)

Steam Store Steam is the ultimate destination for playing, discussing, and creating games.

The #AdvX2024 Steam event starts within the hour!

For the next 7 days, you can check out some of the best recent & upcoming narrative games. Over 140 games total, on sale and/or with a playable demo!

store.steampowered.com/sale/Adventu...

Bellara's quests especially seem the Most self-conscious about everything videogame-y that happens ("here's the third puzzle! hopefully that's the last one!" "here's the first wave of enemies! because there's always a second wave!") and it's like. oh boy please stop pointing out the redundancy

Interstate 35 key art. A visual novel about going home.

ANNOUNCEMENT: I'm releasing my first video game! Introducing INTERSTATE 35, an experimental visual novel about going home, set in the irradiated ruins of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. Words & design by me, illustrations by Porcelain Bones, music by Josie Brechner. Links below.

In conclusion, if you enjoy my thoughts on video games, please help me not be homeless so I can continue thoughtting them at you

Today is a great day to hire @crapstacular.bsky.social.

@murthynikhil.bsky.social was amazing to discuss with about both this project and its philosophy! 4X games like Syphilisation need more press. We need more postcolonial game designers that genuinely believe in that philosophy. Not to mention deindustrialisation!

A four panel comic called "some good kinds of bird". Panel 1 has a tiny bird labeled "small". Panel 2 has a secretarybird labeled "tall". Panel 3 has a duck labeled "wet". Panel 3 has a proud pigeon labeled "proud".

Ok apparently it's Make a Terrible Comic Day. So here's my entry for #makeaterriblecomicday2024

The Imaginary Engine Review (or TIER) is a new journal of video games criticism from me and @phoenixsimms.bsky.social. We cover independent, obscure, or retro games. We are ecstatic to debut our first issue over the next month!

Accessibility community check-in: GAconf, Access-Ability, Summer Game Fest, Nothing Without Us - Can I Play That? Time for a check-in with the accessibility community. With GAconf, Access-Ability Summer Showcase, Summer Game Fest, and Nothing Without Us.

Time for a new accessibility community check-in:

GAconf October dates and location.
Access-Ability Summer Showcase and Summer Game Fest with audio description and sign language tomorrow (June 7th).
And a new hybrid event in July: Nothing Without Us!