How did early telephonics operators, after becoming a nearly exclusively female workforce, contribute to the prevalence of the digitised female as a source of care? How are independent game developers using level design to mould players’ interpretation of their environment, giving game spaces themselves meaning as metaphor? How have indie subcultures cross-pollinated, producing interactive installations and events and bringing a new generational twist on urban play?

On the 23rd evening of this month we will be hosting editor and writer Zoë Jellicoe, who last November published Critical Hits, an anthology of essays by developers and journalists in the independent videogame community. The chapters, from ten international voices, explore the questions above and more – the guilt and complicity of players in dating games, the impossible promises of procedural generation… Join for readings and discussion of the rapidly evolving community.