Kritiqal Care – Details, episodes & analysis

Ayu Koyama (she/her), aka sweetfish, is an interactive fiction writer and designer whose work explores religion, history, and digital play. In this episode we chat about what drew her to interactive fiction as a form, how that intersects with her experimental web design projects, and the ways a distant relationship with Catholicism influences her games. In closing we invite you to read old books.

You can learn more about Ayu’s projects on her personal website and play her games on itch.

Ayu’s Cool Things to Share
- The Talented Mr. Ripley (Patricia Highsman, 1955) book series

Things Discussed
- Night Confessionals (sweetfish, 2023)
- Eider Cake (sweetfish, 2024)
- Heretic Pride (Laika)
- Pentiment (Obsidian, 2022)
- Commonplace (Pitter-Patter, 2022)
- LATEX, LEATHER, LIPSTICK, LOVE, LUST (LITHOBREAKERS, 2024)
- The Neo-Interactives
- Weird Web October

Kritiqal Care is produced by me, Nathalie, with music by Desired. It's available on Pocket Casts, Apple Podcasts, and wherever else you get podcasts. If you enjoyed the show, consider leaving a review or rating, sharing it with a loved one, and supporting KRITIQAL on Ko-Fi.

Content warning: this episode briefly discusses suicidal ideation

Kyou System (they/them) is an artist and game developer whose work explores the profound and incoherent world of dreams. We discuss the nocturnal origins of their first game, Remembrance, revisiting and remaking it half a decade later, embracing a more expressionistic writing style, and getting involved in visual novel game jams. Finally, we implore you to consider backgammon.

You can learn more about Kyou’s projects on their personal website and play their games on itch.

Kyou’s Cool Things to Share
- The Menhera VN Jam
- Backgammon

Things Discussed
- Remembrance (Kyou System, 2019)
- Permanence (Kyou System, 2020)
- THERA (Kyou System, ongoing)
- The VN Cup
- The Queer Games Bundle
- RPG Maker 2003
- Ren’Py

Kritiqal Care is produced by me, Nathalie, with music by Desired. It's available on Pocket Casts, Apple Podcasts, and wherever else you get podcasts. If you enjoyed the show, consider leaving a review or rating, sharing it with a loved one, and supporting KRITIQAL on Ko-Fi.

David Su (he/him) is a musician, audio programmer, and game designer who explores interactive music and performance art. He took some time off from his ballooning schedule to discuss how he got interested in making games from an audio background, the challenges and rewards of centering your game around sound, and the playful earnestness of a cloned sheep’s lament. Later, we wander into a video store.

You can play Davids games on itch, and follow him on Twitter @usdivad.

David’s Cool Things to Share
- Visiting local video stores and buying DVDs

Things Discussed
- Brass Lion Entertainment
- Runaway Reveree (David Su, 2016)
- Yi and the Thousand Moons (David Su, 2017)
- Seasons (David Su and Dominique Star, 2018)
- The Ballad of the Metamorphosis of M. Dolly (David Su, 2019)
- One Hand Clapping (Bad Dream Games, 2021)
- Tasting Room Jam Halloween 2019

Kritiqal Care is produced by me, Nathalie, with music by Desired. It's available on Pocket Casts, Apple Podcasts, and wherever else you get podcasts. If you enjoyed the show, consider leaving a review or rating, sharing it with a loved one, and supporting KRITIQAL on Ko-Fi.

It’s New Year’s Eve, which means 2023 has come and gone, bringing in closing our annual end of the year show. As is tradition, I reached out to past guests of the show to ask what their most impactful gaming memory was from the last 12 months. As this year has been particularly brutal to folks in and around games, I opened the prompt up to not exclusively focus on good memories, hoping instead to simply reflect on the year as a whole, positive and negative. The responses were as insightful, touching, and playful as ever, running the gamut from industry events, personal milestones, and games that captured people’s imaginations. I hope you enjoy this look back at 2023, and that you have a great 2024. Happy new year!

Featuring
Elaine Gómez | Kate Olguin | Quinn K | Andrew of Indiepocalypse | Nicholas O'Brien | SKELETON DEEP HELL DOT COM | Taylor McCue | Nilson Carroll | Kat of Pixel A Day | Nathan Blades | Kevin Wong | Jeff Chiao | Lily Valeen | Canvas (bighandinsky)

Kritiqal Care is produced by me, Nathalie, with music by Desired. It's available on Pocket Casts, Apple Podcasts, and wherever else you get podcasts. If you enjoyed the show, consider sharing it with a loved one and supporting Kritiqal on Ko-Fi.

