Dispatch (AdHoc Studio) feels like an interactive superhero sitcom. The player takes on the role of Robert Robertson, aka Mecha Man, who faces off against an enemy too clever for him, resulting in his mecha-suit being destroyed. Following his injuries, he’s approached to join the Superhero Dispatch Network as a dispatcher for a dysfunctional team comprised of former villains. The choices you make throughout the game — how you deal with conflict and who you support or romance — has an affect on how the story plays out.

In addition to the choice-based narrative, the game features some incredibly satisfying mini-games, like he dispatch system, in which you assign heroes to specific calls is a fun challenge, along with the hacking puzzles. In the end, I really loved my team of misfits, who often made me smile or laugh at their bickering and antics. It’s was a great time and one that I’d return to again sometime (maybe to explore some different narrative pathways).

I finished 1000xRESIST (Sunset Visitor) and, wow, what a story. I love the way the game integrates its layers of narrative, emphasizing each story beat through how the player interacts with scenes. Even though it’s essentially a walking simulator (in which the player simply moves through various spaces, interacting with people or objects) and animations are limited (with many NPCs standing perfectly still), it effectively presents its emotion through lighting, scene design, and voice acting. The effect is a powerful scifi narrative about the nature of humanity, faith, political power, and compassion.

The Axeman’s House, developed by my friend Cote Smith, is a 30 minute horror adventure that can be played in browser. The story follows Cass, who has escaped to a small town to avoid her abusive husband. In the midst of her escape, she begins to explore a local house, where a man is said to have killed his family. The game is a captivating little experience that delves into domestic abuse and the power of hauntings.

Paper Trail is a survival horror game about a girl with a broken arm attempting to escape a hospital infested with adorably wonky monsters that came alive from the drawings she tried to draw with her non-dominant left hand. To progress through the game, the player douses the monsters with water and has to solve puzzles to open locked doors.

Paper Trail is currently being developed by I Munch Crayons, a team of students who won a game jam over summer 2025 at a Girls Make Games. The team is now working with Girls Make Games, who is pairing them with professional mentors to help them further develop the game into a completed project. I’m looking forward to seeing how the game progresses (especially as I’ll be providing mentorship regarding the narrative).

In May, I attended the Capital Creative Showcase, an event for the local game dev community in Sacramento to share the games they published and have in development. I got to play a number of cool games, which I wrote about in more detail here. These games included:

• Fugue Shot (developed by Rare Dialect) is an arcade roguelike
• HerSalon (developed by Hexwave) is a narrative management game about owning and operating a hair salon
• Prickles (developed by Filthy Houseplant) is a narrative drawing game about an anxious artist connecting with her neighbors and building her creative skills
• Puzzle Spy International (developed by Travel-Friendly Cake) is a spy-themed game involving word puzzles
• Wherever You Get Your Podcasts (developed by Matthew Linder) is a podcasting simulator with cozy horror vibes
• Wizard Cleaning Simulator (developed by 3 Frog Studio LLC) is a cleaning simulator set in a wizard’s castle
• HexDeck(developed by Lily) is a delightful tower defense game combined with a roguelike deckbuilder
• Gift of the Primordials (developed by Chaparral Collective and Unspeakable Pixels) is a puzzle game, in which the player provides ecological restoration to an alien world
• A Home is Safe (developed by Beto Damian) is a point-and-click survival horror game in which your security system turns out to be the most dangerous thing in your home

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If you’d also like to know about the books and media that I enjoyed recently, you can check out my Culture Consumption for May.