Red alert! Red alert! Freelance gig in sight! Since it’s not always easy for budding freelancers to hunt down elusive paying gigs in the video game journalism world, I figured I’d take to passing along news of paying gig opportunities when I stumble upon them. That’s not too often, but I’ll ping folks here on ye olde blog as I see them.
Looks like indie-focused site DIY Gamer is looking for some steady bloggers. Paying gig. More details after the jump.
I love going to PAX East. Walking amongst so many fellow nerdfolk for three days is both refreshing and exhausting, but it’s always a good time. This year I covered the convention for GameSpy, and during my many travels and appointments, I was able to check out some awesome games and meet some great folks. Here’s a round-up of a bunch of my PAX East-related coverage from the past week. I’m still working on a few other pieces that’ll be published in the next week or so, but this is the bulk of it.
Mega-PAX East Roundup Feature @ GameSpy [Read it here]
I explored many facets of the convention and glob it all together in this massive feature that touches on a wide range of topics and events throughout the show.
PAX EAst 2011: Indie Gaming Extravaganza [Read it here]
There were so many awesome indie games out on display at PAX East that it was hard to catch them all. I spent a lot of time running around to check them out, and here’s a write-up highlighting some of the best I stumbled across.
Portal 2 Preview [Read it here]
The first Portal was awesome. Portal 2 is going to be 400 percent more awesome. I saw the first 6 hilarious minutes of the game at PAX East and also sat down for a lengthy interview with one of the games main writers. Here’s my impressions and rundown of the preview. My interview will be going up soon.
Gears of War 3 Multiplayer Hands-On [Read it here]
I spent some pew-pew time with GoW 3’s multiplayer beta. Good times. GameSpy Editor Will Tuttle grills me about the hot details in this Interrogation Room preview piece.
There are a few other PAX East related things still in the pipeline, so stay tunes.
“For all the massive growth the gaming industry has seen over the past few decades (with thousands upon thousands of titles released into the wilds), it’s surprising to see that so many games still cling to such Neanderthal objectives. Run. Jump. Shoot. Kill. Annihilate. Thinking far outside of the box, the folks at indie studio thatgamecompany set out to break away from the status quo of violence, and instead focus on crafting gaming experiences revolving around emotion and expression. In doing so, they’ve found success while also blurring the boundaries between games and art.”
Check out the full column here at GameSpy.
“It’s not quite as hard to get into game-making as it once was. In recent years, the barrier to entry for hobbyist game development has lowered quite a bit, thanks to the work of enthusiastic bedroom programmers and a bustling online community willing to guide newcomers with tutorials and helpful downloads. Having the right tools and the drive to create is often all you need to get rolling in the indie gaming world these days, but what if you don’t have the right tools? For some, like Adam “Atomic” Saltsman, the solution was to make the tools.”
Check out the full column here at GameSpy.
This month’s installment of my indie-gaming developer spotlight column over at GameSpy highlights the insanely charming and quirky Zombie Cow Studios. Much of the feature discusses some of the behind-the-scenes stuff from their recent game Privates – a bizarre educational game revolving around blasting STDs inside vaginas and anus (anuses…ani? What’s the proper plurar for an arse-hole?) while providing important info about the nasty stuff.
Check out the column here at GameSpy, and stay tuned for a new installment next month!
“What do a dude in a mining cap, a stuffy old prude, and a trigger-happy, corn-cob-pipe smoking general all have in common? Nothing, really, except that they all seem to have some sort of serious candy-related issues to work through in this week’s freeware indie game. While a trip to the shrink might be the only reliable method of curing their individual sugar-induced mental roadblocks, spinning hypnotic candy orbs that are being whittled down by incoming gunfire is possibly the next best form of therapy. If you’ve got a sweet tooth for weirdness, then Sugarcore is just the thing to satisfy your saccharine gaming-related cravings.”
Check out the full column here at IGN.
“When the king doesn’t seem terribly interested in dropping what he’s doing in order to save the poor kidnapped Prince Lucious from the clutches of the evil Pod Empire, his adolescent daughter steps up to the plate. Princess Nimbus might be young and bratty, but she’s packing a need for speed and an itchy trigger finger. Hopping into a pimped-out fighter craft and stealing off into the skies above, the daring princess sets out to rescue her capture sibling by blowing the Pod forces out the sky. Evildoers beware: Nimbus Sky Princess is locked, loaded, and read to kick some Pod ass.”
Check out the full column here at IGN.
“There are tons of snacks out that are bad for you in one way or another, but I’m pretty sure scarfing down the inner core of a ginormous planet is bound to earn you a major scolding from your doctor for breaking a slew of healthy living rules. Then again, food just tastes better when you know it’s on the naughty list — even celestial bodies. The standard simply doesn’t apply in Magic Planet Snack, a silly arcade-style game the sends you flying through the cosmos to stuff your gullet with the guts of crushed worlds.”
Check out the full column here at IGN.
“Amidst the rat-tat-tat of incoming machine-gun fire and the thundering drone of plane engines being pushed to their limit, there’s not much peace and quiet to be found in an intense airborne dogfight. Even if you could concentrate with all the noise and explosions, finding a spare moment to plan ahead and think good and hard about your next course of action is all but impossible, assuming you want to avoid spiraling towards the ground in a ball of flame. Oddly, that’s not the case in SteamBirds, an aerial dogfighting game that takes the need for split-second gut reactions out of the equation.”
Check out the full column here at IGN.
“When lunch time rolls around, most people are lucky enough that they don’t have to worry about dodging a barrage of incoming artillery fire in order to nab their meal. Unfortunately for the top hat-toting little bloke in I Was Hungry…But There Were Cannons, trying to grab a tasty bite to eat is regularly a life or death ordeal. This zany little puzzle platformer puts a whole new spin on the phrase “eat and run,” since one false move can leave you with a belly full of cannon shrapnel instead of delicious, mouth-watering cheeseburgers.”
Check out the full column here at IGN. Also, Free Bytes have been switched to Thursdays, so be sure to hop over to the PC section of IGN each week to see the latest awesome indie freeware offering I’ve dug up to share.
Nathan Meunier - Freelance Writer / Author / Indie Game Developer 