Radiator Blog

FEBRUARY 10, 2025

But I've been threatening to make a sports game for a while. And now since I no longer teach for a living, I thought I'd try an even more difficult way of earning money - why not try "going indie"? Death is usually (a) game over, (b) rare, or (c) strongly penalized. We need bolder sports games.

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Games Game Design Game Designer Indy 130

Game Wisdom

NOVEMBER 8, 2024

Why You Can’t Objectively Build Great Games Josh Bycer josh@game-wisdom.com I was reading a piece over on Game Developer that gave me pause for a second about whether this is what game design at the AAA level is about now — focusing on analytics and trying to “math” the perfect … The post Why You Can’t Objectively (..)

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Build AAA Game Designer Game Design 105

PreMortem.Games

DECEMBER 24, 2024

Team up It was right at the beginning of the pandemic, in early 2020, when Austrian indie dev Dominik Hackl started working on Summit , a 2D mountain-climbing Metroidvania. Without much game dev experience he relied on YouTube dev vlogs to help him along. Three years later the game launched without much success.

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Development Dev Horror Playtesting 197

Game Dev Unchained

MAY 9, 2023

The Transformative Landscape of Game Development: A Deep Dive with Willem Delventhal As a digital ecosystem thrives and transforms at a rapid pace, a recent conversation with game designer and educator Willem Delventhal offered insights into the evolving realm of game development.

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Indy Educational Education Technology 98

PreMortem.Games

JANUARY 29, 2024

More and more South-Korean indie game developers take aim at the PC and console market. Set in a New York office building in the 1990’s, the game plays out as a action-filled mini series, including cutscenes that unravel the plot. “To Si-wooks’s deep passion for game development inspired Hee-sang to take a leap of faith.

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PreMortem.Games

FEBRUARY 21, 2025

In Guntouchables by Danish indie developer Game Swing , enemies randomly power up from the upgrades that a team of four players cant lift out of the levels. This leads to some unexpected and quite frankly, explosive situations as the game progresses. Game Swing was founded in 2013 by five Danish game design students.

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The Bottom Feeder

NOVEMBER 1, 2024

After the exhaustion of shipping a game, I have a period of deep uncaring about the medium. I need to play a few really fun games to get interested again. It's a truly remarkable indie title. Each game also has an extra-difficult goal, and completing it rewards you with a cherry. (As Lucky for me that UFO50 just came out.

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Games Puzzle Indy Console 90

PreMortem.Games

OCTOBER 28, 2024

Set in a beautiful, Slavic-inspired world, Selfloss by Kazakhstan-based indie studio Goodwin Games is an adventure that explores themes of grief, healing, and resilience. ” Epic MegaGrant Developing a game in Kazakhstan poses its own set of challenges, as Khoroshavin explains.

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Prototyping Indy Games Concepts 104

PreMortem.Games

OCTOBER 2, 2023

Midnight Girl , from indie studio Italic , oozes French cool. Funny then that the game is made in Copenhagen, Denmark. Pedersen is the programmer and CEO of the company and Ryder takes on the roles of game director, graphics artist, musician and game designer.

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Indy Point and Click Studios Vector Graphics 118

GamesIndustry.biz

JULY 8, 2024

Jennifer and Bjorn Pankratz – who previously served Piranha Bytes as story and game designer and creative director, respectively – hope to "develop immersive and fantastic indie games " at their new start-up, Pithead, which was formed on July 4, 2024.

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Studios Dev Indy Game Design 130

PreMortem.Games

OCTOBER 11, 2023

The game immerses players in a captivating odyssey across worlds within worlds, beckoning them to master the art of world-leaping mechanics to uncover a cosmic mystery. Cocoon is the first venture of Geometric Interactive , a Danish indie studio founded by Carlsen and his ex-Playdead colleague, Jakob Schmid.

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Puzzle Prototyping Art Communications 257

PreMortem.Games

JANUARY 10, 2024

Some publishers now accept games that have undergone Kickstarter campaigns, emphasizing a focus on future collaboration and development potential. Some even engage in Kickstarter campaigns for indie games or support them financially. Kickstarter is viewed as a proof of concept and demand, offering valuable insights”, says Liebe.

