Beyond Critical Damage: A Portfolio

 For posterity's sake, here is a list of my various published writings and works of journalism.


Killing is Harmless

Killing is Harmless was an attempt by me to write long-form criticism about a single videogame and to independently publish it as a digital book. You can buy the book here in pdf, epub, and kindle formats (all included), or on the Amazon store for Kindle here. You can read a bit about what I was trying to achieve with it here. You can read some thoughtful critiques of it here.


Ars Technica

"'I think they're mad': Inside a 48 hour battle to build the best video game." (Part 1) (Part 2) (Part 3) 
 

2011 Game Developers' Conference coverage for IndustryGamers 

"Flash Gaming Summit: Facebook and Flash are Steering PopCap's Future" 

"The Successes and Failures of the Humble Indie Bundle"

"Are Social Games 'High Glucose Slot Machines?'" (currently 404-ing)

"Intuition and Metrics: A Collision of Two Worlds"

"Angry Birds is 'A Next Generation Entertainment Franchise,' says Rovio"

"Social Network Games are not Social Games, says Iwata"

"Mobile Games are the Future of Entertainment, says Neil Young"

"Social Games Are Not Perfect But They Are Games, Says Reynolds" (ignore the byline, this one was actually written by me, I swear!)

"Romero and Hall Look Back at Doom"

"Cliff Bleszinki and The Rise of Gaming's Power Creative"


2010 Freeplay Independent Games Festival coverage for Gamasutra

"Freeplay 2010: Brandon Boyer Tells Indies To 'Be Yourself, Be Wonderful'"

"Freeplay 2010: Why Adam Saltsman Makes Video Games"

"Freeplay 2010: The Difficulty of Understanding A World That Can't Exist"


Kill Screen Magazine Publications

"Crossing King Carrion"

"A Sackboy Says No Words

"Review: Ninja

"Review: Terraria

"Split Screen: Freedom in Alcatraz" (Reposted here on Pitchfork)

"Split Screen: The War Must Go On"

"Capture the School" Print, Kill Screen #2: The Back to School Issue

"Character Building" Print, Kill Screen #3: The Intimacy Issue 

"40 Seconds of Fame" Print, Kill Screen #4: The Public Play Issue 


Pixel Hunt

"Review: Tron Evolution"

"Review: Marvel vs Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds"

"Review: L.A. Noire

"Review: Gears of War 3

"Review: El Shaddai

"Review: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim"

"From Russia With Love (Metro 2033 Special Feature)" Pixel Hunt e-zine, 2010 Handbook

"A Player's Best Friend" Pixel Hunt e-zine, issue 13

"God Damned Crazy: A GDC Adventure" Pixel Hunt e-zine, issue 14 

"Whatisinaname" Pixel Hunt e-zine, issue 15 

"Press to Continue: Emergent Narratives vs Linear Narratives" Pixel Hunt e-zine, issue 16


Hyper Magazine

"Rock Hard Times (Minecraft Feature)" Print, Hyper #206

"The Point of Points" Print, Hyper #209

"The Japanese Bread Theory of Game Design" Print, Hyper: Japan Special Edition

"Just a Suggestion: How Minecraft's Community Influenced Its Development, and How They Did Not" Print, Hyper #220

"Review: Minecraft" Print, Hyper #220

"Preview: Medal of Honor: Warfighter" Print, Hyper #224

"A Creator of Well Made Objects" (Jonathan Blow profile) Print, Hyper #226

"To Survive Another Day" (DayZ essay) Print, Hyper #227

"Review: Dyad" Print, Hyper #228

"Wish I Was Here" (Far Cry 3 preview) Print, Hyper #230

"Assassin's Creed 3 Preview" Print, Hyper #230

"Review: Retro City Rampage" Print, Hyper #230

"Review: The Unfinished Swan" Print, Hyper #230


PC Powerplay Magazine

"Perspective: Political Landscapes (Morrowind)" Print, PC Powerplay #200

"Review: Lone Survivor" Print, PC Powerplay #204  (republished online here)

"Preview: Far Cry 3" Print, PC Powerplay #209

"Preview: Assassin's Creed 3" Print, PC Powerplay #209


Paste Magazine

"Accountability: Xbox Live and The Playstation Network" 

"Tiny Tower Review"

"Bastion Review"

"Why Did I Do That? Choice and Consequence in Ico"


Edge Magazine

"Things: Just Cause 2's Grappling Hook" Print, Edge #E230: August, 2011

"Feature Article: Clone Wars" Print, Edge #E233: November, 2011

"Where Is My Heart? review" Print, Edge #E235: Christmas, 2011 

"Things: Gears of War's Lancer" Print, Edge #E237 February, 2012 

"GDC 2012: Time running out for Japan, says Inafune"

"Studio Profile: Supergiant Games" Print, Edge #240 April, 2012 (republished online)

"Feature Article: Just Being There" Print, Edge #E240 April, 2012 (republished online)

"Things: Rage's Wingstick" Print, Edge #E247 December, 2012

"Studio Profile: Firemonkeys" Print, Edge #E248 Christmas, 2012 (republished online)


Games On Net

"One Point Great: Falling Back In Love With Minecraft."

