Ana Hein - Mothership

Big Walk lights the way for non-toxic masculinity in games

Interrogating "men don't talk to each other" through a game about communication

Dayten Rose Sep 30, 2026

Personal Essay

Tiny Bookshop made me want to change my career

What happened to that girl who saw herself as an aspiring author? As it turns out, she's still a part of me

Adelina Cortez Sep 29, 2026

Dear Mother

How do you get over your attachment to characters when a game ends?

"The game coming to an end almost feels like grief. There is an emptiness and sense of loss that I don't know how to fill..."

Maddy Myers Sep 25, 2026

Ana Hein is an essayist and critic. Her work has been featured in Electric Literature, The Rumpus, AFM, Digging Press Journal, Compulsive Reader, Videodame, and more. She has an MFA in nonfiction from Columbia University.

2 articles

A girl in underwear stands on a surface that's cracking under weight. She holds a massive plate above her head on which she balances pizza, laundry, a diet book, and a boy.

Indie

Consume Me got me to stop save-scumming and delete perfectionism

If I could, I would restart every day to do it better

Ana Hein Apr 9, 2026

A shot of a dilapidated room with peeling paint, uneven floorboards, and a pristine desk with an oil lamp sits in the middle of the room with an upholstered armchair beside it.

Analysis

Playing old Nancy Drew games as a gothic heroine

Its gameplay even replicates the form many gothic novels take: the epistolary.

Ana Hein Mar 23, 2026