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Ever New | Bijan Stephen

As a child, when I learned about capital-H History, I pictured it as a kind of basalt cliff: unmovable, unshakeable, a monument I could look

[bijanstephen]

An Internet of Checkpoints - Longreads

A mysterious YouTube video gave thousands of people a place to breathe. Then it vanished.

On internet checkpoints.

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The Art of Choosing

Bijan Stephen Bijan Stephen is a writer at Compulsion Games and a music critic at The Nation. He’s written for Valve Software, hosted and ex

wrote a bit about what it means — what it can mean — to choose things.

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Coin Leap (Flame Game Jam 2023) by kurtome, bijan

2D Platformer. Submission for Flame Jam 3, created by Kurt Melby and Bijan Stephen

You've landed on a mysterious island. Which path will you take?

Me and my pal Kurt made a game for this year's Flame Game Jam.

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sample game by bijan

it's a sample game.

i found out about gb studio and became obsessed, so i made a little game.

[bijanstephen]

Turn Out the Lights by bijan, hypirlink

A short game about coming home again.

me and some super talented people made a little game. my friend said it was "space emo," and then went on to say it was his favorite category of thing. ymmv!

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made another video essay, this time about why i think games are harder now

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I finished Cyberpunk: Edgerunners and finally had some time to get my thoughts down.

[bijanstephen]

Bored of ‘Monopoly?’ Try These Three Games

Sure, ‘Yathzee’ and ‘Catan’ are modern classics, but some newer games from smaller publishers provide deeper, more engaging and far less fam

wrote about a few board games for the wall street journal.

[bijanstephen]

The Collectors Who Save Video-Game History from Oblivion

Where does a game like Star Fox, Super Mario Bros., or Sharknado: The Video Game actually come from?

here's a brief history of the video game history foundation that i wrote the other day!

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Dirt: The future is Moderan

The existential anxieties of an empire that finally understood it could die.

i wrote a little about moderan, the sci fi series that feels like it's written from our future.

[bijanstephen]

Landscape Mode

Elvia Wilk’s essay collection is “fan nonfiction” that takes on myriad kinds of world-building.

new book review up at the new york times.

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Side Quest - Believer Magazine

Non-exhaustive list of games mentioned: Fable What Remains of Edith Finch Disco Elysium I want to talk about endings. They can be a lot of t

the final edition of my video games column at the believer, for the magazine's final issue. it's about endings and disco elysium.

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Side Quest

List of games mentioned: Magic: The Gathering Fortnite Valorant Counter-Strike List of ’90s trading card magazines mentioned: The Duelist As

wrote about some games last fall.

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Side Quest - Believer Magazine

Non-exhaustive list of video games mentioned: Deliver Us the Moon Minecraft Valheim Lately I’ve found myself playing games about survival:Valheim and Minecraft, for example, the kind of video games that make you confront your character’s inherent frailty again and again. At least at first. In both games—and in most of the entries in this genre, […]

i wrote about survival (games) for the summer issue of the believer.

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Side Quest - Believer Magazine

Non-exhaustive list of video games mentioned: Neo Cab Surgeon Simulator 2 The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Amid the listlessness and trauma of summer 2020, I became a monster hunter. I’ve now spent a lot of time as Geralt in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, a game that came out six long years ago—before the Trump […]

The second print installment of my Believer column “Side Quest.” 

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Side Quest - Believer Magazine

Non-exhaustive list of video games mentioned: Night in the Woods What Remains of Edith Finch EarthBound The Last of Us If you were feeling cheeky, you could call the first chapter of As I Lay Dying a walking simulator. The language William Faulkner gives his first narrator, Darl, is just as spare, evocative, and engrossing. “Jewel […]

i’ve started a new column at the believer about video games. here’s the first installment.