<![CDATA[Post Games]]>https://postgame.substack.comhttps://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!F2I-!,w_256,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F916a0ef5-9b79-4c37-9cf0-aea3ee4c035b_516x516.pngPost Gameshttps://postgame.substack.comSubstackFri, 19 Jun 2026 16:34:04 GMT<![CDATA[The Earliest Game of the Year Awards]]>https://postgame.substack.com/p/the-earliest-game-of-the-year-awardshttps://postgame.substack.com/p/the-earliest-game-of-the-year-awardsMon, 15 Jun 2026 07:25:23 GMT
Art by James Bareham

The Earliest Game of the Year Awards, a.k.a. The EGOTYs, isn’t the most spectacular awards show. It’s certainly not the most exhaustive. But it is, as the name claims, the earliest. And that’s the point.

The beauty of the EGOTY is found in its limitation to the first five months of the year, with winners selected before the Summer Game Festival and all the major fall releases.

The EGOTYs celebrate the winter and spring games that are too often forgotten or overlooked when the GOTY voting begins in the fall. Once viewed as a publishing black hole, the first half of the year has become an exciting season for games of every size. Major studios like Capcom have made the first quarter their preferred landing zone for huge releases, while indie studios hope players buy small, new games to counter the winter doldrums. According to SteamDB, over 10,500 games have been released in 2026. And it’s only the middle of June.

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There’s no voting in the EGOTYs. Instead, 50 critics, designers, directors, reporters, authors, and comedians share their individual picks for EGOTY. Because some people are bound to pick the same game, I prompted my guests as follows:

Tell folks a little about how your EGOTY works, but more importantly, share a specific single detail (design choice, stage, character, story moment) that makes the game so memorable.

Yes, you will hear multiple people praise Marathon and a couple of other games. But never will the champion their EGOTY in the same way. Because even when we love the same games, we love them for our own, special reasons.

Patreon supporters will also hear a special bonus segment, right in the middle of the episode. I share my Top 10 games from the first half of 2026, and dig into what about them has stuck in my heart, my brain, and my gut.

Thank you so much for joining me for the 1st Annual EGOTYS. Be sure to share your EGOTY in the comments!

Listen to this week’s episode

The Post Games logo in a golden Art Deco series of lights
Art: James Bareham

This Week on Post Games:

  • Act 1: The EGOTYs

  • Patreon Bonus: My Top 10 Games of 2026… so far

  • Act 2: The EGOTYs, Continued

Guests:

  • See the full list of guests and their EGOTY picks below!

On the Patreon for $5

Want to hear the history of 40 years of Batman video games? The latest episode of Past Games is now available! Hear the full exclusive Past Games series, weekly bonus segments, and early-access, ad-free episodes for $5! Join at patreon.com/PostGames.

A young woman talks to her friend about movies in a small East Village apartment in the mid- 00s. It's drawn in pixels.
Image: Perfect Tides: Station to Station

The Games:

The Guests:

  • Greg Miller - Mixtape

  • Nina Freeman - Transfer Point

  • Kirk Hamilton - Cairn

  • Adam Conover - Minishoot Adventures’

  • Winnie Song - Marathon

  • Giovanni Colantonio - Sol Cesto

  • Danielle Riendeau - Titanium Court

  • AP Thomson - Perfect Tides: Station to Station

  • Ash Parrish - Love and Deepspace

  • Matt Apodaca - Resident Evil: Requiem

  • Harper Jay - The Legend of Heroes: Trails Beyond the Horizon

  • Austin Walker - Island Off Outer Darkness

  • Gabe Cuzzillo & Bennett Foddy - Derelict Star

  • Mary Kish - Creature Kitchen

  • Lily Alexandre - Perfect Tides: Station to Station

  • Danny O’Dwyer - Windrose

  • Maddy Myers - Pokemon Pokopia

  • Khee Hoon Chan - Moves of the Diamond Hand

  • Peter Hunt Szpytek - Marathon

  • Xalavier Nelson Jr. - It Has My Face

  • Jacob Geller - Slay the Spire II

  • Ashley Bardhan - Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly Remake

  • Teddy Dief - On-Together

  • Geoff Thew - Pokemon Champions

  • Kaitlyn Tremblay - Perfect Tides: Station to Station

  • Brendon Bigley - Vampire Crawlers

  • Chandana Ekanayake - Creature Kitchen

  • Mike Drucker - Sektori

  • Gita Jackson - Marathon

  • Jeff Grubb - Scam Line

  • Nicole Carpenter - Perfect Tides: Station to Station

  • Cameron Kunzelman - Amberspire

  • Wallace Truesdale - Love Eternal

  • Rebekah Valentine - Titanium Court

  • Grayson Morley - Dragon Quest 6 Reimagined

  • Cass Marshall - Cairn

  • Garrett Martin - Pokémon Pinball Machine

  • Niko Stratis - Perfect Tides: Station to Station

  • Mike Rugnetta - Nova Roma

  • Megan Farokhmanesh - Pokemon Pokopia

  • Blessing Adeoye Jr. - Screamer

  • Moises Taveras - Marathon

  • Casey Newton - Marvel Cosmic Invasion

  • Carolyn Petit - Perfect Tides: Station to Station

  • Yussef Cole - Better Than Dead

  • Stephen Totilo - Tiling Forest: A Tiling Town demo

  • Matthew Gallant - Titanium Court

Thanks for reading Post Games! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

]]><![CDATA[How to Have a Persona Summer]]>https://postgame.substack.com/p/how-to-have-a-persona-summerhttps://postgame.substack.com/p/how-to-have-a-persona-summerMon, 08 Jun 2026 16:05:13 GMT

What is Persona Summer? How does Persona Summer work? Will Persona Summer make you a better person and improve your relationships with family, friends, and co-workers?

Three Persona experts answer those questions and more on the latest episode of Post Games. But there’s one question I can answer from the top: Why is it Persona Summer?

If you are an adult with any financial obligations and responsibilities, then you are keenly aware that everything is getting more expensive. Gas. Groceries. And of course, games. It would be oddly comforting if I could point to a single reason for this inflation, but that’s not the case.

The current financial hell we face every time we open our wallets stems from a perfect storm of disastrous political decisions, unstable oil markets, expanding wealth disparity, unregulated prediction markets, under regulated traditional markets, and most pressing for today’s episode RAM shortages from data centers gobbling up current stock and claiming future stock for months and in some cases years to come.

Think of RAM like a computer’s short-term memory, living alongside the long-term memory of your SSD or hard drive. It’s crucial to every bit of computing technology, from your PC to your smartphone to your video game console. Your Xbox, PlayStation, and Switch can’t live without it. So, RAM prices go up. Consoles go up.

Thanks for reading Post Games! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Last week, Valve’s top-end Steam Deck increased from $649 to $949 — a $300 spike! And I’ve heard concerns from leaders at major game studios that top-end consoles could pass the $1,000 mark before the holidays. New video games on new video game consoles have long been limited to the financially comfortable. But as prices of both games and hardware begin to climb over the course of a generation (rather than fall, like normal) video game culture risks splitting even further and further between the haves and the have-nots.

There are alternatives. Indie games that play on old hardware or low-end laptops. Borrowing new games from public libraries, if you’re fortunate enough to be near one that stocks them. I personally like to encourage players to break free from the social or internal pressure to keep up with every major release and find joy in their backlog on older hardware.

The Persona series will also come to Steam and PlayStation

Therefore, I have declared this summer Persona Summer. Now more than ever, we should feel encouraged to give our wallets relief and collectively clear some major games from our backlogs. And what bigger, better backlog series than Persona, games that nearly everyone has heard of, many have started but not finished, and plenty have never tried despite grabbing one during a sale.

To provide support for everyone, from first-time Persona players to obsessive fans who know their Shin Megami Tensei from their Metaphor Refantazio, I have collected a crack team of experts.

The episode opens with a Patreon Bonus segment, however, because it’s Persona Summer, a time of goodwill, it’s available to listeners on the free feed, too.

Persona 3 Reload Official Website

Into the Aether’s Brendon Bigley and Stephen Hilger, who have recorded hours-long analyses of Persona games, help us set the ground rules to live the best Persona Summer possible.

After that, game narrative designer and former games journalist Leigh Alexander explains what Persona is, then demystifies a series that can be intimidating even to fans.

And lastly, a bonus for the news section, totally unrelated to Persona, Senior Programmer of the Tribeca Festival, Casey Baron, joins the show to share how the festival has dramatically expanded its games events and programming. And how festivals like Tribeca have the long-term ambitions to help get money in the pockets of bold independent game makers.

Plus, to put a bow on everything, I have an exclusive big band cover of the Persona song Aria of the Soul. Yes, you will absolutely want to stay until the end to hear this one!

Big show. Let’s get to it!

Listen to this wek’s episode

This Week on Post Games:

  • Patreon Bonus: The Rules of Persona Summer

  • Act 1: Persona, Explained!

  • Act 2: Where to Start (or Continue) with Persona

  • Act 3: Why Tribeca Festival Includes Video Games

Guests:

  • Brendon Bigley and Stephen Hilger: co-hosts of Into the Aether

  • Leigh Alexander: narrative designer, writer, and former games journalist

  • Casey Baron: Senior Programmer of the Tribeca Festival

  • Closing Song:   “Aria of the Soul” by The Blueshift Big Band (The Persona 30th Anniversary Jazz Album)

Patreon Bonus: The Rules of Persona Summer

Act 1: Persona, Explained!

  • the entire history of persona, i guess (Courtney)

  • Persona (series) (Wiki)

  • Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 Review (IGN)

  • Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 (AV Club)

  • What I Discovered From Gaming Like A Girl (Kotaku)

Act 2: Where to Start (or Continue) with Persona

Act 3: Why Tribeca Fest Includes Video Games

The front page of the video game news aggregation site Overworld
Image: Overworld

This Week in Video Game Links

  • Overworld is the video game news aggregator of my dreams! (Overworld)

  • Xbox and PlayStation have a lot to prove (The Verge)

  • The Console Wars are Good, Actually (One More Round)

  • An Essential Cyberpunk Roguelike Returns In 868-BACK (Kotaku)

  • Valve, the Anticorporate Hero of the Games Industry, Has Its Antitrust Moment (Bloomberg)

  • Pictonico! review: new Nintendo WarioWare-like is a silly blast (Screen Hub)

  • 007 First Light’s Bond Is as Big a Character Shakeup as Daniel Craig’s Version, and I Love It (PC Gamer)

  • The Uncomfortable Truth About Pragmata (peterspittech/YouTube)

  • Why Did EarthBound Fail in America? (The Video Game History Foundation/YouTube)

An old man fills a classic red gas tank in front of a futuristic flying craft
Imate: Future? No Thanks!

Free Game of the Week: Future? No Thanks! demo

The latest game from the brilliant Molleindustria has a free demo! Here’s the Steam summary: “Future? No Thanks! is a narrative-driven, open-world adventure set in an ecosocialist utopia. You’re old, bitter, and scheduled for euthanasia. Enjoy your last day in a future that works for everyone but you.” (Steam)

A 2D animated Charlie Parker plays the saxaphone
Illustration: Dante Zaballa for NYTimes

What Else I’m Enjoying

  • 5 Minutes That Will Make You Love Charlie Parker (NYTimes)

  • Summerween Vlog 🎃 | Horror Books, Spooky Picnic & Video Store Nostalgia (Ghoul Host)

  • Gelli Haha - Full Performance (Live on KEXP) (KEXP/YouTube)

A vinyl album cover featuring Persona characters playing instruments
Photo: PERSONA 30TH ANNIVERSARY JAZZ ALBUM (IAM8BIT EDITION)

Song of the Week: “Aria of the Soul” by The Blueshift Big Band

From The Persona 30th Anniversary Jazz Album, available for pre-order until June 8 on iam8bit.

]]><![CDATA[The History of James Bond and His Many Games]]>https://postgame.substack.com/p/what-you-should-know-about-jameshttps://postgame.substack.com/p/what-you-should-know-about-jamesMon, 01 Jun 2026 14:05:48 GMT

From the 1980s into the 2000s, Bond games arrived with greater frequency than Bond films. From the first officially licensed game in 1983, the aptly titled James Bond 007, to 007 Legends in 2012, 25 Bond games hit store shelves. For context, the most recent James Bond film, No Time to Die, was the 25th film.

But since Activision released 007 Legends 14 years ago, we’ve been without a major new Bond game. That is, until the recent debut of 007 First Light. What happened? How did one of the most popular video game spinoffs go on a decade-and-a-half hiatus?

The answer has less to do with video games than it does with Bond and his owners. Well, previous owners. In the 2000s, under the careful oversight of Barbara Broccoli and her half-brother Michael G. Wilson, Bond was slowly adapted for modern sensibilities. Like the games, the film’s cadence slowed too. Alongside production, the pair began to reckon with a billionaire super villain worthy of their own, as Jeff Bezos’ Amazon worked to wrest control of the IP.

In 2025, following the controversial death of the Daniel Craig-era James Bond and years of behind-the-scenes drama, Amazon MGM acquired full control of the character.

Thanks for reading Post Games! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

007 First Light began development in one era of Bond, and is releasing within another. So before playing the new game, I wanted to learn more about these two stories of Bond, the evolution of the character, and the changing hands of his creative overseer.

