The Dev Diary series will document my journey as a beginner game dev, tackling a huge undertaking. This won’t be about whether I succeed (though that would be nice) but about the journey to get there and the things I learn along the way. There are many zeroes because it will likely be a long journey.

👋🏼Hello JOMT Reader!

Let me start by saying, I have no idea how I’m supposed to make a game.

I suppose I could ask around but as I discovered in the past couple of months, following in the footsteps of someone else doesn’t always work. There’s a lot more than “just follow these steps” that we don’t talk about implied in these steps. One of those things is how we think: we often forget that these steps worked for the person because of the specific way their brain is wired. If yours isn’t wired in the same or similar way, the steps might not work for you.

So, this series is not a guide. Don’t follow it step by step because it probably won’t work for you. But I do hope you can take the journey and take the parts that make sense to you.

A framework for frameworks

I’ll be the first to admit, I am not good at planning. Details that I thought I liked bore me and I much prefer jumping in and figuring things out. But even I could see that jumping in would be a speed run to confusion and giving up. So, I got down to planning.

Except, I didn’t really know what I was planning for. Features of the game? Gameplay mechanics? Music? Sound effects? How do they all tie together? I was already overwhelmed before I had typed a single line of code.

I recently discovered that my brain works best when I can physically move and reorder pieces of information around freely. I’ve used bound notebooks for as long as I can remember and 2026 was the year I finally realized I am done with sequentially ordered notebooks. I’ve been taking notes on post card-sized pieces of paper and have not looked back. [Warning for stationery lovers, don’t read the following: I even unbound a bound notebook to steal its pages for me to use.]

Because these loose pieces of paper have helped me so much, I thought it would be of great help for my game dev journey too. Except, I didn’t want to be handwriting an entire codebase for a game. I looked for a digital equivalent of what I was doing in real life.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t a single tool that could satisfy my needs. Some were too complex or forced you into The Nine Levels of Folder Hell. So I built one.

This is an incomplete portion of the note and graph editor I built to get me organized. It fulfills a number of needs:

1. Easy to take notes: double click and a blank note shows up

2. Can move things around

3. Can connect and reconnect nodes

I’ve built other features but these were the features that I needed first.

Many hidden considerations

As soon as I built this note taking app, I started filling it out with whatever came to my head regarding the game. Gameplay mechanics. Playable factions. Unit attributes.

Before long I had notes that I could reorder and connect. Some ended up looking like an octopus; others were wearing their arrowed connections like a porcupine wears its quills.

But I was already seeing the benefit of a system like this. Frictionless idea capture followed by thoughtful reflection, organization, and linking time. This fit with the flow of thinking that I like to do.

And its this process that has allowed me to see just how big this project is going to be. Even for the attribute section (I’ll go into more detail on this in later logs), I realized I need to think about calculations on top of calculations. I don’t think I would have thought about that detail if I didn’t see all of my thinking laid out on a page like this.

A journey of a thousand miles starts with one step

As the Buddhist saying goes, I had to start somewhere. I chose to start by building a framework to build the framework of my game. Hopefully, it’ll withstand the dev process but I’ll stick with it until I need something else.

I’ll go into a bit more detail about what I’m thinking about for the core mechanics of the game in the next dev diary. Until then, a question for all of you:

How do you like to start your big projects? Do you jump right in? Plan it all out? When do you decide to move from planning to doing? Let me know in the comments below!

Living life on the proverbial edge is equal parts exhilarating, terrifying, and exhausting. And on that edge, I’ve been forced (in a good way) to evaluate how I approach my writing on Just One More Turn.

Let me clear the fog first: Just One More Turn isn’t going away.

But it is changing.

There’s a myriad of reasons for the change. It’s partly driven by how the gaming research world is slowly shifting, or more accurately, slowing down. There haven’t been as many exciting-to-me studies being conducted that I have access to read. And if it isn’t exciting to me, I don’t think I can make it exciting for you.

Another reason is my own shifting priorities and interests. Responsible integration of AI at work has been occupying much of my time and mental bandwidth. It’s been hard (as evidenced by the past two months) to devote much time to interacting with you all on Substack. But it has sparked the fire beneath me to finally start on that game dev project I’ve been wanting to start (more on that below).

So bear with me as I set a new course with JOMT and you, my readers.

😪 The exhausting

My current Learning from Games series and the apparent lack of interesting research is what is driving my exhaustion. So, it needs a change. I’m not sure exactly how this will change but I do want to talk a bit more about the two way street of learning and games: as much as we learn from games, we also inform game development and the industry.

My brain has been on overdrive thinking about plans and benchmarks for AI tools. In the world’s mad dash towards less hours and more efficiency, it feels like the humans, who are at the center of all of this, have been forgotten. Has the Matrix already happened and my human colleagues are actually Agent Smiths pushing for maximum efficiency?

🫣 The terrifying

Many of you are here because of the science and gaming perspective you’ve come to know me for. And it’s terrifying to think that I might be betraying that by switching things up a little. But I think it’s the right thing to do…which amplifies the terrifying-ness.

I’ve also been very careful about writing too deeply on the application of games to health. It’s terrifying to think that my wishful thinking on the application of games might be mistaken as facts out of context.

🤩 The exhilarating

Many of you have heard me talk about an idea for a roguelite turn-based tactics game, borrowing some thematic elements from Altered Carbon. I’m excited to announce and take you all on a new journey with me as I document and write about the game dev process.

Expect plenty of science mixed in throughout the development process as I’m finding that it has a very heavy hand in how I think through the process of developing a game. I also fully admit I have no idea what I am doing so if you read anything that seems off, please let me know as I am a complete newbie when it comes to making games.

I’m also excited to try writing more speculatively about the research findings, applying them in a sort of thought experiment. Some of my best-performing articles (like the Addictability Score) were early experiments before I let terror take over me. It’s time to bring back some of that adventure and explore more deeply!

That’s it for me this week. A rollercoaster two months on Substack and at work but I’m hoping to get back on the train, starting next week.

Thank you all for sticking around and as I just realized today, hitting another subscriber milestone of 600! I can’t believe there are that many of you interested in what I have to say and truly thankful that you have chosen to carve out a portion of your time to read my ramblings.

Science Shorts is a monthly roundup of the most interesting research involving video games. I try to source only open access articles so that you have the option to read the articles as well. It’s part of a comprehensive look at happenings in video game research along with my LFG: Learning from Games and Coming Soon series!

👋🏼Hello JOMT Reader!

I have the privilege of seeing the gaming industry from a couple of different perspectives. Like many of you, I am a consumer, playing, enjoying, and occasionally being frustrated by them. But I’m also a scientist, thinking and learning about the different ways video games can reflect our reality on a smaller scale. It’s this second perspective that makes me think we have a huge untapped potential in video games: a testing ground for artificial intelligence.

In a way, this isn’t a new concept. 30 years ago, a chess-playing computer program called Deep Blue bested the world chess champion, Garry Kasparov. All video games feature some form of programming that controls non-player enemies. But I think we’re on the precipice of something much bigger than smarter enemies. It’s the intersection of video games and artificial intelligence as culture and how we shape and become shaped by that culture.

It’s very much philosophical right now. But I think we’ll start to see more research exploring how our interactions with artificial intelligence affects how we play games, which in turn will feed into what both of those things mean in our culture.

Maybe these are the first steps towards that precipice?

The Great Divide of gaming as treatment

I first started thinking about the precipice when I read about how mental health professionals are divided on using games to treat mental health issues. This divide partially exists because some surveys suggest that less than 20% of psychologists know that video games can be used for treatment. Less than 10% use video games as part of their treatment.

What was more alarming was that a small but significant number of surveyed psychologists were unfavourable (5%) or highly unfavourable (10%) of using video games for treatment.

One of the key reasons for this divide is that there are two opposing faces to video games. One face is the perspective that video games are a form of technology. Unfortunately, video games as a technology gets lumped in with smartphones and digital media, which are associated with addiction, lack of sleep, and social withdrawal.

The opposing face is the perspective that video games are culture. Video games as culture is associated with positive, life-enriching experiences like storytelling, reading, listening to music, and doing handcrafts.

Mental health professionals have a hard time balancing these two faces, while not losing sight of their patients’ mental health. Figuring this out might be the first step for us to look over that precipice.

📄Read the article here → Mental health professionals’ views on gaming

Understanding our brains through gaming…

While researchers and mental health professionals argue about the usefulness of games as treatment, others are quietly finding ways to use them to measure brain function. Especially in patients who have experienced epilepsy.

We already have a few established ways to measure brain function:

1. The Stroop Colour-Word Test measures how well your brain handles conflicting information

2. The Trail Making Test measures how well your brain stays organized and processes information

3. The Wisconsin Card Sorting Test measures how well your brain can understand rules and adapt if they change

Unfortunately, these tests are prone to being “gamed”. It’s just like finding a cheat in any game that you play: not a cheat code, but some unintended way of getting to a result. To prevent patients from “cheating” on these tests, researchers in China developed a custom mobile game to accurately measure and detect brain function.

The mobile game scores matched well with scores on the traditional tests meaning that the game could detect changes in brain function. It’s an exciting development because there is a theory that says changes (reduction) in brain function happens before the onset of epilepsy. That means you could play games to potentially predict the onset of epilepsy!

I love thinking about how information like this can be presented to us through everyday hobbies like gaming!

📄Read the article here → Measuring brain function with games

…to make games playable for everyone?

The application of brain function measurements don’t just stop in healthcare. What if those brain function measurements could change the way you play games? What if game difficulty levels could be dynamically and automatically tuned to how your brain is doing on that day?

Researchers at the University of Geneva developed a brain training game that tracks your performance and dynamically adjusts the difficulty of the training game so that you stay challenged and engaged.

I can see a future where these technologies work as a layer on top of commercial games built by devs. Steam could have a toggle-able option named something cool like the Cognitive Resonance Difficulty Adjuster that when turned on, will silently track your brain function and dynamically adjust the difficulty accordingly. I think that would be pretty cool.

