NPR has curated a list of the Best Games of 2026 (so far) and has kindly included Perfect Tides: Station to Station.

Mara is part of the cast artwork for this year's AdventureX expo. I won't be attending this year due to giving birth Very Soon, but I'm honored to be featured in spirit. Artwork by Graham Annable, which is a double delight for me.

Digging through old laptop files, I found a bit of writing from 2022 when I was in the pre-production stage with Perfect Tides: Station to Station. This never found its way into the game, but I think it's a pretty nice bit of text on its own:

Student Slain in Manner Bizarrely Resembling Film

In an event that has never before taken place, an 18-year-old student met her untimely demise Thursday night at a friend's east side apartment. It's a murder that is leaving police and neighbors baffled. Mara Whitefish, hailing from the coastal island town of Perfect Tides, became an obscure statistic of 1 yesterday when she was murdered in an identical fashion to the character played by Martin Henderson in the 2002 horror film "The Ring" from Dreamworks Pictures.

According to police, at around 3:30 AM, Miss Whitefish was visited by a female child with lengthy dark hair, approximately 8 years old, who at first seemed to be contained inside the TV screen in the form of an image, but then proceeded to physically join Miss Whitefish in the room and subsequently attack her. Whitefish was found unresponsive, her face discolored and in an unrecognizable contortion.

"The Ring" itself is an American adaptation of the 1998 Japanese psychological thriller "Ringu" -- further complicating the question of how the film's story, in all its convoluted machinations, could've flawlessly predicted the real-life circumstances of Miss Whitefish's death. While experts on the topic are few, Alan Bennett, professor of film studies at Columbia University and author of "Manifestations: A Dark Festival of the Mind" finds the scenario not only plausible, but sadly avoidable.

"If only she had thought about it more," lamented Bennett. "How the incident would happen, what it would look like, how it would feel -- all of it makes a difference." In his book he conducts multiple studies, each showing that the cumulative effect of worrying about a particular scenario can severely lower the risk of its occurrence. "I guess other things took priority in her life," he added, shaking his head.

Some more relevant links:

• The games industry isn't taking care of its caretakers - Mothership has done a series of interviews with caretakers in the games industry who struggle to find support. Their piece was inspired by my post-GDC thoughts from March, and it's heartening to see the interest and discussion around this topic!

• Perfect Tides: Station to Station and Love's Truths as We Live Them - Gamers With Glasses' review of PT:STS.

• Skybox reviews Perfect Tides: Station to Station with a critique of the game's writing and point n' click mechanics.

As we crest the hill of this year and the games landscape grows more crowded, I'm very grateful that people are giving PT:STS their attention and thought.

I do not have too much to report on the "what's next" front just yet, but I have been writing and plotting a lot over the past few weeks, making vigorous use of the remaining months before life as I know it shifts again. I've gone through enough change to know that it hurts and is wonderful. I look forward to what I've got left, and what waits on the other side.