just letting everyone know that if you need a games writer that knows mystery vns/adventure games (danganronpa, ace attorney, zero escape, paranormasight, paradise killer) inside and out, i've thought a lot about this stuff and i am LOOKING FOR WORK clips below / hmu [email protected]

My Christmas Eve gift to you is that you can play the first two full campaigns of Space Warlord Baby Trading Simulator RIGHT NOW, for free, in our demo. If you wanna give ME the present of a wishlist... I mean. I wouldn't say no. 👀 store.steampowered.com/app/3642000/...

I had a great time talking to Pablo Clark of @theoldkingscrown.bsky.social about the gorgeous The Old King's Crown.

This should be kept in mind not just for the TGA but any showcase/event featuring trailers

anyway, if you're looking for devs to follow, go.bsky.app/TQDmuak

A few hours into Hollow Knight, so far the thing I like most is that it doesn’t disappear the corpses of the bugs. I like keeping corpses around in general, but it fits the ruin and decay theme going on here especially well. Feels like you’re adding architecture sometimes

the fine dudes at Giant Bomb convinced me to do a top 10 list. come for talk of sticking it to evil empires, shared joy in the face of overwhelming fear, and, of course, why Despelote is the greatest game of our times. giantbomb.com/articles/moi...

Btw this is one of the biggest reasons why it’s not as easy as people think to start up independent newsrooms or just be an indie journalist on substack. If you are actually holding powerful and rich people to account, you WILL need legal representation. Not a matter of whether but when

Finally got around to this, damn good read about the state of queer cartoons and how we got to cartoons’ current plight more generally aftermath.site/queer-cartoo...

61 workers at Ubisoft Halifax have formed the first North American union at Ubisoft. www.gamedeveloper.com/business/ubi...

College journalism strikes again www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...

My team is hiring narrative designers again! * Entry to mid-level! * Casual mobile games with campy fun stories * Big caveat: after a few months remote, you gotta do a year or two in-office in Beijing! * Pay is low by US standards but great for Beijing or Europe www.linkedin.com/posts/alexan...

I had five fascinating conversations for this RPS piece, gathering perspectives on genAI chatbots in games, as seen in Where Winds Meet. Thanks to @meghna.bsky.social, @pyrofoux.bsky.social, @maxkreminski.bsky.social, and @chrisgardiner.bsky.social www.rockpapershotgun.com/horrible-bor...

404 Media is about to enter energy saver mode. We're still publishing throughout the week, however, so watch your inbox / RSS / the @404media.co feed and you won't miss us too badly. Before we all slip into the ether, I wanted to highlight a few stories I published this year that stuck out. 🧵🪡

UPDATE: I just got off the phone with the bank, and to get my car back, I need to pay the entire remaining balance, which is a little over $5K. I feel awful asking for any more after how overwhelmingly powerful the response has been so far(!), but unfortunately we aren't quite out of the woods yet.

School's out, work's done, after Thursday the year's basically on garbage time: the perfect time to play games. Find something new (to you) on our list of the best games of 2025. www.avclub.com/best-games-2...

First Transanta wishlist item is here. Raising $317 to get My’Keez the PS4 on their wishlist bsky.app/profile/sal....

this is a Canadian petition to uphold charter rights for transgender and minority communities if youre Canadian, please sign it. if youre not Canadian, please share it. www.ourcommons.ca/petitions/en...

An email in a new batch of Jeffrey Epstein files reveals Trump flew on the late sex offender's private jet "many more times" than previously known

I have been called out very deeply by this video essay (it's excellent, Rowan Ellis is insanely underrated imo) and I would like to rewire my brain about this topic please www.youtube.com/watch?v=YupI...

Looking for the truth about what it was like inside CECOT? Earlier this year, we spoke to the men the Trump administration deported to El Salvador. Hear about what they endured, in their own words: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8INs141xeQ

If you are feeling helpless and hopeless in the face of the CECOT report, I’d like to suggest donating to HIAS. It’s a Jewish organization that actively protects displaced people and fights for refugee rights everywhere including against the Trump regime. 🧵

Calling all 6502/NES programmers! We recently preserved and shared a source code snapshot of the lost Police Academy game! Which is great, except it's in a pretty bad state. I'm hoping there's enough to "revert" back to its trade show demo. Any interest in helping? www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/pgm4m...

send this blog to your favorite government regulator aftermath.site/ea-saudi-ara...

I wrote about how even though anime is more popular than ever, the studios that actually create these shows continue to earn an alarmingly small percentage of the profits, leaving animators underpaid and overworked.

Found the actual men in women's bathrooms assaulting women.