📄Read the article here → The Cognitive Resonance Difficulty Adjuster (just to be clear, it’s not actually called that)

If you liked what you read, please consider giving this post a like and sharing it with your community!

LFG: Learning from Games is a series dedicated to making the complex world of video game research just a little easier to understand. I post about twice a month in between my Science Shorts, Coming Soon, and Impressions series. Welcome to LFG #05-2026, where we explore how shifting between specific and abstract concepts.

👋🏼Hello JOMT Reader!

I realize I’ve been mostly silent during the month of April. It was a hard month at work: part of my job requires me to think about the futures of all 1500 people in the company1. It’s a lot. And I have not had the mental bandwidth to think about much else. As I described to a coworker, it feels like we are living on the edge of the expanding universe, not knowing what we are expanding into.

It’s equal parts dread and excitement.

But that time away has given me some clarity2. And it got me thinking about the ways clarity plays a role in gaming research. More specifically, why it feels like research takes a long time to come to any meaningful and applicable conclusions. I think it has to do with the difference between something that is clear and specific versus something that is fuzzy and abstract.

Let me explain, starting with aliens.

On specific and abstract aliens

Fortunately or unfortunately, we have not yet made contact with life outside of Earth. But suppose we made first contact. Would they be friendly? Will they want to abduct us for experiments? What would they look like?

Would they look like this?

Or this?

Whatever they may look like, one thing is for certain: they probably wouldn’t look like us. But we instinctively know that if an alien looks one way, the next one will likely look different. That’s because the ones we made first contact with are specific examples of aliens. The xenomorph and Yoda are clear representation of a much broader and abstract grouping of beings that we call aliens.

Specific and abstract research

Published research articles are the xenomorphs and Yodas of the research world. They are specific answers to specific questions under the broad and abstract umbrella of gaming research.

Just like how you wouldn’t conclude that all aliens look like Yoda or want to eat you like the xenomorph, we can’t jump to conclusions and make generalization from the specific research being published. Unfortunately, our intuition about alien appearances doesn’t translate well to research, especially when popular media amplifies a small and specific part of the whole story.

A generalization can be made if enough specific research all point in the same direction. That generalization still has to overcome contradicting popular beliefs: for us in the gaming world, that contradiction is the general statement that video gaming is bad. We have enough evidence now to know that video gaming isn’t bad and can be beneficial. But it has taken two decades for that belief to shift (and not completely either).

Moving quickly between specific and abstract research

The description about living on the edge of the universe is the partial answer to being able to recognize and switch between Yodas and aliens. I think a lot about the best way to pivot as the technologies we use change on what feels like a weekly and even daily basis. That same thinking works when considering video game research.

Specific research questions give us a unique perspective. With enough unique perspectives, we can start to understand the whole picture. But just as the parable of the blind men and an elephant teaches us, we need to recognize that we aren’t seeing the whole picture right from the beginning.

What we first thought was a tree could be something else if it could also be a snake or rope. Likewise, there’s probably a lot more to video games are bad if other people are also saying that video games are good.

But it’s hard to update your thinking and separate the signal from the noise. It’s a big reason why I post about video game research in the first place: to balance the bad with the good and present it in a balanced way to help you come to your own conclusions.

Changing your mind is sometimes seen as a sign of fickleness and unreliability. I hope, living through these times, that we start to see it as a sign of mental flexibility: the willingness to update your view from tree to elephant.

If you liked what you read, please consider giving this post a like and share with your community! What games are you most looking forward to? Let me know below!

Coming Soon is a forward-looking series about new games that can be enjoyed by those who like turn-based games, released monthly. It also coincides with my favourite day of the week: #TurnBasedThursdays, a weekly community list of game devs showcasing their turn-based games. Give them a follow on BlueSky and keep up-to-date on new turn-based games alongside my LFG: Learning from Games and Science Shorts series!

👋🏼Hello JOMT Reader!

I’ve had limited time for gaming recently, with much of my time taken up with work and other life duties. I still haven’t gotten off the ARC Raiders train, enjoying the intensity of some recently added content and looking forward to the next update happening at the end of the month.

But I’m hungry again for some good old turn-based tactics games and returned to XCOM 2 after leaving it alone for several years. 295 mods later, I’m back into a full campaign, itching for the next big breakthrough title in turn-based tactics games.

Although this month’s round up doesn’t feature any turn-based tactics games, if you’re interested in them, remember to checkout #TurnBasedThursdays on Bluesky. You’ll find devs sharing their creations for you to get excited about!

Zero Parades: For Dead Spies

🔗 Steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2863680/ZERO_PARADES_For_Dead_Spies/
📅 Release date: May 21, 2026
🖥️ Developer: ZA/UM
📢 Publisher: ZA/UM
🕹️ Platform: Steam (PC)

🎮️ The game

An espionage RPG from the makers of Disco Elysium.

🎯 Who it’s for

• You love Disco Elysium

• You love choose-your-own-adventure books

‼️ What I’m excited about

I’m not usually drawn to stories being told (I like to make my own) except when they are deep. So when Zero Parades asks you to manage your anxiety, fatigue, and delirium, you know that the story is going to get deep. And with a lineage as deep as Disco Elysium, I’m ready for the countless hours I’ll spend playing detective in this world.

Every choice in this narrated adventure has a consequence. Some are good, others are bad, but they can all affect your stats. Reaching the limit forces you to lower one of your skills permanently, creating tension between moving the story forward and handicapping yourself.

But you can regain lost skills (all of them dimensions of your mind) as you use them and gain experience. Those dimensions all come with their own, voiced personalities and will surface themselves as you navigate through the world.

Ex Sanguis

🔗 Steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3275050/Ex_Sanguis/
📅 Release date: May 21, 2026
🖥️ Developer: Lightbulb Crew
📢 Publisher: Firesquid
🕹️ Platform: Steam (PC)

🎮️ The game

A turn-based tactics game drawn in red, black, and white.

🎯 Who it’s for

• You love Othercide

• You enjoy timeline-based combat systems

‼️ What I’m excited about

The first thing you might notice is the striking contrast of red, black, and white in the game. In the world of Ex Sanguis, the only colour that matters is the red that represents both life and death. The red that gave birth to three elite warriors charged with saving their world.

Each tactical map plays a little bit like a puzzle: timelines can be manipulated so that your enemies never get a turn and environmental hazards can be chained together as a clever strategy to eliminate enemies.

As you complete each mission, you’ll unlock a roguelite system of skill upgrades. Some are unique to the warrior class, while others are shared companion attributes that unlock powerful chained abilities. I can’t wait to unlock all these skills and discover the combinations that will allow me to clear maps with ease.

Celestial Return

🔗 Steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2704090/Celestial_Return/
📅 Release date: May 7, 2026
🖥️ Developer: Metaphor Games
📢 Publisher: Shoreline Games
🕹️ Platform: Steam (PC)

🎮️ The game

A dice-rolling, colourful cyberpunk RPG.

🎯 Who it’s for

• You love a gorgeous melding of Cyberpunk and Disco Elysium

• You love choose-your-own-adventure books

‼️ What I’m excited about

Like Zero Parades above, Celestial Return takes many cues from Disco Elysium. It’s a choose-your-own-adventure style detective game where you’ll get pulled deeper into the story as you investigate a string of deaths in the city.

Dice rolling punctuates the decisions you have to make, allowing you to test your luck to uncover more information or potentially face an unexpected roadblock. The game is not about overpowering enemies. Instead, it’s about choosing the least painful path to an answer.

Although the game features mostly static visuals, it oozes atmosphere and emotions that other 3D titles sometimes fail to convey. I’m excited to see how this story unfolds!

If you liked what you read, please consider giving this post a like and share with your community! What games are you most looking forward to? Let me know below!

Science Shorts is a monthly roundup of the most interesting research involving video games. I try to source only open access articles so that you have the option to read the articles as well. It’s part of a comprehensive look at happenings in video game research along with my LFG: Learning from Games and Coming Soon series!

👋🏼Hello JOMT Reader!

I’m noticing an alarming decrease in the number of research articles that are being published in recent months. Take a look at the search results in PubMed for the search term “video game” from 1976 to 2026:

50 years of published articles and 2026 looks to be the first year in many, where we will have significantly fewer published articles. I’m not exactly sure why this is the case but I may need to change up how the Science Shorts series will continue in the future.

But for now, business as usual so let’s take a look!

Understanding the world of others

The world could benefit from even a smidge more understanding of each other. But before we boil the ocean, maybe we can start in our corner of the world: the gaming community. We’ve come a long way but many people still face barriers in the gaming community. Part of the reason why those barriers exist is a lack of understanding.

Researchers in Mexico wanted to add to our understanding of one group of gamers: older women. There are a handful of older women who stream the games they play, including the one they chose to study, Aquamadre.

It’s hard to draw conclusions from the characteristics of one streamer. But Aquamadre represents an interesting case because she breaks the typical cultural mould for older women (she’s from Uruguay). Many older women in South America are seen as the keepers of tradition for the family but I’m not sure many would consider gaming and streaming as part of that tradition.

Yet.

Perhaps she’ll be the first of many that helps rewrite our relationship with gaming!

📄Read the article here → The secret world of older women who stream

Why you play can affect your health

As we deep-dive into how gaming affects our health, more research is being published that debunks the common myth that more game time is bad. In many cases, why you play games can be more important for health. In this study of over 13,000 gamers, researchers tried to clarify the link between motivations for playing video games and anxiety.

What the researchers found is that those who played to win experienced more anxiety, which only got worse the longer they played. The results also hint at differences in motivations for playing games between men and women. My guess (unfortunately, I don’t have access to read the full article) about this difference is that in general, men play to win whereas women play for fun and relaxation.

