breaking the 4th wallllllllll April 9, 2026 Dr. Langeskov, The Tiger, and The Terribly Cursed Emerald is a game about waiting, but also about being watched and guided by someone we…
Chaos Backstage: How Dr. Langeskov Proves the Author Isn’t in Control April 9, 2026 In the reading “The Death of the Author,” Barthes argues that meaning does not come from a single controlling voice behind a work, but…
Do We Really Need to Kill the Author? Playing Dr. Langeskov April 9, 2026 When it comes to all media, we generally do think back to the author, creator, parent, or anything of the sort. Sometimes we don’t…
The Tension of a Pre-Defined Path: Dr. Langeskov, The Tiger, and The Terribly Cursed Emerald April 9, 2026 The second I began Dr. Langeskov, The Tiger, and The Terribly Cursed Emerald: A Whirlwind Heist, I felt unsettled, like I had stepped into…
Pulling the Levers: The Theatrical Excellence and Mechanical Limits of Dr. Langeskov April 8, 2026 Without reading the reviews beforehand, I expected a high-stakes robbery, potentially breaking into a museum or some other Indiana Jones-esque escapade from the title…
Onboarding and StarCraft 2 – Justin June 16, 2025 I was warned that I would “bounce off” a game like StarCraft 2. By “bounce off,” I think people meant that I would try…
You’re doing gamification the wrong way June 16, 2025 I approach the end of my senior year at Stanford — a year during which I enrolled in the bulk of my Human-Computer Interaction…
Coziness and Juiciness in Games: An Intersectional Comparison of World of Goo and Slime Rancher – RWP Spring 2025 Final Paper, Varsha Saravanan June 13, 2025 Coziness and Juiciness in Games: An Intersectional Comparison of World of Goo and Slime Rancher As a non competitive game enthusiast, playing games goes…
Coziness and Slime Rancher – Justin June 12, 2025 There is a “Cozy genre” of games, led by the likes of Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing, which are adorable little games with a soft, gentle, and…
Idle Games and Cookie Clicker – Justin June 11, 2025 Many times, games subvert our expectations about what a game is supposed to be. First-person shooters are often regarded as toxic, rage-inducing environments, and…
Faster Than Light: Stories You Can’t Plan For June 2, 2025 Faster Than Light is one of those games where the story doesn’t come from a script but from the systems. You don’t follow a…
Slime Ranchers – RWP June 1, 2025 Slime Rancher might be one of my favorite current games! When I first started playing it for RWP, I wasn’t expecting to grow so…
The Escapists – RWP May 31, 2025 When I started playing ‘The Escapists’, I didn’t expect it to make me reflect on morality. My first thoughts on this pixelated prison escape…
Frog Fractions – RWP May 30, 2025 Reading the phrase “intertextual knowledge to subvert the player’s expectations” didn’t really mean much to me, until I played Frog Fractions. Not only does…
Cookie Clicker – RWP May 29, 2025 Cookie Clicker, my first time playing an Idle game, ended up being a pleasantly delightful experience. To be completely honest, for the first few…
Coziness in Slime Rancher May 22, 2025 My first impression of Slime Rancher was that the game felt really whimsical, thanks to its design and the mechanic of vacuuming up smiley,…
Cookie Clicker : RWP May 16, 2025 By Diya Sabharwal I played cookie clicker for half a day and ended up with one cursor, four grandmas, 7 farms, 1 factory, two…
Metafiction and The Stanley Parable – Justin May 5, 2025 Warning: Spoilers Ahead Like an onion, and like all good stories, The Stanley Parable has layers. On the surface, you have a walking simulator about a…
P1: Kitten Klimb April 25, 2025 Print & play Design Mockups Final Playtest YouTube Link Artist Statement: Kitten Klimb is a tower-building card game meant for 3 to 6 players. …
Permadeath and Faster Than Light – Justin April 23, 2025 This week, we played Faster Than Light, a pixel-art, 2D roguelike where the player controls a spaceship fleeing rebels, trading with pirates, and navigating randomly…