by David R. Howard | Oct 19, 2020 | Essays, Video Games
Randomness in games is often talked about purely in terms of strategic cost-benefit analysis. Random number generation (RNG) is good when it is fair, or used in procedural generation processes, otherwise it is bad and must be avoided. But randomness can also be aesthetical a la aleatoric art—pardon the tongue twister. Celeste‘s gameplay is wholly deterministic, which is a part of why speedrunners like me admire it, but in actuality it uses RNG for its various particle effects. One game series which uses RNG in both a mechanical and aesthetical way is Nintendo’s Animal Crossing, and not only in its island-creating algorithm. (more…)
David R. Howard is a writer from Southern Ontario, Canada. They can be found on Twitter @rhombical.
by Madison Butler | Oct 14, 2020 | News, Video Games
Howdy gamers, what’s the latest? Like (seemingly) most of my Twitter timeline, I’ve been enjoying Hades, as well as Animal Crossing for those sweet, sweet fall updates. I’ve also been playing a lot of Going Under, where you play as an intern clearing the dungeons—er, offices—of failed startups in your company’s coworking space. It’s very good. Let us know what you’ve been playing over on Twitter! Now for this week’s news… (more…)
Madison Butler writes about advertising by day and about video games the rest of the time. She can usually be found crying about Final Fantasy and Nier: Automata on Twitter @madisonrbutler.
by Katherine Quevedo | Oct 13, 2020 | Poetry, Video Games
Game Enjambment is a reoccurring poetry series on games and gaming.
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Katherine Quevedo was born and raised just outside of Portland, Oregon, where she lives with her husband and two sons. Her poetry has appeared in NonBinary Review, Songs of Eretz Poetry Review, The Decadent Review, and elsewhere, and her speculative fiction has appeared in various anthologies and magazines, including Apparition Literary Magazine, Short Édition’s Short Circuit, and GigaNotoSaurus. When she isn’t writing, she enjoys playing old-school video games, watching movies, singing, belly dancing, and making spreadsheets. Find her at www.katherinequevedo.com.
by Elvie Mae Parian | Oct 12, 2020 | Features, Tabletop Games, Video Games
Like many shows this past year, the Game Devs of Color Expo took things entirely online.
GDoCExpo was originally founded to create a much more inclusive space for marginalized creators in the games industry. GDoCExpo’s fifth year was hosted on Swapcard, a platform used to host online conferences and meetups. The convention had the format of a typical convention guidebook with information tabs on the guests, games, and their developers. (more…)
Elvie is an animator by day and tries too hard to be everything else by nightfall. Feel free to join her in screaming about anime and animals as she puts off what she should be really doing at @lvmaeparian.
by Emma.Kostopolus | Oct 7, 2020 | News, Video Games
This week in gaming was one of distinct industry highs and lows, with some longstanding issues for the gaming community seeing new airtime as execs do what execs do best. But all is not lost, with some charming news for gamers of beloved franchises. Let’s get started! (more…)
by Jameson Hampton | Oct 6, 2020 | Essays, Video Games, Virtual Reality
I do a lot of magic. I also play a lot of Beat Saber. These two facts about me seem pretty thoroughly unrelated, but the more Beat Saber I play, the more I don’t think they really are. Magic is intense and personal, and it feels like being on the same wavelength as something primal in the universe. And—hear me out—Beat Saber is the same. (more…)
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