If my guess is right, these results might explain how the myth about more game time being bad took hold in the first place. Historically, men who played to win experienced more anxiety the longer they played, which skewed the perception towards the negative consequences of playing video games. The benefits of playing games, coming from a minority of players at the time, might have been lost in the shuffle.

What’s most exciting though is that the more we learn about how gaming affects us, the more myths we can debunk!

📄Read the article here → Playing to win is linked to anxiety

Gaming genres impact localisation

If you speak multiple languages, you’ll know the feeling of coming across a word or phrase that just doesn’t feel right. It’s usually not something generic like an “attack” or “heal” command. Most of the time it’s a word or phrase that is specific to the game’s lore that makes sense in one language but got lost in translation.

Researchers in France and Belgium analyzed different types of words and phrases across 18 video games, spanning three major genres: action-adventure, strategy, and RPG.

Some of the key findings include:

1. RPGs contain way more words and phrases with a deeper meaning than action-adventure or strategy games

2. Strategy games contain many more words and phrases referring to its cultural aspects than RPGs or action-adventure games

3. The translation strategy changes depending on the type of word or phrase under consideration

Translation and localisation is a hard thing to do but it’s fascinating to break it down in this much detail as the researchers did!

📄Read the article here → Translating fictional video game worlds

If you liked what you read, please consider giving this post a like and sharing it with your community!

LFG: Learning from Games is a series dedicated to making the complex world of video game research just a little easier to understand. I post about twice a month in between my Science Shorts, Coming Soon, and Impressions series. Welcome to LFG #04-2026, where we explore the limitations of using video games for teaching.

👋🏼Hello JOMT Reader!

Learning a new technology can be hard. It usually takes some time for our brains, senses, and bodies can coordinate gracefully so that we can do everything from typing using more than two fingers to operating heavy machinery and flying a spaceship. In the world of healthcare and medicine, there is a plethora of specialized tech that professionals are trained to use.

One very useful piece of tech is the ultrasound. It uses soundwaves to look inside your body without needing to cut you open or swallowing a tiny camera.1 With the right training, ultrasound imaging can answer some questions about our bodies in real time. For ultrasound, there is a lot of hand-eye coordination that needs to be trained.

There are several different movements like sliding, tilting, rotating, and rocking the probe that has to be coordinated with what is happening on the screen. Each of these movements change what is seen on screen, and knowing how to manipulate the probe to see what you want takes practice.

Most students learn to use the ultrasound using a mannequin as the simulated patient. But researchers in Austria asked a slightly different question: can ultrasound skills be trained using a video game?

Let’s find out!

A non-inferior training method

The researchers approached this question similarly to how generic drugs are studied before being approved. For generic drugs, researchers only need to show that the generic is not worse than the branded drug. This type of study is called a non-inferiority trial. So the researchers conducted a non-inferiority trial, comparing students trained traditionally with students trained using video games.

Video game training for ultrasound is not worse…?

The short answer is no.

The longer answer is, it’s complicated.

First, the short answer. Students using video games for training performed similarly to those trained traditionally. Both sets of students scored lower on skill assessment scores after the training compared to before. For other measurements, like how fast they completed the assessments and the mental effort the skill assessments required, there was no significant difference between these two groups of students. But more on the significant differences part in a bit.

If you take a closer look at the results though, there are differences between these two groups of students. For example, students trained traditionally completed the assessments faster after training compared to before. On the other hand, students trained using video games were slower after training compared to before.

In a similar twist, students trained with video games reported needing more mental effort to complete the skill assessment compared to students trained traditionally who reported needing less mental effort.

So here is the funny thing about significance. Both of those differences were reported as non-differences because they were not statistically significant, meaning that the results are likely a result of random chance (i.e., rolling dice would’ve produced similar results). But that doesn’t necessarily mean that it isn’t actually significant.

One common reason why a difference can be not statistically significant is that there were too few people in the study to show this difference. For this study, less than 50 people were included in each of the training groups. 50 people may not have been enough people to reach a decisive conclusion.

Video games aren’t a panacea

Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.
                                                                                             - Dr. Ian Malcom, Jurassic Park

Just because we can use video games for training, doesn’t mean we should. As this study showed, video games aren’t always useful for training skills, especially if it is a contextual skill like using an ultrasound probe on the contours of a human body.

My best guess as to why students trained using video games were slower after training and required more mental effort is the missing contextual information. Playing a video game might teach you about probe movements, but how that happens on the curves of a human or mannequin is where the magic happens.

Students trained using video games had to make up for this missing context on the fly during the assessment, meaning they had to think about what they were doing more. Hence the slower times and increased mental effort. Traditional training prepares you to deal with the context so those students were able to complete the assessment faster and with less mental load.

Final remarks

As long as video games can provide that context without requiring the student to fill in the blanks (like driving or flight simulators), it can be useful for training contextual skills. Otherwise, sticking to traditional training methods might yield better results.

One area that I think I’d like to see more research on is whether video game players are faster at learning these types of contextual skills. Each game we play forces us to learn new mechanics and controls, which might make us faster at picking up new skills. But only more research will tell!

If you want to read the article that inspired this post, you can read it here for free: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12909-026-08995-1

If you liked what you read, please consider giving this post a like and sharing it with your community!

Coming Soon is a forward-looking series about new games that can be enjoyed by those who like turn-based games, released monthly. It also coincides with my favourite day of the week: #TurnBasedThursdays, a weekly community list of game devs showcasing their turn-based games. Give them a follow on BlueSky and keep up-to-date on new turn-based games alongside my LFG: Learning from Games and Science Shorts series!

👋🏼Hello JOMT Reader!

While the game release headlines might be dominated by Crimson Desert and the PC port of Death Stranding 2, there are plenty of indie gems releasing next month. They won’t cost you an arm and a leg and in many cases, might be more satisfying than AAA games.

If you’re more interested in traditional turn-based games, remember to checkout #TurnBasedThursdays on Bluesky. You’ll find devs sharing their creations for you to get excited about!

Backpack Jianghu

🔗 Steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3972650/Backpack_Jianghu/
📅 Release date: April 2, 2026
🖥️ Developer: Backpack Studio (背包工作室)
📢 Publisher: Backpack Studio (背包工作室)
🕹️ Platform: Steam (PC)

🎮️ The game

Inventory management battler.

🎯 Who it’s for

• You love optimizing your inventory

• You love Wuxia-themed art style

‼️ What I’m excited about

The inventory Tetris and auto-battler combination has spawned many clones over the past several months. I played and enjoyed Backpack Battles during its early access days and Backpack Jianghu promises to provide a similar experience in a Wuxia-themed world.

You can take as long as you need to decide how to stuff your inventory with swords, scrolls, armour, charms, and all sorts of enchantments that work together to provide bonuses during battle. Then, you’ll cross your fingers as you send your character into battle, hoping that the combination of items will get you out on top.

I’m loving the art style for this game and curious to see how the different factions will affect my Tetris-ing strategy!

People of Note

🔗 Steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1626170/People_of_Note/
📅 Release date: April 7, 2026
🖥️ Developer: Iridium Studios
📢 Publisher: Annapurna Interactive
🕹️ Platform: Steam (PC)

🎮️ The game

Guitar Hero meets Final Fantasy VII.

🎯 Who it’s for

• You love action-packed turn-based battles (not just choosing “Attack” from a menu)

• You’re tired of the fantasy/sci-fi setting for your turn-based games

• You love eye-popping visuals

‼️ What I’m excited about

Maybe you can never have enough orcs, elves, and dwarves. Or mechs and aliens. But once in a while it’s nice not to worry about dragons trying to make yakitori out of my characters. Instead, People of Note will ask you to solve conflicts with music.

There is a gorgeously colourful world to explore in this game with four equally colourful companions: Cadence, Fret, Synthia, and Vox (you know it’s a good game with characters named like this). You’ll battle your way to stardom, using rhythm and combination skills to best your opponents.

I love the rhythm and turn-based game mashup in People of Note. The colourful graphics adds to the atmosphere of the game as well and I can’t wait to experience the game in full when it releases next month.

OPUS: Prism Peak

🔗 Steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1947910/OPUS_Prism_Peak/
📅 Release date: April 16, 2026
🖥️ Developer: Sigono Inc.
📢 Publisher: Shueisha Games
🕹️ Platform: Steam (PC), Nintendo Switch

🎮️ The game

Star in your own Ghibli-like game.

🎯 Who it’s for

• You love Ghibli-style art

• You love photography

‼️ What I’m excited about

Although this isn’t a strictly turn-based game, its slower pace means you can play it like one. You’ll probably want to play it slow anyway to take in the Ghibli-inspired environment as you follow the story of a photographer and a girl he meets along the way.

There’s a heart-tugging story waiting to be uncovered, just based on the trailer and screenshots on the Steam site. It’s enough to pull me in and get me curious about this story.

Sigono Inc. has made several other OPUS games, the latest one in a pure sci-fi setting. I’m not sure how Prism Peak relates to these other games and stories, but I’d love to hear from you if you’ve ever played these games!

If you liked what you read, please consider giving this post a like and share with your community! What games are you most looking forward to? Let me know below!

Science Shorts is a monthly roundup of the most interesting research involving video games. I try to source only open access articles so that you have the option to read the articles as well. It’s part of a comprehensive look at happenings in video game research along with my LFG: Learning from Games and Coming Soon series!

👋🏼Hello JOMT Reader!

After months and meters of snow, all that was white has given way to the dirty brown and green underneath. It’s an exciting time for gaming as some big names are due out this month including the PC port for Death Stranding 2 and Solasta 2. I’m still stuck on Arc Raiders, enjoying looting Topside. A new and terrifying map condition called hurricane adds gale-force winds and almost no visibility while looting. I also noticed some forest fires in the background, which may be a preview of the content coming later this month.

Onwards to this month’s round up!

Creating a new game by blending genres

Like I said before, I’m never escaping the deep rabbit warren of video game genres. I’m also glad to know that I’m not the only one thinking about this in academia: a graduate student has taken it upon themselves to create an all new genre mix and develop a prototype game for their thesis.

