Ariel Sym

On Story and Design Choices in Modern Games

Sat, 01 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I had been writing down game ideas for a while. Lots of text, cool art, interesting mechanics. Excellent. Very useful. The ideas usually worked until they did not. At some point the parts began to feel attached to one another instead of necessary, and I kept wondering how other games avoided that. I needed some idea of what «Story» and «Meaning» in games are in the first place. One must always understand before practicing. Or at least, I like to. How do they arrive at something that feels natural and self-sufficient, almost discovered rather than invented?

On Stylization and Games I Like

Fri, 31 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

There have always been great games. We find plenty of old, obscure titles and appreciate their design today. Not just that—they’re fun. Nostalgia is hitting our culture big time. It has been for a while now. That’s another topic. I spent some time wondering about all that, then tried to figure out why I’m more interested in games now than I’ve ever been.

The itch for style—

So, there’s one thing about today’s games that grabbed me in particular. Stylization. Most things online drift toward enshittification, but the indie scene keeps growing. Stylization—the deliberate crafting of games as art—has entered the mainstream, even among large companies. Stylized games move more freely between indie and mainstream spaces. Retro graphics, animated art, visual novels, painted worlds, unusual interfaces, old things returning in altered forms; all of it reaches broader audiences than it used to. Tiny teams can find real audiences with highly personal projects. And big studios do spend millions, but not only on worlds that look like reality with better lighting. In recent years, we’ve seen more games show what the medium could always do: direct attention, shape perception, and create experiences other media can’t quite offer in the same way. We’re also seeing manga and game-adjacent animation become mainstream: there’s Blue Eye Samurai on Netflix. And I’m glad it’s there. The crowd seems more open to style, pulp and fantasy. And maybe fewer kids will be called weird for reading manga, watching anime and collecting game magazines today. It never should’ve been weird in the first place. But we know that stuff by heart, don’t we? In the ’80s, some folks were after Dungeons & Dragons. 2000s, it was shooters and computer games. I’m drifting, but, look, that’s a win I can recognize.

Glass Jaw

Wed, 15 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Rain falls in seconds that fold into themselves. It is unsayable, yes, and so it sounds shitty. It is not unthinkable. Can you dream it? Can you? It was loud, yes, and you closed the windows. Why? When was the last time we danced? Was my face wide, like valleys of open hands? Did I smile?

We don’t have to talk. You left, but I left the hallway light on for you. I’m waiting. Waiting for you. Not fully, just a little bit. Loneliness meeting loneliness. Almost enough for us to swallow each other whole. Almost. Not quite.

Notes of an Undecided Man

Wed, 17 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

No more waking up to social media first thing. Social media. What a phrase. I open my eyes in the morning and don’t immediately see everything I missed yesterday. But I also miss the news that some friend-of-a-friend’s girlfriend’s dog is doing better after all. You wake up and there you are, at the mercy of your own body, the room, the heat, the cold, and a mind that has to find its own sense of scale. It makes me wonder.

To Break The Winter Sea

Tue, 16 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The sea was calm, I can still see it. We had left San Francisco two days ago. The captain said, »Don’t look at the water for too long.« It reflected the sun, and my eyes hurt. I looked out for a while and time passed, the light was digging its way through the surface. It was emanating, but didn’t lose its path. No clouds, no birds and no land.
I looked at the orange Sir Williams gave me that morning. It’s not just an orange, we’re on a ship, he said. Without the stuff from home, you’re dead. »Do you understand, Private? Take it«, he said.
To me, it was just an orange. Sweet, bitter and muddy.
He was a rich man and he liked talking with the sailors and their wives. When I saw him he was usually reading or speaking.
»Now, tell me. What is an unhappy man like you doing here, Private?«
He would be back with more fruits and questions the next morning.
»I’m here to eat this orange and spend time with you, Sir Williams.«
He laughed.
What did he want? To know the reason for my journey, or to eat fruits with me? I thought about eating it, or throwing it into the blue, and put it back into my pocket.