Events
Wendi Yan Merges Satellite Parts with Energy Beams
A 360-degree CGI video anchors Wendi Yan's half of a duo show with Camilla Alberti at Artverse, alongside new paintings that fold Chinese scholar stones into game environments.
China
News
Pirated DVDs seed a lost-media hunt for a cinema's vanished films
Shanghai collective [[rect*]]repair built Screening Guidelines, a 150-player investigation of a cinema whose entire catalog disappeared.
News
Zhou Yichen's GRANDMA is coming to a metal cartridge
Backers can have someone they love redrawn as a pixel character in the Game Boy eulogy.
Alice Wang
Alice Wang aims a first-person camera at cosmic architecture
Four films screened at the New Museum treat Mayan monuments and radio telescopes the way a game treats a level: a frame of reference to inhabit.
grief
Why I Can't Stop Thinking About Grandma, a Game Boy Eulogy
Zhou Yichen's Grandma is a Game Boy-style elegy for his late grandmother—and a quiet argument for interactive media as a native form of mourning.
game design
Rui Hu: The infinite futures of games
Artist Rui Hu blends game engines, installation art, and memory to examine how virtual spaces infiltrate our physical world.
News
Surprise yourself by learning an alien language in Sethian
Sethian is a game that positions you as an archaeologist of the future tasked with learning an alien language. You do this so you can investigate the disappearances of people on the planet Sethian—where the language originates. Learning a whole other language might sound pretty imposing, but the cre
Feature
The Determination of China’s Independent Game Scene
At night, Shanghai transforms itself into a new city. Bars, restaurants, and small shops start to open in the alleyways and neon red lights begin to shine throughout China’s largest city. Its nightlife, as well as its economic growth, makes this city the best place to see how the country has changed
News
Koi brings the tranquility of a Chinese lotus pond to your PS4
Chinese studio Dotoyou recently released its game Koi on the PlayStation 4, making it the first game from its native country to be released on the PlayStation 4 in the West. Koi stars a koi fish facing dangers beneath the surface of its resident lotus pond, such as predator fish and spiked barriers.
News
Nostation, a game inspired by late-night train rides across China
In China, years ago, Bubble is riding a train late at night. “In the [past] the train was slow and dirty, it [would] take a long time to arrive at the destination,” they say. Bubble is far away from home and the train is almost entirely empty. “Just me alone,” Bubble tells me while recalling the mem
News
8-bit artist makes new autobiographical GIF every day
This article contains flashing images. /// Speaking to Vice’s The Creator’s Project, Italy-born, Shanghai-based illustrator Ailadi says “I like the combination of PETSCII 8-bit game aesthetic with subjects of common daily life.” She’s referring to her PETSCII series, an art project based around prod
News
A videogame that humanizes China’s smog problem
Sign up to receive each week’s Playlist e-mail here! Also check out our full, interactive Playlist section. Hazy Days (PC, Mac) MIKE REN Mike Ren has been living in Shanghai, China for over a year now. “The city is great,” he says, but the air pollution, well, that isn’t so great. The smog of China