Benjamin Richard "Yahtzee"Croshaw (born 24 May 1983) is a British journalist, video game critic and developer, author, and humourist. He is best known for his video game review seriesZero Punctuation, which he produced forThe Escapist from 2007 to 2023, and itsspiritual successorFully Ramblomatic, which he releases throughSecond Wind.
Croshaw has developed and released over two dozenindie games, including bothfreeware andcommercial titles. He has also published six novels throughDark Horse Books. Outside of creative works, Croshaw was one of four founders of theMana Bar, an Australian cocktail bar and video gaming lounge which opened in 2010, and had closed by 2015.
Zero Punctuation is a video-review series Croshaw released every Wednesday onThe Escapist[1] between 2007 and 2023.[2][3][4] The series began with his review of thedemo ofThe Darkness, which quickly grew in popularity.[5][6] After one more review coveringFable: The Lost Chapters, Croshaw was hired to continue the series onThe Escapist.[4][7] Reviews were typically posted initially onThe Escapist's site, then uploaded toThe Escapist's YouTube channel a week later.[2] The addition of the series toThe Escapist led to a large growth insite traffic,[8] and the series became the most popular feature onThe Escapist,[3] with each episode consistently receiving hundreds of thousands of views, and the most popular episodes surpassing a million views.[2]
Today, I formally resigned from The Escapist andGamurs. I don't have the rights to Zero Punctuation, but whatever happens you'll be hearing my voice again soon, in a new place. Join this discord for updates in the coming days:
On 6 November 2023, Croshaw announced his resignation fromThe Escapist alongside other colleagues following the abrupt firing of editor-in-chief Nick Calandra that same day, effectively ending Zero Punctuation as a series.[2][3][4][15] Two days later, Calandra and Croshaw announced the creation ofSecond Wind,[2][4][15] a new outlet on which Croshaw would continue weekly video-reviews under the titleFully Ramblomatic.[4]
Croshaw (second from left) outsideGDC 2008, alongside (left to right)Justin Hall, Merci Hammon, and Duncan Gough
Croshaw's first publicly released game was theArthur Yahtzee trilogy created inVisual Basic 3 and released in 1998.[16][17] He also wrote a selection ofinteractive fiction games throughZ-Code, includingOffensive Probing,Arthur Yahtzee: The Curse of Hell's Cheesecake,The Sorceror's Appraisal, and theCountdown trilogy tied to hisChzo Mythos.[18][19]
The latter two games were noted for pushing the engine beyond what it was designed for.[38] He had previously charged to access the special editions for several of these games, but released everything for free in 2009.[39] Builds of the Chzo Mythos and other games were released in 2010 forLinux onicculus.org,[40] later updated in 2015 to the nowopen source AGS runtime.[41]
In a 2014Vice interview, Croshaw disclosed that he had been asked topitch ascript for the then-in-developmentDuke Nukem Forever by a producer. He did so, however the script was rejected due to not fitting the producer's vision ofDuke Nukem as a character.[14] Croshaw had earlier in 2003 made a horror-themedtotal conversion mod for the originalDuke Nukem 3D calledAge of Evil.[45][46]
In November 2013, Croshaw released thebeta version of theLovecraftian horrorroguelikeThe Consuming Shadow,[49][50][51] On 30 July 2015, the full game was released.[52][53]Destructoid's Stephen Turner scored the game 4/10, describing the game as "moreFrankenstein's Monster than Eldritch Abomination, shambling along [...] with once fresh parts, dug up from here and there."[53] On 20 November, a new version of the game was released onSteam, which included new features.[54]
In May 2019, Croshaw began a new video series calledDev Diary, wherein he would develop 12 freeware games over the course of a year.[55]
His latest game,Starstruck Vagabond, was announced for a 2024 release,[56] and ultimately came out on Steam on May 24, 2024.[57] It received a positive review fromScreen Rant,[58] and a mixed review from Hardcore Gamer.[59]
Yahtzee does all the artwork for his games himself inMS Paint, lending his games what Wonder How Two described as "a delightfully old-schoolSierra look, like inKing's Quest 3."[60] The music in a number of his games was composed by Mark Lovegrove.[61][62]
In the 2000s Croshaw created a number of webcomics, namelyChris and Trilby,Cowboy Comics!,The Adventures of Angular Mike, andYahtzee Takes On The World!, which ran from December 20, 2000, to September 22, 2002. He also uploaded two unpublished novels to his website,Fog Juice andArticulate Jim: A Search for Something.[63]
In 2010, Croshaw's first published novelMogworld, was released by Dark Horse Books.[65][66]Tor.com's Chris Greenland stated that the book "isn't going tobowl anyone over," while adding that "Croshaw undoubtedly has a strong, unique voice and I would hate to see that limited to only critiques."[65]
Later that same year, the short story collectionMachine of Death was published, featuring a story by Croshaw[67] titled "Exhaustion From Having Sex With a Minor".[68] TheTimes Herald-Record's Jim Higgins described the story as "a talky tale of political intrigue that could be straight out ofIsaac Asimov'sFoundation series, with a snappy twist at the end thatO. Henry might appreciate."[68]
In 2012, anebook version ofMogworld was released, which included an excerpt of Croshaw's second novel,Jam.[66] The novel was published later that year on October 10.[‡ 6]The Quad's Kelly Baker described the book as "very funny, but [...] also surprisingly disturbing to boot."[69]
In 2017, Croshaw's third novel, the sci-fi comedyWill Save the Galaxy for Food was published.[70] In 2019, its sequelWill Destroy the Galaxy for Cash was published as anaudiobook onAudible; a print version followed in 2020.[71] In April 2024, the final book in the seriesWill Leave the Galaxy for Good was published on Audible, with print and ebook versions to follow.[‡ 7]
In 2018, Croshaw's fourth novelDifferently Morphous was published as an audiobook,[72] with a print version following on 10 April 2019.[73] A sequel followed in 2021, titledExistentially Challenged.[‡ 8]
Game Damage was a planned video game-centred TV show co-starring Croshaw.[74] A pilot was released onYouTube in December 2008.[74][75][76] In October 2009, a trailer for the first season was released.[77] In November 2009,CNET reported that the show was "looking for international funding".[10] The show was ultimately never picked up. In a 2014 interview withVice, Croshaw stated that he believed the show never saw success because "TV networks tend to be antsy about gaming content because video gaming is one of TV's main competitors".[14]
Croshaw was one of four founders of the Mana Bar,[78] an Australian cocktail bar and video gaming lounge.[79][80][81][82] The bar initially opened inBrisbane in 2010,[83] with a second venue opening inMelbourne in 2011.[84] By May 2015, both venues had closed.[85][86][87]
^Fiadotau, Mikhail (August 2016). "Game Engine Conventions and Games that Challenge them: Subverting Conventions as Metacommentary".Replay the Polish Journal of Game Studies.3: 50.doi:10.18778/2391-8551.03.03.hdl:11089/22427.
In the text these references are preceded by a double dagger (‡):
^Croshaw, Yahtzee (7 October 2003)."I Am Jack's Thoughtful Introspection".fullyramblomatic.Archived from the original on 22 May 2022. Retrieved18 February 2024.I am Benjamin Richard Croshaw.
^Croshaw, Yahtzee (8 April 2006)."Fucking Ada".fullyramblomatic.Archived from the original on 18 January 2024. Retrieved18 February 2024.I was born on May 24th 1983...
