Archive

Death to Realism! 033

Hello again! This will be a fairly brief one. If you need a refresher on the origin & nature of these updates, check out the first issue before reading on.

What's New?

Death to Realism! 032

Hope you're all devising various strategies to stay cool these past few weeks! I've had an almost constant batch of lemonade going. If you need a refresher on the origin & nature of these bi-weekly updates, check out the first issue before reading on.

What's New?

It's the last week of July, and therefore the last week the new Plaintext Distro catalog will be up for orders on the website! Thanks to online orders I've just about broken even on the print order and tabling fees despite missing GZF, which is awesome. Going forward, I'll be looking for more local opportunities to distribute the copies I still have, and hopefully be able to make it to an in-person zine fair soon.

Death to Realism! 031

Hope July is treating you well! If you need a refresher on the origin & nature of these bi-weekly updates, check out the first issue before reading on.

What's New?

There was a last minute change of plans with Glasgow Zine Fair, as my partner tested positive for COVID a few days before I was meant to go. I was still able to get all of our new stuff in to be featured at the communal zine table, but ultimately passed on being in the exhibition hall all day because I was pretty sure I'd be contagious.

Death to Realism! 030

Hello again! This newsletter is now PWYW and you can change your subscription using the links at the bottom (especially if you were having an issue with this before, it should be sorted out now.) If you need a refresher on the origin & nature of these bi-weekly updates, check out the first issue before reading on.

What's New?

Glasgow Zine Fair is this weekend, and Plaintext will be tabling with new stock on Sunday, July 3rd! I am super excited to get the new stuff out there, and am pulling together the last few touches for the table. You can check out the distro website to see the new zines on offer and the GZF website for more information on times, getting to the venue, and other events and workshops going on alongside the fair.

Death to Realism! 029

Hello! As we crawl towards the longest days of the year my sleep schedule is a bit disrupted, but the weather has been (mostly) treating me well. Just a reminder that this newsletter is now PWYW and you can change your subscription using the links at the bottom (especially if you were having an issue with this before, it should be sorted out now.) If you need a refresher on the origin & nature of these bi-weekly updates, check out the first issue before reading on.

What's New?

My birthday zone was on the 8th, four days after my actual birthday. It was really fun! If you didn't come around, we all really enjoyed watching George Kuchar's Ascension of the Demonoids, which is available online here. I also did some minor housekeeping on my homepage, adding links to the newsletter, and rearranging the writing portfolio section to show off my fiction and be a bit easier to navigate.

Death to Realism! 028

Hello! Welcome back and greetings to new subscribers. Just a reminder that this newsletter is now PWYW and you can change your subscription using the links at the bottom (especially if you were having an issue with this before, it should be sorted out now.) If you need a refresher on the origin & nature of these bi-weekly updates, check out the first issue before reading on.

What's New?

It has been kind of a packed past two weeks for me, as I wrote and edited my way to a full second draft of the novel project I've had cooking since around last August or so, even though, well, it's still playing around with stuff from an unfinished sci fi novel I wrote in high school, a short story that was a part of my undergrad portfolio, etc.. I'm feeling pretty tender about it, and nervous about sharing it and sending it out for feedback, but feel at liberty to at least share the vibes playlist.

Death to Realism! 027

Hello! Welcome back and greetings to new subscribers. Just a reminder that this newsletter is now PWYW and you can change your subscription using the links at the bottom (especially if you were having an issue with this before, it should be sorted out now.) If you need a refresher on the origin & nature of these bi-weekly updates, check out the first issue before reading on.

What's New?

An interview I did with Jaroslav Švelch about his extremely interesting history of homebrew game development, hardware building and game distribution in 80s Czechoslovakia is now online! It was a really fun conversation and I'm excited to see it go up.

Death to Realism! 026

Hello! If my estimation is correct, based on the number of issues and when I approximately remember starting this, I've now been doing these updates for a whole year! I hope they're still a pleasant presence in your inbox. If you need a refresher on the origin & nature of these bi-weekly updates, check out the first issue before reading on.

What's New?

So, a year in, I'm giving this newsletter a bit of a fresh start. It should now be PWYW, down to zero to subscribe, and I believe you can make changes to whatever level works best for you going forward either from the links at the bottom of the email, or the main subscription page here. I still won't really be doing consistent separate tiers or rewards for people who are paid vs not, so this is entirely up to you and I'm happy for any form of support my difficult-to-monetize work gets, especially if it's more people reading and thinking about it.

Death to Realism! 025

Hello and happy whatever multiply-coinciding holiday you feel aligned with, if any! If you need a refresher on the origin & nature of these bi-weekly updates, check out the first issue before reading on.

What's New?