Naturally, I contacted the most beloved James Bond fan on the planet, Matt Gourley, to hear about the hero’s history. And to learn more about the 007 First Light creative team’s vision for a modern James Bond, I spoke with the game’s Narrative and Cinematic Director, Martin Emborg.

The result is an episode that’s a bit different, not looking purely at games but the bigger cultural questions and machinations that influenced one big title’s creation.

A gun barrel leads to the words Post Games, parodying the James Bond opening image
Art: James Bareham

This Week on Post Games:

  • Act 1: Everything You Need to Know about Bond

  • Act 2: Why Bond Games and Movies Have Become So Tough to Make

  • Patreon Bonus: A History of Bond Games in Five Titles

  • Act 3: 007 First Light’s Narrative Director on Creating a New Bond

Guests:

  • Matt Gourley: co-host of Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend, James Bondings, With Gourley & Rust, and many other great podcasts

  • Martin Emborg: Narrative and Cinematic Director, 007 First Light

On the Patreon for $5

Want to hear the history of 40 years of Batman video games? The latest episode of Past Games is now available! Hear the full exclusive Past Games series, weekly bonus segments, and early-access, ad-free episodes for $5! Join at patreon.com/PostGames.

Sean Connery as James Bond at a card table
Image: Dr. No

Act 1: Everything You Should Know about James Bond

  • James Bonding (Apple Podcasts)

  • Matt Gourley Tests Conan & Sona’s James Bond Knowledge | Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend (Team Coco on YouTube)

  • List of James Bond novels and short stories (Wiki)

  • Octopussy (JustWatch)

  • Bond, James Bond Ranked (James Bonding)

  • James Bond 007 | EVERY “BOND, JAMES BOND” (YouTube)

  • The Man with the Golden Gun (1/10) Movie CLIP - Meeting Andrea (1974) HD (Movieclips on YouTube)

  • JFK loved James Bond: How Ian Fleming’s spy novels influenced the CIA (Slate)

  • Tomorrow Never Dies (JustWatch)

Jaws from the Bond films bends a bar of steel
Image: 007 Legends

Act 2: Why Bond Games and Movies Have Become So Tough to Make

  • Women want to be with him, men want to be him – and other phrases (James Bond Memes)

  • Covid: James Bond film No Time To Die delayed for third time (BBC)

  • Amazon Paid $20 Million for Control of James Bond, But There’s Fine Print That Isn’t Public (The Hollywood Reporter)

  • James Bond Auditions Have Officially Started, ‘Game of Thrones’ Casting Vet Nina Gold Tapped to Find Next 007 (Variety)

  • James Bond Auditions Are Officially Underway, and These Actors May Be at the Top of the List (Vanity Fair)

  • Callum Turner Goes Silent When Asked About James Bond (Vanity Fair)

  • Layer Cake (Letterboxd)

  • Remington Steele (IMDB)

  • Eon Productions (Wiki)

  • Young Bond (Wiki)

  • Denis Villeneuve (IMDB)

  • James Bond Jr (Full Episodes) (YouTube)

  • Eton College (Wiki)

  • r/JamesBond (Reddit)

  • The Spy Who Loved Me (C64 Longplay) (YouTube)

  • Sega Master System (Fandom)

  • Why were Sega Master System games made with a cheap cover? (Reddit)

  • Quantum of Solace review (Eurogamer)

  • James Bond 007: Blood Stone Review (GameSpot)

  • James Bond 007 (Game Boy) Review (Nintendo Life)

  • 007 First Light Title Sequence – Lana Del Rey (IO Interactive on YouTube)

  • The Man with the Golden Gun Opening Title Sequence (YouTube)

Bond and Natasha pose in GoldenEye 007 on the N64
Image: GoldenEye 007

Patreon Bonus: A History of Bond Games in Five Titles

  • Shaken But Not Stirred (Wiki)

  • GoldenEye 007 (GameSpot)

  • James Bond 007 for Game Boy (IGN)

  • 007 Legends (IGN)

  • GoldenEye 007 on Switch (NME)

The key art for 007 First Light features Bond aiming a pistol in front of the etched number 007
Image: 007 First Light

Act 3: 007 First Light’s Narrative Director on Creating a New Bond

  • 007 First Light (Steam)

  • JAMES BOND | Casino Royale “Daniel Craig” Screen Test (YouTube)

  • Patrick Gibson (IMDB)

  • The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (Wiki)

  • Solo: A Star Wars Story - How Han Got His Name (YouTube)

  • What’s Bonds body count? (r/JamesBond)

  • Michael G. Wilson (James Bond Wiki)

  • Licence to Kill Longplay (C64) [50 FPS] (YouTube)

An adorable mouse holds a deadly mace in front of a Gothic fantasy world
Image: Mina the Hollower

This Week in Video Game Links

  • Mina the Hollower’s creators put “Game Genie cheats” in their Zelda Soulslike mashup (Mothership)

  • Mixed Up Tapes (Innerspiral)

  • Why Video Games Cost So Much To Make (Jason Schreier)

  • 007 First Light In-Depth: The Big Digital Foundry Tech Review (Digital Foundry)

  • Extreme Strong Female Characters and the Transfem Gender Callus (NEET Ozma)

  • Call of Duty Modern Warfare 4 - Official Reveal Trailer (YouTube)

A golf ball ricochets off a no parking sign
Image: Normal Golf Games

Free Game of the Week: Normal Golf Game demo

From its Steam summary: “Hazy memories. A $100,000 fee. No sign of an exit. Welcome to my Normal Golf Game. Well, the demo of it at least. This demo is the first 30 minutes(ish) of the full game. You only have access to the small area around the clubhouse, while in the full game, you eventually unlock access to a full 9-hole golf course.” (Steam via PCGamer)

Robert De Niro stands in front of the Criterion Closet
Image: Criterion

What Else I’m Enjoying

A woman's fingers move along the barrel of a golden gun
Image: The Man with the Golden Gun

Song of the Week: “The Man with the Golden Gun”

The audio isn’t included in the show for copyright reasons, but you can read the full lyrics on Genius.

]]><![CDATA[How to See the Profound Beauty in Gaming's Tiniest Details]]>https://postgame.substack.com/p/how-to-see-the-profound-beauty-inhttps://postgame.substack.com/p/how-to-see-the-profound-beauty-inMon, 25 May 2026 14:44:43 GMT

Grand Theft Auto isn’t the biggest franchise in the world because of its stories, which are shameless pastiches of superior crime films. Grand Theft Auto isn’t the biggest franchise in the world because of its third-person shooting, which is clunky and fussy and pales in comparison to its contemporaries. Grand Theft Auto is the biggest franchise in the world because of the tiny details.

A runner jogging with a dog stops for their pet to take a piss. A pickup truck obeys a pedestrian crossing. Planes flying overhead land at the airport, then head off to the next destination. In the trailer for Grand Theft Auto 6, a gas station door is covered in individual stickers and handwritten signs.

The facsimile is so meticulously considered that, when sprinting through a life of crime, no individual decision is noticed; it’s felt. The effect is holistic — for a time.

Thanks for reading Post Games! Subscribe for free to receive show notes every week.

Now, if you’ve spent months or years in these elaborate worlds after you’ve rolled credits, you’ve probably found yourself asking questions about just how real these worlds actually are. Do GTA 5’s street signs comply with California law?

Of course, these sorts of questions extend far beyond Grand Theft Auto to any elaborate modern video game world. What is the unemployment rate in Pokémon’s biggest city? Would the water system in Cyberpunk 2077 actually work? Where does the simulation end?

I hold onto questions like these for a few moments before allowing them to escape my brain as my mental load redirects to a car chase or a heist. But today’s guest is different. AnyAustin has built an audience of over 1.4 million YouTube subscribers by not just theorizing about these questions, but spending weeks getting the answers.

What’s the oldest building in Grand Theft Auto 5? Turns out you can make a very informed guess if you, as AnyAustin was, are willing to learn about the history of Southern California architecture dating back to the late 19th century.

The YouTuber AnyAustin points apathetically at the Post Games logo
Image: James Bareham / Photo: Any Austin

This Week on Post Games:

  • Act 1: Try Not to Lose 100 Followers

  • Act 2: How to Look Closely at Gaming’s Little Details

  • Patreon Bonus: Getting Old as a Professional YouTuber

Guests:

On the Patreon for $5

Want to hear the history of 40 years of Batman video games? The latest episode of Past Games airs next Monday!

Want more Past Games? Hear the full exclusive series, weekly bonus segments, and ad-free episodes for $5! Join at patreon.com/PostGames.

Any Austin stands in front of a fire in Skyrim
Image: Any Austin

Act 1: Try Not to Lose 100 Followers

  • Any Austin (YouTube)

  • Eggbusters - Season One (Any Austin)

  • gamers go outside for the first time (gl;hf podcast)

  • The Strange Details of Call of Duty’s Most Atmospheric Mission (Any Austin)

  • The expert on finding weird places in Skyrim, GTA 5, and others does it out of love (Polygon)

  • ‪@any_austin‬ on the Hermeneutics of Video Games (Conversations with Tyler)

  • Middle Kick Button, with Any Austin - Insert Credit Show 389 (insert credit)

Any Austin stands in front of a swamp in GTA5
Image: Any Austin

Act 2: How to Look Closely at Gaming’s Little Details

  • Can You Live An Average Life In Skyrim? (Any Austin)

  • Any Austin — Enjoying the Hyper-Mundane Aspects of Video Games (Always Choose Orange)

  • Titanium Court (Steam)

  • The Post Games episode on Titanium Court (Post.Games)

  • Iran War Timeline: Key Moments and Attacks (NYTimes)

  • Dwarf Fortress (Steam)

  • Caves of Qud (Steam)

  • Procedural vs. Randomly Generated Content in Game Design (Game Developer)

  • AI Generation VS Procedural Generation (Goutrial)

Any Austin points at a video of himself talking about airports and planes
Image: Any Austin

Patreon Bonus: Getting Old as a Professional YouTuber

This Week in Video Game Links

  • There is no discovery on this earth more pure than a closet full of your dad’s ‘90s big box PC games (PCGamer)

  • Bungie Plans Layoffs After Ending ‘Destiny 2’ Development (Bloomberg)

  • Bubsy 4D Is the Future of Gaming (Delayed Input)

  • Hyrule’s broken sword (Mothership)

  • I Waited A Month To Beat The Final Boss Of A Game I Love, And Now I’m Full Of Regret (Aftermath)

  • The 13 most-anticipated games of the summer (Polygon)

  • Everything We Know About Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced, The Remake Of The Pirate One Everybody Loves (Kotaku)

  • My Son’s Math Homework Is Essentially Just Pokémon (The Atlantic)

Two women, drawn in manga style, talk about death and souls
Image: halfmoon

(Not Quite) Free Game of the Week: halfmoon

I know, I know! I try to keep this section free. But halfmoon is available for $1.99, and it’s too interesting to let the rules get in the way. Here’s the Steam summary: “halfmoon is a short adventure game set in an information center for the dead before they move on.” (Steam)

The artist Gelli Haha performs in a technicolor parachute surrounded by dancers and musicians dressed in red.
Photo: Chris Plante

What Else I’m Enjoying

  • Gelli Haha (YouTube)

  • The Battle Over 3D Printer Software Licensing Matters For Everyone (Aftermath)

  • The Mangler (1995) [Vinegar Syndrome 4K UHD & Blu-ray Promo Trailer] (YouTube)

A camper talks to a mysterious counselor named Bolero in a rundown cabin
Image: Screaming Savage Blood Death

Song of the Week: “He’s Out There”

From the upcoming game Screaming Savage Blood Death (Steam)

Thanks for reading Post Games! Subscribe for free show notes every week.

]]><![CDATA[The Big 1-Year Post Games Sale]]>https://postgame.substack.com/p/the-big-1-year-post-games-salehttps://postgame.substack.com/p/the-big-1-year-post-games-saleFri, 22 May 2026 17:34:37 GMT

This weekend marks the 1st Anniversary of Post Games! I can finally exhale.

To celebrate, I’m running a sale that won’t return any time soon. Because, pals, it’s not ideal for my finances! However, times are tough for everyone, and you deserve nice things!

Until Sunday at 11:59 pm PT, new subscribers can get an annual Post Games subscription for $40. That’s $10 off the normal annual price and $20 cheaper than paying the standard $5 per month across 12 months.

Join at Patreon.com/PostGames

What do Patreon supporters get?

  • Ad-free episodes available early on Fridays

  • Weekly bonus segments

  • Monthly bonus episodes in the ongoing series, Past Games

  • Access to my 5-part video series, Games Journalism 101

  • Access to game clubs, including developer conversations and Patreon group chats

  • And more!

If you’ve been considering a subscription, I promise this is the best deal you will see this year. And if you already support the show, I can’t thank you enough for making Post Games possible! I can’t wait to share the big projects I have in the works for Season 2.

Plus, you’ll get early access to the latest episode with Any Austin — easily one of my favorite interviews to date.

