by Tia Kalla | Jan 11, 2022 | Lists, Mobile Games, Video Games
Earlier this year, having played through the new update for Stardew Valley on my Switch and wanting a bit more, I decided to check into Stardew‘s modding community. I’ve done modding in a couple of other games over the years, tinkering directly with game code, so I was surprised to find that modding Stardew Valley is as easy as dragging and dropping folders. I was also surprised to find a vibrant, diverse, and friendly modding community, still going very strong five years after the game’s initial release. But perhaps the most surprising thing: all of the mod recommendation lists hadn’t been updated in three years or more, offering mods that are broken or outdated for the current 1.5.5 version. So, in the interest of being the change I want to see in the world, I’ve put together a sampling of my favorites that have been released or updated in the last year, all compatible with the 1.5.5 release. (more…)
Longtime writer, temporary office minion, and nerd of all trades, tiakall is a fan of lengthy subordinate clauses and the Oxford comma. She enjoys plants, cats, puns of varying quality, and making cannibal jokes before it was cool.
by Melissa Kagen | Nov 29, 2021 | Essays, Video Games
About a week after we returned from our honeymoon, my cute new husband took it upon himself to install a dozen hooks above the oven. Upon these hooks, we would hang our pans and coffee mugs, and also our hopes and dreams. We had spent the last year apathetic about our messy nest, unable to do much of anything, much less something so ambitious as hanging cup hooks. We’d watched spills on our two-degree-tilted counter drip slowly from sink to floor over the course of hours. We’d accumulated mournful cabinets overflowing with plastic takeout containers that we could not bear to recycle. But now, there could be cup hooks! (more…)
Melissa Kagen is a videogame professor at Curry College. Her book, Wandering Games, is forthcoming in 2022 from MIT Press. She co-edits the Journal of Gaming and Virtual Worlds and can be found online at melissakagen.com or on Twitter @melissakagen.
by Sara Davis | Nov 8, 2021 | Lists, Video Games
Imagine you are exploring the sun-bleached halls of a ruin—well, ruin might be a strong word, because these halls have a classical beauty that captivates your imagination—but to the best of your knowledge, you are the only living person who roams them. You amble through high-ceilinged galleries and collect seaweed from the flooded lower chambers. You catch a fish. You find a skeleton that has been laid out in a ceremonial tableau, and you contemplate who she was and what kind of culture lay her to rest.
(more…)
Sara Davis is a recovering academic and marketing writer who lives in Philadelphia. Her PhD in American literature is from Temple University. She blogs about books, games, climate change, and other obsessions at literarysara.net.
by Emily Durham | Jul 29, 2021 | Opinion, Roundtables, Video Games
It’s summer here in the Northern Hemisphere! Time for lake swimming, marshmallow toasting, and the ever-important summer barbecue. Oh, and games. Don’t forget the games.
When we brainstormed this month’s topic, we came up with a few different ideas: astronomy, astrology, the dog days of summer, dogs… hot dogs… and barbecuing. Which leads to two important questions that will form the backbone—but not the entirety—of this month’s spicy, grilled discussion.
(more…)
Emily Durham is a freelance writer by day and a Sidequest copyeditor by… also day. When they’re not editing or playing with cats, you can find them playing Celeste or Hollow Knight, sewing korok cosplays, or… playing with cats. You can find their tweets at @sedimentalvalue.
by Oisin Kuhnke | May 4, 2021 | Essays, Video Games
I’ve been uncomfortably conscious of my body since a pretty young age. When it came to food, I was a fussy child, which resulted in me being overweight. In turn, adults would feel like they were entitled to comment on my body. I have a specific memory of eating a Yorkie (a plain chocolate bar, for non-UK readers) and a stranger harassing me on the street about it. My school’s principals once contacted some form of authority, I can’t remember which, about my fussy eating, which in hindsight broke some serious boundaries. The doctors weren’t even concerned, as other than being overweight I had no serious health issues. But everyone else always had problems with my body. (more…)
Oisin is a non-binary writer based in the UK with bylines in Uppercut, Into the Spine, JumpCut PLAY, and Sidequest. They try very hard to think about games other than Kingdom Hearts, but more often than not that’s what they come back to. You can find them @BoyWithWindmill.
Recent Comments