Hunt Down Jack the Ripper in Du Lac & Fey: Dance of Death Astrid Johnson December 3, 2017 Features I went to MCM Comic Con in London this October, where I spoke on a panel about LGBT+ representation in the games industry. On that panel was Jessica Saunders, formerly of Rocksteady, Rare, and Lionhead, now Cre...
On the Border Lands: Games and the Immigrant Experience Martyn Bryson November 27, 2017 Features Around 4 years ago, I had my first real experience with the international immigration system. Being from the UK with an American partner, this was inevitable eventually. We had managed to avoid properly tanglin...
That Dragon, Cancer and the Gamification of an Emotional Narrative Astrid Johnson July 26, 2017 Features 9 That Dragon, Cancer is a stepping stone in video games as a medium exploring personal stories, and it’s interesting to align its criticisms with mainstream perception of that exploration. It’s been over 18 mon...
Augmented Empire and the Challenges of Narrative Design in Virtual Reality Astrid Johnson July 25, 2017 Features Virtual Reality has been on the rise in the past decade, and has arguably started to break into mainstream awareness. We’ve seen space flight sims like Elite: Dangerous, first-person shooters like Space Pirate,...
The Portrayal of Queer Sexuality in Robert Yang’s The Tearoom Astrid Johnson July 20, 2017 Features 3 CONTENT WARNING: This feature discusses sex and is Not Safe for Work. If you feel uncomfortable about seeing screenshots from an explicit sex game or reading a discussion about sex in games, it's advised that y...
A Normal Lost Phone and Queer People’s’ Relationships with their Phones Astrid Johnson July 17, 2017 Features 1 A Normal Lost Phone is a non-linear exploration game that places in your hands a discarded mobile phone that, to the naked eye, appears quite ordinary. But throughout your time exploring the device, you discove...