I’m interested to know whether indie developers actually share this view. There’s still a lot of understandable resistance to AI being involved in the creative process, particularly when it comes to replacing or diminishing human craft. Has anyone’s stance on AI shifted?

Destructible environments back like it never left… I miss when shooters let you absolutely wreck the place. HEADCUTTER feels like that golden era again. More of this please.

I think I’ve realised this particular style of game might just be my kryptonite… I downloaded @SilverPinesGame on my Xbox while my wife was doing some work, and somehow 2.5 hours disappeared. I had the same thing happen last year with Into the Dead: Our Darkest Days. Gimme that 2.5D atmospheric mystery/horror, throw in a creepy small-town America setting as a bonus and I completely forget what day or time it is. You can feel the old school Resident Evil/Silent Hill/Twin Peaks inspo I’m seeing so many people point out. And the art style is simply… well, it’s fucking incredible. One of my favourite games this year.

Devs. To market your game you need a big marketing budget.. Or at least that’s what we’re are lead to believe a lot of the time. I was going to post this game like I usually do (games that I find interesting), but I thought how the dev was marketing the game equally as interesting so I wanted to share my thoughts. He’s been consistently documenting the development through short devlogs, but the clever part is how he’s adapted the actual development process into marketing the game and subsequently, building out a community. Whether this is intentional or not, it’s certainly getting attention including mine! Every little development challenge can become its own piece of content. Show the problem ➡️ show the failed attempts ➡️ show how you solved it - and in the process you’ve shown people what makes your game interesting. A new mechanic becomes content. A weird physics interaction becomes content. Even something that completely breaks or a bug can become content. None of it really feels like “marketing”, but every video is another opportunity for someone to discover the game. I’ve mentioned this before, but the MegaBonk game is another example of a dev who did this brilliantly on Tik Tok. Players would suggest game inclusions or point out bugs and the developer would start the next video with their comment, then show himself adding, fixing the bug - or sometimes deliberately keeping it. The development journey became the marketing angle, while the community became part of the development. Sometimes the best marketing isn’t about how much money you can spend. It’s how creatively you use what you already have. I’ve been enjoying seeing your updates on IG @matthizzone and I’m “super” keen to check out Super Money Ring ✊🏻

Hey @debugmagazine - firstly, love what you guys do. 👌 Secondly, I saw a role you guys advertised and I genuinely think I know someone who’d be a brilliant fit. I’ve flicked you a DM. 😊

Anyone old enough to remember Minesweeper? Someone turned Minesweeper into a tiny fantasy kingdom builder and it may be one of the few mobile games I play. Every tile you uncover helps build and defend a little fantasy kingdom full of resources, treasure, goblins and sleeping dragons. Such a clever spin on a classic! Game: Keepsweeper Dev: @flarup

I’m not really sure how far this post will go, but I genuinely hope it reaches the right people. Dwayne reached out to us pretty early on after seeing what we were trying to build with Glizzy. He started writing for the blog, then became a huge part of Indie Corner. And I’ll be honest, without Dwayne and Shaun - Indie Corner doesn’t exist. He’s also not some random bloke who decided to start writing about games yesterday. He’s a former Managing Editor of Waypoint at VICE and has spent years working across games media. The industry has changed a lot, and with more and more content being churned out by AI, I think good writers who actually understand games, developers and how to tell a story are only becoming more valuable. Dwayne is now looking for his next full-time role. In saying that, we’re not letting him go, haha. He’ll absolutely continue writing for Indie Corner. We just can’t offer him a full-time position, as much as we’d love to. Publishers. PR agencies. Studios. Media outlets. If you need someone who can write the fuck out of an article, edit, shape editorial, or help tell the story around a game properly, please reach out to him or DM me. There are people who can write, and then there are people who can write in a way that actually feels like a conversation. Dwayne has that. Every time he writes something, you actually want to keep reading. Checkout Indie Corner, and you’ll know what I mean. And if you don’t have anything yourself, a share might just put this in front of someone who does. I’d love to see one of the good ones land somewhere great. Check the link to his LinkedIn below.

This is fucking amazing. 1,700 artists from 101 countries took part in the same 3D challenge - create your own fighter card. And somehow… it turned into an ACTUAL card game. The community-created characters are now playable digitally, with the Top 100 also becoming physical cards. This is such a ridiculously cool way to make a game. Ghost Protocol is my favourite (8:10) Game: Gauntlet of Gods Director/Producer: Clinton Jones Game Design: AJ Brandon Music: @WilbertRoget