It’s a long but fascinating read, especially the background section on the current state of video game genres. They then explain how they chose the genres to mix and the game elements they chose to include in the game.

The game that was created is an extraction deck-builder, which sounds fascinating to think about. The cards in the deck-building game form the loot and resource and the inventories become decks. Other game mechanics like meta-progression and safe pockets to protect valuable items were also added to make the game enjoyable to play.

The feedback for this unique blend of genres was positive, and most of the criticisms were centered on lack of content rather than how the mechanics worked together. For the student, this was a success as it demonstrated that this new combination of genres could be turned into an enjoyable game.

I wish I had the foresight to do a game studies thesis…this one sounded like a lot of fun!

📄Read the thesis here → Exploring a new game genre mix: extraction deck-building

The next revolution in video game controls?

Keyboard and mouse. Joysticks. Controllers. These are some of the most common ways we can control video games. Of course there are more niche controllers, including all sorts of instruments, firearms, and motion sensing technologies. On that’s gaining more attention now is brain waves.

There is one widely known example of someone using brain waves to control video games. But it has yet to be applied in the healthcare setting, especially those with physical disabilities. These researchers found a way to translate brain waves to simple commands to play a custom-designed video game for rehabilitation.

Beyond rehabilitation, a technology like this could open up the doors to gaming accessibility. We already have companies like Emotiv that makes brain wave measuring devices that look like wireless earbuds so adapting this technology as a game controller input might not be that far away. Maybe this technology will pave the way for the next revolution in gaming where VR could not!

📄Read the article here → Using brain waves to control video games

Health benefits of video games

We made it to 2026 and I’ve finally come across an academic article that clearly states what some of us have been saying all along: video games have health benefits! There’s even this direct quote from the article:

The researchers analyzed recent findings from video game research focusing on the positive effects. These range from psychological well-being, to brain function, academic performance, and even physical activity.

The balanced view here is that the risks of excessive video gaming are still there. But the prevailing view (hopefully not anymore?) that playing video games is bad, needs a much more nuanced update.

📄Read the article here → Video games can have health benefits

If you liked what you read, please consider giving this post a like and sharing it with your community!

Coming Soon is a forward-looking series about new games that can be enjoyed by those who like turn-based games, released monthly. It also coincides with my favourite day of the week: #TurnBasedThursdays, a weekly community list of game devs showcasing their turn-based games. Give them a follow on BlueSky and keep up-to-date on new turn-based games alongside my LFG: Learning from Games and Science Shorts series!

👋🏼Hello JOMT Reader!

Welcome to the updated version of the monthly roundup! We’ve talked a lot about gaming diets and realized that I haven’t really given you much of a varied diet with this series. So, I’m evolving the turn-based only round-up to include games that aren’t necessarily considered turn-based, but that I think can be enjoyed by turn-based lovers like me.

You’ll still get three new games releasing next month (one of them may even be a turn-based game) and a little description on how it can be played with a turn-based mindset. Remember to checkout #TurnBasedThursdays on Bluesky if you want to connect with devs making turn-based games!

Let’s start the diet!

Peregrino

🔗 Steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3268150/Peregrino/
📅 Release date: March 6, 2026
🖥️ Developer: Inverge Studios
📢 Publisher: Inverge Studios
🕹️ Platform: Steam (PC)

🎮️ The game

No Rest for the Wicked meets medieval ARC Raiders.

🎯 Who it’s for

• You love hunting/collecting stuff

• You love survival mechanics with an inventory Tetris game twist

• You want a PvE-focused medieval version of ARC Raiders

‼️ What I’m excited about

In Peregrino, you’ll manage a travelling caravan of folks across abomination-infested lands towards a promised paradise. You’ll pick the maps to explore, scavenging and hunting for what you need, deciding whether you want to risk everything for more loot, and safely returning with your discovered treasures.

You’ll need to feed the people, upgrade your caravan, plan your routes, and play backpack Tetris, all while trying not to die at the hands and tentacles of abominations on the map.

I’m really digging the extraction shooter/looter genre right now because they can be played in a semi-turn-based manner. It isn’t an onslaught of action: you can find respite in between encounters allowing you to control the pace. Extraction looter/survival games also reward strategic planning and tactical thinking, two things that I love about traditional turn-based games.

If you want an ARC Raiders-type experience without being griefed by other players (this game isn’t multiplayer), make sure you check out Peregrino next month.

The Legend of Khiimori

🔗 Steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2697000/The_Legend_of_Khiimori/
📅 Release date: March 3, 2026
🖥️ Developer: Aesir Interactive, NightinGames
📢 Publisher: Mindscape
🕹️ Platform: Steam, consoles

🎮️ The game

13th century Death Stranding.

🎯 Who it’s for

• You want a walking simulator like Death Stranding but less apocalyptic

• You love managing horses

‼️ What I’m excited about

There’s something satisfying about planning a route without knowing what will happen to you along that route. How you react is what makes the routes and experience unique and memorable. The Legend of Khiimori aims to provide that experience as you ride through 13th century Mongolia on horseback.

Atop your trusted steed, you’ll deliver letters and packages across grassy steppes, snowy peaks, and scorching deserts. You’ll train and tame new horses, picking the best one for the job and gathering resources to keep them healthy.

Exploring Mongolia on horseback sounds like a more relaxing version of Death Stranding and I am all for it. It isn’t a turn-based game but the slower pace of planning and strategizing means you can take your time with the pacing of the game. I can’t think of a better way to explore Mongolia but on horseback and with a bow and arrow to fend off any nasties.

Nutmeg

🔗 Steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3590560/NUTMEG_A_Nostalgic_Deckbuilding_Football_Manager/
📅 Release date: March 26, 2026
🖥️ Developer: Sumo Digital, Sumo Digital Academy
📢 Publisher: Secret Mode
🕹️ Platform: Steam

🎮️ The game

A deck-building football (soccer) management game

🎯 Who it’s for

• You can’t wait for World Cup 26

• But you also don’t want to slog through 90 minute matches

• You love deck-building games

‼️ What I’m excited about

Sports games, by their very nature, are under-represented in the turn-based category. But in the past few years, I’ve seen several good adaptations of turn-based games in sports like volleyball, rugby, and cycling. Now you can add football (soccer) to the mix with Nutmeg.

You’ll manage your team through four divisions of competition, trading and training talent, controlling finances, and hiring/firing staff. Matches are played over several rounds of putting down the right cards to score and tackle your way to victory.

Nutmeg appears to have all the right ingredients for a complete football manager experience as a true turn-based game. A quick, card-laying game of football sounds much more appealing than sitting through 90+ minute matches, especially if I can’t game for a long time. Make sure to check out Nutmeg if you want a different take on the turn-based football formula.

If you liked what you read, please consider giving this post a like and share with your community! What games are you most looking forward to? Let me know below!

LFG: Learning from Games is a series dedicated to making the complex world of video game research just a little easier to understand. I post about twice a month in between my Science Shorts, Coming Soon, and Impressions series. Welcome to LFG #03-2026, where we take a look (again) at gaming genres and a nuanced look at their effects on our health.

👋🏼Hello JOMT Reader!

When people talk about being healthy, they usually mean that they are disease-free and mentally healthy. While those are important aspects of being healthy, it isn’t the only way we can be healthy. How fulfilled we feel at work and in life as well as our relationships in the world can also affect our health.

Scientists use a word to describe all these different aspects of health: flourishing. But what exactly are these aspects of health that allow someone to flourish? There is some debate to the exact definitions of flourishing but the following five aspects are currently recognized:

1. happiness and life satisfaction: how good does life feel overall?

2. mental and physical health: how well do you function psychologically and biologically?

3. meaning and purpose: does life feel worthwhile and directed?

4. character and virtue: do you have capacity for moral self-regulation and acting well when facing challenges?

5. close social relationships: how good are your relationships?

Unfortunately, not all of these aspects of health/flourishing are considered in research. When researchers talk about health, they are often referring to only the mental/physical health aspect of flourishing. And that is no different for video game research.

That is, until researchers in China decided to dig a little deeper and look at how video games can affect the different aspects of flourishing. But there’s a little twist to how they did it.

Video game effects on the aspects of flourishing

Every day, I come across research studies that show the positive and negative effects of video games on health. But the “effect on health” points to only one of the aspects of flourishing listed above.

For example, in the last issue of LFG, we saw how video games can affect our brain function. Other research on gaming disorder has linked the disorder to lower happiness through factors like poor grades in school, low self-esteem, reduced health-related quality of life, and worse family finances.1

Gaming disorder has also been linked to mental and physical health. People with the disorder more often report psychological issues or have a mental health diagnosis.2 Physically, gaming disorder has been linked to unhealthy weight status and bodily pains.3

But what about the other aspects of flourishing? Does video gaming affect those aspects?

The twist: gaming genres

Nope, we are never escaping this topic.

For many of the studies done to date, video games were all considered to be the same. There was an assumption that no matter what type of video game you played, its effects on your body is the same. But we’re beginning to find out that it is a lot more nuanced than that. And the type of game you play (i.e., genre) can have a profound difference in the way it affects you.

What makes this research stand out among others is that the researchers tried to highlight the nuances of gaming genres and their effects on different aspects of flourishing. And they did so by looking at how addiction to different game genres affected each of the aspects of flourishing.

It’s worth restating that categorizing games into clean genres is tricky. The researchers don’t provide any details about how games were classified other than that they asked participants for the name of the games they were playing. And among the many genres that do exist, the researchers chose eight genres:

1. multiplayer online battle arena

2. shooting

3. casual

4. action and adventure

5. sandbox and simulation

6. sports

7. strategy

8. role-playing

We could debate whether these were the right choices for gaming genres. But they do broadly cover most video games and as you’ll see, is a good start to see the nuances of how different games affect different aspects of our health and flourishing.

