Goodbye

Terry — Thu, 10 Apr 2014 15:11:35 +0000

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:

[Our best of 2012 lists]
[Our best of 2013 lists]

[Play a random game]

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