As the year winds down, it’s easy to put off new projects until January — but why wait? Writing a monthly round-up blog has been on my to-do list for far too long. Consistency is something I struggle with when it comes to sharing my work, and this year’s been a bit chaotic (but that’s another story).

October was about games — playing them, reading about them, thinking about making them. As I write this, I’m tucked up in bed sneezing my little heart out, so video games have been my main weekend activity. Halloween was the theme, so horror and survival were the main ingredients. Sons of the Forest by Endnight is a sequel game where your helicopter crash-lands on an island while searching for a missing billionaire. It’s tense, eerie, and full of interesting AI-controlled enemies and fun exploration, but lately, I’ve been reflecting on the stories we tell in video games and why we enjoy them. What makes a good game - high sales, high art or high engagement?

This months reading was Everything to Play For: How Videogames Are Changing the World by Marijam Did. I’ve enjoyed the book, which fuses a deep knowledge of video game stories, communities and creation with an activist framework. It’s critical, but hopeful, leaving me with a few answers and many more questions.

Are video games political and what makes them so? The answer seems to be yes - and it’s complicated. You can shout online about how politics shouldn’t enter video games till your fingers bleed, but entertainment has long been shaped by the political in it’s storytelling, production and distribution. Politics and ethics are often intertwined, especially as cultural divisions and ‘culture wars’ related to partisan politics seem to grow in the UK. Did examines the video game industry - now the largest entertainment industry in the world - considering which stories we choose to tell, how they’ve changed over time and who controls the narrative. She questions whether it’s even possible to make an ethical or apolitical game when using mass-produced hardware plagued by extractive mining, human rights violations and non-renewable resources.

It’s not all bad news, though. Did ends the book on a positive note and a call to arms - a love letter to the creativity, community and humanity of video games and a reminder that small actions can grow into big consequences.

“Videogames are an incredible art form in urgent need of liberation from the draconian modes of production that entangle them with the darkest, most corrupt practices of the modern era.”
(Did, M. 2024)

With hard work and unity, maybe we can decide how this industry develops.

Another game-related curiosity this month has been Bitsy, “a little engine for little games, worlds, and stories” made by Adam Le Doux. I first encountered Bitsy through “Surface of Scum: A Necrotic Character Generator” by Uma Breakdown & Belladonna Paloma - a lo-fi storytelling game that explores identity and folk magic. Their work is always excellent and absolutely worth checking out. I’ve also been enjoying Roomba Quest by st33d, where you play as a robot vacuum cleaner on a quest for sentience and fluff. It can be completed in about half an hour and kept me engaged the whole time, definitely worth a look - especially if you like to party with rats.

An honourable mention also goes to Arduino this month. I got the starter kit for my birthday in September and I’ve begun making my way through the projects. I’ve never been so excited to make an LED light up. I’m currently working on ARCADOMANCY, an interactive project exploring divination, prediction and play through video games and I hope that learning the basics of electronics, programming and coding through Arduino will support it’s ongoing development.

October has been full of learning, tinkering, play and most importantly - games. I’ve enjoyed putting it all down in words, you often don’t notice how much progress happens quietly in the background until you decide to share it.

Here’s to small steps, glowing LEDs and staying consistent - see you next month!