In 2025, it’s very difficult not to see gambling advertised everywhere. It’s on billboards and sports broadcasts. It’s on podcasts and printed on the turnbuckle of AEW’s pay-per-view shows. And it’s on app stores, where you can find the FanDuel and DraftKings sportsbooks, alongside glitzy digital slot machines. These apps all have the highest age ratings possible on Apple’s App Store and Google Play. But earlier this year, a different kind of app nearly disappeared from the Play Store entirely.Luck Be A Landlord is a roguelite deckbuilder from solo developer Dan DiIorio. DiIorio got word from Google in January 2025 that Luck Be A Landlord was about to be pulled, globally, because DiIorio had not disclosed the game’s “gambling themes” in its rating.In Luck Be a Landlord, the player takes spins on a pixel art slot machine to earn coins to pay their ever-increasing rent — a nightmare gamification of our day-to-day grind to remain housed. On app stores, it’s a one-time purchase of $4.99, and it’s $9.99 on Steam. On the Play Store page, developer Dan DiIorio notes, “This game does not contain any real-world currency gambling or microtransactions.”And it doesn’t. But for Google, that didn’t matter. First, the game was removed from the storefront in a slew of countries that have strict gambling laws. Then, at the beginning of 2025, Google told Dilorio that Luck Be A Landlord would be pulled globally because of its rating discrepancy, as it “does not take into account references to gambling (including real or simulated gambling)”.DiIorio had gone through this song and dance before — previously, when the game was blocked, he would send back a message saying “hey, the game doesn’t have gambling,” and then Google would send back a screenshot of the game and assert that, in fact, it had.DiIorio didn’t agree, but this time they decided that the risk of Landlord getting taken down permanently was too great. They’re a solo developer, and Luck Be a Landlord had just had its highest 30-day revenue since release. So, they filled out the form confirming that Luck Be A Landlord has “gambling themes,” and are currently hoping that this will be the end of it.This is a situation that sucks for an indie dev to be in, and over email DiIorio told Polygon it was “very frustrating.”“I think it can negatively affect indie developers if they fall outside the norm, which indies often do,” they wrote. “It also makes me afraid to explore mechanics like this further. It stifles creativity, and that’s really upsetting.”In late 2024, the hit game Balatro was in a similar position. It had won numerous awards, and made $1,000,000 in its first week on mobile platforms. And then overnight, the PEGI ratings board declared that the game deserved an adult rating.The ESRB had already rated it E10+ in the US, noting it has gambling themes. And the game was already out in Europe, making its overnight ratings change a surprise. Publisher PlayStack said the rating was given because Balatro has “prominent gambling imagery and material that instructs about gambling.”Balatro is basically Luck Be A Landlord’s little cousin. Developer LocalThunk was inspired by watching streams of Luck Be A Landlord, and seeing the way DiIorio had implemented deck-building into his slot machine. And like Luck Be A Landlord, Balatro is a one-time purchase, with no microtransactions.But the PEGI board noted that because the game uses poker hands, the skills the player learns in Balatro could translate to real-world poker.In its write-up, GameSpot noted that the same thing happened to a game called Sunshine Shuffle. It was temporarily banned from the Nintendo eShop, and also from the entire country of South Korea. Unlike Balatro, Sunshine Shuffle actually is a poker game, except you’re playing Texas Hold ‘Em — again for no real money — with cute animals (who are bank robbers).It’s common sense that children shouldn’t be able to access apps that allow them to gamble. But none of these games contain actual gambling — or do they?Where do we draw the line? Is it gambling to play any game that is also played in casinos, like poker or blackjack? Is it gambling to play a game that evokes the aesthetics of a casino, like cards, chips, dice, or slot machines? Is it gambling to wager or earn fictional money?Gaming has always been a lightning rod for controversy. Sex, violence, misogyny, addiction — you name it, video games have been accused of perpetrating or encouraging it. But gambling is gaming’s original sin. And it’s the one we still can’t get a grip on.The original link between gambling and gamingGetty ImagesThe association between video games and gambling all goes back to pinball. Back in the ’30s and ’40s, politicians targeted pinball machines for promoting gambling. Early pinball machines were less skill-based (they didn’t have flippers), and some gave cash payouts, so the comparison wasn’t unfair. Famously, mob-hating New York City mayor Fiorello LaGuardia banned pinball in the city, and appeared in a newsreel dumping pinball and slot machines into the Long Island Sound. Pinball machines spent some time relegated to the back rooms of sex shops and dive bars. But after some lobbying, the laws relaxed.By the 1970s, pinball manufacturers were also making video games, and the machines were side-by-side in arcades. Arcade machines, like pinball, took small coin payments, repeatedly, for short rounds of play. The disreputable funk of pinball basically rubbed off onto video games.Ever since video games rocked onto the scene, concerned and sometimes uneducated parties have been asking if they’re dangerous. And in general, studies have shown that they’re not. The same can’t be said about gambling — the practice of putting real money down to bet on an outcome.It’s a golden age for gambling2025 in the USA is a great time for gambling, which has been really profitable for gambling companies — to the tune of $66.5 billion dollars of revenue in 2023.To put this number in perspective, the American Gaming Association, which is the casino industry’s trade group and has nothing to do with video games, reports that 2022’s gambling revenue was $60.5 billion. It went up $6 billion in a year.And this increase isn’t just because of sportsbooks, although sports betting is a huge part of it. Online casinos and brick-and-mortar casinos are both earning more, and as a lot of people have pointed out, gambling is being normalized to a pretty disturbing degree.Much like with alcohol, for a small percentage of people, gambling can tip from occasional leisure activity into addiction. The people who are most at risk are, by and large, already vulnerable: researchers at the Yale School of Medicine found that 96% of problem gamblers are also wrestling with other disorders, such as “substance use, impulse-control disorders, mood disorders, and anxiety disorders.”Even if you’re not in that group, there are still good reasons to be wary of gambling. People tend to underestimate their own vulnerability to things they know are dangerous for others. Someone else might bet beyond their means. But I would simply know when to stop.Maybe you do! But being blithely confident about it can make it hard to notice if you do develop a problem. Or if you already have one.Addiction changes the way your brain works. When you’re addicted to something, your participation in it becomes compulsive, at the expense of other interests and responsibilities. Someone might turn to their addiction to self-soothe when depressed or anxious. And speaking of those feelings, people who are depressed and anxious are already more vulnerable to addiction. Given the entire state of the world right now, this predisposition shines an ugly light on the numbers touted by the AGA. Is it good that the industry is reporting $6 billion in additional earnings, when the economy feels so frail, when the stock market is ping ponging through highs and lows daily, when daily expenses are rising? It doesn’t feel good. In 2024, the YouTuber Drew Gooden turned his critical eye to online gambling. One of the main points he makes in his excellent video is that gambling is more accessible than ever. It’s on all our phones, and betting companies are using decades of well-honed app design and behavioral studies to manipulate