I’ve not been doing much feature-writing lately because of a couple of big book projects, but I’ve done this and that. Here’s a quick round-up of work from the past few months that I’m pleased with.

Do humans dream of cardboard sheep

A feature for Disengo about how cardboard is being used to involve people – especially kids – in DIY design. It was inspired by Nintendo Labo, for which I still have a very soft spot, but also looks at cool projects by people like Ross Atkin. Includes reeeal nice photography by Fabian Frinzel.

Time Extend: The Stanley Parable

I hadn’t realised PC Gamer has published some of my old Edge features! I’m quite pleased with this one, a close examination of The Stanley Parable and how it, in turn, examines what it means to play games.

How Outer Wilds built a planet that falls apart

I spent a few months working on new books (including Japansoft, which is about to go to press, ahhh!) so my Mechanic series of design articles for Rock Paper Shotgun got put on hold for a bit. My return was marked by one of my favourites for ages, about how Outer Wilds physically simulates an entire planet being bombarded by asteroids that break it into pieces.

GOG’s 10-year journey to bring old games back to life

An oral history that looks at GOG’s work in bringing ancient PC games to modern PC operating systems.

How old should my kids be before I let them play Fortnite?

For PC Gamer I wrote about the lack of research into the effects of modern games’ pervasiveness on kids. Made me think a lot about how my attitude to myself playing games as a kid differs greatly from how I feel about my own kids playing.