Not surprisingly, different game genres affect different aspects of flourishing

Participants rated their addiction to the game they were playing between 0 (no addiction) and 4 (severe addiction). They also answered questions about the different aspects of flourishing. The researchers then looked at whether the degree of addiction was linked to their flourishing scores.

Not all game genres affected flourishing scores. Among the eight genres, addiction to casual, sports, strategy, and role-playing games were not linked to low flourishing scores.

Addiction to action and adventure games was linked to low scores across all five aspects of flourishing. Addiction to MOBA was linked to low scores in the meaning and purpose and character and virtue aspects of flourishing. Addiction to sandbox and simulation games was linked to low scores in the mental and physical health and close social relationships aspects of flourishing.

I think it’s important to keep in mind a couple of nuances from these findings.

1. Addiction to games does not cause low flourishing

The way this study was done doesn’t point to addiction causing any low flourishing scores and vice versa. What the results say is that low flourishing scores and addiction are frequently found together.

2. Addiction to any genre was fairly low

The average addiction score for any gaming genre was hovering around 1.5 or somewhere between mild and moderate. The highest addiction score (1.65) was for strategy games. The lowest score (0.96) was for sports games. It’s probably best to think about the results as “a tendency for addiction to certain gaming genres may be linked to low flourishing scores.”

What does it mean for us?

Looking at different aspects of health/flourishing based on gaming genres is the first step towards a better understanding of how gaming affects our health. But what is it about these game genres that makes some more addictive than others?

Part of the answer lies in the mechanics and design elements of the game. Elements like open-world exploration or story-driven adventures don’t have a clear stopping point (other than the end of the game) which might make them more addictive. The researchers also point out that the fast-paced nature of certain games may get our brains into cycles of feeling good that could lead to addiction.

But as games explore intersections of genres more and more, those singular genre labels start to matter less than the design elements within. Would a game, stacked with addictive mechanics, be linked to very low flourishing scores? On the other hand, if you included design elements from sports games alongside open-world exploration, would their effect on flourishing cancel each other out?

From a government and policy perspective, these nuances could help shape policies that currently treat all gaming equally. Instead of aiming to restrict all gaming (as China has done), policy makers could focus on the gaming genres with the highest risk of leading to low flourishing. It might even contribute to the creation of an addictability score for games that I’ve talked about in the past.

Final remarks

I’m excited to see the nuanced views about the effect of gaming on our health and flourishing. There’s still a lot more we don’t know but I’m hopeful that the days of “gaming is bad” is finally behind us. We do need that updated gaming genre classification though…I don’t think it is helping us to make sense of these types of research results.

If you want to read the article that inspired this post, you can read it here for free: https://www.jmir.org/2026/1/e89319

If you liked what you read, please consider giving this post a like and sharing it with your community!

Coming Soon is a forward-looking series about new turn-based games, released monthly. It also coincides with my favourite day of the week: #TurnBasedThursdays, a weekly community list of game devs showcasing their turn-based games. Give them a follow on BlueSky and keep up-to-date on new turn-based games alongside my LFG: Learning from Games and Science Shorts series!

👋🏼Hello JOMT Reader!

I’ve haven’t done my usual roundup of games because my advent calendar megalist included games mostly releasing in the first three months of the new year. As I look back on that list and think about what I want to play this year, I’m realizing that the turn-based genre is due for and needs a big change.

You could argue that games like Final Fantasy VII revolutionized the scope of what turn-based games could cover. Or that the customization options of modern XCOM games breathed new life in the genre. Or that Slay the Spire birthed its own subgenre of turn-based games. What revolution will 2026 bring to the turn-based world?

I don’t know if I want to or can wait for an answer to that question. So, after many many years of playing video games maybe I’m ready to try my hand at game development. Or at least, start to design something in the open to get feedback from all of you. If you feel inclined, I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!

Let’s get started.

1. An element of unpredictability

I’ll start this story where I find myself, which is in the middle of a third-person extraction shooter called Arc Raiders. The core gameplay loop is simple: you loot, fight, and extract your way through a handful of maps. You have a limited time to do all of these each round, which forces you to prioritize the actions you want to take.

Between the simple gameplay loop and handful of maps, you might think that the game would get stale really fast. But if the game retention stats are any indication, there is nothing boring about this game. I think a big part of that has to do with the built-in unpredictability of the game.

The loot, shoot, extract formula rearranges itself in a seemingly infinite number of ways every time you load into the game. Sometimes, I can run around the map for 30 minutes without encountering another player. Other times, we’ll pass each other by, flashing lights to say hi. And yet other times, there’ll be a tense stand off before someone backs down or shoots.

When the unpredictability is boxed in by time (you have a maximum of 30 minutes on most map conditions to get in and get out), it creates an addictive cycle of tension and relief. While you’re on the map, there’s moments of tension as you fight players or NPC robots. That is followed by relief when the encounter ends but the tension picks up again for the next encounter. And it is punctuated by a final relief when you extract successfully.

The trick is to replicate this unpredictability cycle in a slower-paced turn-based game. One way to do that is using the dreaded turn timer. Another might be to combine real-time exploration with turn-based combat, with turns in combat counting for some real time.

2. Aimless missions

Most turn-based games have an objective-based mission system. Destroy an enemy structure. Control this area. Escort a VIP to extraction. The game tells you what to do, leaving little room for unpredictability in the game.

What if a turn-based game gave you the freedom to discover an objective on the fly? Maybe you load into a map with something you want to do, but discover an even better objective or high-value target that you want to pivot to? There might still be key missions that you have to do, but you aren’t forced to do them.

That freedom, in turn, keeps the game fresh even on a limit set of maps or a simple gameplay loop, as long as you’re working towards an overall objective. It’s a weird mix of No Man’s Sky meets XCOM meets Arc Raiders. Now that I think about it, it’s the union of three of my favourite games of all time.

3. Roguelike

I’ve talked about this before but I can’t talk about my ideal turn-based game without a roguelike element. In these types of games, certain aspects of the game, like items or unlocked skills, can carry over to your new character, hopefully making your subsequent runs a little easier.

In my turn-based game, it’s the entire character that can potentially carry over. Think Altered Carbon, where skills and experience are separated from the body. So the same “person” can inhabit different bodies as long as you have the special disk. But just like in real life, some bodies are better suited for certain skills. So, there’s a mismatch penalty if the new body doesn’t support the skills.

It sets up an interesting risk-reward mechanic. Do you retrieve the skills which might not pair well with the next body you find? Do you go for the rescue hoping for a better pairing? Or do you just leave it because you’ve got some better options on the bench? Do you take out the skill disk of particularly pesky enemies or turn them to your side? Decisions, decisions, decisions.

Making a game

I have the core thoughts for this game but I need some time to figure out how all the mechanics combine together so that it doesn’t feel like you’re playing three separate games. I also have no game development experience so it is going to be an interesting journey. But I want to see what I can do to make this work, so you might read about my adventures on this front from time to time.

If you liked what you read, please consider giving this post a like and sharing it with your community!

Science Shorts is a monthly roundup of the most interesting research involving video games. I try to source only open access articles so that you have the option to read the articles as well. It’s part of a comprehensive look at happenings in video game research along with my LFG: Learning from Games and Coming Soon series!

👋🏼Hello JOMT Reader!

Groundhog Day has come and gone in Canada and they’ve provided their evidence-based, (un)scientific prediction about how much more snow we can expect. Three of the five groundhogs have called for an early spring, meaning maybe my elbows will be spared repetitive stress injury due to shoveling snow. I would like to avoid creating Mt. Everests that flank my driveway.

Unfortunately, there aren’t any groundhogs in this month’s roundup of research in the gaming world. But there are plenty of exciting developments. Let’s take a look!

More love for gaming disorder treatments

I’ve often compared gaming to eating. Our gaming diet, like eating, can benefit from being balanced. That balance comes not just among the games that we play but how gaming itself is balanced with other life happenings like sleeping, eating, studying, or working.

Just like eating, excessive gaming can be bad for you. Gaming at the expense of sleep, food, school, or work can lead to serious consequences. But what can be done to prevent and reverse the effects of excessive gaming?

Researchers in Belgium proposed a framework for tackling this growing problem, as gaming shifts from a niche to mainstream form of media. Their proposal goes beyond individual treatment efforts and moves to include other social and ecological factors that shape our relationship with gaming.

Very briefly, they propose that treatments should include support at the public policy, community, institutional, personal relationship, and individual levels. Their argument is that everybody, including the government all the way down to the individual gamer contributes to the health of their gaming diet.

I think our little gaming corner on Substack works at the community level, setting the tone for how we think about gaming disorder. Personally, I’d love us to get to a shared understanding that gaming disorder isn’t something that can be willed away. As with many disorders, it’s a complex interaction of many factors.

📄Read the study here → Rethinking gaming disorder prevention

Virtual worlds for treating post-traumatic stress disorder

Post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD is a common mental disorder that can happen after traumatic experiences including war, abuse, accidents, or natural disasters. Over the years, many types of treatments have been developed for PTSD, including medications1, cognitive behavioural therapy, eye movement desensitization and reprocessing, and exposure therapy.

Unfortunately, medications don’t always get taken when they need to. And patients may not be able to move around easily to get therapy. These lapses in treatment can block progress towards recovery.

Gaming, as a near-universal activity, is easy to access from the comfort of your own home. It’s also easier2 to safely recreate traumatic scenarios, especially using augmented or virtual reality technologies.

In particular, it turns out that VR-based treatments have an effect that is similar to conventional cognitive behavioural therapy. VR-based treatments may have an edge over traditional therapies because they can also provide immersive experiences that traditional therapies can’t replicate.

Will we reach a point where some of our gaming time is devoted to therapies through the virtual worlds we experience? Only time will tell!

📄Read the study here → Improving PTSD symptoms with VR

The eternal battle between action and strategy games

Last week, we saw that fast-paced action video games can train your thought process to run more efficiently. But not all of us play action video games. Does that mean if you don’t play action video games, there are no benefits?