Red Futures, the leftist sci fi fiction group I'm a part of, has put up some of the pieces that resulted from our second round of writing to prompts, including one of my own. We're also making responses to the next prompt open, so if you are interested in writing and discussing science fiction that explores the impact of technology on work, social organization, and culture, feel free to join in!

Death to Realism! 024

I'm a bit late again this week (apologies!) but to be fair things have been a bit busy. Read on! If you need a refresher on the origin & nature of these bi-weekly updates, check out the first issue before reading on.

What's New?

Following the third Domino Club drop, and after the awards ceremony, I revealed myself as the author of Vault 819, Underground, alongside candle who created the extremely swanky Tape Window System for the presentation. It received the "Andrew Shannon Award for destruction of art in service of a higher purpose," to give an idea of theme. I also wrote up a more in-depth postmortem on the process and feelings/influences/ideas that went into it here. Be sure to check out the other Domino Club games if you haven't already, they're all great.

Death to Realism! 023

Happy Spring! Obviously this issue's gone out a bit late, but it was because there were still some things I wanted to squeeze into it, as you'll see below. If you need a refresher on the origin & nature of these bi-weekly updates, check out the first issue before reading on.

What's New?

Domino Club has just dropped a new batch of anonymous, subterranean-themed games. We've also commandeered the URL barefootis.legal if you need an even faster and more memorable way of sharing Domino Club games with your professional network. Mysterious pseudonyms will be maintained until April 3rd, so in the next issue I'll be able to share which entry is my own as well as some thoughts on the rest of them!

Death to Realism! 022

It's March! Sorry sorry. I will have to come up with a new way to introduce these when the average daily high goes above 10C but until then I'll be increasingly excited about reaching that point. If you need a refresher on the origin & nature of these bi-weekly updates, check out the first issue before reading on.

What's New?

Undo Jam concluded after the traditional extension period, and we got 14 intriguing entries. My own entry is a bit about my own experience of portable and handheld devices, but do check out the whole jam page if you're interested in criticism and interactive speculative works about alternate histories of sex games, CD-ROMs and graphic cards, gimmick games, operating systems, representation, wordle, and OF COURSE, more.

Death to Realism! 021

Hello! Hope you are having some emerging signs of spring where you are... we may be just about there. If you need a refresher on the origin & nature of these bi-weekly updates, check out the first issue before reading on.

What's New?

Undo Jam is in full swing and the inevitable extension is also in effect! Wa-hoo! So you have until Thursday to respond to the theme in any fashion you care to. We already have some great entries like candle's contemplation of the drawbacks of graphics cards and Bagenzo taking on Hareraiser. I've also uploaded my own piece which is a reflection on the varied and atypical handheld tech of the 90s and early 00s, and the consequences of their current uniformity.

Death to Realism! 020

Greetings and happy February. Month of romance and also the shortest... cute? If you need a refresher on the origin & nature of these bi-weekly updates, check out the first issue before reading on.

What's New?

I will be formally announcing it and making it listed on itch.io tomorrow, but the theme for the forthcoming sixth(!!) annual writing is... UNDO! You can check out the jam page now for a clearer idea of what I'm getting at with the theme, and I also reccomend consulting the Lost Histories and Speculation jams especially for inspiration. In the description, I give a hat-tip to Jaroslav Svelch's Gaming the Iron Curtain, which really got me thinking on the topic of how changeable our ideas of a games industry or culture in general really are, with the insights he pulls together on an almost entirely unofficial and non-professionalized context for games.

Death to Realism! 019

Greetings again! January seemed to fly by. If you need a refresher on the origin & nature of these bi-weekly updates, check out the first issue before reading on.

What's New?

I always find the first month of the year (at least!) to be a slow on-ramp to deciding what I'm even going to try to do in the forthcoming year. I've honestly just been keeping my head down at the day job and hoping to gradually decide and/or stumble upon the stuff I want to work on next. This makes the weeks go weirdly fast! So apologies if this update is not super lively!

Death to Realism! 018

Happy new year! If you need a refresher on the origin & nature of these bi-weekly updates, check out the first issue before reading on.

What's New?

I started working on this before the Game Jolt adult games deletion controversy, I swear, but this week I finished a mini-site called The Future Museum of Sex Games. It was for Domino Club's Secret Fanta event, where we made a fan work for someone else's project in the club. My site is responding to Oma Keeling's film Who Plays Unspeakable Games? but of course, right when I was almost finished with it, it suddenly became even more broadly relevant. Also, for my secret fanta, Fotocopiadora made some cool fanart and an awesome piece of music for my game 10,000 Sex Arses Stuck at Calais, which you can see here.

Death to Realism! 017

Holiday greetings! Turns out my principle of no new projects in December still meant I ended up with a lot of stuff to do. If you need a refresher on the origin & nature of these bi-weekly updates, check out the first issue before reading on.