users to spend and spend.Meanwhile, advertising on podcasts, billboards, TV, radio, and websites – it’s literally everywhere — tells you that this is fun, and you don’t even need to know what you’re doing, and you’re probably one bet away from winning back those losses.Where does Luck Be a Landlord come into this?So, are there gambling themes in Luck Be A Landlord? The game’s slot machine is represented in simple pixel art. You pay one coin to use it, and among the more traditional slot machine symbols are silly ones like a snail that only pays out after 4 spins.When I started playing it, my primary emotion wasn’t necessarily elation at winning coins — it was stress and disbelief when, in the third round of the game, the landlord increased my rent by 100%. What the hell.I don’t doubt that getting better at it would produce dopamine thrills akin to gambling — or playing any video game. But it’s supposed to be difficult, because that’s the joke. If you beat the game you unlock more difficulty modes where, as you keep paying rent, your landlord gets furious, and starts throwing made-up rules at you: previously rare symbols will give you less of a payout, and the very mechanics of the slot machine change.It’s a manifestation of the golden rule of casinos, and all of capitalism writ large: the odds are stacked against you. The house always wins. There is luck involved, to be sure, but because Luck Be A Landlord is a deck-builder, knowing the different ways you can design your slot machine to maximize payouts is a skill! You have some influence over it, unlike a real slot machine. The synergies that I’ve seen high-level players create are completely nuts, and obviously based on a deep understanding of the strategies the game allows.IMAGE: TrampolineTales via PolygonBalatro and Luck Be a Landlord both distance themselves from casino gambling again in the way they treat money. In Landlord, the money you earn is gold coins, not any currency we recognize. And the payouts aren’t actually that big. By the end of the core game, the rent money you’re struggling and scraping to earn… is 777 coins. In the post-game endless mode, payouts can get massive. But the thing is, to get this far, you can’t rely on chance. You have to be very good at Luck Be a Landlord.And in Balatro, the numbers that get big are your points. The actual dollar payments in a round of Balatro are small. These aren’t games about earning wads and wads of cash. So, do these count as “gambling themes”?We’ll come back to that question later. First, I want to talk about a closer analog to what we colloquially consider gambling: loot boxes and gacha games.Random rewards: from Overwatch to the rise of gachaRecently, I did something that I haven’t done in a really long time: I thought about Overwatch. I used to play Overwatch with my friends, and I absolutely made a habit of dropping 20 bucks here or there for a bunch of seasonal loot boxes. This was never a problem behavior for me, but in hindsight, it does sting that over a couple of years, I dropped maybe $150 on cosmetics for a game that now I primarily associate with squandered potential.Loot boxes grew out of free-to-play mobile games, where they’re the primary method of monetization. In something like Overwatch, they functioned as a way to earn additional revenue in an ongoing game, once the player had already dropped 40 bucks to buy it.More often than not, loot boxes are a random selection of skins and other cosmetics, but games like Star Wars: Battlefront 2 were famously criticized for launching with loot crates that essentially made it pay-to-win – if you bought enough of them and got lucky.It’s not unprecedented to associate loot boxes with gambling. A 2021 study published in Addictive Behaviors showed that players who self-reported as problem gamblers also tended to spend more on loot boxes, and another study done in the UK found a similar correlation with young adults.While Overwatch certainly wasn’t the first game to feature cosmetic loot boxes or microtransactions, it’s a reference point for me, and it also got attention worldwide. In 2018, Overwatch was investigated by the Belgian Gaming Commission, which found it “in violation of gambling legislation” alongside FIFA 18 and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Belgium’s response was to ban the sale of loot boxes without a gambling license. Having a paid random rewards mechanic in a game is a criminal offense there. But not really. A 2023 study showed that 82% of iPhone games sold on the App Store in Belgium still use random paid monetization, as do around 80% of games that are rated 12+. The ban wasn’t effectively enforced, if at all, and the study recommends that a blanket ban wouldn’t actually be a practical solution anyway.Overwatch was rated T for Teen by the ESRB, and 12 by PEGI. When it first came out, its loot boxes were divisive. Since the mechanic came from F2P mobile games, which are often seen as predatory, people balked at seeing it in a big action game from a multi-million dollar publisher.At the time, the rebuttal was, “Well, at least it’s just cosmetics.” Nobody needs to buy loot boxes to be good at Overwatch.A lot has changed since 2016. Now we have a deeper understanding of how these mechanics are designed to manipulate players, even if they don’t affect gameplay. But also, they’ve been normalized. While there will always be people expressing disappointment when a AAA game has a paid random loot mechanic, it is no longer shocking.And if anything, these mechanics have only become more prevalent, thanks to the growth of gacha games. Gacha is short for “gachapon,” the Japanese capsule machines where you pay to receive one of a selection of random toys. Getty ImagesIn gacha games, players pay — not necessarily real money, but we’ll get to that — for a chance to get something. Maybe it’s a character, or a special weapon, or some gear — it depends on the game. Whatever it is, within that context, it’s desirable — and unlike the cosmetics of Overwatch, gacha pulls often do impact the gameplay.For example, in Infinity Nikki, you can pull for clothing items in these limited-time events. You have a chance to get pieces of a five-star outfit. But you also might pull one of a set of four-star items, or a permanent three-star piece. Of course, if you want all ten pieces of the five-star outfit, you have to do multiple pulls, each costing a handful of limited resources that you can earn in-game or purchase with money.Gacha was a fixture of mobile gaming for a long time, but in recent years, we’ve seen it go AAA, and global. MiHoYo’s Genshin Impact did a lot of that work when it came out worldwide on consoles and PC alongside its mobile release. Genshin and its successors are massive AAA games of a scale that, for your Nintendos and Ubisofts, would necessitate selling a bajillion copies to be a success. And they’re free.Genshin is an action game, whose playstyle changes depending on what character you’re playing — characters you get from gacha pulls, of course. In Zenless Zone Zero, the characters you can pull have different combo patterns, do different kinds of damage, and just feel different to play. And whereas in an early mobile gacha game like Love Nikki Dress UP! Queen the world was rudimentary, its modern descendant Infinity Nikki is, like Genshin, Breath of the Wild-esque. It is a massive open world, with collectibles and physics puzzles, platforming challenges, and a surprisingly involved storyline. Genshin Impact was the subject of an interesting study where researchers asked young adults in Hong Kong to self-report on their gacha spending habits. They found that, like with gambling, players who are not feeling good tend to spend more. “Young adult gacha gamers experiencing greater stress and anxiety tend to spend more on gacha purchases, have more motives for gacha purchases, and participate in more gambling activities,” they wrote. “This group is at a particularly higher risk of becoming problem gamblers.”One thing that is important to note is that Genshin Impact came out in 2020. The study was self-reported, and it was done during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was a time when people were experiencing a lot of stress, and also fewer options to