DID YOU KNOW that Sidequest has a zine compiling some of our favorite pieces from the first decade (ish) of our existence? For just $5, you can get a beautifully designed example of some of the pieces we think best showcase our whole "thing." Check it out: sidequestzone.itch.io/decade

In this month's (not so) cosy gaming news, EA is sold for $55bn to conservative investors, plus upcoming indie games to stay alive for. Read more in GYGO Cosy: The Sims Publisher EA Bought For $55 Billion By Conservative Private Investors: sidequest.zone/2025/11/12/g...

I had the pleasure of writing about one of my all-time favorite video games for Sidequest - a game that shaped how I view narratives, characters, and consequences, and taught me quite a bit about myself in the process to boot. Please enjoy! ☄️👽💉

"When I engage with art that holds sincerity at arm’s length, including through ironic detachment, I feel a bit sad. Why are you afraid to say what you want to say?" — Melissa Brinks Read more in Pretentious Game Jam is Authentically Good: sidequest.zone/2025/10/20/p...

"But [the past] is out of your hands; it happens before the gameplay ever starts. The only thing you actually control is what you will do moving forwards—and these choices set up who you want your Morgan Yu to be." — C. C. Rayne Read more: sidequest.zone/2025/11/03/w...

"χ suggested they could tag along, with Gin seeming hesitant to that idea. Noting this, I promised a future hangout with everyone and waved bye. Gin shyly pulled his hat down, wondering if he was acting too girly by wanting to hang out with me one on one." sidequest.zone/2025/10/28/c...

"Gaming’s my favourite thing to do when flaring up because it’s less passive than watching TV or listening to podcasts, which lets me feel like I’m “doing” something when I physically can’t do anything." Read more: sidequest.zone/2022/01/17/6...

"In honor of spooky season, dust off your haunted CRT monitor and plug into these short but chilling retro-inspired indie horror games." — Kathryn Hemmann Read more from Kathryn Hemmann in "Eight Free Retro Horror Games on Itch.io" — sidequest.zone/2025/10/15/r...

"A while ago, I asked in the Sidequest Slack if I would ever be free of talking about Epic Games vs. whoever in court. Maddi wisely said no. She was correct.""— Melissa Brinks Read more in GYGO Mobile: Roblox, Epic Games, You Know the Drill: sidequest.zone/2025/10/22/g...

"I bring [these games] to you, along with a pretentiousness rating (which, importantly, is not a rating of quality) to help sell you on the value of art that rankles and irritates and maybe makes you feel a bit stupid." — Melissa Brinks Read more: sidequest.zone/2025/10/20/p...

"I explained that someday all the memes he knows and loves will be dead, and he’ll be looking at reels on Futuregram and a video reminiscing about the 2010s will pop up, and it will feel like being pierced through the chest." sidequest.zone/2024/04/29/t...

"Halloween is the perfect excuse to dim the lights, grab some headphones, and delve into the eerie world of indie retro horror." Eight Free Retro Horror Games on Itch.io — sidequest.zone/2025/10/15/r...

Melissa and Zora sat down to discuss the representations of sexuality and gender in the Dragon Age series, with some (maybe) surprising praise and some (less) surprising criticisms. Check it out: sidequest.zone/2025/03/23/p...

"Sometimes [challenging convention is] throwing convention and practicality out the window and just reveling in making us screw up our faces and demand that our friends take a look at what we’re playing." sidequest.zone/2017/01/19/d...

"Sewers combine the allure of secret underground tunnels with the chance to study old artifacts that have been thrown away and forgotten." — Kathryn Hemmann Read more in Seven Intriguing Video Game Sewers: sidequest.zone/2025/03/03/v...

"And as I watched the playthrough again, I recognized an issue that I didn’t think I would have when I played it back then. You spend the vast majority of this game playing for and even lionising the bad guys. Genesis may be a dick, but he’s right." — Cress Read more: sidequest.zone/2023/06/12/w...

"The forest represents a mysterious, forbidden realm or a boundary that cannot be crossed." — Kathryn Hemmann Read more in Trees in Video Games: sidequest.zone/2024/12/16/t...

"It is just and beautiful for friends to part when life... presents a fork in the road. When that moment comes... we will feel something precious when we say goodbye, for the joy of having known each other will be proven in the bittersweetness of our parting." sidequest.zone/2025/08/19/i...

"To truly understand this fight, to become one with it, we are chasing the hitless run. Radiant Difficulty. Perfection. Nothing else will force the state of mind we need." Read more in How to Beat Nightmare King Grimm and Ignore Your Grief in Ten Easy Steps: sidequest.zone/2024/11/04/h...

"Pyre is an unusually reactive game; there are many variations of its ending. In one ... you are not separated from your friends at all, and that is when you fail. It is possible in Pyre to meet your enemies with gratuitous mercy, by losing on purpose." sidequest.zone/2025/08/19/i...

"Mystic Messenger... removes all of the layers between game and player.... The characters speak directly to you, the individual. You are your own player character. You are the one experiencing these emotions alongside the others." Read more: sidequest.zone/2018/05/01/m...

Andrei Filote writes about the world of Supergiant Games' Pyre, and what liberation means for those who are exiled. Read more in In Pyre, Every Game Is a God Game: sidequest.zone/2025/08/19/i...

"We’re introduced to Ayta at her computer listening to a routine business meeting in which the company bosses are praising the quarter’s profits while only giving their employees a pat on the back (already relatable)." — Cress Read more at sidequest.zone/2025/05/12/r...

