IT'S BACK! The startmenu Winter Spectacular returns for 2025! - Guest Pieces from people across the industry, including: journalists, developers, PR folks, AND MORE - Game of the Year Lists - The startmenu Awards - AND OTHER BULLET POINTS! All starting December 1st on www.startmenu.co.uk

Me, trying to get my phone to do anything: TAP TAP TAP TAP Phone: what's that? My child: *gestures vaguely at phone* Phone: let me do every single function immediately!

I appreciated the unique angle @qwertyprophecy.bsky.social brought to The Dark Queen of Mortholme, and the tightness of its execution. @monstertheater.bsky.social a solid addition to your publishing repertoire.

It was my pleasure to review the excellent @staticdread.bsky.social for @startmenu.bsky.social

Becoming Saint sees you take on the role of a wanna be spiritual leader as you conquer Italy in this roguelike, real-time, tactical RPG. Will you achieve sainthood in your life or make an early trip to heaven? @stevenstoermer.bsky.social investigates. www.startmenu.co.uk/home/review-...

Rader's machine in Split Fiction is a symbol of the "frictionless cognitive offloading" of our thought processes to for-profit companies that have built a rentier economy within capitalism's aching bones. stevenstoermer.medium.com/split-fictio...

@brennanleemulligan.bsky.social's DnD campaigns contain great lessons for anyone interested in narrative design. Episode 49 of @worldsbeyondnumber.bsky.social is a masterclass in leveraging impactful, "weak" characters. Here are some reflections. stevenstoermer.medium.com/pathetic-is-...

An upcoming piece I wrote relates the game Split Fiction to generative AI based on similar insights. I'll be writing a companion piece focusing on AI out of what wound up on the cutting room floor.

Required reading for this era of games criticism.

This might be "The Critic As Artist" for games criticism. Part 2 is an incisive look at the issues plaguing games criticism today: noescapevg.com/the-spectacu...

It only took me 750 hours in Paradox's Victoria 3 to figure out why I can't stop playing it. stevenstoermer.medium.com/the-digital-... #victoria3 #paradoxinteractive #videogames #strategygames

The economy of long and short rests in Dungeons and Dragons is famously kind of broken. Can using some optional rules as limited resources help? @sherlockhulmes.bsky.social thought so in the latest High Rollers campaign, and I think he's onto something. medium.com/@stevenstoer... #dnd