Thanks for reading Post Games! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

]]><![CDATA[The History (and Future) of Gaming's Biggest Punchline]]>https://postgame.substack.com/p/the-history-and-future-of-gamingshttps://postgame.substack.com/p/the-history-and-future-of-gamingsMon, 18 May 2026 07:19:45 GMT
Bubsy 3D marketing artwork via The Video Game History Foundation’s Video Game Media Assets Collection

We gather here today to celebrate the life of one of gaming’s most iconic mascots that isn’t named Mario, Sonic, Crash Bandicoot, Rayman, Kirby, Shantae, Banjo, Kazooie, Conker, Croc, Donkey Kong, Gex, or Glover. No, the spotlight belongs to the most misunderstood mascot of them all. Bubsy.

Inspired by the success of the original Sonic the Hedgehog, Bubsy entered the 1990s with positive reviews and promising sales. But a pair of sequels, one with little ambition, the other with too much, would tie the wise-cracking cat to a culture of cutesy cash grabs. Over the following decades, Bubsy devolved into a Shrek-like inside joke amongst gaming nerds.

And yet, somehow, in the year 2026, Bubsy has returned in a video game created by some of the most talented platformer designers working today. Bubsy 4D launches on May 22 on PC and all modern gaming consoles.

How did this happen?

To learn the (purr-haps surprisingly) complicated answer, I’ve produced an in-depth history of a character that, in the eyes of the people who know him best, deserves not reconsideration, but some respect.

Thanks for reading Post Games! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Plus… Analyzing Mixtape with an expert in mixtapes

For the News of the Week segment, former Pitchfork news director and current punk newsletter proprietor Evan Minsker joins the show to share the history, function, and secrets of mixtapes. Minsker recently completed Mixtape, and he generously shares his thoughts on what does and doesn’t work about its discourse-inspiring playlist.

Art: James Bareham

This Week on Post Games:

  • Act 1: The History of Bubsy 2D

  • Act 1.5: The Case for Bubsy 3D

  • Act 2: The Making of Bubsy 4D

  • Patreon Bonus: The Bubsy Parody About Loving Modern Art

  • Act 3: The News of the Week

Guests:

  • Fabian Rastorfer and Ben Miller: co-leads of Fabraz, Bubsy 4D

  • Ben Esposito: Designer on Neon White, Donut County, and Bubsy 3D: Bubsy Visits the James Turrell Retrospective

  • Evan Minsker: Proprietor, critic, and reporter at see/saw

  • Closing Song: “Techno Syndrome 2026” by Benjamin Wallfisch from Mortal Kombat 2: The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Our hero sits at a bonfire in Dark Souls with the Post Games logo keeping him company

On the Patreon for $5

Want to hear the full history of Dark Souls from the two people who wrote the definitive book on the series? The latest episode of Past Games is now available as a bonus episode on the Post Games Patreon!

Want more Past Games? You can listen to the Patreon-exclusive “The History of L.A. Noire” with special guest Tim Rogers. Hear the full exclusive series, weekly bonus segments, and ad-free episodes for $5! Join at patreon.com/PostGames.

A screen from the original Bubsy featured in a recent collection of the series
Image: Bubsy

Act 1: The History of Bubsy

A sexy old Bubsy doesn't wear pants
Image: Bubsy 4D

Act 2: Bubsy 4D

  • Bubsy 4D (Steam)

  • CEO Wade Rosen On Atari’s Future, Acquiring Nightdive, Avoiding Layoffs (MinnMax)

  • Hey, what if Bubsy 4D is the next Super Mario Odyssey? (Polygon)

  • Bubsy 4D | Developer Interview (Hypocritic GG)

  • Demon Tides (Steam)

  • Demon Turf (Steam)

Bubsy dressed as a beatnik smokes a cigarette in front of a museum exhibit
Image: Bubsy 3D: Bubsy Visits the James Turrell Retrospective (Epilogue)

Patreon Bonus: The Bubsy Parody About Loving Modern Art

The main character in Mixtape listens to music through throwback orange foam headphones
Image: Mixtape

Act 3: The News of the Week

A comic featuring a pokemon talking to a human-like Ditto
Art: Ellie Black

This Week in Video Game Links

  • Pokopia is my post-gender utopia (Mothership)

  • The Supernatural And Mysterious Nature Of Creativity (Game Informer)

  • The Repulsive New Star Fox Characters Are Good - Delayed Input (Kyle Bosman)

  • All This Over… Mixtape? (Aftermath)

  • Shovel Knight team’s homage to Zelda is going to be a very big deal (Polygon)

  • This city-smashing monster sim is the first game I’ve ever played where my reward for beating a level is getting a nuke dropped on my head (PCGamer)

  • The Hues of These New Colors - What Lessons in Love Means to Me (Mimidoshima)

  • Vice-Chancellor’s Talks: Nina Freeman, 23 April 2026 (YouTube)

  • Buck Bumble Theme (perfect loop) [1h] (YouTube)

A sci-fi x-shaped spacecraft zips through a pink and blue space
Image: Nova Sonata

Free Game of the Week: NOVA SONATA

From the itch.io summary: “NOVA SONATA is an on-rails shooter where every action creates the soundtrack. The world is your instrument: every vine you hit, every meteor you destroy becomes another layer in the song.” (Itch.io via Warp Door)

Two teens walk through a huge, hand crafted forrest
Image: Wildwood

What Else I’m Enjoying

  • Wildwood – Official Teaser Trailer (YouTube)

  • ‘The Sheep Detectives’ Review: A Murder Most Fleecy (NYTimes)

  • “I Went to the Stanley Kubrick Film School”: Richard Linklater on His First Film (Criterion)

The album cover for the Mortal Kombat 2 soundtrack features the cast of fighters with Johnny Cage on top
Image: Mortal Kombat 2: The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Song of the Week: “Techno Syndrome 2026”

By Benjamin Wallfisch from Mortal Kombat 2: The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Spotify)

Thanks for reading Post Games! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

]]><![CDATA[The History of The Legend of Zelda (1986)]]>https://postgame.substack.com/p/the-history-of-the-legend-of-zeldahttps://postgame.substack.com/p/the-history-of-the-legend-of-zeldaMon, 11 May 2026 15:39:54 GMT
A manga version of Link draws a bow
Art: Edited image from The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past graphic novel. Nintendo.Welcome to the latest episode of Past Games, a Patreon-exclusive monthly series that uncovers the histories of 2026’s biggest and most consequential gaming anniversaries.

Editor’s Note:

It’s the show’s first anniversary! To celebrate, and to give myself some time to prep the summer episodes, I’m sharing one of the monthly Patreon-exclusive episodes. This is the history of the original The Legend of Zelda, featuring one of the series’ foremost experts and historians.

If you like this episode, I’m positive you’ll enjoy the rest of Past Games. Each month, I talk with a different expert about a game or moment celebrating an anniversary this year. Previous episodes include L.A. Noire with Tim Rogers, along with histories of Dark Souls and Animal Crossing with the people who quite literally wrote the books on each.

Subscribe at Patreon.com/PostGames for $5 to get Past Games, bonus segments, and ad-free episodes.

Today’s guest is Max Nichols, video game designer, educator, and Zelda historian.

By day, Max has worked on some of the biggest franchises in gaming. But it’s Nichol’s expertise in Zelda that’s brought him to Post Games. Nichols oversees the Hyrule Interviews, a website database that contains over a thousand interviews with members of the many different Legend of Zelda teams. The Q&As range from 1986 to earlier this year, with subjects ranging from the macro, like high-level plans for Zelda adaptations across media, to the micro, like a designer’s social media message about color bleeding.

Our conversation begins with the origins of the original Legend of Zelda, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. Did you know it began as a sci-fi game? I certainly didn’t. Or many of the other details Nichols shares.

After that, Nichols speedruns us through the series’ history. And to wrap things up, we chat about the parallel history of Zelda fandom.

Nichols references tons of useful resources, and shared an extended list following our conversation. I’ve included it below.

On This Past Games:

  • Act 1: The Making of The Legend of Zelda

  • Act 2: The 30-Year Evolution of Zelda Games

  • Act 3: A History of the Zelda Fan Community

Guest:

Thanks for reading Post Games! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Act 1: The Making of The Legend of Zelda

Act 2: The 30-Year Evolution of Zelda Games

  • Zelda II: The Adventure of Link Review (IGN)

  • Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, The Review (GameSpot)

  • Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker Review (IGN)

  • The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess review (Eurogamer)

  • The Legend Of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD Review - Link To The Past (GameSpot)

  • The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Review (Game Informer)

  • Critical Compilation: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Critical Distance)

Act 3: A History of the Zelda Fan Community

Max’s Bonus Show Notes:

People:

  • Melora Hart, who runs History of Hyrule.

    • By FAR the most prolific scanner of Zelda books, guides, and other art, and she’s been doing it since 2002 or 2003. The absolute pillar of the Zelda community for the last twenty years IMO, and the one who inspired me to make Hyrule Interviews

  • Joshua Lindquist is a Zelda fandom historian. He runs Zelda Archive, a collection of info on the various Zelda fansites from the history of the fandom, and he even recreates some of the old sites. He is also a webmaster at Zeldauniverse.net

  • Mases Hagopian is one of the webmasters over at Zelda Dungeon, and he is kinda quietly responsible for a lot of old Japanese guides getting scanned. He’s scanned many himself, and provided Melora with many for her to scan.

  • Spritecell runs the Shigeru Miyamoto Archive, a big directory of Shigeru Miyamoto interviews

  • Clyde Mandelin runs the blog Legends of Localization and has written a book about Zelda localization. Professional translator for stuff like One Piece, Attack on Titan

  • Keza MacDonald is a long-time journalist who’s done many interviews with Zelda devs. She just published a Nintendo history book, Super Nintendo

  • Chris Kohler is another long-time journalist who’s written books and done tons of interviews with Zelda devs.

  • Alex Highsmith runs Shmuplations, which isn’t specifically Zelda-focused but is the biggest repository of translations of Japanese interviews out there. He’s translated many interviews with folks who worked on Zelda.

  • Aria “Glitterberri” Tanner has a site where she posts translations of Japanese interviews, and has a particular focus on Zelda. She was actually involved with the official translation of the Hyrule Historia book, too.

  • Mr. Talida, who runs Keshi Corner, where he 3D scans old collectible miniature figures from Japan. He’s done a lot of Zelda ones

  • Two extremely prolific Zelda collectors who share a lot of media about their collections:

Notable Websites/Communities:

Sources for my more outlandish claims:

  • Zelda started off as sci-fi (Source)(Source)

  • Zelda was originally for Nintendo Vs System (Source)

  • Zelda was originally going to be a dungeon maker, and then was just a dungeon crawler before adding an overworld (Source)

  • Ravel’s Bolero was almost the title theme (Source)

  • Zelda was influenced by Ultima and Black Onyx (Source)

  • Miyamoto has a brother (source)

  • Miyamoto drew one half of the Zelda 1 map, Tezuka drew the other half (Source)

]]><![CDATA[The Nine Lives of Games Journalism ]]>https://postgame.substack.com/p/the-nine-lives-of-games-journalismhttps://postgame.substack.com/p/the-nine-lives-of-games-journalismFri, 01 May 2026 18:41:11 GMT
Original poster art: Artyom Trakhanov

[Editor’s note: I wanted everyone to have access to this episode due to its perpetually timely topic, so I’ve made it available the same day as the Patreon release. If you like my work at Post Games, please consider supporting Patreon.com/PostGames for $5.]

Is video games journalism dying? Or is it more vibrant than ever?

You now have access to my recent talk at NYU Game Center, previously only heard by 200 or so people in downtown Brooklyn. The lecture, given last Thursday, is titled “The Nine Lives of Video Games Journalism,” and in it, I suggest where the games media is heading by comparing the current trends to the past 50 years and the many publications that have come and gone.

Thanks for reading Post Games! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

You’ll hear me try and fail not to cry about halfway through, when it hits me mid-sentence that I’ve unintentionally written a eulogy for hundreds, if not thousands, of careers in this space – including potentially my own.

And yet, people who attended the talk – including people in games media – described it as moving, validating, and cathartic.

[The talk moves fast. I crammed about 90 minutes of lecture into an hour. So I’m making the Google Slides deck available for folks who’d like to follow along. You can find them below. I’ve also edited the audio to smooth the flow here and there. ]

*An unedited video version will be available on the NYU Game Center’s YouTube page in the coming weeks.

