Consider, for a moment, a world in which there were no consoles, no portable gaming devices, no games built specifically for the iPhone or your cell phone or your Trapper Keeper, no Steam, no games made specifically to harness a personal computer’s full power. Imagine a world where the only videogames in existence were Flash games. The genres would be familiar. You’d have platformers and shooters, puzzlers and adventures, sure. You’d never want for something new to play either. If you’ve opened a web browser in the past decade, you know as well as I do that there are thousands upon thousands of the blighters. And though there would be many things to play, there wouldn’t be much of it that was any good or artful. In a world where all games were Flash games, Scarygirl would be a god.
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Indie Dev Moment spotlights games, creators, and trends in the independent development community. I’ve theorized in the past that some ninety-nine percent of the internet is comprised of lists. People like reading and watching things sequentially, preferably in numerical order. After rigorous testing, I’ve determined that the theory is flawed. Only about eighty-five percent of the internet is lists. The rest is flash games. Hell, you can’t spit without hitting a flash platformer (which is impressive considering they’re intangible.) Even PETA has a flash platformer! Given their ubiquity, it’s no surprise that they’re usually crap. Touch My Pixel’s Scarygirl, based on artist Nathan Jurevicius' character of the same name, does not look like crap. Hit the jump, see what I'm talking about.
John Constantine, our superhero, was raised by birds and then attended Penn State University. He is currently working on a novel about a fictional city that exists only in his mind. John has an astonishingly extensive knowledge of Scientology. Ultimately he would like to learn how to effectively use his brain. He continues to keep Wu-Tang's secret to himself.
Derrick Sanskrit is a self-professed geek in a variety of fields including typography, graphic design, comic books, music and cartoons. As a professional hipster graphic designer, his recent clients have included Nerve, Pitchfork and MoCCA, among others.
Amber Ahlborn - artist, writer, gamer and DigiPen survivor, she maintains a day job as a graphic artist. By night Amber moonlights as a professional Metroid Fanatic and keeps a metal suit in the closet just in case. Has lived in the state of Washington and insists that it really doesn't rain as much as everyone says it does.
Nadia Oxford is a housekeeping robot who was refurbished into a warrior when the world's need for justice was great. Now that the galaxy is at peace (give or take a conflict here or there), she works as a freelance writer for various sites and magazines. Based in Toronto, Nadia prizes the certificate from the Ministry of Health declaring her tick and rabies-free.
Bob Mackey is a grad student, writer, and cyborg, who uses the powerful girl-repelling nanomachines mad science grafted onto his body to allocate time towards interests of the nerd persuasion. He believes that complaining about things on the Internet is akin to the fine art of wine tasting, but with more spitting into buckets.
Joe Keiser has a programming degree from Johns Hopkins University, a tiny apartment in Brooklyn, and a fake toy guitar built in the hollowed-out shell of a real guitar. He writes about games and technology for a variety of outlets. One day he will stop doing this. The day after that, police will find his body under a collapsed pile of (formerly neatly alphabetized) collector's edition tchotchkes.
Cole Stryker is an American freelance writer living in York, England, where he resides with his archeologist wife. He writes for a travel company by day and argues about pop culture on the internet by night. Find him writing regularly here and here.
Peter Smith is like the lead character of Irwin Shaw's The 80-Yard Run, except less athletic. He considers himself very lucky to have this job. But it's a little premature to take "jack-off of all trades" off his resume. Besides writing, travelling, and painting houses, Pete plays guitar in a rock trio called The Aye-Ayes. He calls them a 'power pop' band, but they generally sound more like Motorhead on a drinking binge.
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