Hello everyone! I’m very sorry to say that this will be the last post ever on freeindiegam.es.
When I started this site after GDC in 2012, it was out of frustration – I believed that the culture and discussion around indie games was changing, and that the awesome, personal, and usually free work that had influenced me was being left out and forgotten. I wanted to change that, and I think, thanks to the help of my wonderful co-curators, we did that, for a while.
For over two years now, we’ve regularly posted about new free games as they’re released, and it’s been a pleasure – but we’re all busy people volunteering our limited time and energy, and the time has come for all of us here to move onto other things.
This site and the games posted here will remain, hopefully indefinitely. Feel free to say goodbye in the comments – to talk about your favourite games, posts, the site, whatever you like.
Some site highlights:
Thanks for playing, everyone <3 - Terry
Before we go, each of the sites editor’s would like to say a few words about the site, and what happens next:
Almost a year ago I wrote on Zero Feedback, “It has never been easier to make games. It has never been easier to make a game that goes overlooked.” That is still true today.
Make if you can. Advocate if you can. Dig deep to unearth what we’ve overlooked, what you want gaming to be, the experiences that make you feel something, the creators who have existed all this time but were rarely given a voice.
I am thankful for my time here at freeindiegam.es, amazed daily by the sheer number of incredible games made by hardworking but rarely rewarded freeware developers, and proud of the hours and energy my fellow editors put into curation.- Noyb
I’m saddened about the closure – thanks for letting me be a tiny part of FreeIndieGam.es. – Tim
Years and years ago when I first started, it was exciting to watch, discuss, and elevate all the new game designers eager to expand upon the form and possibilities of games. But as the circle of success stories expanded, I moved on, got comfortable, and forgot about the new authors yet to come.
For me, FreeIndieGames was an important reminder to shine a spotlight on those just now flexing their craft. I think of all the new games I’ve seen and played these last few years and I worry that, without Terry’s spur, I might have missed it all. I’m glad he got me into this and now, site or no, I’m sure to keep at it. I hope we all do. - Aquin
I’m going to continue covering marginalized and outsider games on RPS for the time being, over here. - Porpentine
FREE INDIE GAMES started two years ago because there were these great superamazing games being made, but basically no way to find out about them. And indeed things have improved a lot over the couple of years we’ve been doing it, which is wonderful – the general ecosystem of free games is wonderful active, and visibly so. We posted over 2000 games in this time, and, given sufficient resources, I’m sure we could have found twice this much to be enthusiastic about – even Ludum Dare now has so many entries that, doing our best, we couldn’t play more than a fraction.
There’s always more exploring to be done, new corners of the internet to be investigated, to find amazing games – journalists rarely do off-piste work (one exception being our own Tim Wee), so it’s left to other members of the community to search for and shout about beautiful and amazing things. Peace out! - Stephen
Wow.
End of an era, feels like. For a long time now, this site has been my go-to for finding the freshest games. And when my game Neuro-Hack got linked here last year, it blew me away.
Best of luck to all of you, thanks for the hard work.
So, anybody got any advice as to replacements other than trolling Tigsource?
Thank you so much for posting as long as you did. I found a lot of great games and wish you all the best!
Sad to see you go! Thank you for all of the hard work and posting such great games. I’ve found plenty of really interesting and influential games from this site.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
One of my motivations as an independent developer has always been to create something that I would be proud to have listed here… completely dreamcrushed now. Thanks for the great two years!
Thank you for making me discover so many wonderful games. The biggest thing about your blog is that it was really open-minded about what a game should be. It definitely helped me to try new and different things.
I wish the best for all contributors and especially for you terry.
<3
I have been following Free Indie Games for a couple years, and I must say, you will be missed. I always enjoyed the stream of games you would cover, and I will miss the honest and charming appeal made here. Fare thee well!
Sad to see you go, this site is where I found that amazing Japanese puzzle game, “jelly no” something or other. It’s the way you guys brought titles like these that I’d never find on any other site to light that was the best thing. Similar to the other commenter Malky it made me super happy to one day come on the site and see our rhythm game here. Best of luck guys
Thanks so much for this site. Maybe now I can catch up on all of the games I’ve missed.
No, no, oh God no!
Thank you so much for your years of curation. They went too fast!
I must wonder if someone was interested in picking up the torch whether you all would be willing to help suggest the best way for discovering such a wide variety of games.
Thanks for the blog. It was really nice. Good luck on your travels.
Sad to hear! Thanks all for showing us those 2000+ games, and thanks personally for posting a couple of mine. Meant a lot to some of us lesser-seen devs I’m sure
This site has been a great joy to see when I wanted to play a great overlooked game. Good luck on all of the editors’ future endeavors.
You guys done good.
I encourage anyone who liked this site and has a little ambition to start up a Tumblr or WordPress blog and start posting like these guys did, just cool little things with nothing but the authors’ words attached. If you do, tweet at me @TomSennett so I can check it out and help spread the word.
As for where to find such games, I suggest any communities around making games (like TIGSource) or around specific tools (like the Game Maker Community), and any place people can upload games (itch.io, Newgrounds, mobile app stores). And checking out following/follower lists on Twitter can definitely send you down the rabbit hole in a good way.
Thank you for this site. It was invaluable.
It was awesome while it lasted.
Be proud of what you’ve done, guys! Let’s hope someone picks up where you’ve left off.
Very sad to see such a great thing go. Thanks for all the great work and all the wonderful experiences I wouldn’t have gotten otherwise.
Keep being awesome everyone!
Goodbye
You guys did such a great job. I will miss you. As a fellow volunteer and curator for freeware games (indie, web, former retail, freeforever weekends and more) I feel your pain. There are times when I’m shit out of luck with time and my list takes a hit.
Thanks for your coverage!
Well, I guess it was time. Thanks for everything. Will now have to work just a tad bit harder to find these games. Maybe it’ll do me some good.
Thanks.
Well, this is disappointing.
Thank you, Mr. Cavanaugh (and editors), for your excellent curating.
This closing is sad but understandable.
I started out playing every game posted (and — in the first 9 months — regularly writing possibly inappropriately lengthy comments trying to tease out what was most interesting about many of them, since even that super-casual level of critical attention is more than many of these games were receiving elsewhere), but over time I found myself just not able to keep up. And I’m sure my guilt-inducing, ever-enlarging bookmark folder of unplayed figames posts is nothing compared to the unfiltered backlog of each of the site’s editors.
(I also made my first game a month or so after the site opened up, and seeing it posted here out of the blue was such a huge encouragement.)
I’m sorry to see the site go dark.
Oh no! Thank you so much for so many excellent games, though. I will miss popping here every day and seeing something new and wonderful.
oh, thank you guys for all you’ve done, and let us know if you’ve got side projects.
Thank you so much for your years of service. FreeIndieGam.es was deeply important to non-commercial voices using the medium of games. Here’s hoping we’ll be able to pick up where FreeIndieGam.es left off with new similarly-minded sites.
I’m gonna miss this site, it was a great resource. I hope something similar pops up!
Thanks, all.
Wanted to mention http://forestambassador.com/ for ppl looking for where to go next
Very sad news, but thank you hugely for everything you’ve done the last few years. These labours of love and experimentation deserve all the attention they can get!