Two empty chairs and microphones stand in front of a projection screen that says "Video games journalism will live forever,"
Photo: Najay Greenidge

Patreon Bonus: A 30-Minute Post-Talk Q&A

Patrons get an extra ac: 30-minute post-lecture Q&A hosted by NYU Game Center’s assistant arts professor Charles Pratt, featuring additional questions from the audience! (Patreon.com/PostGames)

The Nine Lives of Games Journalism presentation in Google Slides
Image: Google Slides / Poster by Artyom Trakhanov

The Nine Lives of Games Journalism Slides

An Incomplete Catalogue of Games Media in 2026

5 Must-Listen Episodes: The Post Games Starter Pack

Two TVs playing video games inside Rikers prison
Photo: Abdul Kircher for The New York Times

This Week in Video Game Links

  • A Virtual Escape for Rikers Inmates (NYTimes)

  • Meet the players who lost big money on Peter Molyneux’s failed Legacy (ArsTechnica)

  • Can a game be ‘so bad it’s good’? (Jank)

  • Titanium Court Makes You Reckon With Your Own Magic (Exalclaw)

  • ‘Any objections, Lady?’: On linearity, subservience and feminine agency in Metroid Fusion and Metroid: Other M (Mothership)

  • Love And Deepspace Gives The People What They Want (Aftermath)

A young woman looks at a bowl of ramen ina. cartoon world
Image: KuloNiku: Bowl Up! demo

Free Game of the Week: KuloNiku: Bowl Up! demo

From the Steam summary: “Prep your stations for a management-sim cooking game with attitude! Utilize long-honed recipes as you prepare unique meals for quirky small-town locals, upgrade and customize your shop, compete in thrilling cooking battles to become top chef, and protect your family’s long-running restaurant!” (Steam)

A huge library full of books and bright light
Photo: Justin Kaneps for The New York Times

What Else I’m Enjoying

  • Where Have All the Book Reviews Gone? (NYTimes)

  • My Adventures With ‘The AI That Actually Does Things’ (Intelligencer)

  • The Gods of Logic: Before and after artificial intelligence (Harper’s)

Thanks for reading Post Games! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

]]><![CDATA[5 Must-Listen Episodes: The Post Games Starter Pack]]>https://postgame.substack.com/p/5-must-listen-episodes-the-post-gameshttps://postgame.substack.com/p/5-must-listen-episodes-the-post-gamesThu, 30 Apr 2026 18:44:06 GMT

50 episodes! 50 episodes?! Where does a new listener start?

Typically, I tell folks the best place to start Post Games is whichever episode headline sounds the most appealing. After all, the show is created to be evergreen, so that you can listen to the whole catalogue today, tomorrow, or years from now.

But what if you want to speedrun the catalogue? I’ve collected five episodes that will allow you to hear the variety of interviews and topics that the show covers.

Already a regular listener? This is the perfect post to share with friends who might enjoy the show, too!

Thanks for reading Post Games! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Image: Steam

1. The “Too Many Games” Problem

Episode 21

The most successful and prolific video games reporter of our generation, Jason Schreier, talks about the “too many” games paradox. Even the most talented developers can’t guarantee their games will be discovered amongst the thousands of new releases each year. Meanwhile, the audience has never had more options in terms of scale, genre, and point of view.

Why?

Over the course of my first five months of episodes, I noticed a trend across my interviews with game makers: an intense anxiety around game discovery. My chats with both Schreier and GameDiscoverCo’s Simon Carless (Why Great Games Sometimes Flop) felt like the end of Post Game’s first anime arc.

Patreon Bonus Segment:

Schreier is a reporter at Bloomberg, making him one of a tiny few reporting on games for a mainstream publication. Naturally, we had an extended chat about mainstream media’s approach (and lack thereof) to gaming coverage.

Fall NH Artwork.png
Image: Animal Crossing: New Horizons

2. 18 Reasons to Be Thankful for Video Games

Episode 27

Ahead of Thanksgiving, 19 of my favorite people in video games shared what about the hobby they’re thankful for. The guest list includes veteran game designers, recovering AAA executives, indie award winners, and a beloved comedian/superhero.

Why?

To differentiate Post Games from a games press driven by an ad-supported model that incentivizes reactive reporting and takes, I needed to build an editorial calendar and build a pipeline that allowed me to juggle lots of interviews and contacts at the same time. This episode was the first of the calendar’s fruit, a gargantuan project that could only be done with months of lead time. But it would be a dud without the guests themselves, who delivered thoughtful and heartfelt answers.

Patreon Bonus Segment:

I recorded my own extended self-reflection and titled it “Why I’m thankful for change (and how you can create your own).”

Thanks for reading Post Games! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

A magnifying glass examines photographs and documents
Image: Blue Prince

3. Two Blue Prince Interviews, Seven Months Apart

Episode 28

In early 2025, I began a year-long project that I assumed would run as a written feature on Polygon. Ahead of the release of Blue Prince, I spoke with its creator about his anxieties, hopes, and his state of being. Rather than transcribe and publish the conversation, I saved the file, planning to pair it with another interview at the end of the year. Weeks after that first interview, my time at Polygon came to an end. As Post Games gained momentum, I decided to revive the project, now in audio form. Polygon was kind enough to allow me to use the original interview, and Blue Prince’s Tonda Ros was generous enough to make time ahead of the Game Awards. It’s a podcast episode, but it’s also a time machine for everyone involved.

Why?

It’s a miracle! That everyone participated. That a single podcast episode could blend two eras of my career. That Blue Prince would become one of 2025’s most critically acclaimed games. This is the closest I’ve ever come to Babe Ruth calling his shit.

Patreon Bonus Segment:

Tonda Ros talks about his plans beyond Blue Prince, including why he’s not interested in a movie or a sequel.

Image: Kentucky Route Zero

4. Games About Death Improve Our Lives

Episode 11

Ahead of my 40th birthday, I found myself dwelling on death. Desperate to talk to someone with some perspective, I reached out to gaming’s foremost expert. Video game writer and narrative director Kaitlin Tremblay has co-written three games exploring the many sides of death: A Mortician’s Tale, Seasonala Cemetery, and the upcoming Ambrosia Sky.

Why?

This is the moment I had my first real taste of what Post Games could become. I’m proud of the episodes I made before this one, and I think they’re worth listening to. But here’s where I realize the secret isn’t knowing about games; it’s caring about people.

Patreon Bonus Segment:

Why I’ve been playing a game about death for half of my life. I reflect on a very short, very impactful game that I revisit every few years. And how it changes alongside me.

An evil scientists presses a big button on a remote in Mewgenics
Image: Mewgenics

5. Edmund McMillen Wants You to Ask the Uncomfortable Questions

Episode 39

I had no interest in playing Mewgenics, nor did I want to talk to its creator, Edmund McMillen. His previous game, The Binding of Isaac, is one of the most successful and beloved indie games of the past decade, but its depiction of cleft lips had kept me at arm's distance. I didn’t feel mocked, but I was… well, skeptical. Fortunately, my friend and longtime collaborator Russ Frushtick encouraged me to hop on the phone with Edmun and talk through my discomfort with his work. In less than an hour, I learned that McMillen and I had more in common than I could have ever imagined.

Why?

This is the first time a guest cried on the show. It’s also the first time I cried on the show.

Patreon Bonus Segment:

Edmund stuck around to talk about the sunny side of life, including pinball and long walks on the beach. I’m serious.

Bonus:

Image: Pokémon

6. The Pokémon Origin Story

Past Games, Episode 2 - Patreon Exclusive

Since December, I’ve been recording monthly bonus episodes in which an expert guides me through the history of a video game, series, or moment that’s celebrating an anniversary in 2026. I call the series Past Games, and to give folks a taste of its style, I made this episode on the history of the original Pokémon available to everyone.

Why?

Who wouldn’t want to hear how a video game zine maker would befriend Shigeru Miyamoto and create arguably the most successful media property since Mickey Mouse?

Patreon Bonus Segment:

The whole episode is a bonus for Patreon supporters, as is the rest of the Past Games series.

Thanks for reading Post Games! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

]]><![CDATA[An Incomplete Catalogue of Games Media in 2026]]>https://postgame.substack.com/p/an-incomplete-catalogue-of-gameshttps://postgame.substack.com/p/an-incomplete-catalogue-of-gamesWed, 29 Apr 2026 19:47:29 GMT

Last Thursday, I spoke at NYU Game Center about the future of games journalism and how 50 years of history can tell us which ongoing trends should terrify us and which should give us hope. One trend that’s an Unqualified Good is the current abundance of games media. Each publication in the image above is unique. And the slide represents a modest portion of the hundreds, if not thousands, of people using text, audio, and video to report, analyze, critique, contextualize, and archive the medium.

The image makes a bold first impression, but it’s not a particularly useful curation tool. So, I’ve assembled “An Incomplete Catalogue of Games Media in 2026.”

To start, this spreadsheet doesn’t include everything. How could it? For example, I didn’t attempt to catalogue Twitch streamers, and I only included a corner of YouTube. The list is focused on English-speaking publications, mostly from the United States. If folks want to build on it with their own forks, they’re totally welcome to!

Caveats aside, there’s a mountain of incredible stuff here! And it’s wonderfully overwhelming to see so much talent in a single space!

As for the lecture, the folks at NYU Game Center were kind enough to let me run the talk in full on Post Games. It will appear on the Post Games Patreon this Friday, along with a Patreon-exclusive Q&A segment that was recorded at the Game Center following the lecture. And the lecture will be available on Monday on the free feed for everybody to hear.

You can subscribe to the Post Games Patreon for $5. Or subscribe to the free feed on your podcast app of choice.

[I’m positive the list is missing publications that will be glaringly and embarrassingly obvious in hindsight, so please drop them in the comments!]

Thanks for reading Post Games! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

]]><![CDATA[Playing Games in the Age of Climate Collapse]]>https://postgame.substack.com/p/this-game-wont-save-the-worldhttps://postgame.substack.com/p/this-game-wont-save-the-worldTue, 28 Apr 2026 04:19:52 GMT

Arbor Day is Friday, April 24, in the United States, so you’re reading this after the holiday has passed. But don’t fret, friends, because Arbor Day is celebrated around the world across many different days and seasons. In the Central African Republic, National Tree Planting Day is July 22. In Colombia, it’s April 29. The Day of the Tree is observed every year on June 21 in Cuba. And in Egypt, the year opens with Arbor Day on January 15.

Arbor Day’s mission is elegant: everyone is encouraged to plant trees. I understand that some folks will find this to be a modest act in the face of climate collapse, and yet, I value its capacity to make individual acts (planting trees) into an act of shared, global consciousness (let’s heal our planet).

Thanks for reading Post Games! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Planting a tree won’t save us from climate change. Nor will the most well-participated Arbor Day. Nonetheless, it’s as vital a piece as any other in the elaborate puzzle we’re trying to solve to provide our children with a sustainable planet.

To mark Arbor Day, I wanted to plant a little tree in your mind. The pan-European studio Three More Days blends video games, theater, and experimental art to get people thinking and, perhaps more importantly, feeling big things about climate change. They practice what they preach, as you’ll hear in our conversation when creative producer Maria Cârstian details the fight to protect a local park from corporate-backed arson.

But they too know the limits of any one protest, any one holiday, any one tree, and yes, any one video game. Their most recent project, Mini Mini Golf Golf, is, despite what its playful title suggests, a game about climate collapse. Though don’t expect it to solve the problem that could end the world.

Creative Friedrich Kirschner puts their ambitions in perspective:

 The one thing that we really didn’t want to do is have this sort of solutionist design thing, which I don’t want to throw shade on anybody who’s trying to find solutions for climate change. That’s really cool. It’s just not the thing that we wanted to do. We didn’t want you to clean up things and then everything’s fine. Or, rebuild things and then everything’s cool. Or, do the solar punk thing where, suddenly, you have flying windmills, and there’s only five people on earth. And then everything’s gonna be fine. And I think one of the key pillars in everything that we’ve wanted to do at the studio is, “Can we do this without imagining an enormous genocide?” And that makes it a lot harder.

Or as Cârstian says concisely:

Video games, and art in itself, can’t solve anything. But we can raise some awareness, and we can make people feel things. And sometimes maybe that’s enough.

Arbor Day is just an idea. Today, tomorrow, or this weekend, I encourage you to plant a tree. Not metaphorically. Literally. Not sure how to go about it? The Arbor Day Foundation, linked in the show notes, will gladly provide not just instructions but a sapling! Whatever it takes, get yourself on the dirt. Lower life into the planet. And feel it. The touch. The smell. That indescribable sense of not saving the planet, but changing it for the better.

This week on Post Games, I chat with Friedrich Kirschner and Maria Cârstian about Mini Mini Golf Golf, a game that begins as lighthearted mini golf and evolves into a narrative adventure set in a world in which we don’t prevent climate collapse and instead must learn to live with it.

This Week on Post Games:

  • Act 1:     A Mini Golf Game at the Not-Quite End of the World

  • Act 2: Making Fun Games about Big Problems

  • Patreon Bonus: How to Stay Optimistic

Guests:

  • Friedrich Kirschner: founder and Creative Director of Three More Years

  • Maria Cârstian: creative producer of Three More Years

  • Closing Song: “Nepturne” by 100 Rabbits (Oquoine)

On the Patreon for $5

Want to hear a full-spoilers discussion of Titanium Court with its creator, AP Thomson? It’s now available as a bonus episode on the Post Games Patreon!

Plus, you can listen to the Patreon-exclusive “The History of L.A. Noire” with special guest Tim Rogers. You can hear the full series, weekly bonus segments, and ad-free episodes for $5! Join at patreon.com/PostGames.

