“Basically, I am convinced that not only are there no “major” or “minor” writers, but writers themselves do not exist—or at least they do not count for much.” –Italo Calvino. Can we say the same about game makers? 

Just in time for (and as a protest against?) Homeland Security’s actions against Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox, we have the Bitcoin Bundle. Including Spirits!

Maybe the answer to annoying online gadflies is experimental behavioral therapy. At least, it’s working for League of Legends.

NYU game designer Eric Zimmerman takes us all to game dev school. And there won’t even be a overhanging student loan to pay. 

I say fanfic has been the domain of Cloud and Sephiroth too long. It’s about damn time we got Stephen Curry fanfic. 

Not that excited for Sony’s sloth-speed presentation nor Microsoft’s reinvigorated focus on unnecessary Xbox apps? Horizon may be the alternative E3 conference for you. 

From earlier this week, but this weekend is as good a time as any to catch up on Deadspin’s long-form feature on the National School Scrabble Championship.

Grand Turismo 6 is coming this fall for, huh, the PlayStation 3? But a PlayStation 4 version might not be too far behind. 

Telltale Games tells all about The Wolf Among Us, their next project after the ultra-successful The Walking Dead games. Who needs ethics and zombies when you can have noir pigs smoking cigarettes?

True story. There is a Raiden machine at a gas station not-so-nearby, where they also sell belt buckles. The screen is blurry. Only the player 2 joystick works. Now that it’s on PC and MAC, it’s going to be a lot harder to make the drive.

See ya next week!

Tim Schafer was good enough to speak at our first-ever conference last weekend. If you haven't played the fruits of his teams' labor at Double Fine yet, this week's Humble Bundle is for you. Just added: eight crazy prototypes for upcoming games. Play the future today!

Metro: Last Light's development had as treacherous a back-story as the game's protagonist. Read ex-THQ president Jason Rubin's take on the startling conditions weathered by developers 4A.

We are less than a week away from Microsoft's big Xbox reveal event. Lather up your eyeballs in preparation with the new Twitch.tv app on Xbox 360. Don't forget to rinse.

Speaking of announcements: To celebrate Jimmy Fallon's eventual move to The Tonight Show, Nintendo sent the late-night games evangelist his very own cake. Can't wait to hear the corresponding Thank You note.

Time was, only in games would we see our world through a stream of real-time data. Prepare for the HUD of the future as Bill Wasik at WIRED describes all those tiny computers that will shape the way we interact with our surroundings.

Spry Fox, makers of Triple Town and Leap Day, have announced a new project with a decidedly Frostian bent: Road Not Taken. The roguelike puzzle game looks to have more divergent paths than a yellow wood.

At Google's annual I/O developer conference yesterday, they announced Google Play will finally have a cohesive gaming environment similar to Apple's Gamecenter. Just in time for the Android Platform Deluge of 2013.

Indie Game: The Movie was an intriguing portrayal of indie game creation, but it shed light on only one microcosm of the whole. Video Game: The Movie aims for the whole enchilada. If you think they've got the right stuff, throw 'em some bones.

Don't forget the sour cream.

These aerial photographs of airports make us pine for SimCityAir! And business class.

"It'd be like going to Patisserie Valerie and saying 'Make me a can of baked beans.' You go to them for the best cakes in the world, and you let them get on with making those cakes. You trust them to do a good job of that." A Sony rep on doing a Vita game with indie dev Jeff “the Ox” Minter. 

Among The Sleep, the horror game that puts you in the crib, was successfully funded. As thanks, the team has made the demo available to everyone! 

The Gameological Society laments the death of boom shakalakas, washing machine infielders, quarterback decapitations, Bill Laimbeer’s time bombs, radioactive cornerbacks, morbidly obese boxers, and all the unrealistic sports games of yesteryear.

The XYZZY Awards have announced their picks for the best interactive fiction of the year.

NASA’s session was THE highlight of G.D.C. (Aside from the Killer Queens.) You should watch.

Nobunaga's Ambition, the long running—and, by some accounts, awesome—strategy series based on the conquests of Oda Nobunaga, the 16th century warlord who unified Japan, has turned 30. It’s great that Koei is still around.

“Suck.” La Mulana’s creator on being an indie in Japan.

Until tomorrow!

Love words and games as much as us? Check out Rob Delaney's War of Words, a board game based on the comedian's tweets, in stores tomorrow. Please be better than that sitcom starring William Shatner.

Frustrated by his son's interest in Rock Band and not real guitar, Dan Sullivan developed an instrument that blends the two together and called it Jamstik. The unfortunate spelling does not dissuade us from wanting one.

ESPN has its detractors, but they can start an argument like nobody's business. They've listed the Top 25 Sports Videogames of All-Time. Let the bickering commence.

Last month, Nintendo released Tomodachi Collection for 3DS, a life-simulator of sorts for your Mii. They go to the store, have dreams, meet strangers. Eventually they marry and have a baby. The Japan-only release originally allowed male-male relationships; sadly, the "bug" has been fixed with a patch. Old-world prejudice aside, we still yearn for the game to come west with the power of a thousand suns.

More grist for the Nintendo-is-Doomed mill: GungHo Entertainment is now valued at over US$15.1 billion, a hair more than the Mansion of Mario. Who's GungHo, you ask? They make the mobile game Puzzles & Dragons. "Oh." In April, it made nearly $4 million a day. "Oh."

While we wait for Grand Theft Auto V, let us take a moment and read Gary Shteyngart on his wish for self-driving cars.

The good news: The fifth entry in Shu Takumi's brilliant Ace Attorney series is coming to Europe and North America this August. The interesting news: It will be a digital-only title. Finger-pointing's never been so three-dimensional.

We miss you already.

“Unfortunately we pushed too hard. Tier after tier we just keep adding to the insanity in both farming preparations and actual progressing. It's almost as if progression itself never really ends.” A member of World of Warcraft’s top guild on why they called it quits.

The Atlantic delivers an interview with SimCity’s lead designer, and gets to the bottom of what happened to all the parking lots in the game once and for all. It turns out the Earth is covered in those things and it doesn't make for eloquent play. 

We thought no torso could be more disturbing than the Dead Island: Riptide bikini zombie torso. This ex-girlfriend shooting target proved us wrong. Thanks, world. 

Hmm…Now that you mention it, those demented fetuses from Silent Hill do look a lot like the paintings of Francis Bacon.

Dungeons & Dragons has changed tremendously since ye old days in the basement, ahem, oubliette. Boing Boing examines the Old School Renaissance.

Indie games’ resident dominatrix Anna Anthropy tells us why Bioshock Infinite is empathy challenged, along with the rest of mainstream games. 

The creator of That Dragon, Cancer writes about the crushing difficulties of making a game about his son who has terminal cancer. Met him before. He’s a really nice guy. 

Have a good Monday!