Featured
The Second Impact of NieR: Automata’s Ending E
NieR: Automata's Ending E is a case study in how to completely erase the distinction between gameplay and story.
Code Vein
The Horror of Code Vein is You
The hidden achievement of Code Vein's fusion of Dark Souls with JRPGs is that it quietly turned you, its player, into a monster.
General Video Game Theory
Come Out to Play: The Warriors And Adaptation into Video Games
In an industry that still doesn't seem to have fully cracked the code on story adaptation, one 2005 game has lessons worth learning.
General Video Game Theory
The Drawing Board: Why “Immersion” is a Dirty Word in Gaming Discourse
Terms like "immersion" might seem like a great way to have productive conversations about video games—but they're actually holding us back.
Podcast: The Drawing Board
The Drawing Board: Gameplay Difficulty as a Storytelling Tool
On Episode 8 of our podcast, we ask: how can difficulty tell a story?
Fire Emblem
How Fire Emblem: Awakening’s Mechanics Resolve Its Biggest Plot Hole
Some of the most heavily criticized elements of Fire Emblem: Awakening contribute to its narrative in surprising ways.
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Does Shovel Knight Belong in the Video Game Canon?
Yacht Club Games took to Kickstarter and taught developers how to make games that engage a gamers’ nostalgia without drowning them in it.
Professor Layton
Professor Layton: The Storytelling Value of Puzzles in Video Games
How can you turn a common game mechanic into a new kind of narrative device?
General Video Game Theory
Beyond Main Quests: How Horizon Zero Dawn’s Gameplay Killed its Story
Horizon: Zero Dawn offers a new take on an old problem of open-world storytelling.
News
Shovel Knight Interview: Kickstarters and Character-Driven Stories
From the game's alternate ending, to the evolution of characters in Slack channels, we cover everything Shovel Knight in this exclusive.