PAR talks to the man behind a LEGO mech wargame, a transhuman Star Trek critique, and a tabletop RPG about facing down societal prejudices to learn why there are no Nazis allowed in his creative commons game, and his philosophy of game design. Read More
Devolver Digital is made up of five people, they work with a small number of games, and their track record is nearly perfect. This is how a smaller publisher is learning to work with indies, and carve out a space for itself in the age of smaller teams and weirder games. Read More
What happens to a competent, if slightly boring, endless runner disguised as a flying game when its Kickstarter fails? The creators go back to the drawing board to create something that looks amazing. This is the story of how a failed crowdsourcing attempt helped a developer find the soul behind its own game. Read More
The PlayStation Vita is suffering from a mediocre catalog and a high price, with little relief from either problem in sight. The good news is that the Vita has slowly and quietly amassed a respectable list of indie releases that are available now or coming soon. If this trend continues, it could be great news for the struggling handheld. Read More
The Maze of Games puts a fascinating twist on Choose Your Own Adventure-style storytelling, by making the story itself solvable, like a puzzle. Creator Mike Selinker calls it a "puzzle novel." It's an intriguing concept that's made almost 10x its goal on Kickstarter, but 18 years ago, Selinker couldn't find anyone who was interested. This is how and why a game had to wait almost two decades for the right time to shine. Read More
The creators of the Zelda-inspired Anodyne not only endorsed The Pirate Bay torrent of their game, they profited from it. This is how marketing a game to pirates made its creators almost twice as much money in 72 hours as normal sales did in over a week. Read More
Path of Exile, the first title from New Zealand indie development house Grinding Gear Games, features no gold, no skill trees, and no stale genre conventions. Path of Exile's economy and character abilities are item-based, which help to make this action RPG feel new. Read More
Dreamfall Chapters, the third entry in Ragnar Tornquist's Longest Journey saga, was announced in 2007. Half a decade later, the team has taken to Kickstarter for funding and brought on new talent to see the game through. The Report caught up with The Longest Journey's creator, writer, and Chapters' game play designer to learn more. Read More
Actual Sunlight takes you to the deepest, most suffocating depths of depression to show you a man who has given up. This story isn't meant to be fun or entertaining, and it barely qualifies as a "game," but it's a powerful example of how implementing interactivity in art can send the most powerful messages of all. This is a game about suicide, explained by its creator. Read More
Fate of the Norns: Ragnarok is a diceless tabletop roleplaying system in which heroes come not from elven forests or orc-infested mountains, but the real world-influenced land of Vikings. The system turns 20 years old in 2013, and the first of three books celebrating this anniversary is now available. The Report took up its axes and wolf pelts to check it out, and came away pleasantly surprised. Read More
"Games Journalism" is broken. Many sites suffer from forced output cycles, "news" about cakes, and playing along with the industry PR machine. We can do better.
Learn MoreAs the senior editor for the PA Report, Ben travels around the world talking to incredibly interesting people and playing a ridiculous amount of games. His job is to share those experiences via the PA Report while he raises his three kids in Cincinnati, Ohio with his wife.
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