How can DARPA use a sub simulator to discover and implement tactics into the United States Anti-Submarine Warfare program? Julia Coulibaly describes how the free, downloadable ACTUV Tactics Simulator demonstrates the plodding difficulty of updating the U.S. Navy’s ASW program.
Now in its eight year, the Games for Change Festival continues to bring together educators, industry leaders, and researchers to ask how games can be used for good. But is that the right question to ask? Adrian Sanders attended the conference and digs into the conversation.
We speak with researcher and assistant professor of bioengineering at Stanford University, Ingmar Riedel-Kruse, about making games with microscopic lifeforms.
Despite all the improvements Kinect boasts technologically, Kinect Fun Labs stands as a painful reminder of what we lack socially. Richard Clark explains why Kinect Me and its other applications make him feel nothing but disconnected.
What is the meaning of collecting strategy guides? What does the habit tell us about the games—and other things—we value? Emily Flynn-Jones describes the magic of collection.
Negative emotions such as fear and disgust are familiar territory for games. But Simon Ferrari suggests that games can, and perhaps should, go further, using his paralyzing anxiety in the intergalactic strategy game Neptune’s Pride as one example.
Videogame design has plenty of Charles Dickenses—but where are all the Jonathan Swifts? Danielle Riendeau speaks with Alex Shwartz, one of the masterminds behind the satirical Smuggle Truck about lampooning American immigration laws—why it caused so much controversy, why so many games shy away from
Can the provocative underage anime girls of Dead or Alive: Dimensions make us desire something more dangerous? Jon Irwin takes a peek at the game’s polygonal nymphs, and wonders what banning a game for questionable content says about our own sexual insecurities.
Now taking pitches for Kill Screen #5: The Sounds Issue! Whether your expertise is game music, music games, musicians, sound design, FX, or voiceovers, we want to hear about it.
What happens when a videogame becomes a reflection of real life? Chris Offutt describes how his family grew up with World of Warcraft, and how he dealt with the loss of his hacked and banned account.
GameSpot EIC-turned-EA LA producer Greg Kasavin has many stories to tell—and he wants to do it with videogames. We talk with the man of letters about his upcoming title Bastion, almost becoming an English professor, and what RPGs can teach us about life.
Kill Screen staff writer Jon Irwin attends his first Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles. In this dispatch, holding hands with mutants and reading into attire.
In our latest music column, Pitchfork writer David Raposa asks why the late Guitar Hero failed where Rock Band succeeds, with insight from the music industry.
Ron Gilbert began making games that satirized movie genres. Now the mind behind Monkey Island, Maniac Mansion, and DeathSpank makes games that poke fun at themselves. We talk to Gilbert about finding the funny factor in games—why it can be so hard, and why it’s good for the medium.
How virtual playground Minecraft is like the building blocks of our youth. We speak with educator Joel Levin about the school curriculum he built around Minecraft, and teaching internet ethics in a way that sticks.
Bennett Foddy is a true Renaissance man. The GIRP creator speaks with Jonathan Beilin about being a founding member of Cut Copy, a philosopher at Oxford, and designing games that addict.
Can keeping a digital pet ever live up to a master’s relationship with a real one? Do we want to see the day when it can? Jon Irwin wonders why Nintendogs + Cats for 3DS makes him feel so guilty, and why pet sims don’t take the responsibility of pet ownership seriously enough.
The Video Game Exchange is a link to the past for retro-game lovers, and owner Fred Schofield likes it that way. During field research for NHPR, Jon Lynch digs into Schofield’s shipping containers of games and his refusal to modernize in the face of GameStop.