Domino Club is a pseudo-anonymous internet collective that makes weird, horny, and genre perverting videogames. In this episode I’m joined by Domino Club card carrying members Emma (she/her), Nat (she/they), and Rose (she/her) to chat about the group’s origins, its unconventional approach to anthology projects, and how all these games are secretly just for them. We also dive into their latest jam, Humors & Humus, to discuss how each member approached the chickpea-less theme.

You can find all of Domino Club’s games on itch and their website, and the group on Twitter @club_domino.

Domino Club’s Cool Things to Share (more down below)
- Rose: Cecil B. Demented (John Waters, 2000)
- Nat: the films of Sarah Jacobson
- Emma: people who have been inspired by Domino Club to make their own game groups

Domino Club Games Discussed
- HACKER//SUCKER//LOSER (Humors & Humus Jam, 2023)
- Adverse Possession (Humors & Humus Jam, 2023)
- Ziptie Choker (Humors & Humus Jam, 2023)
- The Devil’s Imago (Humors & Humus Jam, 2023)
- PISSED-ON PETITE PERVERT (Humors & Humus Jam, 2023)
- Greaser (Metal & Flesh Jam, 2022)

Other Things Discussed
- Believeinthe.net
- Garden’s of Vextro (vextro, 2022)
- Donating My Body To Science (Heavens To Betsy, 1994)
- FREEYOUTUBEMP3DOWNLOAD
- Mutant Hunt (Tim Kincaid, 1987)

Kritiqal Care is produced by me, Nathalie, with music by Desired. It's available on Pocket Casts, Apple Podcasts, and wherever else you get podcasts. If you enjoyed the show, consider sharing it with a loved one and supporting KRITIQAL on Ko-Fi.

View additional question answers from other Domino Club members on KRITIQAL.

Sam Machell (he/him) is half of indie game studio Sand Gardeners, known for provocative and unconventional games like Dark Kitchen, Memphis, Bubbleland, and Brownie Cove Cancelled. We chat about the studio’s origins as a webcomic collaboration, designing hostile environments, and the tragedy and possibility of unarchivable games. Later, Sam gives a brief eulogy for the Wii U, sadly taken from us too soon.

You can play Sand Gardeners’s games on itch, and follow Sam on Instagram @sambehindglass.

Sam’s Inspiring Things to Share
- The tragically misunderstood Wii U

Things Discussed
- the Brownie Cove webcomic (partially archived on its facebook page)
- Kentucky Route Zero (Cardboard Computer, 2016-2020)
- Exhaustlands (Sand Gardeners, 2018)
- Brownie Cove Cancelled (2018)
- Kitchen For One (Sand Gardeners, 2019)
- Dark Kitchen (2020)
- Memphis, Bubbleland (2022)
- Unpaid Serenade for Future Solution Group [2026 eCon Grief/Heartbreak Singalong Nightmare/Archive] (Sand Gardeners, 2021)
- Feast Work (Sand Gardeners, 2023)
- non-places (Marc Auge’s Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity)
- non-time (Mark Fisher’s Ghosts of my Life)
- non-endings (LeeRoy Lewin’s The Aleph Hustle)
- co-open (lowpolis, 2021)
- No shit, video games are political. They’re conservative. (Josh Tucker, 2019)

Kritiqal Care is produced by me, Nathalie, with music by Desired. It's available on Pocket Casts, Apple Podcasts, and wherever else you get podcasts. If you enjoyed the show, consider sharing it with a loved one and supporting KRITIQAL on Ko-Fi.

Lili Zone (she/they) is the experimental game designer behind works like Crypt World (2013) and Crypt Underworld (2023). She took some time to chat with me about Crypt World’s origins, the nearly decade long development of Underworld, and what she has planned for the future now the crypts are behind her. We also dig into the evolving conception of indie games, the “small games matter” PR amnesia cycle, and gaming’s ongoing embarrassment and adoration for Great Men™️.

You can play Lili’s games on itch, and her personal site.