relieve that stress. We were all stuck inside gaming.But the fact that stress can make people more likely to spend money on gacha shows that while the gacha model isn’t necessarily harmful to everyone, it is exploitative to everyone. Since I started writing this story, another self-reported study came out in Japan, where 18.8% of people in their 20s say they’ve spent money on gacha rather than on things like food or rent.Following Genshin Impact’s release, MiHoYo put out Honkai: Star Rail and Zenless Zone Zero. All are shiny, big-budget games that are free to play, but dangle the lure of making just one purchase in front of the player. Maybe you could drop five bucks on a handful of in-game currency to get one more pull. Or maybe just this month you’ll get the second tier of rewards on the game’s equivalent of a Battle Pass. The game is free, after all — but haven’t you enjoyed at least ten dollars’ worth of gameplay? Image: HoyoverseI spent most of my December throwing myself into Infinity Nikki. I had been so stressed, and the game was so soothing. I logged in daily to fulfill my daily wishes and earn my XP, diamonds, Threads of Purity, and bling. I accumulated massive amounts of resources. I haven’t spent money on the game. I’m trying not to, and so far, it’s been pretty easy. I’ve been super happy with how much stuff I can get for free, and how much I can do! I actually feel really good about that — which is what I said to my boyfriend, and he replied, “Yeah, that’s the point. That’s how they get you.”And he’s right. Currently, Infinity Nikki players are embroiled in a war with developer Infold, after Infold introduced yet another currency type with deep ties to Nikki’s gacha system. Every one of these gacha games has its own tangled system of overlapping currencies. Some can only be used on gacha pulls. Some can only be used to upgrade items. Many of them can be purchased with human money.Image: InFold Games/Papergames via PolygonAll of this adds up. According to Sensor Towers’ data, Genshin Impact earned over 36 million dollars on mobile alone in a single month of 2024. I don’t know what Dan DiIorio’s peak monthly revenue for Luck Be A Landlord was, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t that.A lot of the spending guardrails we see in games like these are actually the result of regulations in other territories, especially China, where gacha has been a big deal for a lot longer. For example, gacha games have a daily limit on loot boxes, with the number clearly displayed, and a system collectively called “pity,” where getting the banner item is guaranteed after a certain number of pulls. Lastly, developers have to be clear about what the odds are. When I log in to spend the Revelation Crystals I’ve spent weeks hoarding in my F2P Infinity Nikki experience, I know that I have a 1.5% chance of pulling a 5-star piece, and that the odds can go up to 6.06%, and that I am guaranteed to get one within 20 pulls, because of the pity system.So, these odds are awful. But it is not as merciless as sitting down at a Vegas slot machine, an experience best described as “oh… that’s it?”There’s not a huge philosophical difference between buying a pack of loot boxes in Overwatch, a pull in Genshin Impact, or even a booster of Pokémon cards. You put in money, you get back randomized stuff that may or may not be what you want. In the dictionary definition, it’s a gamble. But unlike the slot machine, it’s not like you’re trying to win money by doing it, unless you’re selling those Pokémon cards, which is a topic for another time.But since even a game where you don’t get anything, like Balatro or Luck Be A Landlord, can come under fire for promoting gambling to kids, it would seem appropriate for app stores and ratings boards to take a similarly hardline stance with gacha.Instead, all these games are rated T for Teen by the ESRB, and PEGI 12 in the EU.The ESRB ratings for these games note that they contain in-game purchases, including random items. Honkai: Star Rail’s rating specifically calls out a slot machine mechanic, where players spend tokens to win a prize. But other than calling out Honkai’s slot machine, app stores are not slapping Genshin or Nikki with an 18+ rating. Meanwhile, Balatro had a PEGI rating of 18 until a successful appeal in February 2025, and Luck Be a Landlord is still 17+ on Apple’s App Store.Nobody knows what they’re doingWhen I started researching this piece, I felt very strongly that it was absurd that Luck Be A Landlord and Balatro had age ratings this high.I still believe that the way both devs have been treated by ratings boards is bad. Threatening an indie dev with a significant loss of income by pulling their game is bad, not giving them a way to defend themself or help them understand why it’s happening is even worse. It’s an extension of the general way that too-big-to-fail companies like Google treat all their customers.DiIorio told me that while it felt like a human being had at least looked at Luck Be A Landlord to make the determination that it contained gambling themes, the emails he was getting were automatic, and he doesn’t have a contact at Google to ask why this happened or how he can avoid it in the future — an experience that will be familiar to anyone who has ever needed Google support. But what’s changed for me is that I’m not actually sure anymore that games that don’t have gambling should be completely let off the hook for evoking gambling.Exposing teens to simulated gambling without financial stakes could spark an interest in the real thing later on, according to a study in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. It’s the same reason you can’t mosey down to the drug store to buy candy cigarettes. Multiple studies were done that showed kids who ate candy cigarettes were more likely to take up smoking (of course, the candy is still available — just without the “cigarette” branding.)So while I still think rating something like Balatro 18+ is nuts, I also think that describing it appropriately might be reasonable. As a game, it’s completely divorced from literally any kind of play you would find in a casino — but I can see the concern that the thrill of flashy numbers and the shiny cards might encourage young players to try their hand at poker in a real casino, where a real house can take their money.Maybe what’s more important than doling out high age ratings is helping people think about how media can affect us. In the same way that, when I was 12 and obsessed with The Matrix, my parents gently made sure that I knew that none of the violence was real and you can’t actually cartwheel through a hail of bullets in real life. Thanks, mom and dad!But that’s an answer that’s a lot more abstract and difficult to implement than a big red 18+ banner. When it comes to gacha, I think we’re even less equipped to talk about these game mechanics, and I’m certain they’re not being age-rated appropriately. On the one hand, like I said earlier, gacha exploits the player’s desire for stuff that they are heavily manipulated to buy with real money. On the other hand, I think it’s worth acknowledging that there is a difference between gacha and casino gambling.Problem gamblers aren’t satisfied by winning — the thing they’re addicted to is playing, and the risk that comes with it. In gacha games, players do report satisfaction when they achieve the prize they set out to get. And yes, in the game’s next season, the developer will be dangling a shiny new prize in front of them with the goal of starting the cycle over. But I think it’s fair to make the distinction, while still being highly critical of the model.And right now, there is close to no incentive for app stores to crack down on gacha in any way. They get a cut of in-app purchases. Back in 2023, miHoYo tried a couple of times to set up payment systems that circumvented Apple’s 30% cut of in-app spending. Both times, it was thwarted by Apple, whose App Store generated $1.1 trillion in developer billings and sales in 2022.According to Apple itself, 90% of that money did not include any commission to Apple. Fortunately for Apple, ten percent of a trillion dollars is still one hundred billion dollars, which I would also like to have in my bank account. Apple has zero