The story of the man behind the Doonesbury Election Game
Randy Chase spent years building sophisticated political simulations. Then he took on a truly partisan project.
Richard Clark
The Whatever Gaze
The CGI softcore and coquetry of Lollipop Chainsaw is not supposed to be taken seriously. But are the game’s aggressive sexual politics culpable of its rather serious presumptions of gender? Sorry, it’s not sorry.
Blessed Are the Geek
While much of modern gaming revolves around success or achievement in its various forms, Rich Clark argues that a clearer vision of what games could be comes from the well-known Beatitudes, preached in Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount. After a week of grasping hell, Clark offers a differing view of heave
Putting Our Best Brain Forward
The way to get us to jog, apparently, is to say that zombies are coming. In Zombies, Run!, an alternate-reality game about health and fitness, Richard Clark sees a more universal experience of being convinced and feeling something real.
Fight! Ow, Stop!
Where do we draw the line between reality and fantasy? Richard Clark argues it’s where the first punch connects with his face.
Can Martian Plants Teach Us How to Wait in Line?
Waking Mars, an iPhone game about researching and growing life on Mars, has lessons in patience and persistence for the earthbound.
Andreas Illiger
The creator of the acclaimed Tiny Wings speaks to Richard Clark about his philsophy, life after Tiny Wings, and what it was like to finally fly.
Review: To the Moon
An interactive story about a dying man’s wish can barely be interacted with. For Richard Clark it’s an intimate reckoning with the past and present of his father’s life.
Review: Epoch
A game where robots shoot robots is an unlkely site of humanity. Richard Clark explains why Epoch‘s contradiction is a successful, and soulful, one.
Review: Leedmees
This game about leadership uses Kinect to project your body as a giant stick figure onto the screen. According to Richard Clark, in doing so it creates a rift between your power as a player and the value of a tiny blip’s life.
Killing the Turtle
We talk to Jennifer Estaris, a designer of alternate reality games and children’s games, about trying to retrieve a sense of childhood and what she learned from Nickoledeon.
Review: Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception
For Richard Clark, Uncharted 3‘s player-character Drake is so close, yet so far.
Review: Rage
The creators of Doom and Quake make a case for their roots in their modern-day Rage. For Richard Clark, it cleanses the palate and the mind.
Review: Battlefield 3
Battlefield 3 doesn’t stay true to actual war, and that’s a blessing. Richard Clark writes on all the good feelings of videogame war.
One Up: Brian Provinciano
In this new series, we talk to up-and-coming independent game designers about their creative and professional rituals and routines. Brian Provinciano, creator of Retro City Rampage, tells us about quitting his day job to sign more contracts than he ever imagined.
Review: Burnout CRASH!
What happens when you take the best part of a racing game and make it the entire game?
Review: Quarrel
Richard Clark on the humanity of a war game played with words, and the inhumanity of computers carrying dictionaries.
Review: Jetpack Joyride
Why the sublimely absurd Jetpack Joyride is a step forward for endless runners. Bonus: what Richard Clark does before bed.
Review: El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron
The new action game from Devil May Cry and ?kami artist Takeyasu Sawaki takes the Book of Enoch as inspiration. But it takes a fresh stance on the influence of God, the hero’s motivations, and the source of salvation. Richard Clark digs into El Shaddai.
5-10-15-20: David Kalina
David Kalina, one half of the team behind Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor, speaks to us about learning to code, making lifelong friends, teenage acts of PC game piracy, and feeling the spark of inspiration from a little game called Braid.
Review: Pac’N-Jump
Pac-Man has been unearthed from the cabinet yet again, and he has nowhere to go but up, except when he falls down into a dark pit. Richard Clark describes why this is fun.
Review: Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet
What’s admirable about a game that doesn’t care about you? Richard Clark reviews the oblivious Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet.
Review: Ms. Splosion Man
Don’t think too hard about the new run-and-jump game from Twisted Pixel, Ms. Splosion Man. According to staff writer Richard Clark, they’ve done the thinking for you. Let your hair down.
Review: Trenched
Richard Clark discovers Trenched, the tower-defense that is as much about brotherhood as it is about male posturing.
Erik Loyer
Erik Loyer, who masterminded experimental iOS apps Strange Rain and Ruben & Lullaby, speaks to us about playing with Legos, losing his beloved cat, and finding the perfect nickname.