Cover art by @POWAOFTEHKOWA
Howdy folks! I’m excited to let y’all know that I’m gonna be turning in a new monthly feature for the indie games bundle / zine ‘Indiepocalypse!’
My contributions will generally be centered around the merits and innovations of historically “bad” games (as is our brand and all), while challenging indie developers to try and incorporate the “lessons learned” from them — to take chances on concepts and mechanics that seem to go against typical design logic. I hope to encourage developers to embrace non-intuitive design; in the interests of expanding players’ own appreciations for non-conventional games, and helping move the medium forward in our own little way.
Our first piece serves as a sort of introduction to the ideas I’m wanting to put forward: Providing examples from a small handful of selected games, and exploring how their perceived “faults” are a big part of what makes them memorable. Future columns will likely focus on singular games or mechanics, and figuring out what they did wrong / could potentially do right [in the right hands]. I’m afforded a degree of flexibility when it comes to my feature, so we’ll see if we land on some other odd ideas in time! In any case, I’m excited to try my hand at a different format, and to try writing with a different set of goals in mind. I do hope y’all will give the zine a read, if’n you’re so inclined! Oh, and have I mentioned yet that every issue comes with 10 games included? Do be sure to give those a try too, you hear?