reason to curb spending on games that have been earning millions of dollars every month for years.And despite the popularity of Luck Be A Landlord and Balatro’s massive App Store success, these games will never be as lucrative. They’re one-time purchases, and they don’t have microtransactions. To add insult to injury, like most popular games, Luck Be A Landlord has a lot of clones. And from what I can tell, it doesn’t look like any of them have been made to indicate that their games contain the dreaded “gambling themes” that Google was so worried about in Landlord.In particular, a game called SpinCraft: Roguelike from Sneaky Panda Games raised $6 million in seed funding for “inventing the Luck-Puzzler genre,” which it introduced in 2022, while Luck Be A Landlord went into early access in 2021.It’s free-to-play, has ads and in-app purchases, looks like Fisher Price made a slot machine, and it’s rated E for everyone, with no mention of gambling imagery in its rating. I reached out to the developers to ask if they had also been contacted by the Play Store to disclose that their game has gambling themes, but I haven’t heard back.Borrowing mechanics in games is as old as time, and it’s something I in no way want to imply shouldn’t happen because copyright is the killer of invention — but I think we can all agree that the system is broken.There is no consistency in how games with random chance are treated. We still do not know how to talk about gambling, or gambling themes, and at the end of the day, the results of this are the same: the house always wins.See More:

A New Museum Dedicated to Frida Kahlo’s Early Years and Family Life Is Coming to Mexico City The Museo Casa Kahlo will be located beside the popular Museo Frida Kahlo. It will display letters, artworks and mementos that shed light on the Mexican artist’s childhood Frida Kahlo in 1944 Bettmann via Getty Images A new museum dedicated to the early life of the Mexican painter Frida Kahlo is opening in Mexico City. Located in the city’s historic Coyoacán district, the Museo Casa Kahlo will tell the Mexican painter’s story through letters, toys, artworks and other personal items. “This museum isn’t just about her work—it’s about her world,” Frida Hentschel Romeo, Kahlo’s great-grand-niece, tells Vogue’s Chloe Schama. “It’s about how the people closest to her shaped who she became. And it’s also about the living family—those of us who carry her legacy forward.” The museum will occupy a building known as Casa Roja, a home belonging to the Kahlo family. It’s next door to the already famous Casa Azul, the family home built by Kahlo’s father in 1904. The Museo Frida Kahlo, which occupies Casa Azul, has been open since 1958. Andrew Hasson / Getty Images Born in 1907, Kahlo grew up in Casa Azul and later shared it with her husband, fellow artist Diego Rivera. She purchased the neighboring red house (also owned by her parents) for her sister Cristina’s family. Four years after Kahlo’s death in 1954, Casa Azul was converted into the popular Museo Frida Kahlo, which displays art and objects from Kahlo’s adult life alongside rotating exhibitions. Casa Roja has remained in the Kahlo family, passed down by Cristina’s descendants. “Cristina was by her side through so much,” Hentschel Romeo tells Vogue. “Traveling with her to New York for her first major exhibition, supporting her through surgeries and recovery.” Frida Kahlo photographed by her father in 1932 Public domain via Wikimedia Commons Pain was a constant throughout Kahlo’s life. After sustaining serious injuries from a bus accident at 18, she endured chronic symptoms for the rest of her life. Despite these challenges, Kahlo thrived as an artist, garnering international acclaim for her vibrant, wrenching self-portraits. Some of Kahlo’s most famous paintings are painful depictions of women’s suffering, her own injuries and her turbulent marriage to Rivera, who had countless affairs (including one with Cristina). Casa Roja was eventually passed down to Cristina’s granddaughter, Mara Romeo Kahlo, who is Kahlo’s closest living relative, reports the New York Times’ Robin Pogrebin. Romeo Kahlo volunteered the red house to host the new Museo Casa Kahlo, which will open in late September. Its development is being overseen by Fundación Kahlo, a nonprofit recently established by the Kahlo family, which aims to “preserve Frida’s legacy and promote Mexican, Indigenous and Latin American art and culture on a global scale,” according to its website. “For the first time, the voice of the family will be at the heart of how Frida’s story is told,” Hentschel Romeo tells Vogue. As Romeo Kahlo explains to the Times, “The family was very important for Frida because it was her support.” While Casa Azul focuses on Kahlo’s adult life, the new museum will focus on her early development. Visitors will examine never-before-seen personal artifacts, such as childhood photographs, dolls, letters, jewelry, clothes and a piece of embroidery Kahlo sewed when she was 5. Other highlights include the artist’s only known mural and her first oil painting.Hentschel Romeo tells Vogue that Kahlo showed this painting to her husband, asking him to judge whether she had the talent to be a painter. “It is incredibly moving to see up close,” she adds. “This is a dream long held by our family,” Romeo Kahlo says in a statement. “Frida’s legacy belongs to the world, but it begins here—on this land, in these homes and in the culture that shaped her. Museo Casa Kahlo will allow us to tell new stories, share family secrets, host new voices and build a future that honors her spirit.” Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

The HD-2D remakes of Dragon Quest I & II will be coming to PlayStation 5 on October 30, 2025. Experience the conclusion of the Erdrick trilogy in breathtaking HD-2D which seamlessly blends 3D graphics and pixel art. Dragon Quest I & II Dragon Quest I & II, which take place after Dragon Quest III, will be released in one package, allowing players to fully experience the adventures of the scions of Erdrick. Dragon Quest I Thanks to the heroic efforts of the legendary Erdrick, the Lord of the Underworld was defeated and peace returned to the land of Alefgard. Yet this peace was not to last, as the diabolical Dragonlord rose up and unleashed horde upon horde of monsters on the realm once more. Now it falls to you, Erdrick’s descendant, to lay the fiend low and rescue the world from its plight! The original game exclusively pitted the player against singular foes, however, the remake features battles against multiple enemies. Dragon Quest II Many years have passed since Alefgard was saved at the hero’s hand, earning him the same title as his storied forebear. The descendants of this Erdrick and his scions founded three kingdoms that thrived in peacetime. Yet, darkness stirs once more and a sudden invasion of malicious monsters plunges the world into shadow again. All that stands between the forces of evil and their wicked ambitions is a band of young princes and princesses of Erdrick’s lineage. The time has come for them to venture forth and honor their ancestor’s legacy. In addition to updated HD-2D graphics, both games feature new stories, new areas, and numerous other improvements and updates. What is the Erdrick trilogy? Dragon Quest, Dragon Quest II: Luminaries of the Legendary Line and Dragon Quest III: The Seeds of Salvation—the first three games in this long-running series—are connected both in their stories and the worlds in which they take place. They have come to be known collectively as “The Erdrick Trilogy”— Erdrick being the name passed down to each new incarnation of the legendary hero. Playing the HD-2D versions of Dragon Quest I & II after Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake will allow players to enjoy the connections between these three titles. A world remade in HD-2D HD-2D is a graphical style developed by Square Enix Co., LTD.’s Team Asano that combines pixel art and 3D graphics. The advanced visual effects used alongside this combination of two-dimensional and three-dimensional styles creates a blend that is both new and nostalgic. Pre-orders are open for Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake, which goes on sale October 30, 2025.

