Matt S. is the Editor-in-Chief and Publisher of DDNet. He's been writing about games for over 20 years, including a book, but is perhaps best-known for being the high priest of the Church of Hatsune Miku.
This month we discuss a massive wave of censorship that is affecting the entire games industry and even forcing us to re-write chunks of our own game, The Last Waltz. Then we go on to discuss older games – particularly JRPGs – and some of the mechanics that we’re glad have been left behind. As much as we love the…
Last year, a humble Ukranian developer released Light de Deux, a sweet little romance visual novel about ballet dancers that I absolutely loved. The dance theme got to me, of course, but it was also well-written, well-drawn, and the characters inspired me so much I arranged with the developer to…
I love it when a lost project is dusted off and finished.…
When it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. And in the case of…
From the period where BioWare (free from EA influence and able to make good games) released Baldur’s Gate (1998) to the release of Obsidian’s Neverwinter Nights 2 (2006), we have what could be called the “golden age” for digital Dungeons & Dragons adaptations. Before that, the bulk of D&D work…
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Over the last couple of years, payment processors such as Visa, Mastercard and PayPal have been steadily ramping up efforts to control what people can purchase. Several Japanese stores have been targeted in this way. For example, Melonbooks, a website that specialises in independently published manga, was forced to stop…
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I was so sure that Nintendo would launch the Switch 2 with a new Mario adventure. So, Nintendo being Nintendo, of course they launched with Donkey Kong instead. Mean Mr. Kong hasn’t been in a 3D adventure of his own since way back with the N64, and that effort was……
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Before I played Bustafellows, if you had told me that you could take the narrative qualities of noir fiction and pair it with the otome genre, I wouldn’t have believed you. As a genre, otome isn’t quite the “doe-eyed romance and frivolity for girls” genre that those who haven’t played…
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SteelSeries’ latest headset, the Arctis Nova 3 Wireless Headset, is a super lightweight mid-range headset that’ll set you back just AUS$200, while delivering many of the same features that are available in SteelSeries’ more premium options. It’s a good and versatile headset, though the step down from those premium devices…
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One of the quieter events that piggybacked off the Nintendo Switch 2 launch was the release of the first in Hamster’s Arcade Archives 2 series. Ridge Racer launched with the console, and now there’s already a second title, with the arcade dogfighting sim, Air Combat 22 (don’t be surprised that…
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Tamagotchi are one of those iconic things that you just hope hands around forever. The little devices that you pin to your backpack or carry around in your pocket for micro-distractions throughout the day are wholesome and charming. You’d be lucky if you spent more than five minutes with your…
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Hideo Kojima is the video game industry’s big auteur. The Stanley Kubrick of games. The guy who somehow gets a big budget to make his strange experiments, even when they defy the industry best practice, and as we all know, the games industry is very best practice orientated. It’s all…
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2025 has been an exceptional year for releases, almost from the first day of January. Now that we’re halfway through the year, we use this podcast to remind you all of some of the big hits of the year – don’t forget to check them out if you haven’t yet!…
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How do you “guarantee” 60 million clicks on a mouse? I get that’s an impressive number, but a guarantee is a legal term, and so does that mean that if you can somehow prove that you’ve only got 59,999,999 clicks on your mouse before it craps out, you’re entitled to…
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