Cover by Filipa Namorado
Buy it! Subscribe and get it monthly or just the commissioned game for $5!
The latest edition of Indiepocalypse (the monthly alternative game anthology I run) is now out! If you don't know what Indiepocalypse is I wrote a starter guide!
The games in this month issue (as seen in the trailer) are
- Reincarnated As An Adorable Walking Rock In A Peaceful Gardening Sim Game by mellowminx
- Sylvan Disappearance by Rastagong
- Sister Spring, Brother Winter by Ash Green
- Find My Mind by Gaming Variety Potato
- stay with me by bakedbread
- The Lion Eats Tonight by Mezzanine Software
- EYES by yumaikas; GDeavid; Winfield B. Carson, V
- Luxury $imulator by Rebecca Merrill
- UNIVERSAL STUDIOS THEME PARKS ADVENTURE ADVENTURE by @iznaut
And newly commissioned for Indiepocalypse!
Hlina by @sakiamu

A dream in a world of plasticine.
Last month both GDC and PAX East happened in close (time) proximity to one another and one of them even in close (space) proximity to me. I attended neither. It's easy for events like that to feel (especially if tuned in to some amount of online game dev) like attending events like those are essential to "make it" or even be validated as a real developer. But they're not. What they represent is the narrowest sliver of game development as a medium, through the lens of the primarily US-based, commercially-minded game development from people who can generally afford to spend $3k+ on a ~5 day event.
I've begun to better recognize (reconnect with?) my work as within the realm of video games but at most running parallel to the game industry.
Indiepocalypse is, for example, a bad Product. It's a great collection of games! But a terrible Product. Indiepocalypse lacks a cohesive branding theme. It does not lean on familiar names, concepts, or game archetypes (quite the opposite in fact!). It is trend neutral, if not trend averse. I've been told before that it lacks a USP (Unique Selling Point).
But to me that's all fine! That's not how I approach art. I am drawn to art that comes from people and where you can feel parts of the creator throughout the work. A collection of disparate games does not lend itself to snappy marketing points, but damn if ain't a good collection of games.

