Jay Castello
Jay is a freelance games writer specialising in intersectional feminist critique, how to improve games and use them to improve the world, and cute dogs. She loves inhabiting digital spaces in all their forms, and being constantly surprised by just how weird and wonderful games can be.
Moments & Memories in Before I Forget
Before I Forget is a narrative game exploring the life of Sunita, who has dementia.
By moving through her house, players will unlock memories that...
Soaring High in Windlands 2
Windlands 2 is easily the strangest feeling I’ve ever had in VR.
A virtual reality platformer, the game asks the player to swing from branch...
Smoke and Sacrifice Preview: Motherhood and Mud
Smoke and Sacrifice first hooked me in with its protagonist: a mother. Strangely rare in games, given how many fathers there are, this game’s...
The Breathtaking Beauty of Raji: An Ancient Epic
Raji: An Ancient Epic might have been the most gorgeous game at EGX Rezzed.
Influenced by Hindu and Balinese legends, the titular Raji must go...
The Dark Hilarity of Morkredd
Morkredd is interesting because its monochrome aesthetic and the menacing dark that players must avoid contrasts cleanly with how much I laughed playing it.
You’d...
Lost Ember : Most Adorable
Lost Ember has some of the most adorable animals in games I’ve ever seen – especially the wombats.
And to make it better, you get...
Knights and Bikes Preview: Rough and Tumble Fun
Knights and Bikes is nostalgic for the 80s – but not in the sense that it’s riddled with cheap pop culture references. Instead, it...
Decoding Dialect in Inkle Studios’ Heaven’s Vault
I usually try to avoid comparing games to other games, but when Inkle Studios’ Art and Code Director Joseph Humfrey called Heaven’s Vault “Guitar...
The Genuine, Unapologetic Joy of Ooblets
I’m not going to lie, Ooblets was by far and away my most anticipated game of EGX Rezzed – and it did not disappoint.
The...
Unravel the Forest’s Mysteries in Lake Ridden
Lake Ridden is an upcoming narrative game centred on 13 year old Marie, who is searching for her missing sister in the Maine wilderness.
Their...
Homo Machina Preview: Explore the Mechanics of the Body
Homo Machina is the upcoming game from the developers at Darjeeling, based on the works of the pioneering science writer Dr. Fritz Kahn.
In the...
Astrologaster Preview: Written in the Stars
Elizabethan astronomer and doctor Simon Forman operated in the late 1500s, healing patients and giving them advice based on the position of the stars....
Another Sight Preview: Explore the Underground
Another Sight centres on Kit, a teenage girl who loses her sight in an accident while exploring the unfinished London Underground tunnels of 1899....
Epyka Preview: Who’s A Good Boy?
When I first got an email asking if I’d like to book a demo with Epyka, I thought the game must be made specifically...
Weekindies: Create a Singing Forest in Bloom
When you first open Bloom, it seems very drab. A blank grid stretches out into the darkness, inviting you to bring it to life...
Weekindies: Puzzle out the Pixels of The Librarian
The Librarian starts with a cozy scene; the titular librarian (who is unnamed in the game but identified as Liz on the game’s itch.io...