Last Surviving Grandson of President John Tyler, Who Took Office in 1841, Dies at 96 When Harrison Ruffin Tyler’s grandfather was born 235 years ago in 1790, George Washington had just become the nation’s first president John Tyler was 63 when his 13th child was born in 1853. That child, Lyon Gardiner Tyler Sr., was 75 when Harrison Ruffin Tyler was born in 1928. Heritage Art / Heritage Images via Getty Images Harrison Ruffin Tyler, grandson of the tenth American president John Tyler, died on May 25 at age 96. Though the cause of death has not been revealed, his health had deteriorated in recent years. He had been diagnosed with dementia and suffered several small strokes starting in 2012, reports the New York Times’ Robert D. McFadden. He died at his home in a retirement community in Richmond, Virginia, according to the Washington Post’s Andrew Jeong and Brian Murphy. After the death of his brother, Lyon Gardiner Tyler Jr., in September 2020, Harrison Ruffin Tyler was the last surviving grandson of John Tyler, who was born in 1790 and led the nation between 1841 and 1845. But how could someone born in 1790 still have—until very recently—living grandchildren? Even the president’s grandson acknowledged that the time frame was difficult to comprehend. “When you talk about my grandfather born in the 1700s, there is a disconnect there,” he told WTVR’s Scott Wise and Greg McQuade in 2012. The unusual timeline was the result of second marriages and late-in-life fatherhood for the former president and, later, one of his sons. John Tyler was 63 when his 13th child, Lyon Gardiner Tyler Sr., was born in 1853. Then, Lyon Gardiner Tyler Sr. was 75 when Harrison Ruffin Tyler was born in 1928. “Both my grandfather—the president—and my father were married twice,” he told New York magazine’s Dan Amira in 2012. “And they had children by their first wives. And their first wives died, and they married again and had more children.” With so many relatives to keep track of, he added, “it does get very confusing.” “When I was a child, I did know most of the descendants, but as you get more generations down the line, it’s hard to keep track of everybody,” he said.John Tyler was born just after George Washington became the fledgling nation’s first president. He pursued a career in politics, serving as Virginia’s governor, as well as a United States representative and senator. He became America’s vice president when William Henry Harrison was elected president in 1840. When Harrison died of pneumonia a month into his term, John Tyler became the first vice president to succeed a president who died in office. His ascension was controversial, with some federal lawmakers questioning the legitimacy of his claims to the presidency. Some detractors even took to calling him “His Accidency.” The issue was not officially settled until 1967, with the ratification of the 25th Amendment. As president, one of John Tyler’s biggest accomplishments was pursuing the annexation of Texas, which officially joined the Union in 1845 under President James K. Polk. After his stint in the White House, he retired to his plantation on Virginia’s James River. During the Civil War, he was elected to the Confederate legislature, but he died in 1862 before he could take office. During his lifetime, he had a record-setting 15 children—the most of any U.S. president. He was married twice: first to Letitia Christian, who became the first president’s wife to die in the White House in 1842, followed by Julia Gardiner, who also served as First Lady. Their fifth child was Lyon Gardiner Tyler Sr., who later fathered Harrison Ruffin Tyler. Born in 1928, Harrison Ruffin Tyler studied chemistry at the College of William & Mary and chemical engineering at Virginia Tech before founding a water treatment company called ChemTreat. He and his wife, Frances Payne Bouknight, who died in 2019, also spent many years restoring the family’s ancestral home, Sherwood Forest Plantation. The 1,600-acre property, built around 1730 and purchased by his grandfather during his presidency, is a National Historic Landmark. The couple also worked to preserve a nearby Union supply depot called Fort Pocahontas that had been constructed by a regiment of Black soldiers during the Civil War. They had three children together: Harrison Ruffin Tyler Jr., William Bouknight Tyler and Julia Gardiner Tyler Samaniego. Harrison Ruffin Tyler “will be missed immeasurably by those who survive him,” Annique Dunning, the executive director of Sherwood Forest, said in a statement, as reported by the Associated Press. “He will be remembered for his considerable charm, generosity and unfailing good humor by all who knew him.” Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

You can trust VideoGamer. Our team of gaming experts spend hours testing and reviewing the latest games, to ensure you're reading the most comprehensive guide possible. Rest assured, all imagery and advice is unique and original. Check out how we test and review games here Update 1.2.18 was huge for The First Descendant. It added the fanbase’s favourite new feature, jiggle physics, and it also added a new party finder system for public matchmaking. Because of it being newly introduced, Nexon have been “inspecting abusive gaming behavior” from between May 23rd to May 29th. The results of this crackdown on the TFD community have been revealed, and over 2,000 The First Descendant players have received penalties while over 50 players have received permanent bans. The First Descendant “Crackdown on Abusive Users” results Below are the results of Nexon’s “Crackdown on Abusive Users” following the release of the new public matchmaking system added on May 22nd. The results of this crackdown are from between May 23rd to the 29th: Creation, distribution, or use of unauthorized programs – Permanent game ban (36 users) Actions have been taken for creating, distributing, or using unauthorized programs Exploitation of all processes related to the Open Store – Permanent game ban (18 users) Actions were taken because of unfair gains by exploitation on store payment process. Detection of Unusual Gameplay Activity – **30-day restriction on game access (5 users) Unusual gameplay activity was detected, and actions have been taken in accordance with our operational policy. 3-day separate matchmaking penalty (2205 users) Notes The outcome of the crackdown on abusive users includes enforcement actions taken based on Descendant’s reports and monitoring. If you would like to vindicate yourself in relation to a claim on the exploitation of the Open Store’s payment process, please visit our official website > Customer Service > 1:1 Support and make your inquiry. If you would like to vindicate yourself in relation to a claim on the exploitation of the payment process through chargebacks, please contact the platform store where you made the payment. For more The First Descendant, we have a guide to the best skills and loadout for Viessa, along with the best skills, gear, and mods for the hugely popular Bunny. We also have a guide for Freyna along with fundamental tips for beginners. The First Descendant Platform(s): PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X Genre(s): Action, Adventure, RPG 5 VideoGamer Subscribe to our newsletters! By subscribing, you agree to our Privacy Policy and may receive occasional deal communications; you can unsubscribe anytime. Share

