Description
Praise
About the Editors

Literature as a game. Gaming as literature. How are writers and artists interacting with video games, gaming, and notions of play?

Spanning fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry, comics, and multimedia works from an international array of emerging and established voices, Free to Play: A Video Games Anthology is both a love letter to, and a bold exploration of what video games and gaming culture are and can be.

Why read this book?
- Difference Engine’s first multi-medium anthology ranging from comics both fiction and non-fiction, prose fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry, and works with multimedia elements.
- Featuring creators from Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Lebanon & USA.
Contents
1. No Man is an Island – Ellie Black
2. The Short, Sweet Life of Commander Brian – Gabriela Lee
3. Side-Scroller – Ken Liu
4. The Last Bonfire – Myle Yan Tay & Natalie M.E. Tan
5. All the Times I was Dragonborn – Nuraliah Norasid
6. Less Than Three Stars – Jack Xi
7. All the Skin(s) You Left Behind – Sarah Mak & Nic Chan
8. Press “Y” to Reboot – Noor Tannir
9. He is You, She’s For You – Hana Yaacob
10. Dawn of Clarendera – Meihan Boey
11. memory leak – Zhen
12. A Seat at Venba’s Table – Varsha Sivaram
13. God of War – Maya Escobar
14. Boys and Girls Across Dead Worlds – Alex K. Masse
15. Don’t Start Without Me – Kenneth Lam
16. The Writer as Gamer – Alvin Pang
17. It’s Dangerous to Go Alone – Anthony Falleroni
18. snake on a train – judith huang
19. Your Inventory is Filling Up Again – Wen-yi Lee
20. Shadow Stone – Erica Eng
21. Fast Travel – Adriana X. Jacobs
“Between pixels, poetry, perspicacity, and passion this book explores the spaces where games become something more than just play: memory, myth, mirages and meaning. The stories echo like footsteps through worlds we thought were only illusions but turned out to connect with our reality.”
—David Polfeldt, Editor and Founder

“Touching, vulnerable and unflinchingly personal, this creative, wide-ranging anthology gives voice to the ways video games create community, culture, and comforts us in moments of loss. If you’ve ever gamed in your life, this is a must-read.”
—Elaine Ho, Cry, Voidbringer

“Our experiences with games are varied and wonderful and they bring out the most diverse and incredible responses from us – from farming grinds, to replays, heated forums, following streams, to creating fan art and fiction. It is all about celebrating life through games and this anthology captures it all. A must-read for every type of gamer.”
—Yen Ooi, Sun: Queens of Earth

“This anthology hardwired my muscle-memorised casual gamer reflexes directly into the nervous system of human vulnerability, somehow connecting the accumulation of all my clicks of a thumbstick to the unspoken syllable of real-world survival.”
—Shivram Gopinath, Dey

“Passionate, funny, and at times genuinely moving, it’s the kind of collection that makes you want to pick up a controller and a pen at the same time.”
—Joe Peter, No Average Joe
Adan Jimenez is a writer, editor, and translator. He is the proud son of Mexican immigrant parents and became an immigrant himself when he moved to Singapore. You can find him playing all kinds of games on his YouTube channel: youtube.com/thecomicman.

Daryl Lim Wei Jie is a poet, editor, and translator from Singapore. His poetry collection Anything but Human was a finalist for the 2022 Singapore Literature Prize. In 2023, he was awarded the Young Artist Award, Singapore’s highest award for young art practitioners. Find Daryl at www.darylwjlim.com.

Joses Ho is a poet, pro-wrestler, and scientist. He also has interests in creative computing and generative text. His pamphlet Dogma was shortlisted for the inaugural Paper Jam series in 2021. He is also a pro-wrestler and ring announcer with Grapplemax.

Natalie Wang is the author of The Woman Who Turned Into A Vending Machine, a collection of poems on metamorphosis, myth, and womanhood. She has been published in The Fairy Tale Review, Cartridge Lit, and Quarterly Literary Review Singapore, amongst others.

Authors

Free to Play: A Video Games Anthology