Yes, I know it's April, and I assure you this is the final "New Year in Games" post. This was meant to be the 'new years resolution' subject for this series, which was to have originally concluded in January. In truth I may have never even got around to it, had it not been for this week's episode of Co-Op (the totally awesome internet show about games by gamers that anyone who likes gaming as a whole should check out).
In short, over the years, I've made a habit out of ignoring indy game development. Which is odd given that whatever I'm into at a given time, I'm usually at least paying attention to independent artisans. In high school and college it was music, film, and comics. Post-marriage it's restaurants; truly, independent restaurants make up at least 90% of our dining out. But, for some reason I've always been carelessly ignorant of independent game design. Two of my favorite games published in 2008 were games from independent developers (Braid and World of Goo, for those wondering). This has finally made me sit up and take note.
Independent developers are a real treasure. Completely unhampered by the demands of bean counters and publishing house executives who crave another COD or Gears clone, talented game designers are creating new ways to play in the electronic medium. In recent years, online distribution channels for the sale of digital downloads has afforded these free-thinkers the ability to expose their work to us all, and not starve. I'm paying attention now, and if you care about games, you should to.
Check out the newest episode of Co-op, below. Some choice links do follow.
Tag: The Power of Paint - developed as a student project at Digi-pen
Cortex Command - not done yet, but buy now and you are entitled to all future updates
Zeit2 - Definitely a game I want to see make it to XBLA
Fez - not featured on this episode, but the creator is featured on this episode throughout.
TIGSource - independent gaming news
In short, over the years, I've made a habit out of ignoring indy game development. Which is odd given that whatever I'm into at a given time, I'm usually at least paying attention to independent artisans. In high school and college it was music, film, and comics. Post-marriage it's restaurants; truly, independent restaurants make up at least 90% of our dining out. But, for some reason I've always been carelessly ignorant of independent game design. Two of my favorite games published in 2008 were games from independent developers (Braid and World of Goo, for those wondering). This has finally made me sit up and take note.
Independent developers are a real treasure. Completely unhampered by the demands of bean counters and publishing house executives who crave another COD or Gears clone, talented game designers are creating new ways to play in the electronic medium. In recent years, online distribution channels for the sale of digital downloads has afforded these free-thinkers the ability to expose their work to us all, and not starve. I'm paying attention now, and if you care about games, you should to.
Check out the newest episode of Co-op, below. Some choice links do follow.
Tag: The Power of Paint - developed as a student project at Digi-pen
Cortex Command - not done yet, but buy now and you are entitled to all future updates
Zeit2 - Definitely a game I want to see make it to XBLA
Fez - not featured on this episode, but the creator is featured on this episode throughout.
TIGSource - independent gaming news
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