So, it’s no secret that Grim Fandango that is one of my favorite games ever. For years I would go back and replay sections of the game every year on the Day of the Dead. It was kind of a ritual. So when the announcement came that Double Fine was […]
Monthly Archives: January 2015
19 posts
A recent post on the Feminist Frequency tumblr titled “One Week of Harassment on Twitter” detailed just that — a week’s worth of tweets directed at Feminist Frequency, at Anita Sarkeesian, and at feminists in general, especially those associated in any way with gaming critique. Some are wildly ridiculous, almost […]
Lumino City is a point and click adventure from State of Play, which combines digital design with physical design. The developers of Lumino City physically built the game world out of paper and tiny lights, and then created a video game out of this little paper city. And, the results are […]
I had an extended conversation recently with a student interesting in pursuing game design beyond our undergraduate program at my college. We spoke about the types of things you would expect for any student considering grad school- what types of things to look for in a program, how to begin […]
Way back in early 2012, I bought my son a little mouse for his fourth birthday. He had played a few very simple computer games at preschool and at the library, and of course he loved the Xbox 360 and his iPad, but he hadn’t shown any real interest in […]
A few weeks ago I made the mistake (as I often do) of getting into a debate about feminism on Facebook. I’m not sure why I do this. By now, I surely should have learned. But when it starts, I’m like a moth drawn to flame. I just can’t stay […]
For years we have been talking about learning to write code through game play with things like Gamestar Mechanic and Double Fine’s Hack and Slash (which requires you to change the code of the game’s assets in order to win), but the recent attention that folks like YouTuber SethBling has gotten […]
Episode 93: We’ve Got Nothing But Time: On Finding Time to Play Games for Fun and Research (“Save As” to download or head over to iTunes to subscribe) The episode where we talk about finding time to play games as gamers, researchers, and parents. We are joined this week by guest and […]
Last year after I finished playing Among the Sleep, I really wanted to discuss the game with someone. The game was awesome and scary and disturbing. I didn’t know how, exactly, I felt about the game and, in particular, the ending, but I craved a conversation about it. At the […]
Just about every gamer has it: that one series that they love through thick and thin, come hell, high water, or cell-shading. The reasons for loving any series are vast, and range from nostalgia to narrative, from characters to adventures, and just about everything in between. Indeed, thinking about your […]
Last week, I wrote about the revelation that Mass Effect’s Commander Shepard was originally conceived as a woman, at least in visuals (not necessarily in terms of game content), a piece that sparked a bit of discussion on my Facebook page about the nature of the industry and reality. “Reality” […]
This Christmas Pea received a Lego Fusion kit for Christmas. When it was time to choose which kit she should get it was a tough choice. I took the time and looked through the videos of gameplay online and made the decision that despite my hatred of the Lego Friends […]
Fantasy Life, Level-5’s semi-recent contribution to the Nintendo 3DS’s impressive array of games, is all about (as the title suggests) living your role playing fantasies. Although light on plot and structure, the game’s numerous character classes and the ease in which you can transition between them makes it a memorable […]
Last week I named Life is Strange as one of the games I was most looking forward to this month, so I was a little disappointed to hear that some of the publishers Dontnod Entertainment approached wanted the protagonists changed to men. I suppose that shouldn’t surprise me, but it […]
As you may know, I’ve been re-subscribed to World of Warcraft for several months now and have been having a great time in the new expansion. One of the things that’s been most enjoyable is seeing the Outlands from a new perspective- this expansion uses a parallel universe as an […]
Late last week, Jonathan Cooper revealed on Twitter that, in the earliest animation tests for Mass Effect, the character of Commander Shepard was a woman, and the online equivalent of confetti was thrown by fans who played, and loved, Mass Effect through a female-centric lens. FemShep, after all, is the […]