Sidequest.zone

"It’s easy for me to read Prey‘s central plot as a transgender storyline. In fact, I’d argue my reading dovetails perfectly with all of the game’s main themes. The awkward, painful pull between the past and present versions of Morgan Yu is deeply reminiscent of the experience of struggling through gender dysphoria. Moving through the game as Morgan, I was confronted by my old self time and time again—their dreams, their fears, their desires, all of which were automatically assumed to be perfectly analogous with my new self. The effect was stifling, just like the binary gender choice for Morgan at the very start of the story. But rather than feeling harmful, these restrictive frameworks only enhanced the experience of my first playthrough." — C. C. Rayne

"The game’s namesake isn’t just a cute reference to Bloodborne—the game implicitly invokes a connection to dreams. As in Bloodborne, we travel through dream and physical worlds that affect one another. The Pondmother herself communicates to us and others through dreams. We’re also able to traverse other areas if the collective dreams of the frogs remember a path differently or can give us a hint with information passed along. Dreams can also create new inventions by way of collective imagination and knowledge. The dream world acts as a repository for all the memories of our froggy brethren, cross-referencing each other’s experience and adjusting with time." — Cress

"The answer, by the jam’s closing date of October 2024, was nine distinct games by nine distinct creators, each tackling themes of art, pretension, statements, and design in nine distinct ways. Because these games are niche and not everybody is trawling itch.io for games purposefully billed as pretentious, I bring them to you, along with a pretentiousness rating (which, importantly, is not a rating of quality) to help sell you on the value of art that rankles and irritates and maybe makes you feel a bit stupid."

DID YOU KNOW that Sidequest has a zine compiling some of our favorite pieces from the first decade (ish) of our existence? For just $5, you can get a beautifully designed example of some of the pieces we think best showcase our whole "thing."

In this month's (not so) cosy gaming news, EA is sold for $55bn to conservative investors, plus upcoming indie games to stay alive for.

"When I engage with art that holds sincerity at arm’s length, including through ironic detachment, I feel a bit sad. Why are you afraid to say what you want to say? What could you say if, as the game jam’s prompt suggests, you told '“'THE CYNIC IN YOUR HEAD THAT THIS ISN’T WORKING OUT MAN, LEAVE ME ALONE FOR AT LEAST A WHILE.'”'" — Melissa Brinks

"The game is spent trying to balance impossible things, taking responsibility for your old self’s choices while potentially turning away from their lifelong dreams.... But [the past] is out of your hands; it happens before the gameplay ever starts. The only thing you actually control is what you will do moving forwards—and these choices set up who you want your Morgan Yu to be." — C. C. Rayne

"The space we inhabited was all about actions and less about appearances. When we bumped into some friends on the way, χ suggested they could tag along, with Gin seeming hesitant to that idea. Noting this, I promised a future hangout with everyone and waved bye. Gin shyly pulled his hat down, wondering if he was acting too girly by wanting to hang out with me one on one." — Cress

"Gaming’s my favourite thing to do when flaring up because it’s less passive than watching TV or listening to podcasts, which lets me feel like I’m “doing” something when I physically can’t do anything. Games allow me to engage with a world and connect with characters when I’m at my most isolated, helping me to feel less alone and spark my imagination when just thinking can be difficult. Gaming also distracts me from pain, depression, anxiety, and any number of other fun flare symptoms like nausea or cramps." — Zainabb Hull

"Shadows linger a little longer in October, and Halloween is the perfect excuse to dim the lights, grab some headphones, and delve into the eerie world of indie retro horror. The grainy textures and lo-fi soundtracks of retro games summon an uncanny atmosphere that can make you feel like you’ve unearthed something cursed from the back of the closet, and Itch.io is overflowing with free-to-play titles that capture this nostalgic feeling of dread. In honor of spooky season, dust off your haunted CRT monitor and plug into these short but chilling retro-inspired indie horror games." — Kathryn Hemmann

"A while ago, I asked in the Sidequest Slack if I would ever be free of talking about Epic Games vs. whoever in court. Maddi wisely said no. She was correct." — Melissa Brinks

"[Pretentious Jam spawned] nine distinct games by nine distinct creators, each tackling themes of art, pretension, statements, and design in nine distinct ways. Because these games are niche and not everybody is trawling itch.io for games purposefully billed as pretentious, I bring them to you, along with a pretentiousness rating (which, importantly, is not a rating of quality) to help sell you on the value of art that rankles and irritates and maybe makes you feel a bit stupid." — Melissa Brinks

"The other day, Saiben was asking me about nostalgia. I explained that someday all the memes he knows and loves will be dead, and he’ll be looking at reels on Futuregram and a video reminiscing about the 2010s will pop up, and it will feel like being pierced through the chest. A deep yearning for a different and simpler time will permeate his emotions, tinged with grief that he’ll never truly get to have it back. I experience this myself a lot." — Kamie Wootan

"Shadows linger a little longer in October, and Halloween is the perfect excuse to dim the lights, grab some headphones, and delve into the eerie world of indie retro horror. The grainy textures and lo-fi soundtracks of retro games summon an uncanny atmosphere that can make you feel like you’ve unearthed something cursed from the back of the closet, and Itch.io is overflowing with free-to-play titles that capture this nostalgic feeling of dread. In honor of spooky season, dust off your haunted CRT monitor and plug into these short but chilling retro-inspired indie horror games."

"Not all games will benefit from prioritizing strangeness in their narratives or gameplay, but challenging the common conceits for what games can do doesn’t always mean a new mechanic or an intriguing protagonist. Sometimes it’s throwing convention and practicality out the window and just reveling in making us screw up our faces and demand that our friends take a look at what we’re playing." — Melissa Brinks