Screenshot #6
Image: Mini Mini Golf Golf

Act 1: A Mini Golf Game at the Not-Quite End of the World

Image: Mini Mini Golf Golf

Act 2: Making Fun Games about Big Problems

  • A Permanent Echo (Steam)

  • Zany Golf (Wiki)

  • Technological fix (Wiki)

  • A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (PDF)

  • It’s a Wonderful Life (JustWatch)

Image: Mini Mini Golf Golf

Patreon Bonus: How to Stay Optimistic

This Week in Video Game Links

  • Yakuza’s Shopfronts Are One Of Life’s Little Pleasures (Aftermath)

  • The Best Sports Game Nobody Played (NakeyJakey)

  • The amazing mail sent to a video game publisher (Game File)

  • THE TRUE FIRST EASTER EGG: READY PLAYER ONE WAS WRONG (A Critical Hit)

Image: Everything Is Crab

Free Game of the Week: Everything Is Crab demo

From the Steam summary: “The Animal Evolution Roguelite. Hunt, Flee, Scavenge and Thrive in a living ecosystem. Choose from 100+ Evolutions and Specialisations for unique creature combinations in every run. Adapt to survive the natural curve in order to beat carcinisation... or get Darwin’d trying!” (Steam)

Image: Oquoine

Song of the Week: “Nepturne” by Hundred Rabbits

From Oquoine, now available on Playdate.

Thanks for reading Post Games! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

]]><![CDATA[He Won the Biggest Award in Indie Games. Then He Did It Again.]]>https://postgame.substack.com/p/he-won-the-biggest-award-in-indiehttps://postgame.substack.com/p/he-won-the-biggest-award-in-indieMon, 20 Apr 2026 14:26:04 GMT

The trouble with Titanium Court, the new match-3, strategy, visual novel chimera of a video game, which will be inescapable during 2026 Game of the Year conversations, is that it’s interesting for too many reasons. That sentence alone is sweating enough to fill a bathtub. And yet, we need to start somewhere.

Maybe I can begin with something provocative, like “Titanium Court is a COVID game?” Or I could lean into gamer discourse, and say “Titanium Court explains why ‘solo’ development is never truly solo.” Or how about I focus on a little detail that’s so unusual it’s almost impossible to believe. Like, “Titanium Court Was Made One Hour at a Time.”

For the sake of brevity, let’s go with historical significance. In March, Titanium Court won the Independent Games Festival’s Seumas McNally Grand Prize, arguably the most prestigious award in video games. Previous winners include Minecraft, Fez, Papers Please, Out Wilds, Her Story, and Inscryption. Some of the most beloved and most successful indie games of all time.

I covered the Independent Games Festival’s Seumas McNally Grand Prize. I spoke with Jenny Jiao Hsia and AP Thomson, two of the creators of Consume Me, which had just become the latest game to win the Grand Prize. I’d known both Jenny and AP since their time at NYU, nearly a decade prior, and for AP, I understood the award had long been his greatest ambition. And he’d achieved it.

Thanks for reading Post Games! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

A few months after Consume Me was released, though, I heard rumblings from jurors at the Independent Games Festival that AP had nearly finished another game; that a nearly complete build had even been submitted for judging. Turns out, since the early days of the COVID lockdown, AP had been developing a surreal fairy tale that blended a handful of genres typically never seen in the same room.

Its name? You guessed it: Titanium Court.

Months later, the IGF would award it the Grand Prize. And in the process, AP became the only developer to win the IGF grand prize in back-to-back years, and only the second developer ever to win twice.

A historic achievement.

Naturally, I wanted to talk to AP about what that experience — and all of the other stuff too.

The Post Games logo surrounded by businessmen and a trombone player from Titanium Court
Image: Art from Titanium Court reimagined by James Bareham

This week on Post Games:

  • Act 1: What Is a “Solo” Game Developer in 2026

  • Act 2: Making Titanium Court One Hour at a Time

  • Patreon Bonus: AP Thomson’s Titanium Court Book Club (Coming 4/27)

  • Act 3: The News of the Week

Guests:

  • AP Thomson: designer of Titanium Court

  • Closing Song: “Backbay Shaws (Lyrical)” by AP Thomson

Here's Some Good News About 'Dark Souls: Remastered'

On the Patreon for $5

Last week, I recorded “The History of Dark Souls” with the creators of You Died: The Dark Souls Companion, veteran games journalists and authors Jason Killingsworth and Keza MacDonald. It’ll go live on Monday, May 4! It’s the latest entry in my monthly Patreon-exclusive series, in which experts walk us through the histories of important games celebrating big anniversaries in 2026.

In the meantime, you can listen to the Patreon-exclusive “The History of L.A. Noire” with special guest Tim Rogers. You can hear the full series, weekly bonus segments, and ad-free episodes for $5! Join at patreon.com/PostGames.

Image: Titanium Court / AP Thomson, Fellow Traveler

Act 1: What Is a “Solo” Game Developer in 2026

Image: Titanium Court / AP Thomson, Fellow Traveler

Act 2: Making Titanium Court One Hour at a Time

  • Titanium Court (Steam)

  • Beglitched (Steam)

  • Swap Sword (Steam)

  • Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords (Wiki)

  • Bejeweled 3 (Steam)

  • Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure (Wiki)

  • FreeCell (Wiki)

  • A story I wrote 15 years ago about my late-grandfather’s FreeCell obsession (The Escapist)

  • LGBTQ+ Pride Flags (Human Rights Campaign)

  • Downwell (Steam)

  • David Byrne’s Career of Earnest Alienation (New Yorker)

  • Flood by They Might Be Giants (TMBG)

  • All Hail West Texas by the Mountain Goats playlist (YouTube)

  • The Bob Emergency (Secret Base)

Image: Titanium Court / AP Thomson, Fellow Traveler

Patreon Bonus: AP Thomson’s Titanium Court Book Club

AP and I recorded a bonus episode that digs into the story, themes, and gameplay twists spanning the entirety of Titanium Court. It will be available on Patreon.com/PostGames beginning April 27!

Act 3: The News of the Week

The character from Baby Steps floats upside down. On the right, a hand plays the game on an Xbox Controller.
Image: IGN

This Week in Video Game Links

  • Baby Steps Developers React to 7 Minute Speedrun (IGN on YouTube)

  • Deleted Saves, Issue #2 (Some great stories in here!) (Deleted Saves)

  • How A Human Beat The Impossible Run In Spelunky 2 (Xanagear)

  • The best singleplayer levels in first-person PC games (Jank)

  • The Exit 8 movie is even better if you play the game first (The Verge)

  • Press Start: Video Games and the Climate Crisis (Climate One)

  • Romeo is a Dead Man says don’t debate fascists, kill them (Mothership)

  • What the war in Iran means for people who make and play games (Mothership)

  • Left 4 Dead’s Graffiti Is So Memorable Because It Was Made By People—A Whole Lot Of People (Aftermath)

Thanks for reading Post Games! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

A mysterious building contains a giant mouth with eyeballs.
Image: Neverway / Coldblood Inc., Outersloth

Free Game of the Week: Neverway Prologue

From the Steam summary: “After quitting her dead-end job, Fiona starts over on a farm and becomes the immortal herald of a dead god. Make friends, fight through horrors and pay your debt in this nightmarish life sim RPG.” (Steam)

Kumail Nanjiani sits on a target with his legs lifted like he's giving birth
Image: Taskmaster

What Else I’m Enjoying

  • Ben Kingsley’s Taskmaster Cameo NO ONE Expected (Or Witnessed) | Channel 4 (YouTube)

  • Lena Dunham Is Still Trying to Figure Out Why People Hated Her So Much (NYTimes)

  • Chris Fleming: The one thing young people should reject if they want a rewarding life and career (Wild Card/NPR)

Image: Titanium Court / AP Thomson, Fellow Traveler

Song of the Week: “Backbay Shaws (Lyrical)” by AP Thomson

This is a treat! AP shared one of his original music demos. The song doesn’t appear in Titanium Court, and yet fans of the game will find it very, very familiar.

]]><![CDATA[Where Do Video Games Go from Here?]]>https://postgame.substack.com/p/where-do-video-games-go-from-herehttps://postgame.substack.com/p/where-do-video-games-go-from-hereMon, 13 Apr 2026 15:08:39 GMT

I’m grateful for games that help me process whatever we’ll eventually call the past six years.

My favorite game of 2024, 1000xResist, imagined a sci-fi future in which a single teenage girl survives a global pandemic, and centuries later, her clones (many generations removed) grapple with what it means to be alive. It’s about COVID, diaspora, being an immigrant, being a teenager, and being human.

This week, Sunset Visitor, the creators of 1000xResist, announced their follow-up. Prove You’re Human is another sci-fi adventure grappling with the most pressing anxieties of the moment. It asks the player to convince an AI that she isn’t human, and interrogate what about themself is alive.

Which is to say, the team has managed to select an even more radioactive topic.

For help, Sunset Visitor teamed up with Black Tabby Games, the developers of hit narrative games Slay the Princes and Scarlet Hollow. That team has expanded into video game publishers, with Prove Your Human being their first publicly announced project.

I talk with members of both teams about how the project came to be, and why it’s time for a different sort of AI story.

And Post Games listeners, let’s not forget it’s Mailbag Week! I answer the question in the headline! Mix the interview with the mailbag, and you get an episode about the future of games, from the macro of the games industry’s ongoing evolution to the micro of a single game’s conception.

Let’s try to make sense of this moment together!

Thanks for reading Post Games! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

This Week on Post Games:

  • Act 1: How to Tell Stories about Video Games

  • Act 2: Where Video Games Go From Here

  • Patreon Bonus: Getting into the Weeds of Video Game Culture

  • Act 3: The News of the Week

Guests:

  • Questions from listeners like you!

  • Remy Siu: Creative director at Sunset Visitor

  • Abby Howard: Co-founder of Black Tabby Games

  • Tony Howard-Arias: Co-founder of Black Tabby Games

  • Closing Song: “Blushin’” by James Currier (Rizz Dungeon: Skeleton Key to My Heart)

Patreon Spring Sale: $1 for a Month!

Until midnight Pacific time, new Post Games subscribers can get their first month for $1!

What does a buck get you?

  • ​5 episodes of Past Games: the Patreon-exclusive podcast series that tells the histories of beloved games like Animal Crossing, The Legend of Zelda, Pokémon, and L.A. Noire. New episodes of Past Games release on the first Monday of every month!

  • ​5 video episodes of Video Game Journalism 101: a standalone series adapted from my NYU Game Center course on the history, process, and purpose of games media!

  • ​An audiobook history of Street Fighter: The Movie!

  • ​Nearly 50 bonus segments: Every single episode is bigger and better, with extra interviews, essays, and more!

  • ​No ads!

  • Early access to new episodes every Friday!

A typewriter sites on a filthy bureau near melting candles
Image: Resident Evil 4 / Capcom

Act 1: How to Tell Stories about Video Games

A young woman named Mara read God and the State. Her eyes are wide with fear? Excitement? Confusion?
Image: Perfect Tides: Station to Station / Three Bees

Act 2: Where Video Games Go From Here

  • The “too many games” problem (Jason Schreier) (Post Games)

  • Itch.io (https://itch.io/)

  • Xbox Adaptive Controller (Xbox)

  • Azeron controllers (Azeron)

  • Yo! Noid (Wiki)

  • Chex Quest (Wiki)

  • Obama campaigns in Burnout, 17 other games (GameSpot)

  • ‘Toy Story’ is coming to ‘Fortnite’ – here’s everything we know about the collab (NME)

  • If they made games like this anymore, they’d make Romeo is a Dead Man, a game as joyously weird as it is spectacular (Eurogamer)

  • Video Game Journalism 101: A 5-Video Course (Patreon.com/PostGames)

  • NYU Game Center Lecture Series Presents Chris Plante (NYU Game Center)

Patreon Bonus: Getting into the Weeds of Video Game Culture

A robot looks at a giant, reflective, metallic ball on green grass in front of a Windows desktop background-style blue sky
Image: Prove You’re Human / Sunset Visitor

Act 3: The News of the Week

  • Prove You’re Human (Steam)

  • 1000x Resist (Steam)

  • Slay the Princess (Steam)

  • Scarlet Hollow (Steam)

  • Prove You’re Human - Behind the Scenes (Sunset Visitor on YouTube)

  • Inside Prove You’re Human, The Otherwordly Next Game From The Award-Winning Studio Behind 1000xResist (CGM)

  • 1000xResist isn’t just mind-bending sci-fi — it’s also an allegory for diaspora (Polygon)

  • Dramaturgy (Wiki)

  • Sunset Visitor (Discord)

A computer OS and audio editing software is distorted across and RGB spectrum
Image: Imprinted / Cobalt Lane via Exalclaw

This Week in Video Game Links

  • Imprinted Offers A Supernatural Mystery That Only A Troubled Audio Engineer Could Solve (Exalclaw)

  • Review: YOU HAVE TO BURN THE ROPE (Rob Secundus)

  • Serfing the Superstructure (BPM)

  • Resident Evil Requiem Spoilercast (starring Leo Vader and me!!) (Something Rotten)

  • Here is a “5D” video game (Game File)

  • Life Is Strange: Reunion gives fans everything they want, and is worse off for it (AV Club)

  • Here’s our 17 most-loved multiplayer FPS levels (Jank)

A little kid playing baseball waves to the viewer
Image: Backyard Baseball / Mega Cat Studios

Free Game of the Week: Backyard Baseball demo

From the Steam summary: “New game modes. New ways to play. Unlockables to chase and achievements to earn! Welcome to the all-new Backyard Baseball. Launching in Summer 2026, this reimagined version of an all-time classic blends the best of modern gaming with the timeless charm that made it legendary. Play in 11 remastered stadiums, choose from 24 original teams, and compete across 6 unique game modes with a roster of 30 beloved Backyard characters.” (Steam)

A manga panel shows a young woman and a man looking upon a cottage in a fantastical landscape
Image: Witch Hat Atelier/Kodansha

What Else I’m Enjoying

  • Witch Hat Atelier Is About Having Hope In An Insane World (Aftermath.site)

  • Revisiting Dashboard Confessional, 25 Years Later (Defector)

  • “PENITENTS, a debut trans tribute to New French Extreme cinema and ’70s grindhouse horror” is now available for pre-order (Ghoulish.rip)

  • An Incredibly Weird Time to Be Alive (The Atlantic)

  • The Los Angeles Times’ Todd Marten launched a newsletter dedicated to theme parks! (LA Times)

A scantily clase woman navigates a pixel dungeon. She comes across a blue character named Taffy. Or maybe Unicorn?
Image: Rizz Dungeons / Snoozy Kazoo

Song of the Week: “Blushin’” by James Currier

From Rizz Dungeon: Skeleton Key to My Heart, coming to Steam in 2026. (Steam)

]]><![CDATA[Video Games Are Art. Are Museums Ready?]]>https://postgame.substack.com/p/video-games-are-art-are-museums-readyhttps://postgame.substack.com/p/video-games-are-art-are-museums-readyMon, 06 Apr 2026 15:23:19 GMT
A screen rests like a head on a flowing body of fabric
Image: The Delusion via The Serpentine Gallery

Games are art. So why do we rarely see them in museums?