2025 was my first year doing freelance work full-time. I traveled across the US and Europe. I wrote more than 80 stories for The Guardian, Aftermath, Kotaku, Rolling Stone, Gamespot, & more. I worked my ass off to make ends meet. Most importantly, I did work I'm really proud of. Here are my faves:

microfun is hiring again if you are interested in a game writing job that won't lay you off (real): www.linkedin.com/posts/alexan...

Flock left a bunch of its cameras exposed to the internet, where we could watch them streaming live. Here's how that happened and what we saw: www.404media.co/flock-expose...

Good morning—I still need to make $1,850 by New Year’s Eve. That’s next week. I can’t tell you how urgent this is, but the words “Xmas Miracle” come to mind. I you can, please, help. Thanks for reading. Paypal: @MatthewStefon Venmo: @Matt-Stefon

My top ten new board games of 2025 feature a bunch of great two-player titles, a massive game about fixing baroque instruments, and more, now up at @theavclubgames.bsky.social: www.avclub.com/best-board-g...

Amongst all the misery of growing genAI slop bullshit flowing through games, this dropping last night in Promise Mascot Agency gave me a good laugh.

Ah yes, I can finally break my heart at my leisure

if there are any sites looking for a freelancer to review/cover yakuza kiwami 3 who has also reviewed infinite wealth + pirate yakuza and wrote about the series at length in the past, i'm truly the girl for it 💜 aware this is a little early shares appreciated 💜

Here's an example of how useless and frustrating internet laws to "protect kids" are in practice: When I'm in Ohio, where I am during the holidays, I can't use my Bluesky DMs—unless I hand over my ID to a company owned by Epic Games. Why? To protect kids, of course! spitfirenews.com/p/why-i-have...

Yesterday was not the Last Work Day of the year for me, but most of what’s left is GOTY stuff. I’m mid-workout so between sets, I’m gonna thread a few things I liked that I wrote in 2025, the year of me getting my spark back, kinda. Slowly, but surely.

Nikita got one of the better TV pilots I’ve seen in a while

okay i always felt like there was something up about Critical Reflex - they're a major player at this point and attached to a bunch of buzzy newer games but it's hard to find any info at all about them. the ex-employee calls them "the creepiest publisher in indie games" - i wish i was surprised

The IGAs Nomination Committee is officially retracting Debut Game and Game of the Year, awarding both categories to new recipients. Additionally, we are retracting one of the Indie Vanguard recipients. Full details can be found in our FAQ under Game Eligibility: www.indiegameawards.gg/faq

My final 2025 column for Access Designed is up! I explored some of my favorite games of this year that had the best accessibility and disability representation. Read more on @ign.com here: www.ign.com/articles/the...

Are you an early-career journalist who loves the rhythm, pace, and adrenaline of daily news and the challenge of beating competitors by minutes? Apply to become our breaking news reporter! Salary range: $65,000.00 to $75,000.00 annually More info at the link below:

I will likely take the plunge into the Hollow Knight games in the coming weeks. How strongly do people feel the first one should be played before Silksong, if they feel strongly about it at all?

Who coined "Metroidvania"? It wasn't @jparish.bsky.social, and he'll be the first to tell you. Besides, there are far more interesting questions, like: How did it spread? Evolve? And what's it got to do with rickrolling? Watch til the end for a post-credits sting. www.youtube.com/watch?v=8set...

MAGFest disinvited VTuber Vivi Chan the Dragon as a guest. Per MAGFest, the con apologizes for “promoting a guest whose avatar imagery included sexualized elements that, when viewed in a broader context, could be perceived as underage.” Vivi rejects the notion her model is a “sexualized minor”

@stopcar.ing kicked off our last issue debut of the year with a piece on 24 Killers and what home really is. She effortlessly captures the strange, funny yet bittersweet themes of the game and its eclectic yet personal tone as well.

Second screens are ruining multiplayer games: what "distracted gaming" says about our tech addiction and inability to pay attention. www.avclub.com/distracted-g...

$41,000 donated in just two days! We worried that the same energy that got us to $67,000 back in 2023 might not be here this time around, but thank you so much to everybody who's proven us so very wrong here.

With Critical Reflex being such a major player in the indie space, these accusations of covered up sexual harassment and unfair labour practices are all deeply disappointing and distressing. I hope this all gets tackled quickly and decisively. noisypixel.net/critical-ref...

Jamin Warren interviewed me for Killscreen about my background as a field archaeologist, my current video game archaeology research, and why we should preserve contemporary play experiences for the future! 🏺 www.killscreen.com/mapping-the-...