Hello reader who is also a reader, and welcome to Booked For The Week - our Sunday feature where we ask a selection of cool industry folks questions about books! Did you know that if you cup a book over your ear you can hear the gentle ambience of a thousand seagulls screaming how Charles Bukowski is literally them fr? I cannot judge these irritating gulls. “Air And Light..." is still one of my all time favourites. This week, it's El Paso, Elsewhere developer, Hypnospace Outlaw writer, and RPS contributor Xalavier Nelson Jr! Cheers Xalavier! Mind if we have a nose at your bookshelf?

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Hello! Our Game of the Week is Life Eater, and let's just look again at that opening sentence from Bertie's review: "Few game ideas will turn your head quicker than one about abducting people and murdering them." That feels fair! There are lots of games about murdering people, sure, but the rest of it?

Bertie wasn't entirely convinced by Life Eater, I gather, but I think he remains pleased that it exists. And that brings me nicely to the topic of this week's column: I am incredibly glad that Life Eater's developer, Strange Scaffold, exists. And I'm going to try and explain why I feel that so strongly.

Strange Scaffold is the development label of Xalavier Nelson Jr., who is one of the most interesting creators in games. The label's made lots of games and it seems to make them quickly. It doesn't feel like it was that long ago that I was reviewing El Paso, Elsewhere, and before that it doesn't seem like it was that long ago that I was playing Skatebird or Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator.

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Hello! Our Game of the Week is Life Eater, and let's just look again at that opening sentence from Bertie's review: "Few game ideas will turn your head quicker than one about abducting people and murdering them." That feels fair! There are lots of games about murdering people, sure, but the rest of it?

Bertie wasn't entirely convinced by Life Eater, I gather, but I think he remains pleased that it exists. And that brings me nicely to the topic of this week's column: I am incredibly glad that Life Eater's developer, Strange Scaffold, exists. And I'm going to try and explain why I feel that so strongly.

Strange Scaffold is the development label of Xalavier Nelson Jr., who is one of the most interesting creators in games. The label's made lots of games and it seems to make them quickly. It doesn't feel like it was that long ago that I was reviewing El Paso, Elsewhere, and before that it doesn't seem like it was that long ago that I was playing Skatebird or Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator.

Read more