Brian Crecente
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Pad & Pixel consulting, Kotaku founder, Polygon co-founder, former ed Rolling Stone, Variety bsky.app/profile/crecente.bsky.social
Articles by Brian Crecente
Chessboxing - Kotaku
We may earn a commission when you buy through links on our sites. ©2026 KOTAKU USA LLC. All rights reserved.
Alphadia F - Kotaku
Embark on an epic fantasy JRPG in Alphadia F, the remake of Alphadia IV. Explore Valhalard, uncover the mystery of six fallen crystals, and save four kingdoms in strategic turn-based battles. Master the energi system, character progression, cooking, and classic anime-style RPG adventure.
Continuum - Kotaku
A generation ship roguelite where no one aboard survives the journey. Travel the stars one world at a time as each generation shapes your ship and writes a new chapter in the chronicle.
Volatiles - Kotaku
Lay out your survival in a top-down action roguelike where every tile expands the battlefield, fuels your build, and pulls you deeper into an analog sci-fi nightmare. Fight alien hordes, unlock powerful weapons, shape deadly arenas, and survive the invasion within.
Sealing Fallout - Kotaku
An AI-powered fusion reactor has blown up and it’s up to sealkind to save Earth from the ensuing Runaway Electron Avalanche! Group up with up to 6 fellow seals to fix the reactor before the seventh day ends. The AI Adam predicts your failure, prove it wrong and blow it up.
Mushroom Marketplace
We may earn a commission when you buy through links on our sites. ©2026 KOTAKU USA LLC. All rights reserved.
Auto Shrooms - Kotaku
Grow, harvest, and command your troop of tiny mushrooms in this auto battler where you have to grow your units. Master the lifecycle of your Sporelings to create specialised units. Adapt to hostile alien worlds by changing your formation, equipment, and traits. All biomass will be assimilated.
Vertex-1: Ainia - Kotaku
Vertex-1: Ainia is a game that combines tower defense and first-person shooting with a retrofuturistic vector art style. Analyze the levels to devise defense strategies and prevent attackers from destroying the simulation that keeps humanity alive.
Quickie Takeout - Kotaku
Adult-Only Visual Novel about fast-food shenanigans with your three quirky coworkers. Get into questionable scenarios in this light-hearted, slice-of-life NSFW comedy.
Space Evolver - Kotaku
Space Evolver is a roguelite management and genetics game that incorporates real-time strategy game elements. Upgrade your spaceship and technologies, complete missions, and guide the evolution of species.
Coin maker simulator
Marvel’s Wolverine Has Already Been Consumed By A Debate About ‘Fart Gas’ And It’s Not Even Out Yet
Sony's PlayStation disc plant is losing 10 percent of its volume in 2028, not 90
Sony’s PlayStation disc plant is losing 10 percent of its volume in 2028, not 90 Sony won’t license disc pressing to anyone else, Microsoft does, and a former PlayStation boss thinks that’s the whole problem. When Sony DADC chief Dietmar Tanzer spoke with an Austrian broadcaster in July about PlayStation disc production at the Thalgau plant, a number of press outlets misunderstood the report, writing that production would fall to a tenth of current levels. It won’t.
Melon on a Mission
Being a watermelon has never been this dangerous. Climb your way to the top by jumping across everyday objects, balancing on tricky platforms, and avoiding a juicy disaster. Every fall could mean a long trip back down — or a smashed watermelon. Stay calm, keep climbing, and complete your mission.
Thrower Defense - Kotaku
Carry and throw your units into position, resupply their ammunition, and defend against waves of enemies in this chaotic couch co-op tower defense for up to 4 players.
My Friend, Dysentery
A darkly comedic “horribly realistic fantasy travel simulator” survival adventure roguelike inspired by Oregon Trail. Journey to the Promised Land to kill a dragon! Fight monsters, manage supplies & disasters, and learn that fantasy journeys are nothing heroic like the films, but cripplingly brutal.
Olympic Snow Girl
“Winter Olympic Girl’s Dream” is an inspirational interactive story game about the growth of a young female skier. Players experience the development of the story through interactive choices, collect character-exclusive CGs, and follow each character’s journey of growth.
My Sexy Fairies - Kotaku
Step into the enchanting world of My Sexy Fairies, where you become the trusted assistant of four charming fairy girls. My Sexy Fairies – is a meditative, relaxing game that takes 30 minutes to complete.
High Stakes - Kotaku
The Hunt For The GTA 6 Leaker Seems To Be Getting Closer To Its Target
Concrete Burial - Kotaku
Equipped only with a weapon that consumes your own blood, explore an ancient brutalist catacomb. Beware the Eyes of The Whispering Crypt. Find the 4 artifacts of desire. Confront God.
