November 20th
We launched a fundraising campaign this week geared at getting our Patreon into a stronger position that can fund more work in the coming years, We have hit the first target, but there is still a long way to go towards our goal…
Livestream this afternoon featuring indie dev guests
Last night’s first livestream session for the 2016 fundraiser was a great time, with Dante Douglas, Amr Al-Aaser and friends playing co-op games and discussing how indie games have changed over the past ten years. Check out the recording under “archives” on…
Our fundraiser has hit its first target!
Yesterday the 2016 Critical Distance fundraiser launched. Our ultimate goal is to hit $3000 by the end of the year, so that we can do more with video, more with podcasts, and bring together writing in languages other than English. Now, 24…
November 13th
I don’t want to callously overstate the importance of games at a time like this. There’s so much to be done to change the conditions that have led to Brexit, Trump, and right-wing gains in other Euro-American countries, and speaking personally, I…
New Website! Part 3: A games criticism archive
At the beginning of this year we surveyed our Patreon supporters, to learn more about what you value about Critical Distance and how you would like us to grow in the future. One topic that came up was the importance of archiving games criticism for…
November 6th
It’s a new month and a time of shiny new treats for games writing. This week saw the launch of Waypoint, which seems to have allowed the Vice Gaming crew to grow a bit and build their own set of interests and…
October 23rd
With just one week to go until All Hallow’s Eve, many games critics are considering the scariest thing of all: our Kafkaesque relationship with institutions of power. Mwahahahaha. Opponents by chance Starting this week’s roundup are three pieces on randomness, chance, and…
New Website! Part 2: Blogs of the Round Table
As part of the site redesign, we’ve been changing the way that our key posts look. One of the more recent features to get a makeover is Blogs of the Round Table (BoRT). You can see the redesign in action on September’s…
What has been written about the first endless runners?
Reader question: I’m going to be giving a presentation on endless runners, and wanted to know if you had any documentation to get me started. I will basically be documenting the history and talking a little about innovations, exemplar titles, and differences between clones/reskins and innovation. I wondered if you’d identified the ‘original endless runner’? Canabalt is the earliest I can think of.
October 9th
I’ve been thinking a lot this week about what the goals of criticism should be. I’ve been involved in this for years and yet I’m still not immune to these periodic internal crises of identity. Thankfully, some of the pieces that came…