To be fair to curators the world over, video games are (compared to paintings, sculptures, pottery, performance, photography, and even comics) a new medium. In the early 2000s, the pixelated aesthetic of games slowly infiltrated art galleries with artists like Cory Archangel modding NES cartridges into multimedia masterpieces. By the 2010s, art games struggling to find space in traditional venues began to spread online through digital storefronts and forums. Only recently have games in their true form – as things to be played – begun to find more predictable purchase in prestigious venues.

Helping to lead the charge is Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley. The artist is using video games in art galleries worldwide to pursue ambitions worthy of such important venues. Through play, she forces hard conversations, archives too-often erased communities, and, to put it not so artistically, makes the world a bit less shitty.

What follows is a sprawling interview with Brathwaite-Shirley about her process and her work, ranging from online games like BlackTransArchive.com to gallery experiences that inspire difficult conversations about the most timely topics, from war to climate collapse.

Thanks for reading Post Games! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Now, I’m keenly aware that talking about video games as art is a high-wire act amongst my fellow chronically online gamers. For that reason, I will need you to agree to the Terms of Service. By proceeding, you accept the risks that come with the consumption of conversations about art and games. They are listed as follows.

Section A: You may, in the early moments of this conversation, feel Skeptical. To talk about art is to talk about the new, and the new can be intimidating and even a little scary. The new is alien, and upon first contact, we’ve yet to form confident opinions on whatever it may be.

Life online has instilled us with terror at having wrong opinions. So, when coming in contact with the new, the human brain often, as a method of self-preservation, rejects the new when it contradicts or threatens established beliefs. It defaults to the proven and safe.

To process this interview, I strongly encourage you to proactively loosen your assumptions about art’s power or lack thereof. Within the safety of the conversation, lower your shields of skepticism. And open yourself, if only momentarily, to contradiction.

A group of museum-goers look at a screen in a dark museum hall
Image: The Delusion via The Serpentine Gallery

Section B: As the interview progresses, you may feel Discomfort – particularly if you identify as a white cisgender man. You will certainly feel uncomfortable with the episode if the mere use of the term “white cisgender man” triggers a renewed skepticism. For reference, see Section A.

Section C: Before the interview concludes, you may feel Vulnerable. Great art isn’t purely about craft. The craft is a means to an end. No, great art operates like a rope, connecting the viewer to the artist, other viewers, the community, the culture, and human history. That magnificent power of art often makes people feel vulnerable, which can manifest as Skepticism and Discomfort.

To best appreciate both art and conversations about art, embrace the vulnerability. As my guest, artist Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley, would say: Enjoying this interview is a two-way relationship. If you don’t put the work into the conversation, you don’t get the reward. But if you do put the effort into it, friends, you will gain access to untold riches.*

*These Terms of Service constitute a legally binding agreement made between an entity and the podcast. Post Games will provide one episode about video games as a progressive art form displayed in museums and digital venues, including but not limited to web browsers. Riches, as references in Terms, are limited to the metaphorical and spiritual planes. No monetary riches guaranteed.

Margitte's most famous painting is pixelated and stands behind the Post Games logo
Image: James Bareham

This week on Post Games:

  • Act 1: Games Enter the Art World

  • Act 2: How Games Help Us Through Tough Conversations

  • Patreon Bonus: A Personal History of Games in Art and Art in Games

Guests:

  • Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley: artist, game designer, and archivist

  • Closing Song: “It’s Raining Inside Alo’s Home” by Prateek Saxena (Fishbowl)

Listen to Post Games on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your podcast app of choice. Subscribe to the free newsletter at Post.Games for weekly show notes.

On the Patreon for $5

This week, I published “The History of L.A. Noire” with special guest Tim Rogers. It’s the latest entry in my monthly Patreon-exclusive series, in which experts walk us through the histories of important games celebrating big anniversaries in 2026. You can hear the full series, weekly bonus segments, and ad-free episodes for $5! Join at patreon.com/PostGames.

A group of players sit around a beautifully painted table featuring markers for where to rest their hands. Across from them is a screen with a video game.
Image: The Delusion via The Serpentine Gallery

Act 1: Games Enter the Art World

The opening screen for BlackTransSea.com shows a pirate shop and an old Windows-style warning pop-up
Image: BlackTransSea.com

Act 2: How Games Help Us Through Tough Conversations

A portrait of the artist Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley. She sits in front of a screen with a PlayStation controller on it. She's surrounded by colofrful fabrics.
Image: Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley

Patreon Bonus: A Personal History of Games in Art and Art in Games

A lifelike hand holds a Minecraft-style block ina. creepy, violet-hued world
Image: Lucid Blocks

This Week in Video Game Links

  • The lost wonder of Minecraft comes back in Lucid Blocks (Jank)

  • The best games of 2026 (so far) (Polygon)

  • Aug. (Ahoy)

  • Only Cowards Complain About The Knife Being OP In Marathon (Kotaku)

  • Crimson Desert’s commitment to cleaning up its clunky controls shines the brightest in how satisfying it feels to fly around Pywel now (PCGamer)

An old school MS-DOS style interface, but with a black and white window format
Image: RTFM

Free Game of the Week: RTFM: Read the Fucking Manual

“Solve puzzles and stay one step ahead of [redacted] in this co-op tech support simulator. One player, the Troubleshooter, uses the User Manual to troubleshoot for the Terminal Operator, who must convey what’s on the screen. Players must work together — or not — in this atmospheric game of trust and communication.” (itch.io)

A Japanese woman wields an parisol and a dagger
Image: Lady Snowblood via Toho

What Else I’m Enjoying

  • Meiko Kaji’s 60 Year Career Has Been Defined By Stubborn Ambition (Aftermath)

  • My Undesirable Friends and yours (AV Club)

  • The Napa Boys trailer (YouTube)

  • Did You Know Criterion Invented the Commentary Track? (Criterion)

Two friends appear to chat online via a Zoom-like app
Image: Fishbowl

Closing Song: “It’s Raining Inside Alo’s Home” by Prateek Saxena

From Fishbowl, now available on Steam and PS5.

Thanks for reading Post Games! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

]]><![CDATA[I Want to Answer Your Big Gaming Questions]]>https://postgame.substack.com/p/i-want-to-answer-your-big-gaminghttps://postgame.substack.com/p/i-want-to-answer-your-big-gamingSat, 04 Apr 2026 16:34:55 GMT

I’m working on a mailbag episode, and I’d love to answer your questions! Send a voice note to postgamesmailbag at gmail. Or drop a text question in the comments.

Please review the following instructions before recording and sending an audio message. This will ensure solid audio quality and make it easy to record and send from your phone.

How to record a mailbag question:

  • Open the voice note app on your smartphone

  • Record a question that’s no longer than 60 seconds. Ideally, shorter.

  • Include your name, pronouns, and any professional title you’d like used on the show.

  • Please make sure the question is a question and not only a personal story.

Thanks for reading Post Games! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

]]><![CDATA[2026's Fantasy Masterpiece Took 8 Years, 4 Attempts, and 1 Disco Elysium]]>https://postgame.substack.com/p/2026s-fantasy-masterpiece-took-8https://postgame.substack.com/p/2026s-fantasy-masterpiece-took-8Mon, 30 Mar 2026 16:05:17 GMT

I’m going to say a word, and I will ask you not to roll your eyes. Ready? “Disco-like.” Let’s use it in a sentence. The 2026 fantasy game Esoteric Ebb is the best Disco-like game since Disco Elysium. I know. I feel it, too. Something’s a bit off.

As you, a gamer with refined taste, know, Disco Elysium’s creators released their unique twist on role-playing games in 2019. Its emphasis on conversation over combat, along with timely progressive politics, inspired a variety of copycats and homages. But nothing – including projects from the original game developers – has recreated the original’s magic. Can Disco-likes exist if nothing is quite Disco-like?

Obviously, I’m here to tell you, definitively, yes. Esoteric Ebb is a game that proves just that, and its creator accomplished the feat not by accident but with a scientific method-esque rigour. But I’m also here to serve as a verbal antacid for the nausea that comes when I say that word. “Disco-like.” Yuck.

Every new video game genre comes with skepticism.

Thanks for reading Post Games! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Plastic instruments proved to be a landfill-filling fad. Hero shooters, extraction shooters, and battle royale convinced gullible executives to redirect a generation of talented game designers onto projects that would take years to make and weeks to shut down. I’ve lived through booms and busts for MMOs, FPS UGC, and MOBAs.

But the thing about new genres is that eventually they become old genres. Consider the Souls-like, a genre that for a time belonged exclusively to a single developer, then infected every corner of games, and now is just another type of game to choose from.

A new genre is like an active volcano.

A cleric talks with a treasure chest that claims to not be a mimic in Esoteric Ebb
Image: Esoteric Evv

One moment, the status quo. Then, boom, the New spews onto the surface. First, spectacular! Then, destabilizing. Decades-old structures collapse. Its plume blocks out the sun and everything else. Its lava oozes across the earth, incinerating all it touches.

The volcano can’t be controlled, and those who try get burned. But over the years, the lava cools into rock. New structures are built. The air clears, and the volcano becomes just another cool mountain. Just another part of the landscape.

New genres, led by a standard bearer or two, redirect rivers of players from one trend to the next. And following that player base comes a mix of inspired game developers and cynical publishers, chasing the new and the profitable. More often than not, the light their money on fire.

It takes time for genres to cool, for them to be understood, for them to become something not to be imitated but built upon. Today’s guest, Christoffer Bodegard, is the first game developer I’ve ever spoken with who has a graduate and master’s degree in player agency, who has had the gumption to spend years reverse engineering a single game, and for years after, constructing something new upon that foundation.

These days, people say rogue-like without having played Rogue – or even knowing Rogue exists. But it takes decades for genres to become so familiar, so diverse, so rock-solid that they blend into the background. At first, they’re awkward. “Disco-like.”

It’s growing on me.

Share

A dragon flies through the Post Games logo as a cleric and goblin fight a skeleton
Image: Esoteric Ebb logo variant by James Bareham

This week on Post Games:

  • Act 1: Dissecting Disco Elysium, Organ by Organ

  • Act 2: Converting Tabletop RPGs into Video Game Nirvana

  • Patreon Bonus: All You Have to Do Is Write a Million Words

  • Act 3: The News of the Week

Guests:

  • Christoffer Bodegård: writer and developer, Esoteric Ebb

  • Nathan Grayson: co-founder and reporter, Aftermath.site

  • Closing Song: “Battle Beneath the Crust” by Marskye (Dosa Divas)

Review Drive Week at Post Games

To continue to grow Post Games into a stable business, I’m hosting what I call a review drive. It’s like a fundraising drive except it costs nothing. This week, if you have a free minute, please consider leaving a review of Post Games on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your podcast app of choice!

Thank you so, so, so much to everyone who has left a review. And if you’re adding a new review, thank you too!!

