Idle Animations is a recurring series in which I play games without playing them, exploring quiet, still moments, how games fill space and time, and what happens when you let a game play itself.
As August draws to a close, we must contend with the fact that our summer up here in the northern hemisphere is also drawing a close. This is good news for the chai-sipping, apple pie-loving pumpkin fiends among us, but it’s always a bit sad to know that beach season is heading out with the warm weather.
So, naturally, what better topic for a roundtable than a beach episode? Let’s have Sidequest contributor Joesph Langdon tell you all about it: (more…)
I can kickflip in real life. I can also ollie down a five-stair. What I can’t do is kickflip down a five-stair! Every time I’ve given it a go, it has always ended with some part of my body bloodied and/or scraped after an all-too-personal meeting with the pavement. Falling is a big part of skateboarding, and learning how to fall is one of the most important aspects of ensuring that your time with skateboarding is longer rather than shorter. Skateboarding is an exercise in pushing against gravity with concrete and metal. The concrete and metal always win, but sometimes a skater can work with them to cheat gravity and land a trick—an endeavor that can often feel like a war of attrition; small steps towards progress that are punctuated by often hard slams. Through accepting that one’s body can only take so much punishment and the humbling fact that most of us will never go pro, we must accept our boundaries. (more…)
After an apocalyptic vision of the universe ending, you awake and find yourself swimming in an ocean with no memory of who you are. You meet a cryptic eel named Elil and are taught that this is all going according to plan: every time the world ends, everything resets into this place and must start again. Elil prods you into meeting the other aquatic creatures of this ocean, suggesting that they are actually gods and that one of them will have dominion over the new world. The catch is that none of them are aware of that. With your own role and fate in question, you must befriend and indirectly influence this underwater pantheon to shape the creation of the next universe.
(more…)
I’ve been playing video games for most of my life and I have never, ever, even once been any good at them. My mum is great. So are my brothers, but I have the kind of self esteem that tells me if I can’t do something Right™ the first time it’s because I’m a terrible horrible loser of a person and that I should never ever try again ever because everyone will find out how much of a loser I am and then they’ll hate me and go away forever. (more…)
I’m Addicted to a Ridiculous Mobile Game Because I Want all the Characters to Smooch 
Mystic Messenger Trash: How Abuse Hides Itself As Love in Jumin’s Route Mystic Messenger Trash: Gals Being Pals in Jaehee’s Route 
Review: I Am Not Playing Variations on Your Body Mystic Messenger Trash: #MeToo and Toxic Masculinity in Zen’s Route
Recent Comments