I Want To Be A Zinester

A few weeks ago, I finished reading Anna Anthropy's Rise of the Videogame Zinesters: How Freaks, Normals, Amateurs, Artists, Dreamers, Drop-outs, Queers, Housewives, and People Like You Are Taking Back an Art Form.  The term zinester (he said without consulting wikipedia) refers to any self-published work of minority interest.  The self-published works of minority interest, in this case, being indie games.

What I took away from this book is this: There aren't enough people making games.  Recently, game making tools have progressed to a point where virtually anyone with access to a computer can create a digital game.  We're not talking months of development time either.  Thanks to these tools, in many cases, we're talking an afternoon!  Don't worry about perfection.  No excuses, embrace your ideas and just make something!  Make anything!

Did you notice all those exclamation points?  I must be fired up.  It's a good read.

Some of the game making tools Anna recommends in her book, include:

• Klick & Play and the Games Factory,
• Gamemaker,
• Scratch,
• Twine,
• Inform 7,
• Warioware: D.I.Y.,
• Knytt Stories, and
• ZZT.

First on my list, Warioware: D.I.Y.  I just ordered my copy from Amazon this afternoon, in fact.  I'll write about these tools (including my adventures with Warioware) in future posts as I become familiar with them.

I also just ordered two new books about video games and game design.  The first is Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World by Jame McGonigal.  The second is Challenges for Game Designers by Brenda Brathwaite and Ian Schreiber.  Let the journey continue!

Cheers,

Danny