Games, play, and culture. Interviews with the artists who keep coming back to play as their medium. With Jamin Warren. Weekly newsletter ↓

Los Angeles, CA
Joined December 2009
In 2010 I asked Mark Essen (@messhof) why he made games that are painful to play. He said he used to get sick making them, then got used to it. Blood Dungeon, out since August, was mostly animated on a $50 tablet in the car. killscreen.com/mark-essen-me…
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Marketers tell developers not to make puzzle games. The reason: streamers don't like being confused on air. That's a bad reason to lose a whole genre.
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The Oregon Trail didn't teach a generation history. It taught us how games work. The more you played, the more you were learning the model, not the frontier. Ep 36, free. $55/yr locked forever, $96 from 31 Dec: killscreen.com/the-lake-was-…
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When a TV character never comes back, you accept it. In games you never do. Maybe you missed something, maybe the devs hid it. Players can't start grieving the choices they made. killscreen.com/start/?ref=x — $55/yr locked forever, $96 from 31 Dec. [TUE 13 OCT — cross-post of the Tue 13 Instagram Reel item. Dead 24 Sep due time cleared. X rejects notification scheduling, so this is automatic + draft: the moment you queue it, it WILL self-publish.]
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Holyvoid is a 168-page art book for a game that doesn't exist. Danny Snelson's argument: the game you hallucinate from the book might beat the one they'd have shipped. Ep 36, free. $55/yr locked forever, $96 from 31 Dec: killscreen.com/the-lake-was-…
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Playlist is normally members-only, one game and one essay every Friday. We unlocked one: Trains Don't Stop, our Sept 11 pick. $55 for the year, locked at that price as long as you stay. It rises to $96 on 31 December. killscreen.com/trains-dont-s…
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Six years. One central move: a caress. Jonathan Coryn's Player Non Player puts you on an island with four grieving figures and asks you to hold them until you understand how they grieve. I asked him about mortality as a design material. @corjn killscreen.com/player-non-pl…
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A painter who doesn't own a game console told me he spends 80% of his time making imaginary objects feel right when you drag them. His place was full of wooden things he couldn't explain. One was a shoe. 2011. killscreen.com/profile-patri…
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Horror keeps getting more serious. The best horror game I played last year is a nine-part comedy where the monster is the metaphor: men in T-shirts that say "The Economy", chasing you down the street with whistles. Search 'Killscreen stuck in a metaphor'.
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Collection pick: Home Safety Hotline by Night Signal Entertainment. It's the 1990s, you answer phones for a home safety hotline, and not every caller has mold. 33% off through 31 Oct when you sign up. Search "Killscreen Horror Collection"
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