Talk about a grind! Aoi Kousaka is a gamer extraordinaire who’s a little down on his luck in the poorly balanced game called real life. When he finds a curious wanted ad for a “facilities management” position seeking people proficient in games, he jumps at the chance to carve out a niche for himself. Little does he know he’ll be carving out a whole lot more than that when he suddenly winds up at the bottom of a ravine—in a game world! Can Aoi navigate the mechanics and challenges of this strange new place with all the finesse of a master gamer? You bet he can!

She’s young, single and about to achieve her dream of creating incredible video games. But then life throws her a one-two punch: a popular streamer gives her first game a scathing review. Even worse, she finds out that same troublesome critic is now her new neighbor! A funny, sexy, and all-too-real story about gaming, memes, and social anxiety. Come for the plot, stay for the doggo.

She’s young, single and about to achieve her dream of creating incredible video games. But then life throws her a one-two punch: a popular streamer gives her first game a scathing review. Even worse, she finds out that same troublesome critic is now her new neighbor! A funny, sexy, and all-too-real story about gaming, memes, and social anxiety. Come for the plot, stay for the doggo. Volume 1 of Let's Play collects the first 23 chapters of the Eisner-nominated webcomic phenomenon with over 5 million subscribers. She’s young, single and about to achieve her dream of creating incredible video games. But then life throws her a one-two punch: a popular streamer gives her first game a scathing review. Even worse, she finds out that same troublesome critic is now her new neighbor! A funny, sexy, and all-too-real story about gaming, memes, and social anxiety. Come for the plot, stay for the doggo.

First-year high school student Momota Kaoru just saved a beautiful high school girl, Orihara Hime, from a train molester. One thing leads to another, and they end up going on a date! They have a lot in common: they both love video games, they both jam to their favorite songs on mixtapes, they were even both born in the Year of the Snake. Except... Orihara’s first game console used cartridges... and her old mixtapes are all on MiniDisc... and, oh, her birthday is actually 12 years before Momota’s! When her secret comes out, she thinks it must all be over... but will Momota really let something like a little age gap get in the way of his love for Orihara? Find out if love really can transcend generations in this sugar-sweet romantic comedy!

The inaugural issue of VGAR celebrates video game culture as inclusive and global. Opening with an interview with the art director of the first independent Cuban video game, Savior, while the following essays from art historians, literary theorists, game designers, artists, educators, museum curators, and programmers all engage with video games as an important part of the global art landscape. Each engages with what makes good game art with special attention to the transnational cadre of gamers that play them. Contributions by Jesse de Vos, Jacob Euteneuer, Monica Evans, Tiffany Funk, René Glas, Eddie Lohmeyer, Evan Meaney, Kieran Nolan, Josuhe Pagliery, Sercan Şengün, Teresa Silva, Christopher W. Totten, and Jasper van Vught.

Let the games begin! In their (overabundance of) free time, the gods grew bored and decided to create challenging battles of wits to spice things up! Their opponent? Humanity! A select few players called “apostles” meet the gods on the spiritual realm’s playing field to beat the deities at their own games. A former god named Leshea has woken after sleeping for thousands of years, and her first demand is to meet “this era’s very best player!” She is introduced to Fay, an acclaimed rookie apostle. Together, they plan to challenge the gods and win the ultimate prize, but no one in human history has managed to clear ten games—because the gods can be capricious, outrageous, and sometimes downright incomprehensible! In the face of absurdity, what can the apostles do but enjoy the contest to its fullest?

Being forced into an underground bunker, Tommy faces an unbelievable challenge; survival away from his normal life. But it’s not so easy to survive when a killer is among the crowd of people who were also pulled down from earth’s surface. A professional hunter leaves the tunnels lined with blood, art, and lust. Even worse, Tommy’s girlfriend, Dahria, seems to be in the sights of the predator. And he is hungry to play more games.