May 2023 - Zelda And Difficulty, Link And Memory, Plus Silent Hill (The Movie)
Hi everyone!
I have successfully moved. Hoping to have some more news for you soon. As always, I'm wanting to write more Angel Looking Backward entries, I want to rework parts of my website, AND I'm working on a secret-for-now project in the spirit of Killing Our Gods, my long dormant column on Uppercut. More details on all this stuff will come in future entries of this newsletter.
Work In May
The biggest news this month is that my co-host Rose and I launched a Patreon for our show Safe Room! If you enjoy the work we do at Safe Room, please consider supporting us. For $3 a month, you get access to our horror movie podcast Found Footage. For our first episode, we covered the 2005 Silent Hill movie! It's okay lol. We also do a "shooting the shit" show called Shitposting. Friend of the show Amr Al-Aaser and Rose talked about their respective histories with owning gaming handhelds. No pressure obviously and the main show will always be free.
Otherwise I wrote about Zelda twice! First up, I covered how playing Breath of the Wild on Master Mode difficulty unlocked the game's particularities for me.
Then, I talked about Tears of the Kingdom abandons Breath of the Wild's best idea, and loses some of that game's melancholy resonance in the process.
Bits and Bobs
The previously mentioned Amr Al-Aaser wrote a fantastic, clear, and sober essay on "the problem with good game design," which makes a really tangible argument for the kinds of the things games criticism should do. I think Amr is very good as this kind of writing, their essay arguing in favor of piracy is also a must read. They have a gift for cutting through the discourse around a particular topic and getting at something more interesting and true.
As always in June, the itch.io Queer Games Bundle is up. A bundle of this size is always uneven, but that's part of the excitement. Slick work from seasoned developers alongside earnest Twine games from newbies. Stuff like this is always worth exploring.
Thank you all so much for reading and for your support!
As always, if you don't already, you can support my work and this newsletter via my Patreon and Ko-Fi. You can read this newsletter on my Patreon, on Cohost, or get it in your inbox via TinyLetter.
I have successfully moved. Hoping to have some more news for you soon. As always, I'm wanting to write more Angel Looking Backward entries, I want to rework parts of my website, AND I'm working on a secret-for-now project in the spirit of Killing Our Gods, my long dormant column on Uppercut. More details on all this stuff will come in future entries of this newsletter.
Work In May
The biggest news this month is that my co-host Rose and I launched a Patreon for our show Safe Room! If you enjoy the work we do at Safe Room, please consider supporting us. For $3 a month, you get access to our horror movie podcast Found Footage. For our first episode, we covered the 2005 Silent Hill movie! It's okay lol. We also do a "shooting the shit" show called Shitposting. Friend of the show Amr Al-Aaser and Rose talked about their respective histories with owning gaming handhelds. No pressure obviously and the main show will always be free.
Otherwise I wrote about Zelda twice! First up, I covered how playing Breath of the Wild on Master Mode difficulty unlocked the game's particularities for me.
Then, I talked about Tears of the Kingdom abandons Breath of the Wild's best idea, and loses some of that game's melancholy resonance in the process.
Bits and Bobs
The previously mentioned Amr Al-Aaser wrote a fantastic, clear, and sober essay on "the problem with good game design," which makes a really tangible argument for the kinds of the things games criticism should do. I think Amr is very good as this kind of writing, their essay arguing in favor of piracy is also a must read. They have a gift for cutting through the discourse around a particular topic and getting at something more interesting and true.
As always in June, the itch.io Queer Games Bundle is up. A bundle of this size is always uneven, but that's part of the excitement. Slick work from seasoned developers alongside earnest Twine games from newbies. Stuff like this is always worth exploring.
Thank you all so much for reading and for your support!
As always, if you don't already, you can support my work and this newsletter via my Patreon and Ko-Fi. You can read this newsletter on my Patreon, on Cohost, or get it in your inbox via TinyLetter.
You can support me and my work on Ko-Fi. Consider leaving a tip if you enjoyed this newsletter or any of its contents.
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