GAMEJOURNAL issue n.5

G|A|M|E is a journal dedicated to a comparative, critical, and theoretical analysis of videogames. This week the fifth issue of G|A|M|E was released, as usual online and open access.

The Institute of Digital Games is involved in a number of ways with G|A|M|E (Stefano Gualeni is an associated editor and reviewer for it, Gordon Calleja, Costantino Oliva, and Daniel Vella are also reviewers), an involvement that got even deeper with this last release. Two articles in the fifth issue of G|A|M|E are, in fact, by members (or past members) of the institute.

• Pippin Barr is present in this issue with two games and a paper detailing the design decisions that informed their production. Jostle Bastard and Jostle Parent are playable critiques of Hotline Miami(Dennaton Games, 2012) and Octodad: Deadliest Catch (Young Horses, 2014), two games that claim to present a critique of video game violence and a humorous take on parenting respectively. Read his article: Critical Jostling.

• Stefano Gualeni’s contributions to this issue gravitates around the philosophical videogame Necessary Evil (made in collaboration with Dino Dini and IDG's own Marcello Gomez Maureira). Stefano's article discusses the possibilities for video games to be mediators that facilitate critical reflections on conventions and traditions in video game design and development. Read his article: Self-reflexive videogames: observations and corollaries on virtual worlds as philosophical artifacts.