Graham Smith

@grahamsmith

Studio manager/producer @suspicious.dev. Co-founder @jank.cool. Previously: RPS, PC Gamer, Crate & Crowbar, Eurogamer, Dicebreaker.

305 Following2,942 Followers195 Posts

YouTube Bluesky

Is this your profile?Claim it and grahamsmith.dirty.social is yours.Claim profile

Graham Smith@grahamsmith· Jul 8

We're putting the paywall on a handful of Jank posts so we're celebrating with a week of articles about walls which includes reviewing 2008 movie tie-in game Wall-E

"Honey, we're videogamesing. Its best levels showcase the sediment layers of game design practices over the preceding decades that have compacted to produce, finally, a semi-competent movie tie-in for nine year olds."

Graham Smith@grahamsmith· May 16

Xbox is my son. Call me...

A ventilation and heat recovery system in a closet. "MRXBOX" is written on the front in blue writing, above small grey writing that reads, "Manufactured in the UK to the highest quality."

Graham Smith@grahamsmith· May 11

mfw you try to talk to me about the MIxtape discourse Anyway here's my contribution to the Mixtape discourse

In mimicry of a famous meme, Cass from Mixtape stands with her arms folded, looking unimpressed, while a man leans too close to her ear and talks at her about something.

Graham Smith@grahamsmith· Apr 16

Chuckie from Good Will Hunting, played by Ben Affleck, asking "You know what the best part of my day is?"

Chuckie from Good Will Hunting, played by Ben Affleck, saying "It's for about ten seconds: from when I open BlueSky and it's broken and I'm waiting for it to load."

Chuckie from Good Will Hunting, played by Ben Affleck: "'Cause I think maybe it'll never load and they'll never fix it and you won't be there."

Graham Smith@grahamsmith· Apr 3

Built a robit

A ping Gundam holding a shield and gun, standing on a cutting mat. It is a Bandai Gunpla Real Grade RG 1/144 Gundam Justice.

Graham Smith@grahamsmith· Apr 2

This is from a booklet sent home by my kid's school. You can tell we're in England because only royalty are imagined to have self-worth

"I feel I count" written above a smiling boy in a crown

"I feel I do not count or belong" written above a sad boy.

Graham Smith@grahamsmith· Apr 2

me loading up the videogame vs me sitting through all the unskippable logos and copyright notices

"I feel in control" written above a boy holding a gamepad (or RC car control?), looking happy. The boy is wearing a green tshirt.

"I feel a lack of control" written above the same boy, who looks angry, and who is trapped inside a glass dome.

Graham Smith@grahamsmith· Dec 21

I don't typically like any genre you'd put it in, or any system it contains, and yet Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time would be on my top ten of the year. It dares to ask: what if Animal Crossing was a videogame? A daft, colourful, bountiful dopamine machine, and a lark to play with kids.

A blue bean-shaped character is tossed through the air on a boat towards a man in a top hat. "Hey! Waah! Aah!" he shouts.

A full beer glass with eyes sits on the floor. Cheery Wheat Juice is his name. He says, "I thought I'd go out for a drink and then... I became a Wheat Juice myself! Ridiculous! Ahahaha!".

The player character and a villager sit on a bench, beside a fire, cherry tree, pond and home, in the Animal Crossing ish bit of Fantasy Life i.

A group cut down a tree. "I pay for your victory!" says Hilda, a blonde lady staring nearby. It's a tree, Hilda.

Graham Smith@grahamsmith· Dec 18

The father of indie gaming

The cover of Klik & Play, the 1994 game making software.

Graham Smith@grahamsmith· Oct 24

Two men in bed look out the window, hearing classical music in a scene from Shawshank Redemption.

Two men in prison clothes look up and out of frame, hearing classical music in a scene from Shawshank Redemption.

A crowd of prisoners and wardens in a yard, look up, hearing music in Shawshank Redemption.

Morgan Freeman, from Shawshank Redemption, looks up and out of frame.

Graham Smith@grahamsmith· Sep 4

Floof.

A cocker spaniel curled up on a couch, looking soft.

Graham Smith@grahamsmith· Sep 4

Every video game industry presentation I saw circa 2009-2016 looked like this. "Consumers who were willing to spend more on games weren't able to". Oh no!!!!!

A slide from a GDC 2011 presentation explaining that traditional models of selling games "represented lost economic value".

Graham Smith@grahamsmith· Aug 21

I don't know what this is but it's the apex of technology

A photo of the box for the Casio Loopy, an old video games console. Most of the text is in Japanese except for "My Seal Computer". It has pictures of colourful games and lots of pink hearts.

A photo of the box for the Casio Loopy, an old video games console. It has Japanese writing, "My Seal Computer" in the corner, and lots of coloured hearts along the bottom.

Graham Smith@grahamsmith· Aug 6

when the reality is more like

Mr. Burns, glowing green, bringing people love in a drug-induced haze as Smithers reaches to stop him.

Graham Smith@grahamsmith· Jul 7

I think what I love most about Nintendo consoles is how intuitive they are for families. [Spends four hours Googling for information Nintendo doesn't give you anywhere.]

A browser history list of Google searches for details related to Nintendo Switch Online, family memberships, virtual game cards, and child/supervised account restrictions.

Graham Smith@grahamsmith· Jul 1

This is exceptionally dumb. Handing the Crunchyroll app to a kid means handing them a menu with 100 buttons that don't work, and you can only tell which after clicking on each of them twice.

Graham Smith@grahamsmith· Jun 6

going from watching Game Fest to watching Day Of The Devs

Graham Smith@grahamsmith· May 31

L.A. Noire requires you to read subtle facial cues to tell if someone is lying

Graham Smith@grahamsmith· Dec 5