What's New?

This will be my last newsletter until the new year! I'll be taking an extra week off for Christmas and starting the approximately bi-weekly schedule after the first week of the new year. If you signed up for holiday cards, I'm finishing them now and sending them out tomorrow! I also spent a lot of the past week rushing to find backup Christmas gifts for things showing up late, sending a huge parcel back home to my parents, etc. Hopefully after this week I can finally chill.

Death to Realism! 016

It's cold here now! I saw a seagull standing on a part of the duck pond that froze over today. I hope you are staying warm and/or experiencing southern hemisphere summer. If you need a refresher on the origin & nature of these bi-weekly updates, check out the first issue before reading on.

What's New?

The CFP for a special issue I'm co-editing on Local Digital Game Production is out now. If there are any games academia or even just general media studies academia individuals among us, and you're doing work on Local Game Production (in the broadest sense, but we're especially interested in non-industry, grey-legal, online and Global South angles, I think) send it along! I'm really excited to read it though my relationship to academia as someone who got their degree but is not in an academic job is kind of tenuous and long-term uncertain; basically I'm putting my skills out there for stuff I think is interesting and important in its own right.

Death to Realism! 015

As I'm writing this, it's 4 PM and already getting dark here in Glasgow, but I hope you are enjoying whatever snatches of fall sights and sounds the amount of daylight allows you to enjoy! If you need a refresher on the origin & nature of these bi-weekly updates, check out the first issue before reading on.

What's New?

Domino Club is back with a whole new round of games!! Check out the twitter thread for all the new titles that have dropped, and, be aware that, based on both the anonymous nature of the jam and the three secret prompts we got to choose from, a lot of the entries are about sex, violence, and the indifferent void of space. Videogames!

Death to Realism! 014

Happy Halloween! I hope you're doing something fun rather than reading emails, or maybe reading this a few days after I've sent it. If you need a refresher on the origin & nature of these bi-weekly updates, check out the first issue before reading on.

What's New?

Death to Realism! 013

Lucky for you number 13 is a pretty brief one. If you need a refresher on the origin & nature of these bi-weekly updates, check out the first issue before reading on.

What's New?

Death to Realism! 012

It's finally cool and crisp and Halloween pun display name season. If you need a refresher on the origin & nature of these bi-weekly updates, check out the first issue before reading on.

What's New?

Death to Realism! 011

Hello again! Oh, I made it. If you need a refresher on the origin & nature of these bi-weekly updates, check out the first issue before reading on.

What's New?

Death to Realism! 010

Crossing over into the double digits, huh! If you need a refresher on the origin & nature of these bi-weekly updates, check out the first issue before reading on.

What's New?

Death to Realism! 009

Welcome back! Summer is waning but still rather sweaty here in Glasgow. If you need a refresher on the origin & nature of these bi-weekly updates, check out the first issue before reading on.

Death to Realism! 008

It is the eighth day of the eighth month of the year and I am sending this eighth issue of my email newsletter which feels highly synchronic and which I absolutely did not plan for. Anyways, if the midsummer torpor has made you forget what this newsletter is for, you can check out the first issue before reading on.

Death to Realism! 007

Hello! How have your past two weeks been? Honestly I'm very into the inevitable passage of time right now because I'm already ready for it to be autumn... for those of you who'd like more of an intro to what precisely is going on here, you can check out the first issue before reading on.

Death to Realism! 006

Hello! It's July! That seems kind of unbelievable... for those of you who'd like more of an intro to what precisely is going on here, you can check out the first issue before reading on.

Death to Realism! 005

Hello! The newsletter keeps chugging along now... for those of you who'd like more of an intro to what precisely is going on here, you can check out the first issue before reading on.

Death to Realism! 004

Hello! The newsletter keeps chugging along now... for those of you who'd like more of an intro to what precisely is going on here, you can check out the first issue before reading on.

Death to Realism! 003

Hello! The newsletter keeps chugging along now... for those of you who'd like more of an intro to what precisely is going on here, you can check out the first issue before reading on.

Death to Realism! 002 : Welcome Back!

Hello! The newsletter keeps chugging along now... for those of you who'd like more of an intro to what precisely is going on here, you can check out the previous issue, but honestly now I feel like getting right into it!

Death to Realism! 001 : Hello!

Greetings, early adopters, and thanks for signing on to this patently un-realistic idea! There's already 22 of you, before I've even sent out a single email, which is encouraging! Of course, I have been At It doing a whole variety of games-adjacent stuff since... 2014 (which is gaspppp 7 years ago), but this is the first time I've been conflicted enough about what my next life steps should be to try to spin it out into a more formalized thing/practice/monetization scheme. Thank you for your support already.