Substack Reads: Video games for all, the case against story, and mussels take on summer
Hello and welcome to another edition of Substack Reads! This week, video game reporter Patrick Klepek goes into the mindset of the family-friendly game designer, philosopher Jamie Freestone is putting story in the spotlight, Candace Rose Rardon remembers when she fell in love with the beautiful game, and Tim Marchman is extolling the virtues of tinned mussels. We hope you enjoy it!
VIDEO GAMES
Making a game for everyone
Can designers create a video game that both adults and children love? Or do they just end up with something neither likes? Reporter and father of two Patrick Klepek speaks to the creators of Disney Illusion Island about how they tried not to “make a rosé”
What Grand-Scrutton noticed, however, was that younger players would press jump, hit the bouncy pad and move on, while older players would press jump, try to press jump again as they hit the bouncy pad, and end up cancelling the bounce entirely.
Let’s rewind, because this goes all the way back to the original Mario games:
The Mario note blocks are a particularly infamous example of this design in action. To gain extra height, players must time hitting the jump button to hitting the music note. It’s always frustrated me! (It’s also a visual sign that, when playing New Super Mario Bros. with my kid, she’s going to sit out that level. She hates the note blocks.) But this is the baggage that Grand-Scrutton is talking about: older players assuming this rule applies everywhere else. But when they tried pulling it off in Disney Island Illusion, a game where it doesn’t exist, the jump would cancel, and players would get confused.
“No one knows this until you actually get told it,” he explained. “If you try and press the double jump button a certain height above the bounce block, we ignore it. We say we’re not going to let you do this so that you can’t muck up your bounce.”
SPORTS
A fascination with fútbol
As Uruguay wins FIFA’s Under-20 World Cup title, Candace Rose Rardon is transported back to 2018, when she cheered on Uruguay’s national team for the first time in the World Cup. She shares a hand-drawn and -lettered essay on what football means to the country
— Candace Rose Rardon in Dandelion Seeds: Illustrated Essays
I remember two distinct moments from that match. The first was taking in the crowd and realizing all the Uruguayan men around us had assumed the same posture for the game. Nearly every one of them had a ubiquitous yerba mate gourd in one hand, as well as a thermos of hot water tucked into the crook of that same elbow, and they drank the mate at a steady pace throughout the game.
But this arrangement still kept their other arm free, which they used to punch the air in frustration, anger, or, on rare occasions—such as the three goals Uruguay scored that night—exultation.
BUSINESS
You paid what?!
Tara McMullin looks at what might be driving inflating price points in the online marketplace
— Tara McMullin in What Works
An epistemic bubble is an information environment in which “relevant voices” have been left out of the discourse. Information is limited, and that changes the nature of how someone inside the bubble acts. On the other hand, an echo chamber is a “social structure from which relevant voices” have been purposefully excluded and devalued.
“An epistemic bubble,” writes Nguyen, “is when you don’t hear from people on the other side. An echo chamber is what happens when you don’t trust people from the other side.” Markets are full of epistemic bubbles. We have to make economic decisions based on limited information all the time. Parts of the backstage structure are tasked with remedying this (e.g. financial disclosures, advertising regulations, insurance for our bank accounts, etc.).
FILM
“I wasn’t always the first choice. I think they went to Winona Ryder first”
Actor Parker Posey has a resume that’s chock-full of beloved films. In this candid interview with Evan Ross Katz, she talks auteurs, the ’90s, and her latest horror flick, Beau Is Afraid
— Evan Ross Katz in SHUT UP EVAN: THE NEWSLETTER
“I’m just there for a second, and the way that I exit [Beau Is Afraid], it’s such a fine line of annihilation and liberation at the same time. I think acting has that quality for me. I was listening to something about how if you find an opportunity to go into a dark cave, then go into the dark cave. Take that journey into the unknown and see what that’s like, because you know you’re going to come out the other end and you’re going to be changed. I felt that particular way with both of these jobs. So, yeah. It was a trip. And when I first saw Patti [LuPone], she was standing outside on a balcony in a robe, with her hands extended like Evita, in the middle of nowhere outside of Montreal. It was a magical time. There was a man there who was the manager of the hotel that we were staying in named Andre, and he serenaded us. He came and sat down with us—I think we were the only people staying at this hotel—and he was this crooner. He’s a singer. I hope to write about it one day. I’m still processing it all.”