Nova Jumper - Kotaku
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns Of The Patriots: The Kotaku Review Darth Vader Wants Flock Surveillance Cameras In Cities To ‘Find The Rebel Scum’ And ‘Stalk My Ex-Girlfriend’ Jason Flying A Plane In The New GTA 6 Leak Has Me More Excited Than Any Previous Trailer Geoff Keighley Explains The Key To Getting In The Gamescom Showcase For Free Is Having Something Exciting To Reveal
Road Line Puzzle: Connect the Paths
The Best Games Of 2025 (So Far) The year is almost over and the list of games that have made their mark in 2025 is filling up
Glam the Rocker - Kotaku
Copy the enemy arsenal to acquire new abilities! Everything mentioned above is present in this unique fast-paced action game!
Nazi Zombies - Kotaku
I Definitely Do Not Like March From Fields Of Mistria And Absolutely Will Not Be Marrying Him Under Any Circumstances
Delta's Discs - Kotaku
Venture into the wast world of Delta’s Discs, while collecting discs that will help Delta, a duck knight, recover his memories, make new friends and overthrow the squirrel dictatorship.
Cryptogram - Kotaku
Cryptogram is a multiplayer substitution-cipher puzzle game: every puzzle hides a quote, a line, or a saying behind a scrambled alphabet, and it’s up to you to crack the code one letter at a time. Solve alone at your own pace, or open a lobby and work the same puzzle with friends in real time — everyone sees the board update live as guesses land, hints get spent, and the last letters click into place.
Galaxy Critter Co.
If Anyone Wants To Print Their Own PlayStation Discs They’ll Need To Overcome Sony’s Wall Of Silence
Blink Atomic Music
This is a game where you dodge bullet patterns generated from music using movement and Blink (short warp). Each song lasts about 2 minutes, and there are 9 songs in total.
Old Monterrey - Kotaku
Old Monterrey is a premium 2D pixel platformer inspired by northern Mexico. Run, jump, and explore handcrafted stages under a bright desert sky—where rural landscapes meet sci-fi trouble, and the iconic Cerro de la Silla watches over every level. Rescue the goats, outsmart alien invaders, and keep moving.
Immortal Coil - Kotaku
Lego Astro Bot And PlayStation Sets Are Rumored And People Are Already Dunking On Them: ‘So Is There A Physical Set Or Is It Just A Download Code In The Box?’
Descent Down Infinity
Descent Down Infinity is a psychological horror game inspired by classics such as Silent Hill 2 and Dead Space Descend down into the abandoned underground megastructure of Helix-8 and uncover what’s happened to the people there. As the newest member of the Infinity Inc. family, your goal is to retrieve important data from the very heart of the city, The Core.
Eden Coil - Kotaku
Marvel Boss Says We’re Only Getting Four Movies In Three Years To ‘Focus On Quality’ Over Quantity
Zombie War - Kotaku
We may earn a commission when you buy through links on our sites. ©2026 KOTAKU USA LLC. All rights reserved.
Cliff Bleszinski Knows What Went Wrong
#Interviews#News#Video Games#Game Development#Business In his first in-depth interview in years, Cliff Bleszinski divulges his deepest and most honest reflection on what exactly killed Boss Key. He discusses the publishing deal that was too favorable, the wrong console choice, and even the co-founder he turned down. And now, he's planning a comeback. Cliff Bleszinski has a list.
Dreamscapes: The Full Journey
Netflix Brags That AI Tools Were Used In Around 300 Of Its Shows And Movies In 2026 So Far
Ailse of Shadows
Tips & Guides Get It Done How To Defeat The Wise In Assassin’s Creed Shadows You’ll want to stick with Yasuke for this whole scenario
Poker Matrix - Kotaku
In this turn-based poker strategy game, you and the AI take turns selecting five adjacent cards from the board, forming poker hands to determine the winner and earn chips. Convert your chips into points round by round to unlock more game modes!
Gaming fans need a new safe haven
Sharing is caring! It seems that many major players in the video game industry haven’t quite caught on to the fact that social media is essentially dead or dying. I talked about this a bit in January in my monthly column. But I ended the article on a note upon which I probably should have elucidated. At the time I wrote: “Currently, I think brands and media need to focus on building up their own safe haven for consumers, readers, and fans away from social media and the like.
Cuba’s next indie game is powered by fear, family, and the sun
Sharing is caring! It is, perhaps, the perfect time in Cuba to make a horror game. Intertwined oil shortages and an economic crisis sparked by fuel shortages and the continued U.S. embargo, have rocked the island nation, leading to daily rolling blackouts as well as food, water, and medical shortages. Back in 2016, when Cuban indie developer Josuhe Pagliery, started work on his first game, it garnered international attention at a time when he thought things couldn’t get any more difficult.
