Adriana X Jacobs

I had the best time talking to @jon.inkle.co and @sagarberoshi.bsky.social about poems, video games, environmental storytelling and more. And after listening to this episode, be sure to check out the other conversations in this brilliant series!

New Kaleidoscope! A magical episode where poet and professor @axjacobs.bsky.social discusses the uses of poetry and spoken performance in game writing to deepen the world of the game, and to draw the player in. Listen here - www.inklestudios.com/kaleidoscope...

Reached the Baby Steps credits today and saw that there was quite a bit that I didn’t explore. I came across some of my favorite landmarks by accident (falling/slipping). The game doesn’t offer you a map. And yes this is a metaphor for growing up.

A side project I've been working on—a curated link page of important essays on video game narrative—is now live. You can read about it on my blog: azhdarchid.com/the-game-nar... Or you can go straight to the dedicated website: www.gamenarrativereader.org

📈🚀📈🚀📈🚀📈🚀 Hey come check out some experimental clicker / idle / incremental games! 👇📈👇📈👇📈👇📈👇 For their final projects in my 'economics for game designers' class at @nyugamecenter.bsky.social, students made some awesome incremental games, so I wanted to do a thread sharing their work! 🧵⤵️ 1/~15

Inspired by Tomb Raider, Peggy Ahwesh, and Returnal, I wrote a poem about dying in videogames, over and over again.

FAST TRAVEL by Adriana X. Jacobs @axjacobs.bsky.social The flame renews you and you’re back in your armour fighting for your life. You die. You reset. What is this feeling that you’ve felt before? ✨ “Free to Play: A Video Games Anthology” is available for preorder worldwide (link in bio).

My friend Adriana wrote about her story game based on Dante’s Inferno. “In Vya, I modeled Pom after the poet Alice Notley, whose Descent of Alette (1996) is one of the great contributions to the literature of katabasis.” [adrianaxjacobs.com]

Over a year ago, I spoke with @rasheedabueideh.bsky.social about Dreams on a Pillow for a piece that was killed before it could be published. I am honored that he was willing to take the time to speak with me again in spite of that and tell me about his beautiful homeland: kotaku.com/upcoming-ste...

I’m definitely quoting Naomi in my future Vya publicity materials. Reposting as evidence!

I graduated this past week from NYU's MFA in Game Design. Going back to school mid-career was challenging, but I never second-guessed that decision. This program changed my life. Here’s a post about our spring showcase and watching people play my game Vya. www.adrianaxjacobs.com/blog/the-fin...

Yes, 💯. I have an essay in my head about this and will write it soon. But after I submit my Returnal-inspired thesis game about a woman descending through midlife hell. You can read about it here: www.adrianaxjacobs.com/blog/introdu...

Returnal is not only a mom game but I have it on good authority that it's going on to inspire more mom games. Sincerely, mom who works as a mom game enabler

Enjoying not being rejected by @tacobellquarterly.org for as long as that status lasts. Live más!

Recently, my esteemed ex-colleague Bennett gave an NYU Game Center Lecture Series talk on his work — most recently Baby Steps. @axjacobs.bsky.social has this excellent critique tho: WHOSE truths about how we move thru the world are we treating as universal?! 🔥 www.adrianaxjacobs.com/blog/player-...

Skateboarding is cool, but I have mild vertigo. Instead, I put a 20-yr academic career on pause and went back to school to study game design. Also, I still haven’t been rejected by @tacobellquarterly.org.

Book excerpt: The Game Narrative Kaleidoscope

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"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!

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” ❤️🌮

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

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.

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

Winter reading 🎮

“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.

I have a new poem out in The Account! This one is called “Deformation”: theaccountmagazine.com/article/jaco...

Roguelike Celebration 2023 was fantastic and inspiring. Esp enjoyed talks on music and reality TV, depths and gardens. And really loved exploring the Mall of Moria as ladymacabea, my avatar since 2002.

I’m reading Katherine Isbister’s How Games Move Us and thinking about “meaningful choices.” As I play test my interactive poem for the millionth time, this moment, at the very beginning, is still my favorite, taking me back to that moment when I chose “start” in the spring of 2020. #bitsy

Bitsy Fest is ON! And the theme of the jam has been picked, it is: MUSEUM I am not making this up, I am so happy this is the theme that has been picked. Good luck to everyone who participate! itch.io/jam/bitsy-fest

Traveled far out of my comfort zone and attended my first Playtest Thursday at the NYU Game Center and people who are not my kid and @djacobs.bsky.social played my so very much in-progress Bitsy game. I loved every minute of it. 🎮

#thelastofusday

The journal Asoophit has been so supportive of my work. You’ll find “Ars Poetica” in the latest issue פרור (crumb). drive.google.com/file/d/1qQWW...

New poem “Dead Girls” and new translations in Tupelo Quarterly 30 https://www.tupeloquarterly.com/editors-feature/dead-girls-a-portfolio-of-literature-in-translation-curated-by-lisa-katz/