Act 1: Dissecting Disco Elysium, Organ by Organ

  • I’m working on ‘Ebb’. As you can see, it’s a Disco-like! (r/DiscoElysium)

  • Esoteric Ebb dev talks Disco Elysium and mind control: “It’s kind of stupid to make an entire RPG by yourself” (Radio Times)

  • I was already intrigued by this Disco Elysium-inspired, D&D-based RPG where you play as the world’s worst cleric, but its demo blew my expectations out of the water (PCGamer)

  • It’s only March, but I’m calling it: Esoteric Ebb is 2026’s best RPG and the first worthy successor to Disco Elysium (PCGamer)

Act 2: Converting Tabletop RPGs into Video Game Nirvana

  • In Esoteric Ebb, men talk to men about manhood, and that’s a good thing (Mothership)

  • Esoteric Ebb Review - Chaotic Good (GameSpot)

  • ESOTERIC EBB REVIEW: Maybe the best RPG of 2026? (PCGamer)

  • Esoteric Ebb Review (RPGFan)

  • Disco Elysium RPG System Analysis (Game Design Thinking)

  • PLEASE (DON’T) MAKE MORE GAMES WITH INTERACTIVE WRITING (Google Slides)

Patreon Bonus: All You Have to Do Is Write a Million Words

  • A beginner’s guide to playing Dungeons and Dragons (Polygon)

  • An independent, reader-supported, worker-owned outlet for journalism about tabletop roleplaying games and the people who make them (Rascal)

  • DISPATCH REVIEW: AdHoc Studio’s first game is my new favourite superhero show (PCGamer)

  • Cleric (Dungeons & Dragons) (Wiki)

  • Cleric Class build guide for Dungeons & Dragons 5e 2024 (Polygon)

Act 3: The News of the Week

  • Welcome To Woke Week (Aftermath)

  • We’re Having A Sale! (Aftermath)

  • Notes Towards A ‘Woke 2’ (Aftermath)

  • Games Done Quick’s Long, Difficult Journey To A Better Gaming Future (Aftermath)

  • Split Fiction by blackheartwings and ProfessorBurtch in 51:56 - Awesome Games Done Quick 2026 (Games Done Quick)

  • Buy Some ‘Woke 2’ Merch, Support A Worker-Owned Website (Aftermath)

  • A Love Letter To ‘Girl Games’ (Aftermath)

  • ‘The Mission Is About Creating Supportive Environments And Authentic Content’: What A DEI Manager At A AAA Video Game Company Actually Does (Aftermath)

This Week in Video Game Links

  • Death Dress (Plant or Beast)

  • Video games can be a site for moral formation—for good or for ill (U.S. Catholic)

  • Koudelka: Aberystwyth, 1898 (Kimimi)

  • Glen Powell Will Play Fox McCloud In The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (Kotaku)

  • The photo mode consultant helping you take better video game screenshots (The Verge)

  • Sony announces major price hikes for PS5, PS5 Pro, and Portal as it blames “continued pressures in the global economic landscape” (Eurogamer)

Free Game of the Week: Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream demo

From the official site: “Experience creating up to three Mii characters in the demo on Nintendo eShop! Your save data from the demo will carry over to the main game upon purchase, and if you complete the demo you’ll get a Hamster Costume that you can give to your Mii characters.” I mean, obviously, I’m playing for the Hamster costume. (Nintendo)

What Else I’m Enjoying

  • How to Shoot a Medieval Film in NYC on a Shoestring Budget (Hell Gate)

  • The Most Terrible Time in My Life (ScreenSlate)

  • ‘Art Isn’t Easy’ author offers new insights into Stephen Sondheim’s life and music (NPR)

Closing Song: “Battle Beneath the Crust” by Marskye

From Dosa Divas

]]><![CDATA[Why Pinball Moved from Bars to Basements]]>https://postgame.substack.com/p/why-pinball-moved-from-bars-to-basementshttps://postgame.substack.com/p/why-pinball-moved-from-bars-to-basementsMon, 23 Mar 2026 17:00:09 GMT

What’s your earliest memory of pinball?

For me, it’s a sleepover birthday party in a suburban hotel. I’m ten. It’s late. And even though snow is falling outside, I’m soaked and steaming from the indoor pool. This isn’t a nice hotel; I’m not sure nice hotels even exist within a 500-mile radius. But who needs nice when you can walk from the pool directly into the adjoining mini-arcade, dubbed The Game Room. The other kids had figured out how to rig free games from the pinball tables by rapidly unplugging and plugging the power cords.

In hindsight, a few quarters would have cost less than the potential insurance bill for four kids playing with electricity while standing in puddles, soaking wet. I digress. What I remember is the sensory overload. The stickiness of the buttons. The resistance of the plunger, followed by its whiplash spring. The smell of spilled soda, sweat, and, in this particular venue, chlorine so potent it burnt my nostrils.

As a friend jammed my table’s cord into the socket, the machine awoke with bright, colorful lights and gaudy lo-fi noises. It was March, but it was Christmas.

Thanks for reading Post Games! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

I ask for your earliest memory, because I suspect it’s similar. Whether you first got your hands on the side table at a bar in the ‘80s, an arcade in the ‘90s, a cruise ship in the ‘00s, or a Dave & Busters last week, you experience the thing pinball does that video games can’t… a full-bodied sensory experience.

As an elder millennial, I caught the tale of the pinball golden age, experiencing first-hand the declining interest in this gaming relic from the days of discos and conceptual rock musicals. And the rising obsession with elaborate video games that, now playable at home, transported players to new worlds.

Who needed a wooden table and a steel ball? Who needed a game they could touch and shake and sweat all over?

In the ‘00s, a single American company kept pinball alive. Stern Pinball, run by Gary Stern, managed to keep the lights on by finding new audiences, first internationally, and then, surprisingly, with an aging and expanding set of Gen Xers who, unable to find pinball in arcades, opted to bring pinball into their homes. They craved something tangible. And they had the money to buy it.

By the late 2010s, competition reappeared. Jersey Jack in 2011. Spooky Pinball in 2013. Pinball Brothers 2017.

But Stern has remained the dominant force in pinball, building off its decades-long reputation in the good times and the bad. In recent years, it’s produced tables inspired by Stranger Things, James Bond, Dungeons & Dragons, Godzilla, Star Wars, and now Pokémon.

How did Stern survive pinball’s apocalypse? And how has pinball – as a game and a piece of technology – changed over the last 20 years?

To find out, I called the CEO of Stern, Seth Davis.

This Week on Post Games:

  • Act 1: How Stern Survived the Pinball Apocalypse

  • Act 2: What Makes a Pinball Table Special in 2026?

  • Patreon Bonus: Adapting Pokémon into a Pinball Table

  • Act 3: The News of the Week

Guests:

  • Seth Davis: President and CEO, Stern Pinball

  • Lewis Gordon: Reporter and Critic

  • Closing Song: “A Musical Tale” by bermei.inazawa (Chicory: A Musical Tale)

A random assortment of pinball tables taken on an old smartphone camera
Image: Pinball at some bar in the early 2010s via Plante

Act 1: How Stern Survived the Pinball Apocalypse

The beautifully painted table for Jaws Piball features the actors and famous moments from the film
Image: Jaws Pinball

Act 2: What Makes a Pinball Table Special in 2026?

  • STERN PINBALL ANNOUNCES HIRING OF NEW PRESIDENT (Stern Pinball)

  • Jersey Jack Pinball: The Pinball of Oz (Polygon)

  • This Wrestlemania pinball machine is Stern’s newest, most technologically advanced table (2015) (The Verge)

  • The Best Pinball Machines of 2025 Ranked (Kineticist)

  • Pinball Top 100 (Pinside)

  • What is Stern Pinball’s ‘Insider Connected’ Feature? (Liberty Games)

Patreon Bonus: Adapting Pokémon into a Pinball Table

  • Pokémon Pinball (Stern Pinball)

  • Pokémon by Stern Pinball Game Trailer (YouTube)

  • Pokémon by Stern Pinball Live Gameplay Premiere (YouTube)

  • Pokémon Pinball for Game Boy Color (Bulbapedia)

  • Pokémon Pinball is Finally Here and It’s Not What I Expected (RetroRalph)

A warrior fights a crowned goblin in Crimson Desert's fantasy open world
Image: Crimson Desert

Act 3: News of the Week

  • Crimson Desert review - it’s a bit like prestige Candy Crush (Eurogamer)

  • After K-Pop and K-Drama, Here Come K-Games (NYTimes)

  • Crimson Desert reviews suggest Skyrim is safe for now (Polygon)

A ditto disguised as a human looks across the ocean with a Bulbasaur by their side
Image: Pokopia via Mothership

This Week in Video Game Links

  • What happens when all the Pokémon fans are dead? (New piece by me at Mothership)

  • How Outersloth’s investment fund contracts upend the status quo for indie developers (Mothership)

  • Nvidia’s DLSS 5 is like motion smoothing for video games, but worse (The Verge)

  • Marathon is a satire (ReaderGrev)

  • I’ve Killed Runners (Ed Smith on Google Docs)

  • Paranormasight series director Ishiyama & producer Oushu speak on how The Mermaid’s Curse was created. (RPGSite)

  • Funi Raccoon Game Is Queer, Funny, And Irish (Aftermath)

Free Game of the Week: The Ratline demo

Owlskip Games consistently publishes some of the most interesting narrative deductive games on Steam. The latest game has one hell of a pitch: “A murdered priest. A secret list. Hunt Nazi fugitives across the globe in this gritty 1971 detective thriller. Analyze evidence, follow leads, and make sharp deductions before the trail goes cold. From the creators of Family, Rivals, Conspiracy, Echo Beach and Riley & Rochelle.” (Steam)

A claymated man and dog reach for a stack of sandwiches
Image: Wallace and Gromit

What Else I’m Enjoying

  • What Actually Happened to the Clay Behind ‘Wallace & Gromit’? (WSJ)

  • Against Rigour (Will Sloan)

  • Love in the Time of A.I. Companions (New Yorker)

The album cover features adorable animals celebrating springtime
Image: Chicory: A Musical Tale

Song of the Week: “A Musical Tale” by bermei.inazawa (Chicory: A Musical Tale)

An ox holds a bloodied weapon on stage
Image: Murder at the Birch Tree Theater

PSA: Murder at the Birch Tree Theater Released on Steam!

In August, I interviewed musical composer, orchestrator, lyricist, conductor, and musician Mike Pettry about his first video game. Murder at the Birch Tree Theater splices Golden Idol deduction with community theater drama. The demo has been available for a while, but now you can play the full game on Steam! (Steam)

Thanks for reading Post Games! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

]]><![CDATA[Games Can Save Us from the Hell of Silicon Valley Optimization]]>https://postgame.substack.com/p/games-can-save-us-from-the-hell-ofhttps://postgame.substack.com/p/games-can-save-us-from-the-hell-ofMon, 16 Mar 2026 17:26:20 GMT
Three morons look into a mirror, totally unprepared for a climb that will destroy them
Image: Peak

Throughout the 2010s, one buzzword connected video games conventions and C-suite retreats: gamification. We were bombarded with TED Talks and newspaper op-eds promising that games could unlock the potential of disinterested millennials by turning every mundane task into a game.

Apps began rewarding players with badges for tracking their exercise, learning languages, and even checking for breast cancer. Silicon Valley startups imagined office software that turned the daily grind into grinding for XP. Millions of young people voluntarily joined Foursquare, with which they would track their travels throughout each week, the app praising them for visiting 50 new venues or becoming the most frequent guest at a local cafe or bar.

It’s hard to imagine now, but for a moment, the promise of the future was all games, all the time. In 2011, the app was valued at $600 million – for context, Instagram would sell a year later for $1 billion in a mix of cash and stock.

You already know how this ends, because fifteen years have passed since that valuation, and you don’t use Foursquare. The fantasy of gamification has faded into our current, joyless reality of metrics culture.

Thanks for reading Post Games! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

To be fair to gamification, what executives found appealing about the novel engagement strategy was the data and analytics. The gamification framing was merely the latest method for harvesting information, a cultural obsession with flattening the complexity of life into numbers with which rigid, sweeping policy can be set.

This fixation with metrics has been undermining everything from the economy to education, health care to journalism for the past century.

And yet, here you are listening to a podcast about how and why we love games. Which raises a question: how can games, with their rules and scores, bring us such joy, freedom, and inspiration, when metrics, applied in our lives, can inspire cruel government policy, empower big companies to make sweeping cuts, and suck the joy from our very souls.

A climber approaches a cliffside
Image: Cairn

Today’s guest has the answer. C. Thi Nguyen is the author of The Score: How to Stop Playing Somebody Else’s Game. Nguyen, an academic and philosopher, had spotted a similar conflict in his own writing.

His first book, Games: Agency as Art, found aesthetic beauty in the design and engineering of games. And in The Score, he builds on that idea, showing the way games help us connect with our bodies, provide spaces to experiment with ideas, and offer playgrounds on which to express ourselves.

But when he thought of metrics, Nguyen saw similar rule and score-based systems muddying our understanding of the world around us, often motivating us to pursue goals that no longer aligned with our personal ambitions and beliefs.

As the title suggests, Nguyen doesn’t just spot the difference between games and metrics, but offers a healthy way in which the former can free us from the latter.

In hindsight, I see gamification as a well-intentioned but ultimately misguided philosophy that appealed to the system as it exists today. But as you’ll hear in this conversation, we can throw away the buzzword without tossing aside the medium as a whole. Games have the capacity to improve our lives, so long as the rules serve to help us — not exploit us.

Art: James Bareham

This week on Post Games:

  • Act 1: Games Teach Us to Break Free from Life’s Grind

  • Act 2: Metrics Suck the Joy Out of Life

  • Patreon Bonus: Have Metrics Infected Video Games?

  • Act 3: The News of the Week

Guests:

On the Patreon for $5

  • New monthly bonus episode: The History of The Legend of Zelda!

