Feed Me is seeking a game developer.
My texts with TV's breakout star, Matt Belloni; post-Clandestino sundaes; NYT Cooking goes Hollywood.
Hello everyone. The Feed Me chat is currently debating whether Oura rings are cops that you wear around your finger.
Today’s letter includes: The Atlantic’s game strategy; a conversation with Puck’s Matt Belloni about his cameo in The Studio and the scripts he wants to work on ; a Lower East Side ice cream shop open for late-night sundaes; why you’re about to see more celebrities in The New York Times Cooking videos; and Substack is hiring its first social media editor.
Before we dive in, everyone congratulate
, Feed Me’s semi-anonymous restaurant critic, on his new column at Interview. He’ll still be writing for Feed Me, but his resume is expanding. If we all ever get détente martinis at Le Veau D’or, Mel Ottenberg is paying.
Last week I got a message from Caleb Madison, The Atlantic’s Director of Games, about a new game the magazine licensed called Bracket City. “It’s already kind of popping off, but wanted you to check it out,” he told me. The game was developed by Ben Gross (he first sketched it out on a placemat at the diner he co-owns, Montague Diner), and was later acquired by The Atlantic.
I was curious about Caleb’s role at The Atlantic, which seems to be positioning its games strategy as the HBO to The New York Times’ network, and the role games play in our very-logged-on lives. “What I love about puzzles is that the ritual of them is extremely orienting and grounding,” Caleb told me when we were discussing how games . “I don't think it's a coincidence that Wordle took off during the pandemic when people were kind of drowning in their own time. It became this ritual that could mark the day.” Below is part of a phone call that Caleb and I had this week.
Can you tell me a little bit about The Atlantic’s game strategy?
CALEB MADISON: “Yeah, I was the crossword editor at The Atlantic. And then I brought this other game to the Atlantic and was like, We should have more games. And they were like, Yeah, let's explore that. It's been a process of figuring out how we do games as we build them. And that's one of the exciting things to me, is that we get to build a game section from first principles for The Atlantic’s audience. We have no preconception going in.”
“Games are the medium of digital media. They’re the only thing that you can do on a phone that you couldn't do with a newspaper or television. They’re like interactive information sculptures.”
What was it about Bracket City that made you realize, Oh, we could acquire this?
CM: “I was learning how to do game development, and then Bracket City came across my virtual desk. I immediately loved it. I think it's easy to tell when a game is good. You want to play it. It's a form that works in microseconds, so if you see something and you automatically want to play with it and interact with it, it's probably going to be a good game.
I've been doing this for a while. I started making crosswords when I was like 14, 15, so I feel like I have a bit of a spidey sense for it at this point. And someone sent me Bracket City. I was riding shotgun to the grocery store with my wife and I immediately started playing it. I was like, Turn the car around. I got to reach out to this guy. And so I reached out to Ben and we chatted, and I think I overwhelmed him with my enthusiasm for the game at a level of, they only had, I think 90 daily solvers at the time, and I was just like, I know this is going to be a hit. I know this is a great, I think it'd be perfect for The Atlantic.”