







The menus within role-playing games by Atlus, including the new Metaphor: ReFantazio, unfurl in a sensory feast of color, movement, sound and typography.
Collections: Teaching Paradox, Imperator, Part IIa: Pops and Chains
This is the first half of the second part of our three part (I, IIa, IIb, IIIa, IIIb) look at Paradox Interactive’s Hellenistic-era grand strategy game Imperator: Rome. I had hoped to do this…

» How Jordan Mechner Made a Different Sort of Interactive Movie (or, The Virtues of Restraint) The Digital Antiquarian
One can learn much about the state of computer gaming in any given period by looking to the metaphors its practitioners are embracing. In the early 1980s, when interfaces were entirely textual and graphics crude or nonexistent, text adventures like those of Infocom were heralded as the vanguard of a new interactive literature destined to augment or entirely supersede non-interactive books. That idea peaked with the mid-decade bookware boom, when just about every entertainment-software publisher (and a few traditional book publishers) were rushing to sign established authors and books to interactive projects. It then proceeded to collapse just as quickly under the weight of its own self-importance when the games proved less compelling and the public less interested than anticipated.
» How Jordan Mechner Made a Different Sort of Interactive Movie (or, The Virtues of Restraint) The Digital Antiquarian
One can learn much about the state of computer gaming in any given period by looking to the metaphors its practitioners are embracing. In the early 1980s, when interfaces were entirely textual and graphics crude or nonexistent, text adventures like those of Infocom were heralded as the vanguard of a new interactive literature destined to augment or entirely supersede non-interactive books. That idea peaked with the mid-decade bookware boom, when just about every entertainment-software publisher (and a few traditional book publishers) were rushing to sign established authors and books to interactive projects. It then proceeded to collapse just as quickly under the weight of its own self-importance when the games proved less compelling and the public less interested than anticipated.
Collections: Teaching Paradox, Imperator, Part IIb: Built in a Day
This is the second half of the second part of our three part (I, IIa, IIb, IIIa, IIIb) look at Paradox Interactive’s ancient grand strategy game Imperator: Rome which covers the broader Medit…

Molleindustria – Radical Games Against the Tyranny of Entertainment
Have you included any AI-generated content such as artworks, sound, text, or code in this game?
Playbooks — Renaissance Philanthropy – A brighter future for all through science, technology, and innovation
Christopher Alexander’s A Pattern Language defines 253 methods for constructing beautiful and practical designs at every scale, from cities to rooms.


Revenge of the Dilettantes
Book club and AI adventures, age of bespokeness, study groups, new rules of engagement

Revenge of the Dilettantes
Book club and AI adventures, age of bespokeness, study groups, new rules of engagement

Collections: Teaching Paradox, Imperator, Part IIIa: De Re Publica
This is the first half of the third part of our three-part (I, IIa, IIb, IIIa, IIIb) look at Paradox Interactive’s ancient grand strategy game Imperator: Rome, running from the late fourth through …

Context Sensitivity
Aesthetic Deception
Collections: Teaching Paradox, Imperator, Part IIIb: Imperator Interrupted
This is the second half of the third and final part of our three-part (I, IIa, IIb, IIIa, IIIb) look at Paradox Interactives ancient grand strategy game, Imperator: Rome, which covers (inter alia) …

Ugly AI Food Photos Are Only the Beginning
Restaurant menus with AI-generated food images are going viral for their off-putting aesthetic. But AI’s impact on modern menus runs even deeper.
