It would be easy to take a look at Aooni, go, welp, it’s a scary game because you’re trapped in a scary house and being chased by a scary monster. CASE CLOSED. But if we ignore Aooni’s design, in particular its puzzles, the interaction between its two modes of play, and its difficulty curve – we miss some of the ways it succeeds at being Horror.
Read more "THE HUNT FOR THE HORROR OF AOONI"At the end of the day I owe our loan shark 500,000 pix. I am 200,000 short. Partly this is my fault: I replaced our store’s carpets with a cutesy-wutsey bunny rabbit design, and this scared away our heretofore faithful clients. I invested in books and cut-price treasures which nobody wanted. I took pity on a con artist and bought furniture at a grossly inflated price to try to get to know her better.
Read more "A Recettear Story"There’s an Old Who two-parter that I saw recently: Revelation of the Daleks. At the time I was feeling like an ugly mean-spirited little organism, and yet, in a metamorphosis I can only attribute to the esoteric workings of great art, it left me feeling genuinely joyful.
Read more "On valuing crapiness in art"“The most in-depth storyline on the Nintendo DS – almost a novel’s worth of narrative!”
In 2006 somebody thought that they could sell a real-time strategy game by comparing it to a novel. In 2013 you could read about any big release and be forgiven for thinking that it was one.
Read more "Games & the emergence of story"
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