Crimson Desert Hands-on on a Handheld
Sharing is caring! Crimson Desert is the sort of glee-generating, open-world graphical powerhouse that clearly isn’t designed to be played on a handheld PC.
Sharing is caring! In a response to a question about how GDC Festival of Gaming will react to ICE agents if they request information about attendees or to access the convention, I was told that organizers are in “discussions with the mayor’s office … about the safety, security, and overall experience of attendees.” When asked earlier for specifics about the discussions between city officials and GDC, I was referred to a post on X (formerly known as Twitter) by San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie...
Toxic Commando: Fusing blood, mud, and John Carpenter
Sharing is caring! It started with a spark of an idea: What if you mashed up an off-road trucking simulator with the dread of a lurking evil? Then came the prototyping and mud. Finally, John Carpenter signed on, bringing with him his horror film pedigree, storytelling prowess, synth music compositions, love of video games, and—of course—his name.
Enshortification and the death of (social?) media
Sharing is caring! I remain befuddled about the current state of SEO and the shift to GEO. For those of you blissfully unaware, SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, or the way Google (and other search engines) force people to write to ensure they show up high in a search result. Or at least it was that way five years ago.
Seven Crazy Gaming Presents (for yourself)
Sharing is caring! We are teetering on the tail end of the holidays, but I thought it would still be fun to send out a list of some of the cooler things I’ve been playing around with over the course of the year and call it a gift guide. Maybe there’s not enough time to order any of this and get it to your home in time to wrap and give away. But there’s plenty of time to pick some of this up and keep it for yourself. Trust me, it’s all pretty cool.
Sci-fi, dino-taming survival game ARK 2 eyes a 2028 release with a little or a lot of Vin DIesel
Sharing is caring! Fans of the sci-fi, dino-taming survival game ARK: Survival Ascended will get their first taste of the long-anticipated sequel—ARK 2—in a major update hitting near the end of 2027. ARK 2, Jeremy Stieglitz, co-founder of developer Studio Wildcard, said, is currently planned for a 2028 release.
Nate Mitchell and Matt Hansen on the Death of Spectre Divide & Mountaintop Studios
Sharing is caring! Spectre Divide vanished. After five years of development, 65 million dollars in investment, and an early wave of strong support from pro players and the press. The tactical shooter meant to disrupt the Counter-Strike space collapsed in on itself, taking its promising studio with it.
Xbox handheld hits next month with intriguing game badging system
Sharing is caring! Perhaps lost today in the tsunami of video game impressions, interviews, and general mayhem of Gamescom, Asus announced that the ROG Xbox Ally and ROG Xbox Ally X will begin hitting stores this October. The handheld PC gaming system that the company co-designed with Microsoft will pop up on store shelves and online in the United States and across “key international markets” starting Oct. 16.
Xbox? Not an Xbox? Who cares? The ROG Xbox Ally is a wonder
Sharing is caring! It’s likely that the ASUS ROG Xbox Ally will land to conflicting perspectives. Seen through the lens of a lifelong console player, the system simply isn’t ready to be compared to the locked-down, slick user experience of a Nintendo Switch 2. But viewed by a lifelong PC gamer, especially one with experience playing on today’s handheld PC gaming systems, that’s a different story altogether. This story.
Is Nintendo returning to Pikmin animated shorts?
Sharing is caring! A series of mysterious animated shorts popped up on number of official Nintendo channels this week, confounding and exciting fans of the Japanese game maker. In the first of the two shorts, a baby left to their own devices chases a floating pacifier, eventually standing on up to take its first wobbly steps before falling into the quickly returning mom’s arms.
Clickholding, Hellraiser, El Paso ... anywhere?
Sharing is caring! I’ve had a few conversations with Strange Scaffold’s Xalavier Nelson, Jr. over the years, but it still feels like there’s so much to talk about. That’s mostly because Xalavier is such a deeply thoughtful, interesting guy. But the reason I first reached out to talk wasn’t because of the amazing games he was releasing – like Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator, Hypnospace Outlaw, and An Airport for Aliens Currently Run By Dogs – but because of where he was living.
Lessons Learned From the Rise of a New Take on Monster Hunter and Its Sudden Collapse
Sharing is caring! Dauntless was, it seems, ultimately too successful to succeed. Launched in 2019 to a rabid fanbase clamouring for another take on the fantasy-hunting genre created by Capcom with Monster Hunter, Dauntless came out of the gate, blowing away most expectations, including those of the relatively small but talented pool of developers. Within a day, it was bringing in ten times the players developer Phoenix Labs predicted they would get at the best of times.
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