Author: Amanda Hudgins

Amanda Hudgins is an occasional writer based out of Lexington, KY and sometimes writes for her interactive fiction publication Storycade.
Thousand Threads
News

Great Cascade gets a new name, still looking to fix open-world games

Upcoming open-world game Great Cascade has been renamed Thousand Threads. The reason for the title change is due to a copyrighted game having a similar name. And so, in order to avoid confusion, Seamount Games changed the name, which is inspired by a quotation from Herman Melville. “Ye cannot live for yourselves; a thousand fibres connect you with your fellow-men, and along those fibres, as along sympathetic threads, run your actions as causes, and return to you as effects.” The title Thousand Threads, then, is perhaps even better suited to the nature of the game. While it’s an open-world game like many others, where…
Escape From Pleasure Planet
News

Get ready for more gay sci-fi adventures in your videogames

The creator of the incredibly named My Ex-Boyfriend the Space Tyrant is currently funding a follow-up: Escape From Pleasure Planet. Escape from Pleasure Planet follows the story of Captain Tycho Minogue as he battles the devilish (and dangerously handsome) criminal Brutus, who he must track down. For Luke Miller, the creator of these gay-themed science-fiction adventure games, there was an easy connection to be made between the nature of both narratives. wants to touch on issues relating to the gay community “I was looking for gay and science fiction themes that were complementary to each other,” Miller says. “In the…
Bum Rush
News

Bum Rush, a racing game tribute to the pursuit of sex in college

Have you ever been sexiled from a shared apartment? I haven’t, but I recall an instance of a friend in college being sexiled while he was away in the bathroom—his roommate had come in during his absence, along with his girlfriend, and left a sock on the door. My friend sat for the next 30 minutes, towel clad, in the lobby of the dorm waiting for them to finish up. Bum Rush, the newest game by Nina Freeman, Emmett Butler, Diego Garcia, and Maxo, is about the experience of sexiling your roommates. The game does this through a combination of combat…
News

Forza 6 glitch turns it into a much more beautiful racing game

Seizure warning: The video linked below can be a problem for photosensitive epileptics. /// There comes a time in nearly every game’s life cycle where a series of really awesome glitches are captured. Whether it is the papery surreality of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (2015) or the deep weirdness of the Jackdaw rising from the ocean in Assassins’ Creed Black Flag (2013), these glitches break through the manufactured reality of the games—the attempt at photorealistic textures—and show us an underlying failure in the architecture of their titles. They’re also pretty freaking sweet to look at. Take this week’s example…
The Endless Express
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Go on a dreamlike journey with The Endless Express

From the creator of Lieve Oma—the game where the only fail state is disappointing your grandmother—comes an unfinished game about traveling on a train. The Endless Express is a continuation of a 2014 game jam entry in which your character falls asleep on the train, and then needs to find their way home. It’s a game that manages to capture the feeling of being lost as a traveler through a series of peculiar creatures, an intern-made schedule, and the light swaying momentum of the train itself. The unfinished corridors of the train stations, the untextured boats in the distance of a…
News

The greatest Famicom-based game jam returns this week

What do you get when you combine the world of fake Famicom case cover art and game jams? The “A Game By Its Cover” jam, actually, which is making its triumphant return on June 30th. Being the Japanese precursor to the NES, the distinctive red-and-white Famicom has a great deal of nostalgic power over people who grew up in the early 80s—even if it doesn’t closely resemble the American, VCR-looking version of the console. The A Game By Its Cover Jam sorta banks on that. It encourages game makers to spend a month creating games based on faux Famicom cover fan…
The Temple of No
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The Temple of No is interactive fiction for people who might not typically enjoy it

Crows Crows Crows, the studio created by William Pugh (co-developer on 2013’s The Stanley Parable), has launched their second game—a Twine adventure called The Temple of No. The game is relatively short and comedic, similar in that regard to the studio’s previous short, narrative title, Dr. Langeskov, the Tiger, and the Terribly Cursed Emerald: A Whirlwind Heist (a name you are sure to have to Google to remember.) Made in the Twine engine, it’s a simple interactive narrative experience where you go on an adventure as either a woman, a “bloke,” or a frog. “Have you ever played a good game…
Cuphead
News

Right on: Cuphead’s 1930s-style animation will exist beyond boss fights

The fine folks behind Cuphead have their own E3 announcement and it’s a doozy—their 1930s-animation-inspired game will have platforming elements. That may not seem like a lot, but before now, Cuphead had been touted exclusively as a boss-rush game. One-on-one battles against large enemies that didn’t give you a break were showcased, including fights against a large pirate named Captain Silver, and an angry carrot. It did a brill job of combining the golden age of Disney with confined run-and-gun challenges. you jazzily shoot down mushrooms with finger pistols However, as said, at E3 this year, on show is a…
Bound
News

Bound brings a much-needed dose of ballet to the videogame lineup

Alongside the newest edition of God of War and a horror VR title, Sony Santa Monica talked about a smaller, quieter game at their E3 Conference. Bound is a 3D narrative platformer set to release August 16th. Bound doesn’t look like any other game currently out, both in terms of its unique take on low-poly minimalism, its usage of color, and the movement of your unique main character. There’s an easy connection to be made between the effort and work of ballet and game design, in terms of their difficulty and craftsmanship. Both require years of practice and a certain poetry…