More upgraded blue slimes are on the way: Square Enix just announced that remakes of Dragon Quest 1 and its sequel are launching on October 3oth. The two games will be bundled together under the name Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake and will be available on the PS5, Xbox, PC, and both the Nintendo Switch and Switch 2. This is good news if you’re a fan of the series, given that the remake of DQIII turned out excellent, marrying the classic RPG gameplay with incredible visuals and sound, along with some welcome quality-of-life tweaks. For the new remakes, Square Enix says that “in addition to beautiful HD-2D graphics, a refined battle system, numerous quality-of-life updates, and major story additions, both remakes will feature a variety of new content.” As for what that new content is, details “will be revealed at a later date.” And if you’re wondering why this remake series kicked off with the third entry in the franchise, it’s because that’s how the storylines play out chronologically. DQIII is set years before its predecessors, and in DQI and II players take control of the descendants of the hero from the third game. It’s a little complicated, but in October newcomers will finally be able to complete the story. To that end, Square Enix will also be launching a digital-only collection with all three games, called Dragon Quest HD-2D Erdrick Trilogy Collection. It’ll be available for $99.99.

If you've ever wondered where loofahs come from, take a trip with us.   Image: Penpak Ngamsathain / Getty Images Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. If you’ve spent most of your life under the impression that loofahs are some type of sea sponge and that these scratchy natural scrubbers are the last thing you’d want to use on your body on a daily basis, you’re not alone. But in fact, the Luffa Aegyptiaca (often known as loofah in the U.S.) is the taxonomic name of a species of gourd that grows on land, and it’s a genetic descendant of the wild cucumber. What’s more, if it’s locally grown with minimal processing, it’s plenty soft enough for not just your skin, but plenty of other applications, too. What is a luffa? In the States, you’d be excused for not being familiar with this unique plant, as luffa is far more popular in Asia and tropical regions. In fact, very few farmers grow the plant commercially for the American market—there are just two farms in the country and, according to Brooklynn Gamble, farm supervisor at The Luffa Farm in Nipomo, California, both are located in the West Coast state. But the plant isn’t endemic to countries this far north, so cultivating it requires lots of care and attention. Luffa plants growing on vines at The Luffa Farm. Image: Courtesy of The Luffa Farm Fortunately, luffa farmer Deanne Coon was willing to offer both, which is how The Luffa Farm was born in 2000 after growing the plant as part of a friend’s biology class experiment and then spending nearly two decades experimenting. Thanks to Nipomo’s location in a decidedly non-tropical climate, Coon had to account for things like cooler seasons (she grows in greenhouses), coastal winds (also greenhouses) and gophers (she grows plants in pots instead of directly in the ground).  Now semi-retired, she and a team run the small farm peppered with avocado and citrus trees and decorated with quirky custom yard art. They also offer tours during open hours so visitors can learn a little something about luffa. Guests saunter through a steamy greenhouse where long green gourds that resemble zucchini hang from trellises in impressive quantities. They learn that while some Asian cultures raise smaller varieties that are green, tender, and edible when young, it’s not popular as a culinary ingredient in the U.S. And when they inquire about why crispy brown gourds are still hanging on the vine, they learn that luffa isn’t harvested until well after you think it’s dead. “When it’s completely brown and dry we cut it off the vine,” Gamble explains. Only then, and after it is peeled, will it finally be recognizable as the fibrous exfoliating sponge many know and love. In areas of Asia, the luffa fruit is used in culinary dishes. Image: Courtesy of The Luffa Farm It’s what’s on the inside that matters Getting to that point, however, takes time and unique biological functions that aren’t visible to the naked eye. It takes six to nine months after planting luffa seeds for them to be ready to harvest, Gamble explains (longer in winter, shorter in summer). It takes three to four months just for slim green baby gourds to start sprouting from reaching vines and the male flowers, which are necessary for pollination, to bloom.  Once that happens and pollination is complete, the squash are technically edible and ripe for picking. The inner fruit tends to be slimy like okra, so it’s a bit of an acquired taste. However, there are certainly recipes from around the world that incorporate this nutritional veggie. But The Luffa Farm isn’t in the business of unpopular produce, so the fruit is left on the vine where it can grow as large and heavy as the trellised vines can handle, Gamble continues. As that happens, the interior plant fibers act as the veins that feed water and nutrients to the seeds, the care of which is the plant’s number one directive. Those veins get thicker and denser to nourish the seeds as the gourd grows. When the gourd gets too big—about the size of an oversized zucchini—the vine, which can grow 30 to 40 feet in any direction, cuts off the water supply to the whole fruit in order to redistribute resources to other plants on the vine that are still growing. “As the vine sucks the water out and recycles it, [the gourd] dries up,” Gamble describes. When that happens, instead of rotting like most other produce, the luffa turns from deep green to yellow to brown and hard. When that happens, the gourd feels light as air because all the liquid and vegetable matter has dried up, leaving only a fibrous network of cellulose inside the now-hard, shell-like skin. That’s when it’s time to harvest. The skin is cracked open and the seeds, which can be replanted, are shaken out. Harvesters soak the whole gourd in water for five minutes, which rehydrates the thin layer of vegetable residue on the underside and then “the skin so it slides right off,” Gamble says. What’s left over is an airy, light, sponge-like spidery network of plant fibers that make an excellent natural multi-purpose sponge that’s pliable when dry and even softer when wet. That’s what makes it such an attractive option among skincare enthusiasts. Not all luffa are created equal If that doesn’t sound at all like the rigid, compressed luffa you see for sale at your local health food store, you’re not wrong. Most luffa are imported, and since they’re a plant, they must be treated beforehand to ensure they won’t transport bugs, disease, or other agricultural blights, Gamble explains.  “Those heat treatments in particular are what damage the fibers,” she states. It shrinks the otherwise light and loose cellulose structures and makes the luffa hard, compact, and less pliable. Compromising the structure also makes them more prone to bacterial growth, because they don’t dry out as easily or completely between uses. Luffas grown and sold at The Luffa Farm. Image: Courtesy of The Luffa Farm Luffa grown in the U.S., like the ones from The Luffa Farm, don’t have to be treated with anything since they’re not imported from overseas. They just get a quick rinse before they’re sold. As a result, they’re softer, more pleasant on skin, more versatile, and longer lasting. One might last up to a year of regular use. Plus, because they’re highly porous, “they don’t create the same breeding ground for bacteria,” Gamble offers. A plant with unlimited uses But exfoliating isn’t all these plants are good for. On the contrary, Gamble says there are many uses for luffa. Softer varieties can be used as a facial sponge in place of a washcloth. They can even be tossed in the washer for a deep clean, though you should avoid putting them in the dryer. They make excellent dish sponges and pot scrubbers. Gamble uses one on her stainless steel stove.  