Heterotopias is a new digital zine focusing on the spaces and architecture of virtual worlds. Not an empty ode to the fidelity of digital realities, but a critical dissection of spaces of play, exploration, violence and ideology, Heterotopias aims to develop new ways of understanding games as cultural objects.

Issue 001 discusses the worlds and architecture of four games, from the darkly poetic laboratories of Playdead's Inside to the cultural fantasy of Tomb Raider's buried chambers.

Its central feature looks back at Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days' singular vision of Shanghai, with a visual exploration that uses 35mm film photography to try to capture both its urban language and the distorted, camera-eye the player experiences it through. A conversation with the game's Art Director, Rasmus Poulsen provides new insight into the process of making the game and an understanding of how the game captures a Shanghai that no longer exists.

001 also features guest writing from Darran Anderson, author of Imaginary Cities and acclaimed writer on culture, technology and politics through urbanism, as well as Chris Priestman, who runs curation website Warp Door, and writes regularly for The Guardian, Edge, and Gamasutra.