Author: Cary Mackay
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Glorious Necropolis: Even in Arcadia Review
In Even in Arcadia, the rich have fled a devastated earth for new and luxurious designer planets. Yet, even on these Edens beyond Eden, death’s spectre looms.
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Duke Smoochem: A Tour of the Absurdity of Life on Normal Island
It is in a spirit of both mocking opposition to British reactionaries, as well as a sometimes amused affection for the country’s parochial strangeness, that amateur game maker Dan Douglas has created Duke Smoochem 3D.
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A Dog’s Life? A Review of Playing Classic Dog-Based Games with a 3-Year Old Australian Shepherd
I spent last weekend dog-sitting my brother’s Australian Shepherd, Hertta, and offer a review of a few of the games that we played together from the perspective of someone who has spent very little time with dogs.
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Destroy global supply chains with a mouse click: Innocent Passage review
Innocent Passage is a game about processes of adaptation and cascading failure in global supply chains. It allows us to think about how the world might be changed through our collective.
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Finally, a strategy game where you play as the good guys!
Spirit Island asks its players to identify with the occupied rather than the occupier, to become participants in an anticolonial struggle rather than agents of colonisation.
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Explore the Natural Wonders of an Alien World: In Other Waters and Ecological Storytelling
In Other Waters is an ecological game. It’s about how environments shape and are shaped by the things within them, as well as the interdependence of diverse forms of life. As well as being an enjoyable experience, it might help us to think about our own unfolding catastrophe.
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Everyday Humanity in the Void: Experiencing Outer Space in Elite Dangerous
Two books helped me discover that playing as a space trucker is more fun than I thought it’d be!
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What would it be like to shake someone’s hand?
In the words of its creator, A Firm Handshake is simply about ‘what it would be like to shake someone’s hand’. Yet this self-depreciating description, as well as the game’s simple structure, belie an experience rich in humour and semantic depth.