February 2019 Table of Contents

This month’s issue is all about LOVE.

First up, though: heads up. We’re doing something differently with early access for our Patreon supporters and on-site subscribers. We’re committed to paying our authors for their work, and we’re hoping this helps us do that more sustainably.

If you’re not currently a subscriber and can’t afford to be, don’t sweat it: you’ll still be able to access the full issue (for free) on February 14th.

Now, on to the fun stuff. This month we’re publishing seven different games with seven very different takes on our favourite four-letter word—from the familial to the romantic and the complicated to the wistful.

All our authors this month submitted their games to our first game jam (or its accompanying proposal submission window), or were invited to write for the issue with the same constraints: each entry had to contain 1000 words or fewer, and had to be on the theme (generally speaking) of love. We received a great bunch of entries from all around, and were thrilled with the range and diversity of the submissions.

In addition, we solicited two original works, one from Olivia Wood and one from Cassandra Khaw and James Persaud.

We’re really excited to bring you the games we selected:
Cheaper than Therapy, by Olivia Wood

BaoBao, by Cass Khaw & James Persaud

Pretend You Love Each Other, by Olivia C Dunlap

The Vector III’s Potluck Signup Sheet, by Holly Schofield

Unmaking, Unmade, by Grim Curio

at 3am, I didn’t think of you, by Tai Jia Xuan

(What does love mean? Read our interviews with the February issue authors to find out!)

Some other changes we’ll have this year are regular cover art and more non-fiction.

Our cover art is from artist and game designer Laura De Stefani, and is titled “Fill the Void.” Some of you may recognize it as also being an entry from our subQjam. All of our staff loved Laura’s lush visual style so much we just had to have more. So throughout the year, we’ll be publishing either a piece of art from Laura or a piece of interactive art like “Fill the Void” front and center!

Finally, each issue will also feature essays by Sharang Biswas, Anya Johanna DeNiro, and Bruno Dias. Every two months, they’ll bring you insights and opinions on a number of things related to creating, consuming, and thinking about games and interactive fiction. Be sure to check back regularly for those!

As you can see, even though we’re publishing fewer issues we have a lot in store for 2019. Want to be a part of it? Watch out for our next submission period, which will be some time in March—more details to come on that when we have them.

In the meantime, we hope you all love the games and essays we’re publishing this month as much as we do. Let us know what your favourites are on Twitter, Facebook, or Discord.