Lines from Isabelle’s poem: “Golden folds adorn the stems/ A maze our eyes beg to follow/ A meditation of winding curves”
I accidentally deleted the quote from the original thread—here it is!
If a player finds this poem, it means that they are following the game’s main objectives AND exploring the world on their own terms. It’s a meaningful combination that the poem itself thematizes. Isabelle’s commitment to the expedition and to her own way of seeing captures these two modes of play. 🪢
Here are a few lines from the poem. Why do I love this item? While other expedition records focus on calamity and loss, Isabelle spends her last moments really present in her environment. She experiences beauty and tenderness and wants that to be remembered too. ⬇️
A recent example is “Isabelle’s” poem in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. All we know is that she is a member of Expedition 36 and chose to convey her last words as a poem. It does not appear on the game’s critical path. I won’t spoil its location. The surprise is part of the experience of the poem. ⬇️
I don’t focus here on games where poetry is central to the narrative or core mechanic, rather games where poems just appear as you explore the environment and/or as lore items. ⬇️
Launch day! I had such fun writing my piece on why “poems make games better” but really only scratched the surface of the topic. What follows in this thread is both a preview and an addition to an example I raise briefly in my essay: 🧵
🎉🎉🎉
"Boss" is a common term for the ultimate enemy battle in video games. It's common enough that many other languages just adopted that word.
But not Icelandic. It's Endakall or "Final dude"
The NYU Game Center's hiring! A senior, tenure-track professor post for an experienced game designer, artist or industry pro with a notable body of creative work. Experience finishing games and mentoring/teaching more important than any kind of academic credential!
gamecenter.nyu.edu/were-hiring-...
I think poetry makes games better and explain why in this forthcoming volume of essays edited by @jon.inkle.co. I can’t wait to read the other contributions!
And a return to blogging, which I have missed so much! There are a few posts up already like this one, where I reflect on parenting, pandemics, and The Last of Us.
www.adrianaxjacobs.com/blog/limits-...
I had the opportunity to be a late-stage playtester—a first for me!—and can confirm that this game is STUNNING. So good to see you again, Mara Whitefish!
Important status update: “not rejected by TBQ-yet” ❤️🌮
NYU Game Center Presents No Quarter, An exhibition of new games by Jana Romanova, Julian Cordero, Nicole He & Remi Forcadell, Patrick LeMiewux & Stephanie Boluk. 7:00pm November 22nd, 2025, Brooklyn, New York
No Quarter is back!
On Saturday November 22nd No Quarter will be returning for its 2025 edition!
No Quarter is an annual playable exhibition where four newly commissioned works from outstanding artists working across games are debuted. Tickets here noquarter2025.eventbrite.com
I love the em dash! I’ll take a stab at an answer. The first one is an accumulation of the hyphens that precede it. Little cuts and jabs that come together to form the longer, more persistent disruption of the em dash.
He really does! I do appreciate that even his scathing critiques could be deeply thoughtful, so much so that in the process he planted the seeds for his future change of heart.
I am reading your gorgeous and wise essay on the beach, observing how the waves turn olive green as they start to break. I started drawing this past year and have been so inspired by your work!
Shared some thoughts on poetic repetition (esp anaphora) and narrative design in contemporary roguelikes at gs1, a conference showcasing the scholarly work of the @nyugamecenter.bsky.social MFAs.
Title slide: Poetic Roguelikes (Adriana X. Jacobs)
Text of Emily Dickinson’s “Because I could not stop for Death” with “we paused” repetitions in bold
Screenshots of Returnal representing Death, Cutscene, Rebirth
How do “poetic roguelikes” such as Returnal and Hades resemble poetry? Similar to e.g. Dickinson, they have a kind of anaphora, with recurring motifs, language, sensory elements. Deleuze’s Difference and Repetition highly useful to understand cyclical gameplay; imagination draws out difference
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My translation of Merav Givoni Hrushovski’s End— is out and available for purchase (online and in person at AWP). ⭐️
From my friend Adriana X. Jacobs, “I put my doom into a love poem” is 8-bit video game that incorporates some of her poems. “If you find the neighbor’s garden, your afterlife will be extra sweet.” [ladymacabea.itch.io]
My poem-game “I put my doom into a love poem” is now public! It adapts poems that first appeared in my poetry zine “Afterlife is Sweet” (rinky dink press). #bitsy
Fantastic! I’ll check this out.
Stack of four books about gaming, from the bottom up: Eric Zimmerman’s The Rules We Break, Miguel Sicart’s Play Matters, Shira Chess’s Play Like a Feminist, and Carmen Maria Machado and J. Robert Lennon’s (eds.) Critical Hits.
Winter reading 🎮
Christine (1987, John Carpenter) and Christine (2016, Antonio Campos).
Thank you! ❤️
“A mother falls through a bed of chalk flowers, pulling her child behind her. A store/ crumbles, spilling votives into the street. The rats pour out of a manhole cover,/ shedding future plagues.”
Is this a future dystopia? Or are we already the survivors? Stunning poem by @axjacobs.bsky.social.