LITERATURE
The case against story
Canberra-based researcher and philosopher Jamie Freestone asks if neat narratives are what we want but not what we need
— Jamie Freestone in The Stark Way
This is an age of narrative, apparently. Even I’ve perpetuated this narrative narrative. I’ve been a narrative consultant, a narratologist, I have my own theory of narrative, and I think I know something about what makes for an effective narrative in TV, literature, PR, and politics.
Yet I personally am a little cold on story. My favourite reading and viewing has been mostly non-narrative works (especially lyric poetry), or those works where the story is less important than something else like tone, technique, or theme.
It’s not just endless iterations of the hero’s goddamned journey that I find vapid. All plot-driven genres bore me. They’re the recipe approach to art. Get all the right ingredients, follow the algorithm, and dish up pabulum that goes down easy.
Defeat summer with mussels!
“Seafood enthusiast” Tim Marchman makes a case for canned mussels in all the dishes
— Popping Tins in Popping Tins, recommended by Anna Kramer
Mussels are terrific, and terrifically adaptable. One of the best things about them, right up there with their lack of a central nervous system, is that even by the standards of tinned seafood they require little work or thought. Sardines, to take one fish often lauded here, aren’t exactly demanding, but unless you’re going to have them on crackers—which is a good idea, of course—they do require at least a little consideration of how you’re going to serve them and what you’re going to have them with, which mussels don’t. They’re easy to fish out of the can and don’t require any attention to how to break them up or present them, and the better ones, including such omnipresent ones as Patagonia’s, come in sauces that are quite good and enough by themselves to jazz up some plain rice or pasta. They’re also, crucially, fairly neutral. I like sardines more than the next person, but there are definitely a lot of flavors they don’t go with or overwhelm, and textures they don’t work with. Mussels don’t go with everything, but they don’t tend to take over, and a mussel works a bit differently in a forkful of food than a chunk of dismembered fish torso does. In the winter, I’ll just plop a can into the tomato-based vegetable soups and stews I favor; in the summer, they work great with things that are light.
CARTOON
Your workday
This weekend’s comic is from Chaz Hutton
— Chaz Hutton in Outlined
Recently launched
Coming soon
Congratulations to the following writers celebrating publication.
Katie Heindl celebrates a book deal for BASKETBALL FEELINGS:
Tim Lott excerpts his newly published book on the craft of writing:
Heather Cox Richardson shares news of her new book and its cover:
What’s happening in Notes
Cartoonist Jason Chatfield responds to Jillian Hess’s post on Keith Haring:
And writers share what makes a good note, with Substack Writers:
Inspired by the writers featured in Substack Reads? Writing on your own Substack is just a few clicks away.
Substack Reads is a weekly roundup of writing, ideas, art, and audio from the world of Substack. Posts are recommended by staff and readers, and curated and edited from Substack’s U.K. outpost by Hannah Ray.
Got a Substack post to recommend? Tell us about it in the comments.
Great to see Candace featured! If you haven’t checked out her work, it’s a definite subscribe. Her illustrations are gorgeous and her lettering is impeccable. Happy to see Chaz featured as well who has very funny illustrations that aptly summarize some slice of life we can relate to.
Going to bookmark the video game article and case against story. Both look interesting. I also see Who Made the Potato Salad has been featured again! Love KJ’s content on Instagram and have swung by his Substack to show some support. Glad to see him again.
I've really been enjoying this newsletter about neurodivergence and film, learning so much about autism/ADHD as well as an alternative view of movie classics! https://autcasts.substack.com !