"Deus Ex... imagines the Illuminati as a cabal of tech billionaires—scary, powerful, but also gifted in a way that makes them seem like philosopher-kings... And that machine god... would wave its hand and alter our destiny, whether we like it or not." sidequest.zone/2025/05/19/t...

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"In a strange twist of fate, the games weaponized to mock diversity have become a sanctuary for many of the people who were once excluded. I’d like to share my story of how this happened." — Kathryn Hemmann Read more in The Softer Side of Dark Souls Fandom: sidequest.zone/2025/07/14/d...

"I’ve stopped playing games billed as “cozy” without a personal recommendation... [Would] humor be enough to offset the rose-colored disconnect I tend to associate with anything branded cozy?" Wanderstop Is Pretty, but Fails to Capture the Challenges of Healing: sidequest.zone/2025/05/05/r...

In this week’s mobile games news: Roblox breaks records and maybe even hearts. Plus, Fortnite’s suggestive new skin names and a HoYoverse cafe. Read more: sidequest.zone/2025/07/23/g...

In July’s roundtable, two Sidequest editors come together to discuss summer fashion in games. Can Astarion pull off that hat? You decide. Read more in July Roundtable: Summer Fashion: sidequest.zone/2025/07/21/j...

"These new Bloodborne fangirls were welcomed into the FromSoft fandom by a cohort of Dark Souls fans who, having been exposed to portrayals of gender queerness in the world of the games, had begun to explore and renegotiate their own identities in real life." sidequest.zone/2025/07/14/d...

"[F]inding ways to connect with your real-world surroundings and respect the life that lives alongside you is one way to help push back on the bleak feelings many of us are experiencing right now." Read more in GYGO Cosy: New Magical Cosy Games to Fend Off the Despair sidequest.zone/2025/07/09/g...

This month, Maddi and Melissa, the two least qualified people for this topic, discuss escapism in games. What is it? Can we do it successfully? What is a Nut Sort-like? sidequest.zone/2025/07/08/p...

"The greatest poets of this generation... will have some stories to tell about pixels and survival modes, and they won’t even separate them from all the poems about love and family and beauty and pain, because they never weren’t swimming in the world of games.'" sidequest.zone/2025/04/28/l...

"Could we have made a different decision if we knew how quickly and severely we’d be affected? Even if we knew, would we have done anything differently?" — Kathryn Hemmann Read more in Crow Country Is a Game About Climate Change: sidequest.zone/2025/04/22/c...

"Fully learning Seven’s backstory—hinted at in other routes—puts his story in a tragic but also hopeful light, also enriching the larger world in Mystic Messenger." — Naseem Jamnia Read more in Mystic Messenger Trash: Storytelling Choices in Seven’s Route: sidequest.zone/2019/03/25/m...

"Though cussing and homophobic slurs are, unfortunately, part and parcel of the online gaming space (which is not to say they should be, only that they are), hearing a dead actor’s voice speak them without his express consent is… ghoulish? Gross? Disgusting?" sidequest.zone/2025/06/11/g...

“[W]rite towards the feeling... you have (or had) while playing the game, the heartbeats of the characters, the air and light of the world, the strange hinges of the narrative structure, the joy and frustration and nostalgia and curiosity: all of it.” Read more: sidequest.zone/2025/04/14/l...

"How do we make our peace with 'monsters' in a way that doesn’t involve violently disposing of outliers?" — Kathryn Hemmann Read more in The Optimistic Fungal Horror of Ender Lilies at sidequest.zone/2024/09/05/e...

Let Cress tell you of the joys of brewing beer in Ale Abbey, a simulation game in early access now! sidequest.zone/2025/04/21/f...

We want you! Sidequest is always looking for new contributors for a variety of games-related writing: news, criticism, interviews, opinion, reviews, you name it. We're also looking for somebody to help us manage our social media—could it be you? Reach out to our email at [email protected]!

The Sidequest crew chats about the most controversial(?) of minigames: fishing. Do we like them? Are they good? Find out with us in June Roundtable: Fishing in Games: sidequest.zone/2025/06/09/j...

Zainabb Hull on this month's cosy gaming news, which... is not so cosy, sadly. sidequest.zone/2025/05/21/g...

Melissa Brinks on mobile gaming news, including an abundance of lawsuits. sidequest.zone/2025/05/14/g...

Cress reviewing Urban Jungle, a cozy game about building a plant-filled space. sidequest.zone/2025/05/12/r...

The Sidequest crew on soothing games. sidequest.zone/2025/05/29/m...

Andrei Filote, a new contributor to Sidequest, on Thief II, tech bros, and the eerie prescience of the Hammerites. sidequest.zone/2025/05/19/t...

"But still—it seems so simple. Serve tea, heal, repeat. There’s little mention of the difficult, unglamorous work that comes between. The backslides, the frustration.." — Melissa Brinks Read more: sidequest.zone/2025/05/05/r...

"Ziff Davis, which is a company and not one dude’s very silly name, has been systematically buying up respected games journalism houses and refocusing them into producing venture capital slop for several years." Read more in GYGO Variety Hour: The Gang Goes to Court: sidequest.zone/2025/04/30/g...

"One of the things that makes this book special is that poetry and gaming do so infrequently intersect." — CB Droege, interviewed by Katherine Quevedo Read more in Level Up Your Poetry, Part 7: An Editor’s Point of View: sidequest.zone/2025/04/28/l...

"Hi friends, Zainabb here, living an especially cosy game life recently to help me cope with endless flare-ups and deep heartbreak as the genocide of Palestinians only seems to worsen and Sewage Island keeps trying to destroy trans lives." Read more: sidequest.zone/2025/04/23/g...