Start Your (Game) Engines!

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The cover of Elements of Game Design by Robert Zubek

It’s March, and VPL’s first GameJam is well underway. Tommy already made a post explaining what it’s all about. Still, I thought I’d do a bit of advertising for it here and encourage people who maybe aren’t ready to make a game from scratch to get in on some game creation. Fair warning: these won’t be accepted as GameJam entries, so this post is entirely for fun from that perspective. This is likely a moot point, though, as I’m guessing my audience is likely too old to be entering the game jam anyway, but shout-outs to any grade 2-8 students reading my posts. I’ll be focusing on a suite of games that allow players to make games within them in addition to playing user-created levels.

The box art of Super Mario Maker

I’ll start with something that’s been popping up in my newsfeed lately: the original Super Mario Maker for the WiiU. If you want to borrow this one and play other people’s levels, jump on it quickly. WiiU servers are getting shut down in April, taking all of the user-created levels with them. You’ll still be able to build and play through your own levels, but that’s about it. Borrow it soon, though, and you can help Team 0% ensure that every level ever uploaded gets beaten by someone other than the original creator before that inevitable shutdown. At the time of writing this (March 18th, 2024), there’s only a single level left: Trimming the Herbs. This clear video is from the creator, who had to beat it to upload it to the servers, so don’t go thinking someone’s pulled it off just yet. Though… if even seasoned Mario veterans are having trouble with this one, then maybe getting that final clear is a little out of reach for most people.

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Post-Oscars Movie Awards: A Highly Unserious Year in Review 

With the Oscars airing this past Sunday, the movie season of 2023 has officially come to an end, including the media circus that is awards season. We watched Oppenheimer take home the big awards, we were surprised by Poor Things stepping over Barbie to compete in the same categories (costume, production design, stories about women discovering the world for the first time…), we saw Killers of the Flower Moon get left in the dust. Anyone who follows the awards circuit is undoubtedly burnt out by now, but I had too much fun last year making a list of silly fake awards to let the opportunity slip past me. So to officially-officially wrap up awards season, I present another list of movies and their various parts that stuck out to me over the past year: the highly unserious Post-Oscars Movie Awards.  

anatomy of a fall dvd cover

Best Performance by a Dog in a Motion Picture: Messi, Anatomy of a Fall 

Beyond being maybe my favourite movie of the year with maybe my favourite human performance (Sandra Hüller hive rise!), French film Anatomy of a Fall offers so much to admire: a tight, impeccable script; a hilarious cover of 50 Cent’s “P.I.M.P”; that one lawyer’s hair…but nothing is more impressive to me than the performance by the family’s dog played by the beautiful Border Collie named Messi. A performance so good I was really sitting there going “let’s get back to the murder trial in a second—is that dog real? How is it doing that? Is it a puppet?” If you watched the Oscars this past Sunday, you would have seen good boy Messi sitting in the audience, clapping politely for Robert Downey Jr’s win (turns out that was footage from the rehearsal—as a dog, he was too excitable for the actual ceremony). Jokes aside, all of the performances in Anatomy of a Fall are peak, including young Milo Machado Graner who plays Daniel and is distractingly good for a child.  

barbie movie cover

Message that went the most over my head: Barbie 

Hear me out. I’m not referring to the America Ferrera speech or the commentary on how the patriarchy harms both men and women—I get all that. Very important stuff. But what I don’t get is Barbie’s decision to leave Barbie Land after experiencing the real world. You’re telling me she gives up a place where she and her girls reign supreme and spend all their days rollerskating and having dance parties? For what, the misogyny and drudgery of the “real world”? Even the Kens had it made in Barbie Land, in my opinion (I would love for my job to be beach, personally). I know for the sake of narrative and proper messaging (especially for the kids) Barbie needed to want to grow, but from where I’m sitting as a tired adult in this increasingly difficult world…girl. I’ll swap places with you any day. Put me in that Dream House, I’m tired of relating to Depression Barbie.  

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Canada Reads 2024 In Review

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Mattea-Roach-holding-the-graphic-novel-Ducks-above-her-head-in-victory.
Credit: cbc.ca

It’s over! The yearly competition to determine which book penned by a Canadian author is ‘the one that all Canadians need to read right now’ has concluded and a victor has been chosen. If you’re not familiar with the format, here’s how it breaks down. Five luminaries on the Canadian cultural scene decide to “champion” one of 15 longlisted books in a debate that’s broadcast over radio and televised across the country. Between March 4-7, daily debates took place, with a round of voting to eliminate one of the books at the conclusion of each discussion. Long-running host Ali Hassan was at the helm, acting as moderator and throwing in a few puns along the way. The theme for this year was an interesting one: Which work is the “one to carry us forward.” Carry us forward to where, you might ask. Fans of Jeopardy (such as myself), may be familiar with last year’s Canada Reads winner and overall excellent human, Mattea Roach. Roach was a formidable competitor on the classic quiz show and now holds the title for “most successful Canadian competitor” in the history of Jeopardy. Roach selected Kate Beaton’s graphic novel, Ducks, as their fighter in the ring. The true account of Beaton’s time working in the oil sands of Alberta and the complicated relationship the writer had with her gainful employment are conveyed through skilled illustrations. It was the first graphic novel to be honoured by the Canada Reads title. Check out one of Roach’s epic wins on Jeopardy here for a taste of their excellence. Turning to this year, the ‘great Canadian book debate’ was in its 23rd iteration, and this year’s contenders chose some intriguing reads. Here are the titles with their corresponding champions:

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