is harry potter’s world big enough for open-world hogwarts legacy?
As a long-time Harry Potter fan, I was excited by the announcement of the first open-world video game set in the Harry Potter universe. When Hogwarts Legacy was announced last week at the PlayStation 5 showcase event (16th September 2020),…
the problem with cards against humanity
Cards Against Humanity is a social card game that was released in 2011, and became very popular as a staple party game. This is how the game developers describe it on their website: Basically, the person who asks the question…
black lives matter: diversity resources for gamers and game developers
In light of recent events and the Black Lives Matter movement, I am writing this blog post to help fight against the racism and police brutality against African-Americans that have come to the forefront in the past couple of weeks.…
kind words game review: a rare haven of companionship
Online games have long been notorious for toxicity amongst players. A 2019 study said that 74% of US gamers have experienced harassment in online multiplayer games, with offensive names and trolling or griefing topping the list of incidents1. As an…
the rapid rise and fall of hearthstone’s new demon hunter class (part 1)
Let’s face it, Hearthstone’s new Demon Hunter class was always going to be trouble. In its biggest update since Hearthstone’s release in 2014, the popular online card game added the first new class ever to its roster of playable heroes…
3 time zones, 1 board game: gaming together in a time of social distancing
My first thought about playing a board game online was that it was never going to work. Nowadays, getting a group of friends together is almost impossible without weeks of notice, and even then, at least one person is bound…
new plague inc. cure mode where you stop pandemics in response to covid-19
If there’s one game that has made headlines in the current COVID-19 crisis, it’s Plague Inc. The 2012 mobile game saw a tenfold surge in players as early as January, with more than a 100k downloads in 30 days1. As…
why i’m playing zelda: breath of the wild during the covid-19 pandemic
I’ve wanted to write about The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild for a long time, because of the profound impact it had on my life and the lightbulbs it lit up in my game design brain. In fact,…
axe throwing, game design and zombies
It’s October, the spookiest month of the year, so I wanted to write about throwing axes. The truth is, I’ve wanted to write about throwing axes for a while now. I went axe throwing with some co-workers earlier this year,…