A wet luffa makes quick work of washing your car, too, especially when it comes to scrubbing bugs off your grill, Gamble recommends. The fibers won’t even scratch the finish. They’ve even been used as insulation in mud brick houses and as industrial filters and may have inspired a sunlight-powered porous hydrogel that could potentially purify water. The best part: untreated luffa sponges are compostable, making them an eco-friendly alternative to synthetic sponges. “They are so unique as a plant,” Gamble says, a truly multifunctional and sustainable natural product whose uses go far beyond bath time exfoliation. And yes, it’s one that grows on land, not underwater.

New Research Scientists Use DNA to Trace Early Humans’ Footsteps From Asia to South America Over thousands of years, humans from Eurasia trekked more than 12,400 miles to eventually reach the southernmost tip of South America, a new genetic investigation suggests Researchers have used genomic sequencing to trace what they’re calling the “longest migration out of Africa.” Nanyang Technological University Tens of thousands of years ago, Homo sapiens embarked on a major migration out of Africa and began settling around the world. But exactly how, when and where humans expanded has long been a source of debate. Now, researchers have used genomic sequencing to trace what they’re calling the “longest migration out of Africa.” Over the course of many generations and thousands of years, humans from Eurasia trekked more than 12,400 miles to eventually reach the southernmost tip of South America, according to a new paper published in the journal Science. In addition to providing insight into human expansion throughout the Americas, the analysis also sheds new light on health differences between populations. In the future, the researchers hope their work will contribute to personalized medical care based on an individual’s genetic profile. “[It is] only after we know the entire genetic makeup of humanity that we can provide precision medicine that is specific to the needs of every ethnic group, in particular, those that have become endangered and are on the brink of going extinct,” co-author Stephan Schuster, a genomicist at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, tells the Straits Times’ Judith Tan. #NTUsg researchers: Early Asians made the longest human migration in prehistory Watch on For the study, an international team of scientists analyzed the genomes of 1,537 individuals from 139 ethnic groups in South America and Northeast Eurasia. Comparing this DNA allowed them to reconstruct the human migration from Asia to South America, following the “genetic footprints left behind by the early settlers,” as lead author Elena Gusareva, a biologist at Nanyang Technological University, tells Cosmos magazine’s Evrim Yazgin. Modern humans arrived in northern Eurasia around 45,000 years ago. By roughly 31,600 years ago, they had migrated east toward Beringia, the land bridge connecting Asia and North America in what is now the Bering Strait. From there, they walked into present-day Alaska. They expanded across North America and eventually headed into South America, reaching the continent’s northwest tip around 14,000 years ago. “Our findings show that Native Americans are descendants of Asian populations, particularly from the West Beringian region,” says study co-author Kim Hie Lim, a genomicist at Nanyang Technological University, to the South China Morning Post’s Victoria Bela. This South American group then split into four genetic lineages, the researchers found. One population headed east toward the Dry Chaco region, while another went south to Patagonia. One climbed up into the Andes Mountains, while another remained in the Amazon basin. Once the groups split off, they became isolated by the continent’s geography, which reduced their genetic diversity. More specifically, the researchers found a reduced diversity of human leukocyte antigen (HLA) genes, which help support immune health. Reduced genetic diversity may have made these early South Americans more susceptible to diseases introduced by European colonists, the researchers posit. “Understanding how ancient populations moved and settled not only helps us understand human history, but also explains how their immune systems adapted to different environments,” Kim tells the Borneo Bulletin. Data used in the study came from GenomeAsia 100K, a large-scale project that aims to sequence 100,000 Asian human genomes. “Most existing medicines were developed based on studies of European populations, often excluding Indigenous populations,” Kim tells Live Science’s Kristina Killgrove. “It is critical to provide tailored healthcare and disease prevention strategies that consider their specific genetic profiles.” Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

Following the 2022 Unity for Humanity Summit, we’re looking for social impact creators who are using real-time 3D to make the world a better place. Is that you? If your answer is yes, or even maybe, Unity is awarding funding, technical support, and mentorship to help bring changemaking projects to life in 2023.To help you make the most of this opportunity, we’ve put together a few tips to guide you through the application process. Not sure if you need the support? We also spoke with three past grantees about their experience and how the support has helped them realize their creative vision.1. Lead with your passion.Are you dedicated to making the world a better place? That’s exactly what our judges will be looking for, so try to get that across in your application.2. Keep a record of all of your answers.To avoid potentially losing your hard work, write your submission text in a separate document before entering it into the Typeform application.3. Read the application criteria and questions carefully.There are no trick questions – we’re transparent about the projects that are eligible and the judging criteria we’ll be using, so make sure your application includes all the required information to improve your chance of being selected.For more guidance, watch our session on grant application tips from the 2021 Unity for Humanity Summit.To make sure all applicants have as much information and context as possible, we make our judging criteria clear. All projects must be impact-driven – meaning that they have measurable impact goals and/or calls to action – and encompass social, healthcare, education, humanitarian, and/or environmental issues. Projects must also align with at least one of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals.When reviewing grant applications, we consider inclusion, impact, viability, and vision:Inclusion – Inclusive storytelling is at the heart of the Unity for Humanity program. Does your project reflect a diversity of experiences and backgrounds? Does it have a natural connection to the community and audience being