Jay Castello 🌻

Photo of a living room with Virtue and a Sledgehammer's Pause screen on a TV.

Testing Virtue and a Sledgehammer with the whole team! 🔨🔨🔨 @selkieharbour.com

Beautiful pause screen by @darumastudio.bsky.social

the other day i was like, is it bad that i have made no effort to learn enough to even distinguish between the live service shooters that are launching lately. well, i think it's fine actually

OH NO i'm so sorry

you know how people are like "i've cut down on caffeine and unfortunately i have to report i do feel so much better." i'm here to tell you with 100% sincerity i've been drinking so much coffee & red bull lately and it's doing great things to my mood

every time i read something good i'm like i have to make my work weirder to match this freak and every time i read something bad i'm like GODDDDD i have to make my work weirder so it's nothing like this

at the level of Feeling Normal about the novel draft where i'm like look, every sentence is 0.02% closer to being finished

ANNOUNCEMENT: The Game Narrative Kaleidoscope launches this Wednesday!

Over 100+ essays on the craft of game writing and narrative design; affordable priced.

… AND we’ll also launch with the first two episodes of the podcast series, where we talk to the article writers about their craft.

~80 year old man running serenely in the opposite direction around the park who told me 'well done' when I was clearly out of breath and dying: i'm in love with you

i'm sure this is specific to ff7 rebirth in many ways but it also rings true to how its felt to play basically any game i've played before release in the last two years

on one hand i don't get the impression eric barone is doing anything he doesn't want to. on the other hand please god free eric barone

common misconception but browt is actually from yorkshire and comes from brow + nowt (else)

they made rowlet again? is that what i'm seeing?

We’re so grateful to have fabulous editors like @nicoleclark.bsky.social to step in to help us 1) distribute edit workload, 2) offer insight our other editors can’t, and 3) diversify the minds editing Mothership. We’re better together! Thanks Nicole!

very funny to have somehow ended up on the Royal Shakespeare Company's mailing list. sir you've come in a three piece suit to the goddamn circus

💛

i have fewer than 50 subs to monetisation and i am not above simply asking for them so i don't spend any more time than i have to looking at the analytics dashboard

"Which vs That: British English vs American English The rules outlined above form the foundation of formal American English. However, in British English (and generally in spoken English) this distinction isn’t as rigorously followed. In British English, you actually have the freedom to interchange “which” or “that” for the restrictive clause without changing the meaning. Yet, in American English, “which” is exclusively reserved for non-restrictive clauses. British English: Restrictive clause: “The car which/that is parked outside belongs to Tom.” (Both “which” and “that” are acceptable in British English for the restrictive clause.) American English: Restrictive clause: “The car that is parked outside belongs to Tom.” (“That” is preferred in American English for the restrictive clause.) Non-restrictive clause: “My car, which is parked outside, belongs to Tom.” (“Which” is used exclusively for non-restrictive clauses in American English.)"

i'm going to be so honest I still don't understand this so here's the screenshot (www.oxbridgeediting.co.uk/blog/which-v...)

(people for whom i edit in american english dni)

i love looking up a grammar rule and seeing "there are very specific restrictions on which to choose in american english but either is acceptable in british english" ok goodbye <3

2025 Critical Distance Status Once again, it’s time to check in on the finances for Critical Distance.   Last year, I said the finances were on the brink of stability. We never actually achieved that stability: we are unli…

Hey folks! Board member Zach has written up a quick update re: how we are doing. Please check it out and share widely: critical-distance.com/2026/02/25/2...

can't stop thinking about how in workshop yesterday multiple people were like "I didn't really get [scene]. I thought you were trying to say [exact description of what I was trying to say] but i was really unsure." probably the best compliment i could get. i will not be making it any clearer

he who drowned the world by shelley parker-chan

i'm not going to do this every thousand words but you have to understand that THIS thousand was a goddamn marathon

introducing a third example of yuri to this novel before i have reached my second named male speaking character. oops.

just saw somebody calling themself the "editor and chief" of their substack

Virtue and a Sledgehammer is a narrative experience.

Who would have thought that so much narrative could be delivered through a hammer?

Wishlist this narrative game:
store.steampowered.com/app/3743260/...

"letters are really difficult to write and you've pulled it off well"
"thanks i [beat] have some experience from a previous project"

had the part of my novel that introduces the epistolary elements workshopped this evening & it went really well but luckily not so well i had to admit that basically my entire drive for getting into fiction in the first place was an overly involved letter-based spinoff for a ttrpg i was playing

Header image for Jay Castello's column Area of Effect, featuring a still from the videogame Cairn where a heavily laden person climbs up a cliff face. Headline reads: Mountain of False Metaphor

"[The mountain] felt small and unremarkable. Nothing implied the weeks-long, exhausting challenge it was said to be." @jaymcastello.bsky.social, who I have come to suspect has climbed a mountain or two, did not enjoy her time with Cairn.

Unwinnable 196 cover.

The new issue of Unwinnable Monthly is out!

Have you considered subscribing? It'd be cool if you did. $5 gets you two digital magazines a month and (until Feb 28) 95 Exploits back issues, which'll kill some time during a blizzard, eh?

unwinnable.com/subscribe/

Anyway, let's see what's inside!