Indie Devs vs New Games Journalism [Feedback Loop]

The last year has seen the rise of the independent developer as hero. Does this growing consideration of the developer challenge an eight-year-running trend in game journalism?

The explosion of commercially accessible independent games on platforms like Steam or XBLA have introduced us to a new successful and far more accessible generation of game developers. These new indie game dev stars have induced a change in the approach of some game reviewers. A change brought to the forefront in Walter Garrett Mitchell’s piece on The Escapist, “Alfred Hitchcock Would Make Good Games.”

Mitchell’s focus on the developer is entirely unlike the experience-focused New Games Journalism style proposed in 2004 by Kieron Gillen. That experiential style has more recently been popularized by Zero Punctuation, the rest of The Escapist, @Play, and a variety of other reviews that approached games based on how they played, instead of how people created them.

Thomas was Alone Leads Indies Up and to the Right

The titular character in Thomas was Alone is a medium sized block — a veritable “every square” of pixelated protagonists.  Clad in a sporty red chassis and the ability to jump a respectable distance, he begins as a newly awakened

Interview With Christine Love

I had the pleasure of sitting down with the mind behind the acclaimed Digital: A Love Story and the controversial spiritual successor, don’t take it personally, babe, it just ain’t your story, Christine Love the other day. What follows is the