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Indy Communications Games Build 104

The Bottom Feeder

MARCH 12, 2025

Seriously, study this game. Of course, any hit indie game in this decade gets heavily studied and mercilessly copied. ) For the thousandth time, writing good story is free, and it can do incredible amounts to make people more engaged in the game. This game was built to eat a thousand hours.

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Indy Writing Fantasy Fighting 70

Game Wisdom

FEBRUARY 4, 2025

My Favorite Game Designs Josh Bycer josh@game-wisdom.com width="560" height="314" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" For my latest design video, I talked about my personal favorite game systems and designs that I would like to see more developers explore.…

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Game Designer Game Design Games Development 52

Game Wisdom

MAY 25, 2023

The Clash of Choices in Game Design Josh Bycer josh@game-wisdom.com One of the many balancing acts of game design is the act of creating cool, interesting, unique, abilities for the player to use, and then balancing said abilities within the scope and design of your game.

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Game Designer Game Design Balance Games 59

PreMortem.Games

OCTOBER 25, 2024

If there ever was a fitting metaphor for the trials and tribulations that indie developers face while creating their debut game, it’s Ascending Inferno , the upcoming release by Australian developer Oppolyon Studio. As first-time indie developers, their journey mirrors the very game they’ve crafted.

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Studios Indy Mechanics Games 118

Radiator Blog

OCTOBER 13, 2022

It takes good parts of other good games, and skilled talented people spent lots of time and money on it. But if you're already familiar with all the game design deities invoked here, there probably aren't enough design risks nor genuinely subversive ideas. The cult of the game industry is most powerful of all.

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Indy Film Games Point and Click 130

PreMortem.Games

FEBRUARY 24, 2025

Void Sails by indie developer Ticking Clock Games is a single-player action-adventure RPG that takes players on a thrilling journey through mysterious worlds, where they captain a flying ship across uncharted space.

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Point and Click Games Feature Balance 104

PreMortem.Games

MAY 10, 2023

Canadian indie game development studio Excellent Rectangle just launched their debut title Tape to Tape on Steam Early Access. Combining the world of ice hockey with a roguelite may seem like an odd match, but for game designer Hugo Julien and his fellow co-founders Jean-Nicolas and Mathieu Fortin, it was a natural choice.

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Animation Animation Sprite Fantasy 232

Big Games

MARCH 27, 2025

Unreal Engine Here’s an overview of these two dynamic mechanisms that will help you understand what they are, how they work, and the merits they offer to Android programmers: Unity It is a popular game engine renowned for its cross-platform compatibility and intuitive user interface that supports both 2D & 3D game development.

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Engine Engineering Game Developer Game Development 52

The Bottom Feeder

DECEMBER 17, 2024

Stirring Up Mess On Twitter Vogel's 1st Law of Video Game Visibility: "No matter how passionate an online 'controversy' about a game is, 99% of its players will never even know about it." 2nd Law: "Outside of 1 or 2 monster hits a year, no indie game will ever be heard of by more than 1% of gamers." It happens.

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AI Indy Games Agent 79

PreMortem.Games

OCTOBER 30, 2024

I have a lot of respect for solo indie developers, but I often struggle with the limitations and it is not what I want to be doing long-term. On one hand, I get to do what I love to do, especially game design, storytelling, and art. Will you ever work in a team or is it only solo for you? How do you deal with that? “

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Dev Puzzle Concepts Esports 104

PreMortem.Games

APRIL 12, 2023

Set in a storybook kingdom filled with magical creatures, kings and castles, the game gives players the opportunity to build their own kingdom and find their true love. First time game developers Max Nielsen and João Martinez form Grenaa Games , a Sweden based indie game studio. “We

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Games Build Studios Shaders 185

PreMortem.Games

AUGUST 21, 2023

What began as a casual endeavor gradually evolved into a fully-fledged studio as the game’s success solidified their path. Now, with the new game A Void Hope coming up on almost 3 years of development, Forslind finds himself juggling his roles as both CEO and Game Designer of his company called Elden Pixels.

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Pixel Game Design Game Designer Shaders 104

PreMortem.Games

APRIL 24, 2024

If Triple-A games are the equivalent of Hollywood blockbuster movies and indie games are comparable to independent films, then you could call Indika by Odd Meter an arthouse experience. The game, centered on a nun grappling with the voice of the devil within her, deviates from the standard in almost every aspect.

