Estella Mirai

  Let’s try something a little different today: a game review! Since “ Night in the Unpleasant House ” is interactive fiction, it’s not THAT far off from what I usually write about, but still. First game review! I found this game by googling “iPhone games like Edith Finch,” for what it’s worth, and the two games are not entirely dissimilar. They both take place in weird, creepy houses, both involve Dark Secrets of the Past… but the gameplay in Unpleasant House wasn’t entirely like anything I’ve played before. You play an unnamed, genderless (as far as I can tell) narrator, whose father disappeared ten years ago in the mysterious Mayor’s house. As one of the earliest choices in the game indicates, you’re either there for revenge or answers (maybe both). As you explore the house, you learn more about the mayor snd what happened to your father. Good stuff! This is basically a text adventure, and I’ve played quite a few of those back in the day, but the game here gives you actions with...

  As you probably know by now, at least if you follow me on social media, the world lost an amazing songwriter and storyteller on April 19. Jim Steinman was best known for writing all of the music and lyrics for Meat Loaf’s Bat Out of Hell (the best selling album EVER with all music and lyrics written by a single person), as well as hits like “Total Eclipse of the Heart” and “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now.” He also wrote Tanz der Vampire , Bat Out of Hell the Musical , and lyrics for Whistle Down the Wind . He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and won a Grammy and the BMI Song of the Year (you want to Google that speech, by the way). It’s very hard to explain how much more to me he was than that. There are millions of stories out there by people who were blown away the first time they heard Bat Out of Hell . I’m not going to bore you with mine, except to say that it was one of those formative things for me, one of those things that I think we all have that just… mak...