Designing a LARP means you have to be prepared for the judgemental looks of a cashier as they scan a basket of miscellaneous props you found in a local small town shop

The final day

i kept working on Area of Effect, my column about games as spaces at Unwinnable. i love what this column both allows and challenges me to do and i have some big ideas for next year unwinnable.com/2025/12/11/h...

Sad that Storynexus is shutting down but also very grateful to see work being done to preserve a playthrough of Samsara!

pls bless my 2026.

We're two weeks from the Anthem shutdown. If you're a fan playing until the end, one who dropped off, or a developer who worked on the game and want to talk (anonymously) about these final days, the shutdown, or the game broadly for a Kotaku story, hit me up here or at [email protected]! RTs plz.

wip #art

Just watched the new Knives Out and I think it's really important you know that the scene in the Seminary's Gym is filmed in the same place Rick Astley filmed the music video for Never Gonna Give You Up. I saw the window tracery and immediately made my friends pause the film so I could tell them.

Comic about time

I'm running a play test for my LARP, Ruin The Game, between 1-5pm at King's College London on January 2nd. Let me know if you're interested! No previous LARP experience needed. You can find the blurb for the LARP in the Smoke's programme on pages 43-44: thesmoke.org/programme/

I'm running a play test for my LARP, Ruin The Game, between 1-5pm at King's College London on January 2nd. Let me know if you're interested! No previous LARP experience needed. You can find the blurb for the LARP in the Smoke's programme on pages 43-44: thesmoke.org/programme/

Doing some research for my next LARP by visiting Sleaford Castle

To this day, this is still one of my favorite game ads. It's clever and charming, without being, well... mean or flat-out creepy like so many of the ads from the turn of the millennium were.

Merry Christmas!

The Ghost Story, Alfred Bestall, 1930 #Christmasghoststories

just a warning this holiday season if you're playing Caves of Qud and you got a fresh fir scent going and a blanket and a mug of hot cocoa or eggnog & maybe a little weed, it's POSSIBLE you will astral project. ie erase yourself from the physical realm and arrive at an Elsewhere. that's not on us

You could use PCG for this and I imagine it would end up being a hell of a lot more interesting in terms of the apparent design goals, and also, crucially, not involve the use of LLMs

Mumbling “Hill House, NOT sane…” to myself in the same cadence and tone as Gonzo in A Muppet Christmas Carol says “And Tiny Tim, who did NOT die…”

I love LARP photography (Photo by Chiara Cappiello)

Essentially, I think that LLM-generated dialogue only makes sense if you believe that the product of writing is words. But the product of writing isn't words, any more than the product of justice is prisoners, or the product of love is weddings. The product of writing is meaning.

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...

Playing Sorry We're Closed and it seems pretty cool. Lot of fun things going on. But also finding out that everyone in London is either a demon or in league with demons was just like "yeah I know already"

Parlour games were feminized, Freeform/Nordic/Parlour larp was feminized, Forge/Post-forge/Indie/Storygames were (and often still are) feminized... the list goes on. I contend that this feminization is the main cause for animosity from a camp of OSR-aligned peeps and "storygamers".

Is it game? Probably not, but that won't stop me

hey! i'm doing a winter sale, though not of games - but of my packs of moody, atmospheric photos of Maine! A Place Without Bodies volumes 1&2! over *600* photos, *with* license for commercial use, at 2/3rds off - just $20! great for projects of all kinds! lasts till jan 5th! ko-fi.com/s/bc50ecb11f

beware the jubjub bird

Put this record on tonight, what a joy 💚

24) The Apothecary of Trubiz is like if Strange Horticulture and Tunic had a baby. If that sentence made sense to you, you owe it to yourself to check it out. (It's very short.) store.steampowered.com/app/4083190/...

Love how this follows on from an episode in which we see Carol play both Spit and croquet with the hive mind

Lol

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-...

Marketing a handheld console on the apparent sensorial pleasures of it being made from the same metal as an attack drone. Absolutely ghoulish

caves of qud is a video game about the power of sharing

4 years ago, ads starring ✨Kathy Bates✨ tricked me into downloading Merge Mansion. I realized immediately the ads had deceived me, but kept playing anyway. Find out whether this was worth it in "Fake Games", out now in #Eludamos: eludamos.org/index.php/el...

We just dropped our latest regular issue of Eludamos! With an editorial, 12(!) articles, 4(!) book reviews and a commentary, it's a big boi, and I'm really pleased to see all this excellent work out in the wild.

Given the discourse around using generative AI in the game development process, it's more important than ever for devs to share their sketches, notes, prototypes and other documentation, and for these paratexts to be preserved!

The recording of my talk "How to be a Video Game Archaeologist," presented at ITU Copenhagen, is now online! It's the most comprehensive overview of my PhD research I've given

London! I've just opened ticket sales for My Date with Pierce Brosnan at Theatre Deli on Friday 6 February Tickets are limited so book early to avoid missing out! www.ticketsource.co.uk/alistair-ait...

The only question my Dad has asked about my thesis is whether our cat will be included in the acknowledgements

Haven't found time to do a thread of my trailer work this year yet but getting "Best trailer for least trailer-able game" for the Neurocracy trailer from @derek-lieu.com, among such talented company, is a better endorsement than I could ever give myself 🥹 www.derek-lieu.com/blog/2025/12...

🏺🎮 Forgot I actually wrote a bit about the franchise’s death tableaux a few years ago and its relation to real life archaeology. animalarchaeology.com/2018/09/10/f...

As I say in the pull quote:

I’m planning a column about women and games next year. I want to discuss how stories about women are told/received in games, and how does womens’ criticism exist- where/what is it? If you are a woman game writer/dev/critic and would like to share your thoughts, dm or email [email protected] !

In "Thresholds of Digital Gameplay," Daniel Gardner demonstrates how a series of interfaces and other elements on the edges of gameplay are more central to gaming than we realize. Available #OpenAccess: mitpress.mit.edu/978026255358...

I wonder how many people who are vehemently against generating writing or art with AI use it to generate their code because apparently that doesn't count 🤔

As part of our project to preserve the history of Sega Channel, we have recovered OVER 100 new Sega Channel ROMs, including the legendary lost game Garfield: Caught in the Act - The Lost Levels. Read more: gamehistory.org/segachannel/

This talk is coming up at 3:30pm today!

Its hauntology time