Category: External Sources

Eric Swain External Sources

Moving Pixels Podcast: The Best Games of 2016

This week on the Moving Pixels Podcast we list our top 5 games of 2016. As I say at the beginning of the podcast, this isn’t my final list. They’ll all most likely appear on my final list, that should be coming soon. But my goal here was to talk up games that we hadn’t done podcasts on and wouldn’t really get talked about. I succeeded in part. My compatriots on the podcast might have cheated a little with their choices, but ehh. | more

Eric Swain External Sources

This Year In Video Game Blogging 2016 – Post-Mortem

Has it really been seven years of me doing This Year In Video Game Blogging. Good lord. I hate myself for doing this. Without a doubt, every time I do this project, I hate myself and promise myself outrageous things like, “I’m never doing it again.” It’s painful, exhausting and I usually end up miserable for the entire duration of December. Skipping both birthday and Christmas in my efforts to get this shit done. But, before we go any further, I must link the methodology post for how we do the year end roundup. | more

Eric Swain External Sources

The Moving Pixels Podcast Investigates ‘Gravity Bone’ and ‘Thirty Flights of Loving’

This week we look at two small games by Brenden Chung, Gravity Bone and Thirty Flights of Loving. Following up on our discussion Virginia we decided to look back at the games we figured had to be an inspiration for its choice of using film editing language. Coming at these two games, many years after their release and their initial splash on the critical scene, we find they hold up very well and in fact still feel part of the vanguard of narrative experimentation. | more

Eric Swain External Sources

The Moving Pixels Podcast Interrogates ‘Virginia’

On this, the last Moving Pixels Podcast of the year, we look at the cinematic adventure game, Virginia. There’s a lot to talk about with Virginia, mainly because no one in the game says anything themselves. The entire game is wordless, even my quote below required some stretching to get. Because of that, a lot of the game is up to interpretation and insinuation. Of course, before you can ask what is going on, you have to reckon with how the game is delivering its visual experience. | more

Eric Swain External Sources

Critical Distance Confab – Every Game a Painting

The November episode of the Critical Distance Confab is finally out. Continuing in chronological order brings up to Mr. Mark Brown of Game Maker’s Toolkit. I do feel like I should apologize for this podcast being so late. Though probably in the end it was best I didn’t hit the 15th target date as it would have gotten lost in the shuffle. I do want to explain what happened just to have it written down for posterity. After I finish an interview, I’ve made it a habit to check the audio right afterwords. | more

Eric Swain External Sources

Exploring the Mind-Body Connection in ‘Soma’

This week, we finish our trilogy of going through the Frictional Games oeuvre with their latest game, SOMA. I really love this game. It was my number 2 game of last year. When we started down this Amnesia route, I knew this was the superior game already and couldn’t wait to get to it and dig in. The discussion we had did not disappoint. Also, stick around for after the ending music. My ending quote inspired an 8-minute discussion on one of the characters. | more

Eric Swain External Sources

The Moving Pixels Podcast Explores ‘A Machine for Pigs’

This week we continue on from our last Amnesia podcast with The Chinese Room follow up, A Machine for Pigs. Despite that this episode was going to release in November, we decided to continue our look at/catch up with the horror franchise Amnesia. A Machine for Pigs is familiar as an Amnesia game, but at the same time, noticeably different from Frictional’s take, but with clear similarities to The Chinese Room’s other work. My reference point was Dear Esther and Nick’s was Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture. | more

Eric Swain External Sources

The Moving Pixels Podcast Finally Gets ‘Amnesia’

This Halloween we look at a now horror classic in Frictional Games’ Amnesia: The Dark Descent. One of the reasons I love being on the Moving Pixels Podcast is that it forces me to sit down and finish games by a deadline. I began playing Amnesia 3 years ago. I made it about halfway through before I had to put it down because it was late and I just never picked it up again. So, we decided on Amnesia as hour Halloween title and I had to sit down and finish it. | more

Eric Swain External Sources

The Moving Pixels Podcast Executes ‘The Deed’

This week on the Moving Pixels Podcast we discuss the indie murder planner simulator, The Deed. It’s an interesting idea that works more as a proof of concept than as a cohesive whole. That is just my opinion. My compatriots aren’t quite in a agreement on that front. You can get the episode now on PopMatters, SoundCloud, iTunes and the RSS feed. “There are many ways to do the deed,but only the cunning will succeed.” | more

Eric Swain External Sources

Critical Distance Confab – Games Literary Studies on Youtube

Last week, we released our newest interview on the Critical Distance Confab featuring Sam Gronseth, the Game Professor. His whole project emerged out of a class he taught using games to teach literary analysis and critical thinking. From that he created a series of videos to explain the basics of understanding how games work to deliver meaning. Ironically, some of those videos are infuriating to watch despite there being nothing wrong with them. Flashbacks to all the arguments coming back. | more