Independent By Design: Art & Stories of Indie Game Creation

by Stace Harman, John Robertson

Genres: Video Games, Games

233 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 2016

Reviews

[Kalin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book, especially the anecdotes and personal stories. They helped me discover a few overlooked gems (though not as many as I'd hoped: either I've grown too critical, or my focus on powerful, meaningful writing in games condemns me to wait until a new generation of storytellers enters the interactive scene). More importantly, they helped me realize how great--and at the same time how accessible--indie game-makers are. Now I want even more to be involved, part of the thing, rather than just a keen observer.

Here're my more specific observations:

https://choveshkata.net/forum/viewtop...

[bubez · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just a collection of faded Polaroids from a part of 2015 indie scene. The authors try to find a moral in every single story and half of the time it's forced. The stories/interviews might be outdated or just uninteresting; some of them are good, though.
If you are researching the indie scene circa 2010-2015 this book might be useful. If you wanna read it just to enjoy some anecdotes and learn more about game dev, it's probably not your best choice.

[Paul J · Rating 5 out of 5]

Illuminating insights into the state of independent video game development. Dives deep enough to derive meaning but is very digestible, never felt bogged down. A great mix of subjects and interviewees (Rami Ismail of Vlambeer, Introversion Software to name a couple).