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Indy Cinematics Studios Prototyping 104

Brand Game Development

DECEMBER 26, 2016

At the time, the industry was worth about $880 million , with the majority of that being for existing collectible card games like Magic: the Gathering , Yu-Gi-Oh! , Everyone – the most indie developers, the established companies, the fans, and the investors – get to participate in an open forum. and Pokemon.

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Indy Games Platformer Development 130

PreMortem.Games

AUGUST 16, 2023

“We as a team learned from The Ancients to pace our enthusiasm and scale the game to the size of the studio. There are plenty of indie developers that say this and it’s possibly the most crucial part of game design and development.

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Technology Indy Games Playtesting 104

PreMortem.Games

JULY 8, 2024

His turning point came in 2019 at Comic Con Africa, where he discovered a Game Design degree at Wits University’s stand. “I However, it still took a nudge from a dreadful experience in an Applied Mathematics class to propel him to switch from Computer Science to Game Design. It was great! I had so much fun with it.

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Studios Educational Education Point and Click 129

Game Development News

JUNE 20, 2023

Sophie Artemigi tells us what it’s like being a video game design master that works outside of the big companies to make weird and entertaining art that connects with people

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Indy Game Developer Game Development Entertainment 52

PreMortem.Games

APRIL 22, 2024

Welcome to the unsettling world of Zoochosis by indie game studio Clapperheads. The teaser trailer of the game, which featured a heavily mutated giraffe scurrying over the enclosure, received over 10 million views across YouTube. The game has since gathered well over 200.000 wishlists on Steam.

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Animation Animation Horror Simulation 156

PreMortem.Games

MARCH 15, 2024

In Guntouchables by Danish indie developer Game Swing , enemies randomly power up from the upgrades that a team of four players can’t lift out of the levels. This leads to some unexpected and quite frankly, explosive situations as the game progresses. Game Swing was founded in 2013 by five Danish game design students.

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Co-op Playtesting Balance Art 138

Radiator Blog

JUNE 2, 2023

In this sense, playing a 75% finished game is more useful than playing a 100% finished game. So this post will focus on my read of the general game design and player experience. Similarly, you can see where the core game design wanted to hit. that a bigger US AAA or a non-US indie would've failed to capture.

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Studios Co-op Open World Cutscenes 246

The Bottom Feeder

FEBRUARY 9, 2023

I’m only being driven out of my shell by my need to push the Kickstarter for our next indie RPG, Geneforge 2 - Infestation. Let’s talk about games. There is a surprise hit indie game I really like, and breaking down that kind of thing is very much in my job description, so let's talk about Vampire Survivors.

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Indy Balance Game Design Game Designer 88

PreMortem.Games

SEPTEMBER 26, 2024

Small teams and solo developers often produce some of the most unique and personal games, and this holds true for Rablo Games, an indie studio led by founder Pablo Coma. Six months into development, Coma accepted a job at Appeal Studios as a game designer, eventually becoming a game director.

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Development Indy Mechanics Games 104

PreMortem.Games

JANUARY 24, 2024

Physics-based 2D platformer Bionic Bay is a collaboration between the Finnish one-man-studio Mureena and Taiwanese indie game company Psychoflow Studio. The game started as a demo shown on Reddit, but picked up momentum when Badland art director Juhana Myllys offered to mix and match his distinct artwork with the gameplay.

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iXie gaming

MARCH 28, 2025

Behind every immersive world lies a meticulously crafted game art pipeline, a process where raw ideas evolve into interactive, polished assets. Game art isnt just about making things look good. Whether its a photorealistic RPG or a stylized indie game, every visual element follows a structured journey from concept to integration.

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Concepts Art Texture Asset 52

Ask a Game Dev

AUGUST 3, 2023

A level designer doesn't need to create the individual assets, but will need a rock-solid understanding of how the placement of objects and division of space can create places that are intuitive for players to navigate. If he wants to go into the indie space and work with an extremely small team, he's going to need to wear a lot of hats.

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Cinematics Game Designer Game Design Dev 52