Профиль

What makes a good map? @srtrzinski.bsky.social offers a brief taxonomy of game maps while making the case that it can be okay to just want clear directions from point A to point B. www.gamerswithglasses.com/features/hel...

"Help! I'm Lost!": On Open and Linear Maps — Gamers with GlassesHow do video game maps invite us to understand space? Samantha Trzinski discusses the evolution of map design from linearity to open-world complexity, making the case that the straightforward way is s...www.gamerswithglasses.com

Doing a little archival maintenance today. Christian, Nate, and Don were on to something with this trio of short game blurbs about Umurangi Generation, Pivotal, and End of the Skyline back in 2020.

Indie Cyberpunk, Part 2: Postindustrial Wastelands and Cyberpop Fantasies — Gamers with GlassesIndie Cyberpunk Games, Part 2www.gamerswithglasses.com

@corndruid.bsky.social on Perfect Tides: Station to Station by @meredithgran.com: "When you examine the idea for even just a second, it’s pretty strange that we ever talk about 'the college experience' in the singular." www.gamerswithglasses.com/reviews/perf...

Perfect Tides: Station to Station, and Love's Truths as We Live Them — Gamers with GlassesWhen you examine it for even just a second, it’s pretty strange that we ever talk about “the college experience” in the singular. Nate Schmidt reviews Perfect Tides: Station to Station, finding a comp...www.gamerswithglasses.com

New on the site is our first interview for quite a while: @optional.bsky.social had a conversation with @gimblll.com about Sektori, arcade games, roguelikes, and that thumping soundtrack.

"Get me into the game": Kimmo Lahtinen on Sektori — Gamers with GlassesAfter the nonstop action of Sektori , Don Everhart took a few beats with Kimmo Lahtinen. They discussed the arcade tradition, how Lahtinen incorporated roguelike design, Kimmo’s brother’s soundtrack,...www.gamerswithglasses.com

After editing this one, @optional.bsky.social couldn't resist playing it. His thoughts are now appended to the piece by way of the "Editor's Glasses" thing we do sometimes. Interpretation on interpretation!

New contributor Dídac Jiménez Torras on Koyamachou Watch Repair Shop! "The current times rely on black-boxed technology...when buying new proprietary tech is cheaper than fixing, digital restoration stores and communities tend to fade away." www.gamerswithglasses.com/impressions/...

Repairing Historical Memory in Koyamachou — Gamers with GlassesThere’s a lot more to repair than simply restoring an object. Dídac Jiménez Torras finds that Koyamachou Watch Repair Shop raises questions about how societies prioritize efficiency over preservatio...www.gamerswithglasses.com

@skycherry.bsky.social on Passenger x Princess: "Playing a game that confronts these difficult feelings is comforting, in a sense...The delivery might be raw and messy, but it’s also vulnerable and deeply honest." wrhttps://www.gamerswithglasses.com/reviews/passenger-x-princess-no-hope-must-die

"Like an Industrial Solvent for Your Soul": PASSENGER x PRINCESS: NO HOPE // MUST DIE — Gamers with GlassesPassenger x Princess isn’t exactly a fun game. It’s so messy, uncomfortable and frustrating to watch the train wreck of a relationship that develops between its main characters, but that’s also what m...www.gamerswithglasses.com

New contributor Pranav Krishna Kumar on the narrative power of @mixtapegame.bsky.social's failstate-free moments: "Stacey’s resolve...is no longer just represented visually, but through her not allowing anything get in her path: especially you." www.gamerswithglasses.com/features/mix...

Mixtape: Sometimes Failure Just Isn't an Option — Gamers with GlassesIf you needed to repair a friendship that was worth everything to you, would you let anything get in your way? In Mixtape, the active rejection of player input for a scene explicitly presented as game...www.gamerswithglasses.com

As @walshbr.bsky.social writes, Amberspire's soundtrack represents climate catastrophe, not with sirens, but with meditative gentleness: "Death and disaster are at the core of Amberspire, but the game views them with a quiet reverence." www.gamerswithglasses.com/reviews/the-...