  • Early access to ad-free episodes

  • Weekly bonus segments

  • An archive of over 50 Patreon-exclusive bonus segments and episodes, including…

    • Multiple histories of beloved video games and video game movies

    • Book club-style conversations with video game creators

    • A five-part series on the history, future, and behind-the-scenes details of games media, adapted from my course for NYU Game Center

A book cover for The Score mixes clouds and circles
Image: The Score by C. Thi Nguyen

Act 1: How Games Teach Us to Break Free from Life’s Grind

  • The Score: How to Stop Playing Somebody Else’s Game by C. Thi Nguyen (Penguin Random House)

  • Why Keeping Score Isn’t Fun Anymore (NYTimes)

  • Gamification (Wiki)

  • Foursquare (Wiki)

  • List of Foursquare Badges (Fandom)

  • 2025 was the year friendslop reigned, and so many low-cost ways to have fun with your pals couldn’t have come at a better time (PCGamer)

  • The Five Obstructions (Kanopy)

  • Reiner Knizia Overview (BoardGameGeek)

  • Erotic art and pornographic pictures by Jerrold Levinson (PhilPapers)

  • Schopenhauer on aesthetics and the goal of art (Honeysucklewalks)

  • Collingwood’s Aesthetics (Stanford)

  • Performance indicator (Wiki)

  • Trust in Numbers: The Pursuit of Objectivity in Science and Public Life by Theodore Porter (Wiki)

  • Excerpts from Theodore M. Porter, Trust in Numbers (PDF)

  • Rules: A Short History of What We Live By by Lorraine Daston (Barnes & Noble)

  • House rule (Wiki)

An author photo of C. Thi Nguyen
Portrait of C. Thi Nguyen

Act 2: Metrics Suck the Joy Out of Life

The Battle Pass screen for Fortnite features a bunch of unlockables
Image: Fortnite

Patreon Bonus: Have Metrics Infected Video Games?

A mysterious, blue robotic face in Marathon
Image: Marathon

Act 3: The News of the Week

  • I Cannot Stop Thinking About Marathon (Aftermath)

  • Bungie is laying off 220 employees and moving others to PlayStation (The Verge)

  • Former Marathon art director says ‘what I could control, I feel really good about’ in the face of pre-release animosity: ‘You can’t take that away from me’ (PCGamer)

  • ‘The vibes have never been worse’ Bungie’s morale is reportedly in ‘free fall’ following its art theft fiasco (PCGamer)

  • With its fluorescent characters and ASCII text, Marathon is a masterclass in 90s nostalgia (The Guardian)

  • Marathon day one check-in: Thief impressions, broken Deluxe Edition bonuses, and so many Assassins (PCGamer)

  • As the Marathon player count discourse reaches peak stupidity, Warframe and Overwatch devs speak up in solidarity: ‘This is big unemployed, maidenless behavior’ (PCGamer)

  • Marathon’s First Big Update Is Basically Perfect (Kotaku)

A new video game magazine with custom art featuring beloved indie game characters
Image: Continue Magazine

This Week in Video Game Links

  • CONTINUE: A Defiant, New Videogames Magazine (Kickstarter)

  • Thanks for injecting me with 500 cursed Black Knight Ultra Greatswords (RPS)

  • After Thirty Years, I Finally Understand Pokémon (VGBees)

  • Happy Mario Day, The World Is Ending (At the Mountains of Sadness)

  • Resident Evil Requiem Confronts The Franchise’s Burdensome Past To Save Its Future (Kotaku)

  • Project Helix vs PS6 Will Be Interesting - But Arguably Misses The Point (Digital Foundry)

Image: Cozy Grove

Free Game of the Week: Cozy Grove

“Welcome to Cozy Grove, a life-sim game about camping on a haunted, ever-changing island. As a Spirit Scout, you’ll wander the island’s forest each day, finding new hidden secrets and helping soothe the local ghosts.” (Available for free on Epic Games Store until March 19)

The podcast art for Get Played
Image: Get Played

What Else I’m Enjoying

  • I’m this week’s guest on Get Played! (Get Played)

  • The Celebrity Crush (Just Atad)

  • The Atlanta Hawks’ Magic City Night Was Too Misunderstood To Live (Defector)

Zelda critters play classic instruments in the soft light of the Master Sword
Artwork: Kristin Tan

Song of the Week

]]><![CDATA[The ESA Saved Video Games Once. Can It Do It Again?]]>https://postgame.substack.com/p/the-esa-saved-video-games-once-can-3edhttps://postgame.substack.com/p/the-esa-saved-video-games-once-can-3edMon, 09 Mar 2026 16:44:19 GMT
Senator Joe Lieberman holds a toy gun video game controller
Image: C-SPAN

[Editor’s note: This week, all subscribers will have access to the Patreon-exclusive bonus segment. If you enjoy this extra material, or would just like to support the long-term health of the show, please consider subscribing on Patreon or leaving a review on Apple Podcasts.]

Today’s guest is ESA President Stanley Pierre-Louis. He took on the leadership role in 2019 after 4 years serving as VP and General Counsel. Over his decade-long tenure with the trade group, he and his team at the ESA have led public policy efforts to, in their own words, “showcase the dynamic impact of the video game industry on business, entertainment and culture.”

Or to put it bluntly: when a politician wants to make policy about video games, Pierre-Louis is giving them a call.

We’ll be opening mid-conversation, with the president of the ESA recounting the events that led to video games’ biggest players sitting before Congress in 1993, arguing for their lives. In the second act, with full historical context, we hop into a conversation about the many challenges facing games today and in the not-so-distant future.

A pixelated, blue hued Congress of the United States with the words Post Games
Image: James Bareham

This week on Post Games:

  • Act 1: The 17-Year Fight to Protect Games from the Government

  • Act 2: The ESA’s President on AI, Child Safety, and Calls for Unionization

  • Patreon Bonus: Three Big Takeaways from the Interview

Guests:

  • Stanley Pierre-Louis: President and CEO, ESA

  • Closing Song: “Jumping Voices (Big Walk Theme)” by aksfx (Big Walk)

Thanks for reading Post Games! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Senator Joe Lieberman holds a toy gun video game controller
Image: C-SPAN

Act 1: The 17-Year Fight to Protect Games from the Government

A large group of fictional characters, from people to snakes to demons, gather on a city street.
Image: Roblox

Act 2: The ESA’s President on AI, Child Safety, and Calls for Unionization

  • Roblox’s Pedophile Problem (Bloomberg)

  • Video game company stock prices dip after Google introduces an AI world-generation tool (Bloomberg)

  • Video Games Aren’t Why Shootings Happen. Politicians Still Blame Them. (NYTimes)

  • AARP Games Center (AARP)

  • What Parents Need To Know About Roblox (ESRB)

  • Older Americans are embracing video games, AARP survey shows (CBS News)

  • We Asked Nintendo, Microsoft, and 12 Other Devs How They Deal With Crunch (Waypoint)

  • Do Video Games Lead to Mass Shootings? Researchers Say No (The New York Times)

A collection of printed zines for "The Rise of the Video Game Union"
Image: Polygon

Patreon Bonus: Three Big Takeaways from the Episode’s Interview

A robotic person wears a cool puffy jacket in Marathon
Image: Marathon

This Week in Video Game Links

  • One of Marathon’s more controversial mechanics brings back a neat idea from Anthem (RPS)

  • Matthew Lillard’s Wing Commander nightmares and FIFA dreams | Shelf Quest (Polygon)

  • The ‘90s Lobo fighting game got censored because of... Tupac? (Design Room)

  • This video of kawaii Space Marines is canon, actually (jank)

  • Ditto Plushies Have Invaded Our Heart Right In Time For Pokopia Fever (Kotaku)

  • Call Of Duty Enters The White House’s Arsenal Of Memes (Aftermath)

  • Don Doko Don: Taking a silly game seriously (Kimimi)

  • “Why Bother If You’re Not Going To Do It Properly?” - Why SEGAGAGA’s AI Translation Is Upsetting So Many People (TimeExtension)

A wetmop cleans a wood floor
Image: Hozy

Free Game of the Week: Hozy demo

From the summary: “Restore a forgotten neighbourhood through your favourite hobby, one cozy room at a time. In Hozy, clean, paint, and decorate abandoned homes with satisfying mechanics and intuitive controls. Enjoy the little details as you interact with tools, items and furniture to bring each space back to life.” (Steam)

Bizarrap, Kara Jackson,Anoushka Shankar, and Gorillaz perform on a late-night TV set with a psychedelic mountain outline over the image
Image: The Graham Norton Shows

What Else I’m Enjoying

Image: Big Walk

Song of the Week

“Jumping Voices (Big Walk Theme)” by aksfx (Big Walk)

Thanks for reading Post Games! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

]]><![CDATA[The ESA President on Child Safety, AI, and Calls for Unionization]]>https://postgame.substack.com/p/the-esa-saved-video-games-once-canhttps://postgame.substack.com/p/the-esa-saved-video-games-once-canFri, 06 Mar 2026 18:18:55 GMT
The Brutal History Of Mortal Kombat's Fatalities - Game Informer
Image: Mortal Kombat

For the past 15 years, it’s been easy to take video games’ existential stability for granted.

Yes, we still see private companies like Valve prohibiting some titles from appearing on their platform. But the vast majority of games – even the hyper-violent and sexually taboo – can be made and sold online, and purchased and played in your home without fear of government oversight.

[The episode is now live on Patreon and will be available on all podcast feeds this Monday.]

That relative freedom, of both artist and audience, is relatively young; guaranteed in 2011, when the Supreme Court ruled in a 7-2 decision that video games deserve the same protections as other art forms. Until the decision on Brown vs. Entertainment, games had been perpetually threatened with oversight from local, state, and national governance.

Cities prohibited the sale of certain illicit games. States attempted to prohibit sales of games based on the consumer’s age. And the United States Congress, briefly but intensely, considered national oversight on what games could and couldn’t be sold. It was out of that congressional showdown, way back in 1993, that the Interactive Digital Software Association, now known as the Entertainment Software Association, or ESA, was born.

The Los Angeles Convention Center in 1995.
Image: The LA Convention Center during E3 1995 via Fandom

Through the ‘90s and ‘00s, the ESA served as stick and carrot. It was the muscle defending a relatively young medium, its members traveling from state to state, throwing themselves into the muck of lawsuits and legislation around the assumption that video games caused violence. And therefore should be strictly limited in sale if not outright censored. The ESA also threw the industry’s big annual party, the Electronic Entertainment Expo, a.k.a. E3. A decadent afair, it attracted a mix of retailers, investors, politicians, and press to a gaudy conference hall full of loud screens, bored models, and desperate publicists trying to draw attention to a medium that, every other day of the year, was dismissed as frivolous kids’ stuff.

Thanks for reading Post Games! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

With this mix of spicy and sweet, the trade organization performed a relentless, nearly two-decade long sweat act, hoping to win the hearts of consumers and influence the minds of the US government. And damn if it didn’t work. It felt, in that moment, as if the ESA spoke for the entire games industry, a centralized voice demanding cultural acceptance.

But every so often, the dog actually catches the man. Or in this case, the budding art form gets legal protections.

Scorpion reveals his skull head. It's engulfed in flames.
Image: Mortal Kombat 9

After securing a designation as protected speech in 2011, the ESA’s function has shifted from survival to more complex questions. With the games industry’s wealth and power growing each year, and the most powerful tech companies on the planet inserting themselves into the space, the notion of a unified games industry became a core challenge for the trade organization.

The ESA’s members are the biggest and most powerful gaming companies in the world. How can it find middleground between rivals like Epic, Roblox, and Nintendo on political issues as divisive as child safety policies, limitations on generative artificial intelligence, and the growing costs of RAM in the age of tariffs and data centers? And what does it mean to speak for the video game industry, when your members are EA, Ubisoft, Amazon, Konami, Nintendo, and practically every other big name you can think of?

To learn how the ESA navigates unifying and protecting the games industry amid arguably the greatest existential threats to the medium since Brown v. Entertainment in 2011, I spoke with the current ESA President, Stanley Pierre-Louise.

My guest has been serving in this role since 2019, and before that served as VP and General Counsel for the ESA. He has a long career in media beyond games, including working for music companies in the age of Napster and Viacom during the Brown vs. Entertainment – which had him involved in the case, albeit from a unique outsider position. We dig into that in our chat.

Image: James Bareham

Ahead of this conversation, though, I came across an interview with Pierre-Louis’ predecessor, former ESA president Michael Gallagher. In a 2018 interview with Waypoint, Gallagher was asked about calls for unionization, but his answer gets at something even bigger: a worldview out of time.

“So, this is fortunately an issue we haven’t had to deal with much in my time as the leader of the ESA, and I think there’s a reason for that. The wages in the video game industry are very high. The barriers to exit for employees are very low, and the opportunities to create within the industry are abundant [...] The returns and the revenue have never been higher. When you put all of those elements together, it’s created great opportunity for individual laborers, or the game makers, at whatever level, to make choices that empower themselves. So I think that’s why we’ve had less... it hasn’t been a significant issue in the game industry for the last ten years.

He would go on to say, “You have to pay attention to them when they’re small because they can become big. And then when they’re bigger, they’re much more difficult to manage.”

I haven’t been able to get these words out of my head. They’re a message from those early years after Brown v. Board of Education, when growth seemed infinite, and government intervention seemed defanged.

In 2026, the problems are much bigger. How does one even begin to manage?

Thanks for reading Post Games! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

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