Do you ever just appreciate the concept of colour? I love those twitter bots that just tweet out swatches, or the clock that turns the time into a hexadecimal value. (At the time of writing this, it’s a kind of mauve.) Arboreta gives me that…
Jay Castello
45 Articles
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.
Jay Castello
1 Min Read
I get the impression that every woman who’s into women has stories like the one that plays out in Got A Light? I know I do. Dark nights outside parties; strangled conversations about feelings; the creeping, confusing anxieties of identity and relationships. A real moment…
Jay Castello
1 Min Read
The opening screen of The Little Ship has a poignant message: “Sometimes beautiful things can pause your journey.” This is partly a tutorial – hitting W brings a breeze to push along your little boat and clear anything in your path. But it also serves…
Jay Castello
1 Min Read
In Tea for Two you play as a snail. It’s a very cute snail. With a unicorn horn and a teapot perched on its back, it’s ready for adventure. Time to Party Specifically, you’re off to search the pink planet surface for tea so that…
Jay Castello
1 Min Read
Exit84 is a typing-platformer. Those aren’t necessarily genres that are usually mashed together, but somehow, it actually works. Filling out the letters on the screen and hitting enter will transport you to where those letters are, and create a new set of letters. Through careful…
Jay Castello
1 Min Read
Woodfarer tasks you with exploring a beautiful, colourful woodland in search of three spirits. These spirits are needed to open a shrine, a horse tells you, very insistently at the beginning of the game. Luckily, they’re not too fragile as you’ll also need to shoot…
Jay Castello
1 Min Read
If you’ve been itching to try your hand at game development, but lack the time or skills to dive in, Unfulfilled gives you the chance to live your dream. After playing you’ll be credited as a level designer in this delightfully interactive art experience. As you navigate…
Jay Castello
1 Min Read
International Women’s Day was this week. Time to stick it to the patriarchy with Lost Wage Rampage! Sexism is infuriating. There’s only so many calm conversations you can have; sometimes you just want to smash things. That’s where this game comes in. In Lost Wage Rampage two…
Jay Castello
3 Min Read
In Where the Water Tastes Like Wine, stories live everywhere people do. They are clustered in towns, tucked into nooks in mountain ranges, and spread out across the whole of the continental United States. Some of the stories that these characters tell you will feel…
Jay Castello
1 Min Read
In Moving, you control a parasitic plant. By hopping into deer, you can move. That’s good news for a plant; as the game’s title suggests, it’s your goal to spread as far from your pond home as possible. By controlling the deer, you can also…
Jay Castello
1 Min Read
Hamilton and Baxter are, presumably, this good bird and his wonderful snail friend. I’m not sure which is which, but personally I’d like to think that Hamilton is the mollusc that’s catching a ride and Baxter is his patient steed. Regardless, Hamilton and Baxter are…
Jay Castello
3 Min Read
Moss is the single cutest game I have ever played. I was not prepared for just how small Quill is. Yes, Moss’s protagonist is a mouse, but until you put the VR headset on it’s difficult to comprehend what that really means. The game, recognising…
Jay Castello
1 Min Read
A few weeks ago I wrote about small, an interactive poem with a lower-case title that fit with its soft spoken attitude. CLOUD NINE, with its brash capital letters, is in some ways a natural opposite. CLOUD NINE is an interactive music video. Rather than…
Jay Castello
1 Min Read
Snowday captures that feeling of stepping into a fresh snowfall. It’s not just about the crunch underfoot. It’s the way that a crisp, white coat can highlight small details that go unnoticed when we get used to our daily surroundings. The brightness of a cardinal,…
Jay Castello
1 Min Read
JetHack is a game about soaring through the air and hacking corporate billboards. If you haven’t run off to download it already – well, why not? It’s fast paced and funny and neon and anti-capitalist. Hopping across rooftops and taking down adverts is extremely fun….
Jay Castello
1 Min Read
Fresnel does a wonderful job of capturing the fragmented, half-remembered nature of dreams. Every scattered vignette begins abruptly, introducing a space with its own rules, imagery, and feeling. A lighthouse in a storm; cabinets stuffed full of wine bottles that spill out at your touch;…