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Do you have an interest in the intersection of videogames and poetry? Join my "Game Poets" Discord!
A few game-related projects that I have created or founded over the years.
A few game-related projects that I have created or founded over the years.
TIGSource
TIGSource
(2005)
(2005)
In 2005 I founded The Independent Gaming Source (TIGSource.com) as a community website for indie game developers focused on the “arthouse” side of game development, because most of the communities I encountered at that time were centered around making casual games and I wanted to see indie games take more creative risks. TIGSource went on to become the birthplace of a generation of innovative indie titles, including Fez, Spelunky, Papers Please, and Minecraft, and was named as a “best of the web” site by such mainstream news sources as Newseek and The Guardian.
Screenshot from an early build of Minecraft
A Forum post at TIGSource announcing the first build of the yet-unnamed Minecraft.
Screenshot from an early version of Spelunky
Game Poets Community
Game Poets Community
(2024-Present)
(2024-Present)
An international community of over 350 creators from games, poetry, literature, and the visual arts, exploring how poetic approaches can shape the design and impact of videogames. Founded in 2024 after my GDC talk, "How Poetry Can Help Us Make Better Games," the Game Poets Community hosts daily discussions, idea exchanges, and collaborations via Discord, fostering cross-disciplinary dialogue and creative experimentation. Open to anyone with an interest in pursuing videogame design as a holistic, human, and poetic art form.
A few of the innovative works created and shared in the Game Poets Discord.
Necessary Games
Necessary Games
(2009)
(2009)
I founded NecessaryGames.com initially to host critical writing about videogames focused on wholistic considerations of "meaning and significance," and to function as a kind of "third space" adjacent to but distinct from traditions attached to either academia or popular videogame "review" discourse. Eventually the site came to function primarily as my experimental videogame portfolio as I began dabbling in game design again.
A few of the experimental videogames I initially released via NecessaryGames.com
Gametrekking
Gametrekking
(2010)
(2010)
In 2010, after a successful Kickstarter campaign (the campaign was featured as a "project we love" on the front page of Kickstarter.com), I set out to travel long term on a shoestring budget with the goal of making little videogames and "notgames" along the way about the things I was seeing and experiencing. The idea was to use videogames as a kind of travel writing, mainly because I had never seen anyone try to do that before. Gametrekking.com continues to host the interactive creations and travel writing that emerged from that project.
A few of the experimental videogames I created for my Gametrekking project
Header illustration by Solip Park.
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