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.
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/...
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/...
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/...
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/...
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)
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!
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
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,
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...
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
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)
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
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!
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!
