Here’s something I wrote last week for a magazine project I’m currently spearheading. There’ll hopefully be more on this later as it seems to have stalled temporarily, but I’m posting it now because a) I haven’t done anything else noteworthy, and b) I should probably bury the academic diatribe that was my most recent posting. [...]
Metaphors in Mechanics Braid offers a masterful blend of inventive gameplay and novel narrative execution Three years ago, independent software developer Jonathan Blow released Braid, a game which at the time was something of a champion for the artistic merits of video game design. Lauded for its striking artistic direction, inventive time manipulation mechanics, and [...]
The scariest game you’ve never played Amnesia: The Dark Descent proves that imagined horrors are far more menacing than real ones Survival horror games have undergone a curious metamorphosis over the years. Most notably, they’re now forgoing frugal design principals enhancing atmosphere in favour of bloody gore fests highlighting action. And while technology and gameplay [...]
Lost in the basement with The Binding of Isaac This game should’ve been slaughtered on the mountain Isaac had no idea that Abraham intended him as a sacrifice to God when he was following his father up the mountain. In fact Isaac had no power in that entire incident. Either God was testing Abraham’s faith, [...]
This is the next installment of my column, which I’m posting now to show to a friend who’s been eager to read my thoughts on this since… April? By the way, I absolutely adore this game (as if my write-up doesn’t make that clear enough already). Please go play it. The adventures of Citizen Abel [...]