About the desk
SnowyBanffTrail is a small, independent games desk. We started it because we wanted a place to write about games the way we actually talk about them — specific, opinionated, occasionally wrong, never bought.
Who we are
Four people, four sets of taste, one shared allergy to press-release prose. We cover reviews, guides, news and opinion, and we argue about scores in a group chat you are lucky not to be in.
Plays everything to completion at least twice and keeps notes in a spreadsheet she will not show you. Patient with slow openings, ruthless about wasted endings.
Will read your factory blueprints for fun. Reviews the spreadsheet under the game and means that as praise. Owns three keyboards, regrets none of them.
Here for the small, warm, slightly sad ones. Believes a good farming loop is a legitimate art form and that you do not have to finish everything.
Writes the news short because you are busy. Allergic to hype, fond of patch notes, suspicious of any release date with the word "soon" in it.
Review policy
This is the part that matters, so we’ll be plain about it:
- No paid reviews, ever. Nobody pays for coverage, a score, or a place on the page. If that ever changes, this line goes first.
- Review code is just access, not a deal. We accept review copies to play games before release. A free copy buys you nothing but our time.
- We score what we played. If we didn’t finish it, we say so. If a patch changes our mind, we update the piece and date the change.
- Conflicts get disclosed. If a writer knows someone who made the game, you’ll see a note saying so.
That’s the whole deal. If we ever fall short of it, tell us — the contact page goes straight to the editors.