Fear not, because these researchers show that strategy games also have beneficial effects on our thinking. They did this by connecting wires to people’s heads before and after they spent some time playing League of Legends (as an example of a typical action game) or Legends of the Three Kingdoms (an example of a typical strategy game).

There were some differences between the two types of gamers. Playing action video games resulted in a better ability to focus on different things, which is expected since there is a lot more dynamic information being presented in an action game.

What was most interesting is that both types of games improved players’ reaction times over time. The reason why is the same as last week’s post: playing games trains our thought process memory to run faster. It’s like muscle memory but for your thought process. We get better and better at running through our cycles of thinking, which shows up in the real world as faster reaction times.

Last week’s conclusion was limited to action video games. This week, I’ll just say play games because whether it is an action or strategy game, your brain will thank you for training it to run more efficiently.

📄Read the study here → Effect of game type on brain function

If you liked what you read, please consider giving this post a like and sharing it with your community!

LFG: Learning from Games is a series dedicated to making the complex world of video game research just a little easier to understand. I post about twice a month in between my Science Shorts, Coming Soon, and Impressions series. Welcome to LFG #02-2026, where I explore the potential for video games to improve our decision-making abilities.

👋🏼Hello JOMT Reader!

Every action we take whether it be walking, catching a ball, or performing life-saving surgeries, is a series of decisions we make based on what we sense about the world.

We may choose to take a different path after sensing danger on our path ahead.

We might decide to let the ball bounce before catching it.

And as a doctor, we might choose to approach a surgery differently after taking a look inside the body.

There is a lot happening in the brain before we make that final decision to act. We have to sense the world around us. Then we have to process that information and weed out the information we don’t need or want. Next, we have to match that information to what we already know. And finally, we decide on an action to take based on the thought process that came before.1

Sometimes, all of that happens in a heartbeat.

But what if you could speed up that thinking even more?

In this issue of LFG: Learning from Games, we’ll explore some new research that suggests our brains can be trained to become more efficient at decision making through video gaming.

Let me explain.

The positive effects of playing video games

Research over the past decade or so has shown how video games, especially action video games, can improve a number of brain processes. Some of these highlights include:

1. Faster reaction times in people who play video games

   

2. Enhanced ability to filter out distractions in those who play video games

   

3. Faster rate of learning hand-eye coordination skills in those who play video games

   

4. Increased ability to switch between thinking about different things in those who play video games

   

These improvements in brain-related processes aren’t limited to lab experiments. Researchers have documented improvements in real world tasks like performing a surgery2, driving3, reading4, and military training5.

Based on all of this research, we know that video games affect real world tasks (the what) through improvements in a variety of brain functions (the where and why).

But perhaps the most important question, the how, remained a mystery.

Until now.

Video games improve thinking efficiency

To answer the question of how video games affect our brain function, researchers looked inside the brain to see which parts were active when participants were playing a game-like test. The comparisons were made between those who played action video games for more than 5 h per week (gamers) and those who played less than 30 min of video games per week (non-gamers).

Different parts of the brain above become more or less active depending on what you are thinking about. By linking what someone was doing to the parts of the brain that were active, researchers could “see” the thought process. And maybe most importantly, the speed of change in active brain areas could indicate the speed of thought.

Before talking about what the researchers found, it’s worth noting how they defined action video games. According to these researchers an action video game fell into one of these genre categories: first-person shooter, real-time strategy, multiplayer online battle arena, or battle royale. It’s because all of these genres provide a similar fast-paced and rich environment that demands focused attention and quick reaction times.

A big side note:
One of the reasons why I think we need a much better game categorization system is highlighted by the researchers’ definition of action video games. RTS is a genre not normally grouped together with FPS and MOBA games. It’s probably fair to say not all RTS games are the same. And there are notable omissions too. What about action-adventure games and platformers? Don’t they provide a fast-paced and information-rich environment requiring quick reaction times?

When the researchers looked at the patterns of brain activity, they found that gamer brains processed information faster, which shows up as improved reaction times. If we take a look at the simplified, four-step thought process:

1. Sense the world

2. Process information and weed out irrelevant information

3. Match information to what we already know

4. Act

Gamer brains get from steps 1 to 4 faster than non-gamer brains. Non-gamer brains spend more time sensing the world and processing that information, probably because they aren’t used to sorting through a lot of information at once. But gamers, especially the action gamer, are constantly bombarded with game information that they have to sort through to decide on an action.

Over time, gamer brains become better at anticipating the chain of events that could follow, allowing them to sort, process, and match information faster. That shows up in the real world as improved reaction times.

Does this only work with action video games?

My guess is no. And it has to do with how action video games were defined by the researchers. The key characteristics of video games relevant for this study was that it was fast-paced, had lots of dynamic information that requires processing, and required quick thinking and reflexes.

Plenty of other genres, including platformers, endless runners, and action-adventure games have these characteristics. Even some turn-based games, especially ones where the turns run more fluidly (think Crypt of the Necrodancer or Quasimorph) have the same effect as these action video games. And if you play a traditionally slower-paced turn-based game with turn timers (like blitz chess), you could turn it into a fast-paced adventure.

As with all guesses, we’ll need some more studies like this to see what effect other types of games can have on the brain. But one thing is clear, a healthy gaming diet, especially one that includes faster-paced games can improve how you think in the real world! So what are you waiting for, go play some games!

If you want to read the article that inspired this post, you can read it here for free: https://direct.mit.edu/imag/article/doi/10.1162/IMAG.a.1090/134559/Level-up-the-brain-Novel-PCA-method-reveals-key

If you liked what you read, please consider giving this post a like and sharing it with your community!

LFG: Learning from Games is a series dedicated to making the complex world of video game research just a little easier to understand. I post about twice a month in between my Science Shorts, Coming Soon, and Impressions series. Welcome to the first LFG of 2026!

👋🏼Hello JOMT Reader!

Video gaming (sometimes called digital gaming in the scientific world) has quickly shifted from a niche hobby to a globally recognized past time, even as some of us fight the vestiges of the stigma surrounding video games. The explosion of video gaming has also birthed a growing chorus of voices warning about the risks of too much gaming, and in particular, how addictive it can become.

In this issue of LFG: Learning from Games, I want to come back to the topic of addiction in the gaming world. This time though, I’m exploring whether the definition of gaming needs to be broadened to include non-digital games, i.e., board games.

If you want to read something more focused on video games, I wrote about creating an addictability score for games in this post:

Addictions to video games

Video or digital games as a source for addiction is a very recently recognized behavioural disorder. These disorders are widely misunderstood and often stigmatized because many believe that behavioural disorders are caused by a lack of willpower. Unfortunately, it isn’t that simple.

Behavioural disorders are caused by changes in brain chemistry due to a combination of factors including the environment, genetics, and mental health.1 Factors beyond willpower can lead to behavioural disorders which include addictions to video games. Both the World Health Organization and American Psychiatric Association have defined this addiction, calling it internet gaming disorder.

Internet gaming disorder is defined as a preoccupation with video/digital gaming, increasing priority given to gaming, continuation of gaming despite negative consequences, and loss of interest in other activities. Gaming in these definitions refers mainly to online video gaming, although the World Health Organization also considers offline video games as part of the definition.

While these definitions focus on video games, there is another arm of gaming that isn’t mentioned: non-digital or board games.

Are digital and non-digital games similar?

There’s no board game version of Call of Duty (unless you consider paintball as the non-digital equivalent). But there are plenty of games that started life in the real world that have become pixels. So it seems odd that under the definition of gaming disorder, the Steam version of Wingspan, Magic: The Gathering, or any other board game could contribute to the disorder while their physical counterparts don’t.

The oddities don’t stop there. There are also mechanisms beyond gameplay mechanics that are similar between non-digital and digital gaming. If you’ve played any collectible card game, the booster packs you buy to get more cards is eerily similar to the dreaded loot box. It’s a gambling mechanism in disguise because you don’t know what you’re going to get inside the pack. Your reward is all up to chance.

Researchers have recognized this as well and there are several studies comparing booster pack buying to gambling and addiction:

📃 A Ruse by Any Other Name: Comparing Loot Boxes and Collectible Card Games Using Magic Arena

📃 May the passion be with you: The addictive potential of collectible card games, miniatures, and dice of the Star Wars universe

📃 Physical Card Pack and Especially Video Game Loot Box Spending Are Both Positively Correlated With Problem Gambling but Not Linked to Negative Mental Health: An International Survey

So if there are similarities between digital and non-digital games, why aren’t they included in the definition for gaming disorder?

Should non-digital games be part of the definition for gaming disorder?

Some researchers argue that based on similarities of game play and mechanics between digital and non-digital games, gaming disorder should include non-digital games. The small but growing body of evidence suggests that there is reason to suspect that non-digital gaming can contribute to addiction.

But I think there is one major difference between digital and non-digital games that clearly separates their chances of becoming an addiction. That difference is setup time.

Digital gaming can be addictive for some people because of the low effort required to start playing. Aside from time spent waiting while the game loads or matchmaking, you can start playing the game as soon as you decide you want to play (or in the case of gaming disorder, your body feels the need to play).

But for non-digital gaming, there’s a much bigger effort required to start playing the game. There’s no instant matchmaking for a board game you want to play. Then, there’s setup time. Depending on how complicated the game is, you might spend a lot of time getting all the pieces in the right place.

I think that initial barrier to playing keeps it from becoming too addictive. Research has shown that speed to gratification (in this case playing games) does influence the onset of addiction. The difference in setup time between digital and non-digital games essentially delays the gratification, which keeps non-digital gaming from crossing over to the gaming disorder side.

Final remarks

To answer the question I posed in the title of this issue, I don’t think all of gaming should be considered for gaming disorder.

Yet.

I leave it open because future research might uncover more ways for gaming disorder to happen that doesn’t depend on instant gratification.

