I’m bad at pitching so I generally just write a few times a year and throw it up on a personal tumblr. My friend has a website but I usually just repost things here.
I wish I was more frequent, but I’m very good at making excuses. Other part is just financially supporting it is always a drag - can’t always risk cash on a game that I just won’t like and get nothing out of, and by the time I can get into a game and see enough to know it’s my jam, it’s usually a bit late and I feel like I’m yelling into a void.
Anyone got any advice for pitching and all that? I usually have a few in the back pocket that I have an idea for, but can never seem to get responses from any outlets, which is a bit of a bummer.
I know its not very well written, so if anyone has any recommendations for poise and grammar books that would be great.
I’ve been wanting to do this for awhile, but always had a problem with putting stuff out. I really want to write more though. Thanks for reading if you read it.
Well there’s the danger in “hopefully some day”. Your essay sounds awesome . You should start in on it when you can instead of putting it off, you know? I think everyone knows what the fourth wall is and whatever but Brechtian distanciation techniques and their application, especially in games!, is something I’m sure a lot of people would be interested in but have not previously been exposed to (I only know about him from film and theater classes).
I think it’s too easy getting hung up on logistics and hesitating. If anything you can load up a google doc or a medium page and get your ideas on paper THEN worry about logistics.
And re: being nervous about your opinions- someone is always going to disagree with you. People will get pedantic and weird about anything. But there are also people who would want to learn from you and discuss things with you. And if you’re passionate/open-minded and have a solid footing on what you’re talking about then you have nothing to be nervous about.
Which was about the “games as art” debate, video games and their place in art history (vs especially film and photography), the nature of art criticism, the evolution of criticism of film and photography and how critics are often anti-innovation, etc. It’s very “me” to have a video that talks at length about The Stanley Parable, SH2, and Undertale, but also cinemascope and Charlie Brooker. I am really proud of this one and it was my first essay to be featured on a non-film publication (Polygon!).
I literally just posted a preliminary review of The Surge in a new thread before I saw this thread. I probably should have posted it here, but since I’ve already made the thread, here it is. (please tell me how terrible it is so I can be less terrible the next time)
I’ve wanted to get into games writing for a while, so I guess this is my chance. I’ve got another article I’ve been meaning to write about One Shot, and another about the design of PUBG, so I should probably get on that.
a few years ago i wrote a piece about Candy Crush and my anxiety disorder/compulsive behaviour (trichotillomania in my case, or compulsively pulling out hairs). I’m still kind of proud of it. I still play rubbish mobile games as a way of coping, although I managed to get rid of Candy Crush after writing the article.
Subbed, to watch at a later date. There should be more women doing youtube stuff (I say this as a guy, occasionally trying to do youtube stuff, adding to the clutter of a thousand guys)
I write more about movies than I do about games now. I’m not sure why. I guess I find it easier to write about movies. I read so much already about games, I don’t think I have much to say and I’m kind of in and out of them these days. Even though I do have plenty to say about them.
One of the last things I actually wrote about games on my personal blog was about Alien Isolation back in 2014, feels kind of apt since the new Alien movie just came out and sort of failed to be scary in the ways Isolation was - I think a recent article on waypoint said the same thing: http://tobephair.co.uk/aliens-tail/
@onlywonderboy: This is a great summary of what makes Emily Is Away such a strong game in its brief playtime. It had a similar impact on me, and I think it’s very reflective of the experiences many people of our generation have gone through in the past decade.
My own work: Last year I helped a local arts weekly pub set up an “alt culture” section covering all manner of media and entertainment outside of their typical “band plays local venue” content. I wrote a love letter to a little known Myst clone from 1995 called Robot City.
Thanks!! I mean your voice is valuable even if there are a million dudes out there haha. And I agree. Weirdly my viewership is mostly dudes and I’m not sure how to change that
Not surprisingly I could not get in touch with Chu Ishikawa, Koji Endo, etc. to 100% verify if the same guy who wrote and performed the soundtrack to Tetsuo: The Iron Man worked on King’s Field, but dang.
@Gleoman speaking of architecture and whatnot, Heterotopias is an architecture focused games mag that’s taking pitches. Sound interesting?
@Gameonysus it’s cool to see another games writer in Chicago! i’m taking a look at your channel at the moment and found a couple of interesting thoughts from you. I also enjoyed your piece on Severed and protags that look like you. it also reminded me of something a friend wrote for us about how that game deals with ideas of anger and power?
@NeoRasa yo im glad to see something on Chu Ishikawa’s influence! I’m a big fan of Shinya Tsukamoto (tho ironically less so of Tetsuo) and his music always was a huge part of that.
Freelance has been pretty slow, frustratingly, but I thought I’d check in with some of the stuff I’ve written on my personal blog.
I did something about how what makes parrying in games feel so damn good and what we can learn about it from studying…tennis?
I also did two things relating to the Metroidvania and our blindness to alternative approaches to it. This on on its limits and our expectations:
and this one on how the new Wonderboy remake plays with those ideas in an excellent way:
anyhow keep up all the good work peeps! i’m really enjoying reading this stories from smaller sites, and i’m especially glad to see more new video work from y’all!
Thank you! That would be an ideal place to pitch it. The game I want to focus on has already been covered it seems, but I have a bit of a different take.
