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khee hoon

May 1st

…being rationalized. It’s the same selective blindness obscuring the fact that simulations are just made up by people picking numbers and writing rules. Ideology becomes invisible from the technical gaze.”

Real-Time

Cultural representations both real and fantastical, and the pursuit of authenticiy therein, is the theme of this next pairing.

  • The Joys of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic’s Gibberish Alien Language | TheGamer Khee Hoon Chan highlights the charm and the jank behind the developer shortcuts taken with KOTOR‘s non-Basic languages.
  • Lesbian loneliness is portrayed perfectly in Life is Strange | Gayming…

June 19th

…talks to Brook.p8 about the Pico-8 development platform, puzzle design, pride flags, and more.

  • Tunic’s Second Hidden Language Has Been Hiding in Plain Sight | Fanbyte Khee Hoon Chan chats with a community engaged in the cool and complex work of deciphering Tunic‘s deeper secrets.
  • Sexy, flexible swashbuckling with Jemma Topaz | Caroline Delbert Caroline Delbert chats with Jemma Topaz about sexy fencing, her favourite tools, and exploring the mutability of gender in games.
  • “The amazing thing about games is that even choices that are ‘meaningless’ actually aren’t. Even if points A and B are…

    November 20th

    …beg my mum to buy me some magazines so I could read about them and talk to kids about them.”

    Once More With Character

    Our next pair of featured authors focus on characters and their relationships, in games past and present.

    • Remember Me and gaming’s most overlooked Black protagonist | Metro News Luna Reyne remembers back to a compelling character who defined a French studio before life was strange.
    • Butterfly Soup 2 Review | A visual novel not just for the queers | Gayming Magazine Khee Hoon Chan watches as a relatable cast and…

    This Year in Videogame Blogging: 2022

    …VNs” because we don’t have anything else that’s constructive to say. Our current remarks should be seen as us smiling at a faltering status quo and being upset when people don’t know where to start.

    • The rise of prestige Chinese games | Polygon Khee Hoon Chan reports on the increasing international visibility of high-production Chinese games, and talks to developers and analysts about the challenges of getting these games made, licensed, and noticed.
    • Video Game Guide Writers Help Keep the Lights On But Get No Respect | VICE Patrick Klepek talks to game guides writers about…

    This Year in Videogame Blogging: 2020

    …Part 5: Specific places

    Hong Kong

    • A Summer’s End is a rare queer romance that goes where most games won’t – Polygon Bonnie Qu describes a visual novel set in Hong Kong shortly before a joint treaty between China and the United Kingdom set off a period of upheaval and ambiguity, and discusses “the strange freedom that comes with uncertainty”.
    • Still fighting: meet the developers of Hong Kong protest games • Eurogamer.net Following Blizzard’s suspension of a professional Hearthstone player for expressing support for the Hong Kong protests, Khee Hoon Chan covers games created in solidarity

    March 19th

    …open the issue.

    • Not Everything Needs To Be Remade | TheGamer Tessa Kaur sees parallels between the trend of remakes and reboots in both games and film.
    • Why Video Game Remakes Are So Good (When Most Movie Remakes Aren’t) | Inverse Jen Glennon brings together a number of industry perspectives on the ins and outs of videogame remakes.
    • Looking For Isaac Clarke’s Voice | Bullet Points Monthly Khee Hoon Chan wonders if, as it finds Isaac’s voice, the Dead Space remake has begun to lose its own.

    “These additions work well for the

    July 9th

    …and their popular depiction in other creative media.

    • Why do games media layoffs keep happening? | GamesIndustry.biz Khee Hoon Chan delves into an abundance of opacity and a dearth of accountability in a games press more beseiged by precarity than ever (curator’s note: Critical Distance alumnus Kris Lorischild is an interview subject for this piece).
    • The untold history of Barbie Fashion Designer, the first mass-market ‘game for girls’ | Polygon Nicole Carpenter profiles a game that bucked industry trends, and the people who brought it to fruition.
    • Gaming’s warped mirror | Roadmap Gita Jackson reads between

    August 27th

    …between systems, stories, and critical experiences.

    • One Space Station’s Trash, Another Man’s Treasure | Bullet Points Monthly Khee Hoon Chan meditates on an accidentally engrossing loot grind abstracted out of System Shock 2023’s scrapping and recycling systems.
    • Venba and Papers, Please Flex the Same Emotional Muscle | Paste Yousif Kassab brings together two games which use labour systems to abstract their storytelling about people in transit.

    “Both ask you to stare at someone different from you and search for the thing that actually makes you the same. Be it your own flesh and blood,

    October 8th

    …irreplaceable.”

    Post-Production

    Next let’s highlight a pair of thoughtful developer interviews about both their recent releases and the circumstances of their production.

    • Midautumn builds upon Hades to explore an Asian diaspora experience | Eurogamer Khee Hoon Chan talks with developer Sherveen Uduwana about Midautumn‘s inclusive, roguelike approach to telling a story about Asian diaspora and gentrification.
    • El Paso, Elsewhere Wears Its Bloodstained Heartbreak on Its Sleeve | IGN Rebekah Valentine chats with Xalavier Nelson Jr. about heart and humanity on the knife’s edge of game dev precarity.

    “Nelson laments what he…

    November 12th

    …critical approaches to very recent games.

    • All The Mario World’s A Stage, and That’s Wonderful | cohost Jeremy Signor traces Mario’s long association with stageplay and observes a culmination in Super Mario Wonder‘s variety show format.
    • A Beautiful View: Jusant and the Joys of Climbing | Remap Khee Hoon Chan finds purchase in Jusant‘s thematically and mechanically gratifying approach to climbing.

    “On the surface, Jusant may be about the meditative joys of rock climbing, but it’s also so much more: it suggests despite it all, it’s still not too late for us to reconcile