Lili’s Cool Things to Share
- The Blazing World (Margaret Cavendish, 1666)

Things Discussed
- Crypt World
- Crypt Underworld
- The Virtual Museum of Dead-Wifery (Lili Zone, 2020)
- Room Map (Lili Zone, 2022)
- Glorious Trainwrecks
- Problem Attic (Liz Ryerson, 2013)
- Indie Game: The Movie (James Swirsky and Lisanne Pajot, 2012)

Kritiqal Care is produced by me, Nathalie, with music by Desired. It's available on Pocket Casts, Apple Podcasts, and wherever else you get podcasts. If you enjoyed the show, consider sharing it with a loved one and supporting KRITIQAL on Ko-Fi.

Canvas (he/she), aka bighandinsky, is the creator of crunchy, narrative driven scifi games A Forgetful Loop (2020) and A Day of Maintenance (2022). He’s collaborated with fellow writers and indie devs Freya Campbell and Elliot Herriman, and joined me on this episode to chat about integrating dense narration into mechanics heavy games, writing casual and circuitous conversations with robots, and the struggle of managing energy and stress during longterm projects.

You can follow Canvas on Cohost @peterrobot, and play his games on itch.

Canvas’ Cool/Inspiring Things to Share
- Daily wordplay games Murdle and Redactcle
- How much they appreciate their partner

Things Discussed
- A Forgetful Loop
- A Day of Maintenance
- Two Peas in a Pod (bighandinsky, 2021)
- Ink by Inkle
- Klara and the Sun (Kazuo Ishiguro, 2022)

Kritiqal Care is produced by me, Nathalie, with music by Desired. It's available on Pocket Casts, Apple Podcasts, and wherever else you get podcasts. If you enjoyed the show, consider sharing it with a loved one and supporting KRITIQAL on Ko-Fi.

Leah Case (she/her) is a writer and game developer who specializes in absurd Twine hacking. In our chat, she digs into why she loves Twine so much, how she approaches writing branching interactive fiction, and how collaborating as part of snotwurm lets her focus in on system building (in Twine, of course). She closes the show out by teasing a forthcoming visual novel strategy game, and recommending some further listening.

You can follow Leah on Twitter @leahthecase, and play her games on itch.

Leah's Cool Things to Share
- C. J. Cherryh’s science fiction writing

Things Discussed
- Twine
- Lysogenesis (Leah Case, 2022)
- A Political Marriage (Leah Case, 2022)
- SugarPhone, a SugarCube 2 Phone Engine (Leah Case, 2023)
- Leaving, 2153 (Leah Case, 2020)
- San Francisco, 2118 (Leah Case, 2019)
- Snotwurm
- GOOD DUNGEON (Snotwurm, 2021)
- BAPY (Snotwurm, 2021)

Kritiqal Care is produced by me, Nathalie, with music by Desired. It's available on Pocket Casts, Apple Podcasts, and wherever else you get podcasts. If you enjoyed the show, consider sharing it with a loved one and supporting KRITIQAL on Ko-Fi.

Autumn Rain (she/they/it) is a prolific game developer whose work explores religious trauma, non-linear exploration, and getting lost in a maze of rats. We discuss games as miserable piles of secrets, the importance of indie dev communities, and why it’s actually fine and good to troll gamers.

You can follow Autumn on Twitter @slitherpunk, on Tumblr @slitherpunk, and play her games on itch.

Autumns's Cool Things to Share
- Lunacid (KIRA LLC, 2022)
- Cartomancy Anthology (Compact, 2022)
- The Owl House (Dana Terrace, 2020-2023)

Things Discussed
- Sewer Rave (Autumn Rain, 2018)
- Voidland Mystery Goodnight (Autumn Rain, 2022)
- Be Not Afraid A.K.A. Seraphim Horror Show!? (Autumn Rain, 2020)
- Artists of a Dead World (Autumn Rain, 2020)
- Gardens of a New World (Autumn Rain, 2021)
- Super Paper Mario (Intelligent Systems, 2007)
- Code Coven
- Haunted PS1

Kritiqal Care is produced by me, Nathalie, with music by Desired. It's available on Pocket Casts, Apple Podcasts, and wherever else you get podcasts. If you enjoyed the show, consider sharing it with a loved one and supporting KRITIQAL on Ko-Fi.