But if the gap between digital and non-digital gaming remains, could non-digital gaming be used as a treatment for gaming disorder, to sort of wean a person off of digital gaming? Only more research can tell!

If you want to read the article that inspired this post, you can read it here for free: https://akjournals.com/view/journals/2006/aop/article-10.1556-2006.2025.00101/article-10.1556-2006.2025.00101.xml

If you liked what you read, please consider giving this post a like and sharing it with your community!

Impressions is my take on game reviews. Instead of talking about ratings and features, you’ll get a glimpse of the game through things you might find in the game universe, like diaries and photo albums. It’s meant to complement my Coming Soon series, as well as my science-focused series LFG: Learning from Games and Science Shorts.

Journal entry #193

It was a sunny day, Topside at the Gates. Only a few white clouds dotted the otherwise blue sky. From my vantage point on top of the roofs of one of the old village houses, you could see the mountains giving way to valleys carved into the mountain side. And of course, the husks of ARCs from the First Wave.

Suddenly, footsteps. Someone was making a mad dash on the streets below. “Hello there!” they called out as they saw me on the rooftops.

“Hello there, Raider!” I responded and quickly followed with “Don’t shoot!”

There was a tense and awkward silence. My weapons were holstered, theirs in hand. Were they going to shoot? Were they sizing me up? The silence was getting unbearably long.

And then an emphatic “OK!”

They dashed away without looking back, weapon still in hand, but not pointed my way. Crisis averted, for now.

I continued to look for anything useful, left behind by residents fleeing from ARCs or Raiders meeting unfortunate ends. The rest of my time in the old village was unremarkable, including the value of the left-behind items.

There was a reinforced bunker not far from the village that looked more promising, only because it was reinforced. No one reinforces anything that isn’t worth something, right? I made my way up the steep concrete slopes, listening for the engine hum of flying ARCs or the footsteps of sneaky Raiders. Otherwise, a relatively quiet walk up the artificial mountain side.

Once inside, I ziplined down into the depths of the cavernous bunker. Deep in the mountains, the sounds of the outside world were muffled. Looking around though, I noticed that someone else had already been here. Open lockers, popped lids of crates. Anything of value would have already been looted.

As I was making my way back to zipline up, I heard the muffled but unmistakable sound of rockets being fired into the concrete sides of the bunker. Something had pissed off the dreaded Rocketeer, a flying ARC with a seemingly unlimited supply of rockets. And only one thing can get a Rocketeer going like that.

Raiders.

Zipping up the line, I found two Raiders hiding behind the concrete wall of the entrance as the Rocketeer danced in the air outside. From time to time, you could see its red laser sight, followed shortly by the deafening blast of its rockets.

No one said a word but we all knew what had to be done. I took out my weapon and joined the other Raiders, taking turns ducking in and out of cover as we whittled away at its armored hull. The only visible signs that we were making a dent was the occasional piece of armored plating that came raining down.

Rockets landed nearby several times, forcing me to retreat and recharge my shields. I was running low, as were the other Raiders, who still hadn’t said a word. But that’s the unspoken rule of Topside: we put aside all differences and small talk in the face of ARC.

Then, it happened. A Raider went down to one of the rockets. They crawled away from the entrance, still wordless, but with a look that could only mean “save me.”

I couldn’t.

I didn’t have the one thing that could save him from a slow, agonizing death. As I was scrambling, momentarily forgetting about the Rocketeer, the second Raider went down. They too crawled towards me.

I was helpless. And wordless.

I panicked but I wasn’t about to give up that easily. I made my way down the zipline, into the depths of the bunker to see if I could find anything to revive them. It was a race against time since they didn’t have long before they succumbed to their wounds.

Nothing.

I was searching for maybe 30 seconds but it felt like an eternity, knowing that there were two Raiders, still being watched by the Rocketeer and bleeding out. I made my way back up the zipline but the first Raider to go down had already succumbed to their wounds. I quickly searched them for any item I could use, but to no avail.

What to do? I looked up at the Rocketeer, through the narrow slits of the windows. It was spewing flames into the air, meaning we were close. One or two well-aimed shots should bring it down.

I stabilized the second Raider and decided that at the very least, I would not let their sacrifice be in vain. I ducked out of cover, and fired one last shot, sending the Rocketeer to the ground in a giant fireball. We were one bullet away from all walking away with the spoils of battle. Now, it was just me and a downed Raider.

I stabilized them again, potentially prolonging their agony. There was a nearby Raider Escape Hatch about 100 meters from where we were. My first words to this Raider were “Let’s go home from this escape hatch.”

Except, I didn’t have a key to open the hatch. I didn’t have a plan. I thought maybe I could get them there and some kind soul will find us and offer a key. The downed Raider was still silent but started the slow, agonizing crawl to the hatch. All I felt was a sense of guilt and dread as I led them to a false sense of hope.

Every so often, we would stop and I would apply a bandage so that they didn’t bleed out. My job now was to see them to the hatch and protect them at all costs. Thankfully, no other ARC or Raider interrupted our march to safety.

As we neared the hatch, I stabilized them one last time and stood back, a silent signal to say that this is as far as I could take them. I felt incredibly guilty about leading them this far without a plan to see it through.

But then, the downed Raider kept crawling to the hatch. They hoisted themselves up, jammed in a key, and opened the hatch. Still no words were exchanged but a fleeting moment of hesitation before exiting was all that was needed to say “thanks.”

I followed after, elated, relieved and exhausted from the emotional roller coaster of going Topside.

Note: All of these events, including the wordlessness of the experience and the emotional roller coaster, happened within one particular 20 minute gaming session. The words we said to each other are part of a limited set of emotes that you can use for communication: it’s all pre-canned text that the player doesn’t have control over. I don’t think I’ve ever played a game where I’ve been taken for this much of an emotional roller coaster ride via an unscripted event.

Science Shorts is a monthly roundup of the most interesting research involving video games. I try to source only open access articles so that you have the option to read the articles as well. It’s part of a comprehensive look at happenings in video game research along with my LFG: Learning from Games and Coming Soon series!

👋🏼Hello JOMT Reader!

I hope you all had a happy holiday season and a great start to the new year! Mine was filled with plenty of relaxation, eating, and of course, gaming. This year, we bit the bullet and decided to introduce our kids to gaming through the Switch. The first hours were spent struggling with setup and getting them to read instructions but once we got past that hurdle, they seemed to enjoy the experience.

I’m seeing this as an opportunity to teach them about regulating emotions (when they win/lose or can’t get past a certain level), time management, and gaming as a tool for experimentation. If you have recommendations for games that are suited for two pre-teen kids, please let me know!

Onwards to this month’s highlights for gaming research!

Exercise can make you a better gamer?

They say practice makes perfect. But usually that means long hours spent on a set of related skills.

What if playing any video game could make you better at a whole bunch of things? Or doing one sport affecting how you play any video game?

There is growing evidence that physical exercise can affect your game play, especially in a competitive esports setting. It’s not just long hours spent playing a game: how you train off screen might be just as important.

Because as this study shows, six weeks of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) can improve movements like flicking, tracking ability, reaction time, and decision-making. Beyond these numbers, gamers noted improvements in their concentration and reduction in gaming-related tiredness after HIIT.

So, take a physical break from gaming and you might have a better gaming session when you get back to it!

📄Read the study here → Effect of physical exercise on esports performance

Can video games enhance our subconscious biases?

Biases are everywhere. Some are explicit: we can see the biases at work or the ones that we are using every day. Others are less obvious and implicit: the ones working just below our consciousness that we may not even be aware of.

Stereotypes are a form of implicit bias that is shared across a large group of people. Many of you have experienced and written about stereotypes as a gamer.

In media portraying violence that stereotype is focused on black people: they are often portrayed in violent roles. What happens when we are repeatedly exposed to those stereotypes through games?

That answer partially depends on who you are. In this study, black and white gamers were exposed to games with violent characters. When that violent character was black (in line with stereotypes), implicit racial bias increased compared to when the violent character was white.

It’s a preliminary result as the study was small, but important to keep in mind as we play games and think about how it affects us.

📄Read the study here → Effects of violent characters on racial bias

What impact does video games have on creativity?

Parents (myself included) worry about the effects of gaming on children. When is the right time to introduce gaming? How often should they game? What games should they play?

Most of the worrying is to prevent the perceived negative effects of gaming: addiction, lack of physical activity, near sightedness, to name a few. But the impact of gaming on developing children hasn’t been explored as deeply.

In particular, scientists aren’t sure how or if gaming impacts creativity and creative expression as the foundation for innovation, in children.

So, researchers trained 150 children with creative and age-appropriate games and compared them to 150 children who did not play these games. They found that across the measured indicators of creativity, like frequency of generating new ideas, diversity of problem solving methods, and proactive communication, the game-trained children scored higher than their non-game counterparts.

Exposing children too early can have negative consequences but as this research shows, waiting too long might prevent them from accessing benefits to creativity through video games.

📄Read the study here → Effects of video games on creativity in children

If you liked what you read, please consider giving this post a like and sharing it with your community!

LFG: Learning from Games is a series dedicated to making the complex world of video game research just a little easier to understand. I post one about 2-3 times a month in between my Science Shorts and Coming Soon series. This is the last LFG for 2025!

👋🏼Hello JOMT Reader!

The countdown to Christmas (if you celebrate it) and the New Year has officially crossed the less than two weeks threshold. This time of year is always good for some reflection, in preparation for the coming year. Earlier this month, I looked back at what I think could be the future of turn-based games. In this post, I want to do the same for gaming research before I sign off for the year.

Let’s start with a brief look at what the scientific world was talking about in 2025.

Almost half of all research was about gamification and serious games

If you take a look at all the game-related articles that were published in 2025 from databases like PubMed or Google Scholar, just under half of them were about gamification and serious games. 45% of published articles were about using games to teach or elements of gaming to enhance teaching.