The Sounds of Emergency in Amberspire — Gamers with GlassesAmberspire rejects the stereotypical sounds of climate emergency in favor of gentler aesthetics: no sirens here. While we deal with the impact of each new catastrophe, Amberspire asks us to listen to ...www.gamerswithglasses.com

If you're in game studies and you're planning a lesson, where do you find games that are free, browser-based, and engaging enough to invite meaningful discussion? We've compiled a list of about two dozen games that fit the bill, along with suggested reading. www.gamerswithglasses.com/gwg-recommen...

Games for the Game Studies Classroom — Gamers with GlassesClass is coming up, it’s syllabus-writing season, and you’re getting ready to bring a game into class as the cornerstone of a lesson plan. Where could you find a list of games that satisfy all three o...www.gamerswithglasses.com

The emotional qualities of And Roger come through in its scenes and gameplay. It's about caregiving, receiving care, and the difficulties of both. @optional.bsky.social shares his thoughts.

Communicating Disorientation and Care in And Roger — Gamers with GlassesAnd Roger begins with scenes of disorientation, showing a girl alarmed by a stranger in her home. Routine tasks, from dialing a phone to eating breakfast, are strangely difficult. As the main charact...www.gamerswithglasses.com

Are you ready to party like it's 2005? Guess who finally has an RSS feed! It's literally a link to the past. tinyurl.com/2c8se68p

"It is within this garish context, where a helpless humanity buttresses against unreasonable machines, that we can see hints of our future discourses, not only about the anxieties of artificial intelligence but also in a shift in what it means to play a game." 🔥🤯🔥 unwinnable.com/2026/06/04/w...

We are All NPCs Now: Making Sense of The Amazing Digital Circus - UnwinnableOn the eve of a movie theater finale, Shira Chess examines The Amazing Digital Circus's place in our current moment of digital dehumanization.unwinnable.com

Look, if "Help! I've Been Cursed With a Bubble Butt" doesn't draw you in, we don't know what will. itch.io/b/3666/towns...

Are you ready to go on a journey? @mayorhere.bsky.social's review of Replaced gets to the heart of what it looks like for a game to ask genuine questions about posthumanism now, in spite of Big Tech's attempts to make us embrace a much paltrier vision of AI. www.gamerswithglasses.com/reviews/repl...

This Body Is Cold: Replaced and the Education of an Artificial Mind — Gamers with GlassesIn this comprehensive review, Spencer Johnson describes how Replaced flips the standard posthuman premise entirely. In short, this is not a story about a human mind uploaded into a machine. It is a ...www.gamerswithglasses.com

That feeling when a game delivers so well on the promises of its demo that you just have to celebrate it again once you play the whole thing. @skycherry.bsky.social returns to the megastructure of @regularstudio.bsky.social's MOTORSLICE. www.gamerswithglasses.com/reviews/moto...

The Joyful Friction of MOTORSLICE — Gamers with GlassesSometimes you play a great demo and you just have to come back for the whole thing. Sophie Atkinson follows up on the promise of the full version of MOTORSLICE after covering the demo during Next Fe...www.gamerswithglasses.com

New by @exalclaw.com on The House of Hikmah by @lunacystudios.bsky.social! "How often do games give me the opportunity to relate to a person speaking in Arabic? How often do games consider Arabic as part of our relatable universe?" www.gamerswithglasses.com/reviews/the-...

The House of Hikmah: Swimming in Grief, Without Drowning — Gamers with GlassesThere is beauty to be found in the depths of grief. Before anything else, I’ll remember The House of Hikmah as the first game I ever played that’s fully voice acted in Arabic. There’s also a powerfu...www.gamerswithglasses.com

Friends! The one and only @aeneas-nin.bsky.social, who has graced the pages of our very website with sundry pieces on games like Herald: Complete Edition and Legend of the Mystical Ninja (and a piece about Luigi with absolutely no subtext whatsoever) has published a book. A Boss Fight Book, no less!

We made the list! It's so lovely to be included among such remarkable company; we're honestly just happy to be here. Game crit is the best, and so are all of you 😊

"The writing is horny, snarky and a bit silly. It was made with love, and is outspoken and critical of capitalism like an undercover FBI operative at the local anarchist group meet."