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May 11th

…slugged down wine in the courtyard bars as they argued the finer points of their work. But that is a fantasy. Most of us would have been just like everyone else in Paris and lined up to go see the grand history paintings and voluptuously rendered Venuses in the massively anticipated yearly art show at the Louvre.

[…]

What other people have a massive interest in pushing the edge on smoke and light effects in three dimensional spaces? What other group of producers strive to hide the made-ness of the object behind shine, polish, slickness, lens-flare and even literally…

Episode 16 – The Artist Formally Known as Critic

Welcome to the first podcast in the brand new Critical Distance Confab!

We were so impressed with Mattie Brice’s moderation of our Black History Month podcast that we’ve asked her back to helm a new, monthly series. Each month on the 15th, Mattie will be tackling exciting, weighty topics flanked by special guests from across the critical landscape — and perhaps a few surprises as well!

This month, Mattie sits down with fellow critic-developers Lana Polansky and Cameron Kunzelman, to discuss how they got involved in game design, why game development interests them, and how becoming a

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April – May Roundup: ‘The Right Touch’

…a wider audience of people into videogames – especially people with disabilities, who find traditional controllers difficult to use.

Corey Milne writes about a favourite childhood experience of mine: firing lurid plastic light guns at the TV. Light gun games represent the antithesis of a modern controller, and also the modern shooter: most people can grasp how to point and fire in a game like Time Crisis while Call of Duty remains extremely complex.

And finally, Shaun of Arcadian Rhythms writes a more personal history of his experiences with controllers before concluding that the…

July 13

…even.

On that note, students from an online journalism program have been trying their hands at games criticism on the site, and the sum of their work is well worth a look.

Maria Kutscherow wrote about Beyond: Two Souls as an autobiography co-created between player and game. Robert Glashüttner talks Valiant Hearts, serious games, and simplified history. We mentioned Nina Kiel’s Gender in Games book before, but now some preview sections have finally made it to her homepage. Also, Helga Hansen reviewed the book for Herzteile.

Slightly old news at this point, but Valentina Hirsch has a…

July 27th

…industry is characterised by creative conservatism, sure-fire bets based on bankable precedents.

In the Palm of Your Hand

At Lookspring, Margaret Robertson looks back at 2007’s Coolest Girl in School, a game made by and for young women in an era when small titles such as this were only beginning to appear. She observes:

Contemplating 2007 from 2014 is a really good exercise in understanding how weirdly time moves for the games industry. Is 7 years a long time ago? Obviously not. Except it’s an eternity ago.

This near-yet-remote history of mobile games…

September 7th

…have the right to even be in the conversation. I shouldn’t even say “lately” because it’s always been a battle to be heard, but lately, it seems to be an even more uphill battle.

Perhaps it needn’t be said, but this is an opportunity to listen.

The Past is Now… Also

Reflecting on the last few weeks, Anna Tito offers her own history of how she became a game developer, noting that women have always been in the geek world. While her whole story is worth reading, her conclusion provides such an emphatic memento for the…

October 12

…It’s The Only Way to Be Sure

Edward Smith looks our relationship to technology as a conceptual character in Alien: Isolation. Hazel Monforton examines Outlast in the context of surveillance, and Jon Peterson writes a history of war games in the early 20th Century, and the places women have taken in those spaces.

Surveying Gamergate

It’s been about two months since a loose anti-feminist collective known as Gamergate began carrying out harassment campaigns and waves of abuse towards women developers, writers, journalists, critics, and many of those who are active in the indie community and the videogame…

November 16th

…Ideology

Thanks for reading! As always, we welcome your submissions by Twitter mention or through email.

The November Blogs of the Round Table is under way and looking for your contributions!

A signal boost: the Montreal-based Game History Annual Symposium 2015 has put out a Call for Papers for its 2015 conference. French and English papers will be accepted, deadline January 15th, 2015.

(Do you have a site, zine or conference looking for submissions? Let us know and we’d be happy to link it here!)

Finally: remember, Critical Distance is community funded by readers like…

December 6th

…commit acts of violence. Speaking of games that have a troubled history of representing women, Dan Jolley is working to improve Techland’s reputation with Dying Light.

Daniel Starkey has been on a roll lately. Following his review of Never Alone for Eurogamer, he’s written about the representation of American Indians in game development, with excerpts from an interview with John Romero.

Blazin’ Squad

Stephen Beirne has published a substantial work – or least, the first half – on the art of camera and composition in Final Fantasy VII (the other half is available now to his Patreon…

December 21st

…to try to write about games with unusual perspectives are the ones who cause outrage.

Pairs Well With

Consider the following a red wine to go with the above’s butternut squash ravioli.

At The Atlantic, Laine Nooney pens what is, at first blush, a history of computer games’ first published work of erotica (and predecessor to Leisure Suit Larry). But it is more accurately a rumination on a period in the tech industry’s all-too-recent past where computers were not yet colonized as the domain of heterosexual men. (Content warning: images may not be considered safe for…