Author: Alyssa Wejebe
-
From Fan Art to Film Crew: RJ Palmer Talks Detective Pikachu
The recent quality and appeal of CG-heavy films like the upcoming Cats, and Disney’s remakes of The Lion King and Aladdin have been called into question. The film adaptation of Sonic the Hedgehog has experienced tumultuous development, with a universally reviled design undergoing revision. A desire for a return to 2D animated cinema has been…
-
Women in Gaming: Borderlands 3 Mission Designer Kate Pitstick
In the veritable shadow of larger-than-life statues of new Borderlands 3 characters at E3 2019, mission and level designer Kate Pitstick got to see her work showcased to thousands. During the bustling exhibition at the Los Angeles Convention Center, Pitstick took the time to talk about her career and work on the latest entry in…
-
Equipping Your Emotions in Crystar
Though action RPG Crystar is already available in its native Japan, it will be heading to North America and Europe later this month. Along with promising action-packed gameplay, Crystar carries its own philosophy on emotions. Published by Spike Chunsoft and FuRyu, and developed by Gemdrops, Crystar follows Rei Hatada’s efforts to revive her dead sister,…
-
A Community’s Lifespan in Dialect: A Game About Language and How It Dies
Embodying the spirit of encompassing all gaming, the IndieCade showcase at E3 2019 featured tabletop games too. This included Thorny Games’ Dialect: A Game About Language and How It Dies. But before players can reach the destruction of a language, they have to create it first. Communally Created Words “For every turn of the game,…
-
#Voices4Devs: Voice Actors Give Online Support for Game Unionization
As more people working in video games try to form their own union, they’ve recently gotten another burst of online support. Apparently starting on April 2, voice actors united under the #Voices4Devs hashtag on Twitter to call attention to the developers they work with on games. A wide variety of voice actors from AAA titles…
-
Classic Dragon Ball Antagonist Cell Finds New Life in Games
Dragon Ball FighterZ has been phenomenally well-received on a wide scale, sparking the interest of long-time franchise fans, the general fighting game community, the esports scene, and casual players. Part of the appeal of the game is how well it committed to the aesthetic of Dragon Ball’s 2D origins as a manga and anime when…
-
Videl in Dragon Ball FighterZ: Blasting Past the Glass Ceiling to Reach the Arena
Like many things, Dragon Ball and its shonen genre have a history of male-heavy casts with an emphasis on action. The most featured characters are often the fighters, and they’re often men. It’s refreshing whenever that status quo is shaken up by female characters punching through the glass ceiling to join the fray. Out of…
-
Going Out For VR with Alien: Descent
While virtual reality—or VR—seems to be gaining ground, I honestly haven’t seen the appeal of it. I like games, but haven’t felt the desire to have it consume my entire vision, or get that immersed in it while at home. I like console and handheld games, and other forms of entertainment like film, books, etc.…
-
The Raccoon Who Lost Their Shape: Metaphorically Rejecting Discrimination
Cliqist recently highlighted The Raccoon Who Lost Their Shape, a quirky occult game about the eponymous Raccoon and their ability to communicate with the ghosts of sentient shapes. Developed by Cat Night Games—a subdivision of FilmCow, Jason Steele’s indie film company that created the viral hits Charlie the Unicorn and Llamas with Hats—and distributed on…
-
No Romance in BioWare’s Anthem Could Open New Doors
BioWare games have been marked with a variety of romance options, ranging from getting together with Dorian in the Dragon Age series, to becoming involved with Silk Fox in Jade Empire. According to Tech Times, Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn was the first BioWare game to let the player’s avatar form a couple with…
-
Conquering the Cyber Kingdom: Analyzing Bowsette
On Sept. 19, Twitter user haniwa (@ayyk92) posted a fan comic whose conclusion focused on a blonde woman with horns, a visual mix of official characters Princess Peach and Bowser from Nintendo’s Super Mario franchise. This fan creation would be nicknamed Bowsette. The fan comic has now garnered over 80 thousand retweets and motivated many to post…
-
Women in Gaming: Dona Bailey, Co-Creator of Centipede
Centipede is a classic arcade title in video game history, a critical hit for Atari that helped bring video games even further into the mainstream. But its female co-creator, Dona Bailey, isn’t talked about nearly as often. Before Atari Bailey picked up programming at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, and as she told…