Gaming has been a useful tool for teaching because it is generally fun and engaging. But there is a sinister side to gamification and serious games: the chocolate covered broccoli1. This refers to content (broccoli) that has a covering of playfulness and gaming (chocolate) but that doesn’t work to improve our understanding of the content. You can’t make everything a game or attach badges and leaderboards to make that content work.

Addiction is another side of gaming that gets far less attention than it should when it comes to gamification and serious games. We don’t want to introduce more issues because we want to use games for teaching. But we don’t have a good way to quickly assess what may or may not work with different people so some educators are left making guesses if they want to consider something like addiction.

What can we look forward to in 2026 with gamification and serious games?

I would love to see more nuanced why certain elements of gamification or serious games work or not. The either/or relationship between the benefits and risks of gaming is due for an update. There’s a lot more context that I think we’ll be able to discover as we go deeper into this topic.

Another half of all research was about gaming in medicine

A big reason why I started Just One More Turn was to talk about the positive side effects of gaming on our health. Everything from encouraging physical activity to rehabilitation, mental health, and brain function were the focus of about 40% of articles published in 2025.

This is an important topic given the negativity and stigma that continues to surround gaming and gamers. But as with gamification and serious games, there is nuance to when games are beneficial for health and when they are not.

The top three research areas in 2025 were about improving physical activity (through exergames), brain-related rehabilitation (after stroke or in conditions like dementia), and managing mental health.

What can we look forward to in 2026 with gaming in medicine?

The big opportunity I see is in using biometric data gathered during a gaming session to diagnose conditions. There is a lot of data that can be gathered during our play sessions, most of which we couldn’t due to limitations in technology. But our most recent technological advances, including analytical ability using AI, now allow us to track things like small changes in our voice, where we look, or how we move. Any changes from how we normally do these things can be tied back to our health. And with most of the planet playing games in one way or another, what better way to do it than passively while doing something we love?

What was I talking about in 2025?

Looking at my own posts in 2025 in the LFG: Learning From Games series, about 25% of my posts were about gamification and serious games and another 25% were about games in medicine.

A big focus for me, especially in the past several posts, was about categorizing games. My initial framework became too complex to be useful but I haven’t stopped thinking about it. I also realized I had been writing about it since earlier this year.

For example, I wrote about an addictability score for games, which could become a part of a personalized game categorization system. Motivations for playing a game could be layered on top of an addictability score for a truly unique game categorization system.

I think this is important for us to have a standard framework for how we talk about games. Maturity ratings, review scores, and genre tags only tell a part of the story. Addictability scores or how games address motivations for playing are just some of the ways an improved framework can help us understand games.

What will I talk about in 2026?

The One Categorization of Gaming. I’ll definitely continue to explore what that framework could look like. Beyond that, I am hoping to talk a lot more about some cool research being done at the intersection of gaming and science! Maybe even an interview or three, if I can get on the busy calendars of some of the researchers I post about.

Final remarks

2026 will be a year where I get to share more gaming-related science content with you. But for the remainder of this year and into the first week or so, I’m going to give myself a bit of a break, to enjoy some games, catch up on all the great posts I missed, and recharge while I think about how to elevate Just One More Turn.

Thank you all for reading, liking, reposting, and commenting on my posts. I could not do this without all of your support and enthusiasm! Who knew that my nerdy obsession with science and gaming would turn into something like this!?

My best wishes to you all for a safe and recharging holiday season!

For the past two years, at around this time, I’ve published a post on what I would like the future of turn-based games to be for the next year.

My 2023 edition:

My 2024 edition:

It’s fun to look back at what I was thinking about in years past. Some of you have followed me on my game classification bonanza, which is quietly resting for round 2 of deep thinking. But even back in 2023, I was talking about genre salads and how turn-based games are beginning to mix genres for a new take on the old formula. In 2024, I went one step further looking at games that mixed action and turn-based mechanics together.

In 2025, I want to go deeper on something that’s been on my mind as I sample a variety of games to complete my gaming diet.

⏱️More “real-time” changes in decision-making

Pure turn-based games aren’t real-time. And pure real-time games aren’t turn-based. But we’ve got to move past that dichotomy, right?

Two things happen in real-time in real-time games. A change in decision and the corresponding action. They are usually tied together requiring quick thinking and corresponding quick reflexes for the action.

But what would happen if you took one of those real-time things and turned it into a turn-based mechanic?

The best examples might be rhythm-based games like Fretless - The Wrath of Riffson or those with timing-based parry mechanisms like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

In both games, only the action has been moved to the real-time realm. You’ve already made the decision to hit the notes or parry the attack, during the turn-based portion of the game. The corresponding action is the only thing that you have to worry about in real-time.

What about real-time decision making? Quick time events (QTEs), where you have a short amount of time to make a decision, are a way to introduce real-time decision making. But they mostly show up in cut scene-heavy action games.

Can QTEs find their way into turn-based games? The turn-based game Every Day We Fight incorporates some QTE mechanics but only during specific moments in combat (during overwatch, when enemies enter your firing arc).

I’d love to see a game incorporate more of those kinds of short but action-packed moments within a turn-based game. Maybe it gets triggered when your units are dashing across the battlefield. Or maybe it happens if you need to make a quick dodge or parry. I think developers could get creative with its implementation, with technology being the only limitation.

💡A roguelite/like turn-based tactics game

I’m surprised I haven’t yet come across this idea, which got me thinking about game dev in the first place. Most turn-based roguelite/like games get you to manage one character. But imagine the fun (and chaos) if you could manage a whole squad of them?

Think XCOM who had babies with Altered Carbon (the Netflix series). Each character, instead of dying permanently, could be reincarnated in a different body if they happen to die in battle. But that reincarnation process has its own drawbacks, especially if it gets paired with the wrong body. That kind of system encourages players not to treat their team as disposable items.

If I could get all of my work, life, and gaming priorities straight, I would love to work on this game. But if anyone here wants to take a crack at it, go for it!

I’ll be publishing a few more posts (and continuing with the Gaming Advent Calendar) until mid-December at which point I will be taking a short break until the new year. I’ll still be reading all your posts and catching up, so I hope to see you all in Notes and comments. But if you’re taking a break too, and I don’t get a chance to say this to you before the time comes:

HAVE A SAFE HOLIDAY SEASON!!!

And see you in 2026 for more gaming and science content!

Coming Soon is a forward-looking series about new turn-based games, released monthly. It also coincides with my favourite day of the week: #TurnBasedThursdays, a weekly community list of game devs showcasing their turn-based games. Give them a follow on BlueSky and keep up-to-date on new turn-based games alongside my LFG: Learning from Games and Science Shorts series!

👋🏼Hello JOMT Reader!

Welcome to the last roundup of games releasing next month. It’s hard to believe that we’re at the end of 2025. For most of next month, I’ll be opening a virtual advent calendar of games every day that will tease some promising titles releasing in 2026. Hopefully, there’s a title that you’re looking forward to on this list!

Death Howl

🔗 Steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2825880/Death_Howl/
📅 Release date: December 9, 2025
🖥️ Developer: The Outer Zone
📢 Publisher: 11 bit studios
🕹️ Platform: Steam (PC)

🎮️ The game

A souls-like deck-building game.

🎯 Who it’s for

• You love gorgeous pixel art

• You love the idea of difficult souls like games but feel like you have one less finger than you need to succeed

• You don’t mind a bit of grinding

‼️ What I’m excited about

I’ve always loved the idea of souls like games but they’ve felt out of reach for two reasons. One is that I turn into a button masher when things get hectic on screen, which never helps with precisely timed attacks and parries. The second is that the constant motion of the camera can make me sick, even from a third person view.

Death Howl solves both these problems by being a turn-based souls-like game that lets me think between turns and won’t make me throw up all over the screen. Plus it’s got a haunting story and visuals to add to the experience. You can customize the deck of actions available to you, allowing you to experiment with different play styles. If you’re interested, there is a demo for this game (which I loved) so you can try for yourself!

Keep the Heroes Out

🔗 Steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2592340/Keep_the_Heroes_Out/
📅 Release date: December 9, 2025
🖥️ Developer: Brueh Games
📢 Publisher: YarnCat Games
🕹️ Platform: Steam (PC), Nintendo Switch

🎮️ The game

A cooperative tower defence game that started its life as a board game.

🎯 Who it’s for

• You love cooperative games

• You like the idea of tower defence games but don’t want to deal with the frantic pace

‼️ What I’m excited about

I think Keep the Heroes Out could be a great game for younger gamers in your circles. It’s a cooperative game where you play the side of the monsters, working together to keep the heroes out of your dungeons. Each monster character has unique abilities that will help in this quest.

With online multiplayer and local/shared screen co-op play, there’s plenty of ways to thwart those pesky adventurers from ruining your perfectly furnished dungeon. There is also a physical board game version if you want to stay away from screens during the holiday season.

The Legend of Pamperlotte

🔗 Steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3348550/The_Legend_of_Pamperlotte/
📅 Release date: December 1, 2025
🖥️ Developer: Boumsee
📢 Publisher: Singe Studios
🕹️ Platform: Steam (PC)

🎮️ The game

A node-based tactics game with vibrant character designs.

🎯 Who it’s for

• You love RPGs but want a bit more structure during exploration

• You love colourful graphics

‼️ What I’m excited about

The bright, colourful graphics and character models immediately stand out as a visual treat for this game. It’s node-based exploration means you’ll always have a path to follow and won’t get lost in a vast open world. The game promises plenty of classes and skills for your characters to specialize into as you move through grid based battles.

There is a combo system that I’m intrigued about that lets your characters essentially become one-person armies that can mow through enemy ranks. But the enemies also have this ability, meaning misplaced units can lead to a devastating chain of attacks and a potential squad wipe.

If you liked what you read, please consider giving this post a like and keep an eye out for the advent calendar starting December 1! What games are you most looking forward to? Let me know below!