represented or served through the work? Does your application demonstrate that you are thinking about future audiences and distribution of the work in an inclusive way?Vision – Is there a strong motivation for creating the work? Does your project express a unique perspective? Does it reflect a strong sense of compassion for humanity?Impact – Does your project have measurable impact goals and calls to action? Is your project aligned with at least one of the UN Sustainable Development Goals?Viability – Does your team have a realistic plan of execution for the production and distribution of the project so that it can achieve the greatest impact? Is it realistic in scope?For more detailed information on applying, read our Unity for Humanity FAQ. If your project’s timeline doesn’t align with this year’s application period, you can pre-register for next year’s grant to receive inspiration, tips, and grant news.We spoke with three past Unity for Humanity grantees to learn about the impact receiving the grant has had on the development of their project.Love Death Design, creators of Gone to Water / Ido al Agua, an immersive documentary that brings first-hand accounts of environmental injustice in Los Angeles, Tongva Land, into a virtual space of protest.AnythingEverything, creators of Powers of X, an immersive film exploring our planet’s environmental fragility relative to the effects of global consumption and man-made climate breakdown.Presencias, creators of Origen, a series of virtual, digital and real-world experiences that reveal ancestral stories through nature.Q: What inspired you to create a social impact project?Love Death Design, creators of Gone to Water / Ido al Agua – New media can be leveraged as a profoundly impactful mode of storytelling: we can protest in virtual spaces, we can employ new technologies to demand sustainable future architectures.“New media can be leveraged as a profoundly impactful mode of storytelling.” – Love Death Design, creators of Gone to Water / Ido al Agua“Gone to Water” is a term that describes the process by which an oil well becomes unproductive and therefore unprofitable, eventually filling with water. We chose to apply for UFH support to create this immersive documentary on urban oil extraction and its community health impacts on Tongva Land – in South Los Angeles because for those most affected by environmental racism, it is a matter of survival. Los Angeles is considered a microcosm of the world for its rich cultural contributions but it is also a snapshot of environmental injustices faced by BIPOC and low-income communities throughout the world.AnythingEverything, creators of Powers of X – We are incredibly excited about using emerging technologies like XR to enable new formats for storytelling and create positive change, particularly when it comes to education about the climate crisis. With Powers Of X, we saw a powerful opportunity to harness VR and AR's unique ability to convey scale in order to reveal the impact we each have on the planet in a much more tangible way.Presencias, creators of Origen – Having been in contact with stories, memories of this land’s origin, led us to think that collaborating with storytellers from the various territories (the Amazon, the Andes and northwestern Argentina) to jointly create an experience in first person, interwoven by meaningful interactions, could result In a significant project capable of touching many hearts.“The project has driven an initiative to replant 20 different species in the mid-Ucayali region of the Amazon Rainforest.” – Presencias, creators of OrigenSomething incredible happened from the production phase of Origen, thanks to the collaborative networks it has woven, the project has driven an initiative to replant 20 different species in the mid-Ucayali region of the Amazon Rainforest. We understood that a project with these characteristics transcends what it can generate in the public once released. It is since its construction, through its dialogue with reality, that starts to generate an impact on multiple levels.Q: How did you come up with the idea for your project?Presencias, creators of Origen – The story of this project began more than ten years ago thanks to the bond with an incredible Mapuche descendant woman, Celeste, a great friend I’ve known since I was 19 (she’s also a script supervisor in the VR experience). Since then, in successive trips that I’ve made in Latin America, Celeste asked me to take presents of great symbolic value to her friends, guardians of other territories. It was revolutionary for me to be in contact with these women, their stories and this powerful network. Eventually these experiences became the opportunity to collectively create Origen.Q: What impact has the Unity for Humanity Grant had on your project?Love Death Design, creators of Gone to Water / Ido al Agua – Support from the Unity for Humanity Grant enabled our small creative design studio to produce a large scale project, collaborating with a wide spectrum of community members, activists and artists across South Los Angeles – Tongva Land. We were able to afford hardware to create the work, time and space to produce it, and the ability to compensate all our contributors – as well as offer free community workshops. As this is a pilot project for our artist-led studio, Love Death Design, having the support to realize the work in scope with our vision has been impactful and has greatly lifted our presence as under-represented artists and voices in the XR community.We are so grateful to have the support to co-create this work with community members, activists, and artists on the frontlines of environmental injustice and hope that this piece provokes those who experience it to consider their privilege and position, and join us in demanding the end of neighborhood drilling.“UFH was instrumental in helping us get our project off the ground and taking our concept from abstract idea to a tangible prototype.” – AnythingEverything, creators of Powers of XAnythingEverything, creators of Powers of X – We have used the UFH funding in order to conduct research around the subject matter, refine the conceptual experience, and most importantly to develop a functioning prototype which demonstrates the format and can be used in order to raise follow-on funding for the full production. We have successfully completed the prototype and we could not have done it if it wasn't for the help, resources, and support we received from Unity For Humanity.Presencias, creators of Origen – For the development of the experience and to implement the first steps of the replanting initiative that emerged as a result of the process of creating the firsts chapters of Origen.Receiving the grant was what made possible for this first chapter of Origen to come off paper and become a reality. It also gave us the freedom to create with so much autonomy, it allowed us to delve into the artisanal and interdisciplinary part of the project, which was crucial to respect its identity.The premiere of the first chapter, “The Journey to the Heart of the Amazon Rainforest,” is approaching and we are starting the pre-production of chapter two – “The Journey to the Andes” – which keeps us working and very excited for what is to come.The Unity for Humanity 2023 Grant is open for applications until 11:59 pm PT on December 9, 2022. Join our Social Impact creator Discord to speak to the Unity for Humanity team, ask questions, and meet other creators. Apply for the grant today.