Interviews with independent videogame developers
November 18, 2011 9:36 PM Subscribe
A tumblr blog called Quote Unquote recently presented a series of interviews with indie videogame developers, conducted over the last year, as a collection. The interviews include guys like cactus, Bennett Foddy, Chevy Ray Johnston, Jasper Byrne and Jan Willem Nijman.
Passed it along to a buddy who has a gaming startup... So, love from me!
posted by IAmBroom at 8:41 AM on November 19, 2011
posted by IAmBroom at 8:41 AM on November 19, 2011
When you say 'over the last year' you fail to mention that there are 50 (!) interviews, one per week (!!!) Wow.
I haven't been through every single one but so far, I've only seen one American and zero women. It looks like the developers are primarily white European dude (in fact, Northern EU). I have no idea what this represents.
I too am surprised at the low turn out of gaming threads on the Blue - unless it has to do with nostalgia, and then the post will be overwhelmed. Again, no idea what it means.
posted by victors at 8:43 AM on November 19, 2011 [2 favorites]
I haven't been through every single one but so far, I've only seen one American and zero women. It looks like the developers are primarily white European dude (in fact, Northern EU). I have no idea what this represents.
I too am surprised at the low turn out of gaming threads on the Blue - unless it has to do with nostalgia, and then the post will be overwhelmed. Again, no idea what it means.
posted by victors at 8:43 AM on November 19, 2011 [2 favorites]
Well, in these modern indie gaming threads I am usually interested but also I have no idea what to say. There isn't really much of a critical vocabulary for games yet, so it's hard to talk about them, especially when a game is weird and only one of the parties in the discussion has played it. (But then I have to wonder why the skyrim thread had so much interesting talk going on.)
posted by vogon_poet at 10:06 AM on November 19, 2011
posted by vogon_poet at 10:06 AM on November 19, 2011
This site is a pretty great collection of interviews, and I am glad that you reposted it. I find some of them to be a little light, but none the less interesting.
Other publications that are worth looking into for well reasoned and interesting coverage are killscreen and the brainy gamer podcast. Neither of these are exclusively indie focused, nor are they AAA focused. Both highly recommended for critical thought though.
IRT to the lack of women and other non cishetroeuropeans, you may want to check out the borderhouse blog. While it deals almost exclusively with the mainstream games, it is worth a read for other perspectives around gaming. It also almost exclusively comes from the player perspective, rather that the developer one, which doesn't quite align with the topic of this post except for the outsider status. It may also be worth perusing anna anthropy's blog for the developer perspective on these types of issues. I am super excited for her upcoming book on outsider games, and games as zines.
I also wonder why most discussion of games centers around the mainstream, but I guess that is just a function of the fact that the blue (and the other message boards I frequent) are not indie focused. Small games, for a small crowd, etc.
posted by jonbro at 11:39 AM on November 19, 2011 [1 favorite]
Other publications that are worth looking into for well reasoned and interesting coverage are killscreen and the brainy gamer podcast. Neither of these are exclusively indie focused, nor are they AAA focused. Both highly recommended for critical thought though.
IRT to the lack of women and other non cishetroeuropeans, you may want to check out the borderhouse blog. While it deals almost exclusively with the mainstream games, it is worth a read for other perspectives around gaming. It also almost exclusively comes from the player perspective, rather that the developer one, which doesn't quite align with the topic of this post except for the outsider status. It may also be worth perusing anna anthropy's blog for the developer perspective on these types of issues. I am super excited for her upcoming book on outsider games, and games as zines.
I also wonder why most discussion of games centers around the mainstream, but I guess that is just a function of the fact that the blue (and the other message boards I frequent) are not indie focused. Small games, for a small crowd, etc.
posted by jonbro at 11:39 AM on November 19, 2011 [1 favorite]
Thanks for this!
posted by safetyfork at 11:51 AM on November 20, 2011
posted by safetyfork at 11:51 AM on November 20, 2011
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posted by june made him a gemini at 8:30 AM on November 19, 2011