"Brave New Worlds: Why I'm Unashamedly Hyped for Skyrim."

"Live From GDC: New SimCity Unveiled by EA and Maxis"

"Live from GDC: BF3 "Close Quarters" DLC and Medal of Honor: Warfighter Details"

"Live from GDC: Mechwarrior Online Preview"

"Developer Interview: Karl-Magnus on the Future of Battlefield"

"Back Door Authors: Why Players Have Less Power Than Ever Before"

"You Know What I Love?" column:

"Cinematic Trailers."

"Qwae."

"Modern Warfare

"Glitches

"Silence"

"Movement

"Old-School First-Person Shooters"

"Double-Jumps"

"Playing Slow"

"Battlefield: Bad Company"

"Cool Stuff"

"Sliding Into Crouch"

"Having a Companion"

"When Game Designers are Jerks"

"Ledge Grabs"

"Music, Visualised in Games"

"Dawn and Dusk"

"Chunky Guns"

"Dying"

"Nostalgia"

"Carmageddon's Pinball Mode"

"Violent Videogames about Videogame Violence"

"Game Endings that Actually End"



Gameranx

"Dark Souls: A Time To Grind."

"The Immersive Wonder of Audiosurf."

"Before My Time: On the History of Skyrim's World"

"Winter Isn't Coming: Why I Don't Believe Skyrim is Cold

"Rage Quit and Try Again"

"A Sum of Parts" column:

Driver: San Francisco
"Less Efficient Means"
"Watching You Play"
"Eyes on the Media"
"Creating Belief"

Bulletstorm
"Murder Simulators"
"Skits"
"Just One More Drink"
"The Gamification of Videogames"

Ziggurat
"A Dance of Thumbs"
"From the Beginning of the End to the End of the Beginning"
"Dangerous Excesses"
"This Way and That Way"

Halo Reach
"Out of Reach"
"One Step Forward, Two Steps Back"
"Landscapes and Storyscapes"
"Fan Fiction"

Binary Domain
"Other Others"
"Posthuman Humans"
"Inclusive Gameplay"
"Use Your Words"


Kotaku

"Modern Warfare 3 Isn't An Un-Game, John Walker. You Are An Un-Player. (And That Is Okay)"

"Do Video Games Need To Be Fun?" (Interviewee)

An Excerpt From Killing is Harmless


Unwinnable

"GDC 2012: The Other Sides of Videogames

"Alone Together in Journey"

"California Dreamer: Driver San Francisco's Dream World"

"Pocket Treasures: Eliss"

"Fez: Connected Perception and Concealed Dimensions"

"Doing It D.I.Y Style"

"Just Another Art Worth Dying For"


"A Certain Point of View"

"Living Dead Cities"

"The World's What You Make It"

"Characters With Guns With Character"

"To Know Time"

"Irreverent Storytelling"

"Good Intentions"

"Pocket Treasures" column:

"Adrift in iSpace"

"An Unethical Number of Enemies"


"Ski Safari"

"jAggy Race"

"Spike Dislike"

"League of Evil"

"Gravity Hook HD"

"Pocket Planes"

"10000000"

"Tasty Fish"

"Bitless"

"Cool Pizza"

"Pix'n Love Rush"

"Starbloom"

"Letterpress"

"Angry Birds: Star Wars"

"Spaceteam"


The Conversation

"Swing When You're Winning: Do Gesture-based Controls Push The Right Buttons For Gamers?"

"Bite the Bullet: Videogames Don't Make Deadly Shooters" (Republished on ABC)

"Freeplay Reminds Us Videogames Matter: The 'Culture' Debate is Over"


The New Statesman

"Where To Find Good Games Criticism"


Ctrl+Alt+Defeat

"Comfort Food" Issue Seven, July 2012.

"Powerful Allies" Issue Eight, August 2012


Five out of Ten

"Character Building" Issue One, "New Horizons" (republished article from Kill Screen #3)

"The World Eater" Issue One, "New Horizons"


Panels, Interviews, etc.

"Postcards from Imaginary Worlds" Panel discussant on talk held as part of ACMI's "Re:Play" series of talks. (MP3)

"Jam Culture" Panel chair for session at Freeplay 2012

Interview on The Debatable Podcast about Killing is Harmless

Interview at Culture Ramp discussing Killing is Harmless and the state of videogame criticism.


Academic Work

Academia.edu profile.

"Partners In Crime: The Relationship Between The Playable Character and The Play" - Honours Thesis completed at The University of Queensland, 2011.

"Bodies in Worlds: The Embodied Experience of the Playable Character" - Paper presented at the Society of Animation Studies Conference, RMIT University, 2012.

"Dinosaur Comics as Ergodic Literature" - Paper presented at CODE: A Media, Games and Art Conference, Swinburne University, November 2012.



Other Projects

Brendan Shared A Link - Tumblr of games criticism and journalism that I think is of particularly high quality.

Towards Dawn - An ongoing blog recording the day-by-day adventures of a Minecraft nomad.

Frog Blast The Vent Core - An ongoing series of letters about Bungie's Marathon between Bethesda's Shane Liesegang, Microsoft's George Kokoris, and me.