To me this single thing has always been the most important aspect of what we call "indie"; way more important than the possibility of "unlimited freedom", "no deadlines", etc etc.

When you put your name on something you immediately make it 10000% percent more interesting, because you take the biggest possible responsibility for it. It's basically like saying "this thing describes me", and that's a very good way to make other care about what you do. People are interested in other people.

And obviously it helps anyone with a big ego, like me

Hi and welcome!

Hope everything goes well with learning the tools

(and ask here if you have problems)

Mm :/

Well, to think positively: that thread works totally in the favor of you since they are complete morons It's tiresome to take all the beating tho, I can imagine.

Also watched the videos from your talk and Frank Lantz's. I already knew what you were gonna say but Frank's was more of a surprise. He obviously has a bunch of interesting points I think, but he also cleverly sidestepped a lot of the problematic stuff. Oops, gotta eat.

Very motivating, both for making notgames and to write an article I've been thinking about for a long time. Thanks!

Hej Henrik!

Very good to see you here

Yay, I'm gonna watch all the presentations Internet is so great sometimes!

Ever since I saw the amazing images of Florence and Venice in Assassins Creed 2 I have thought that maybe, maybe I should give it a try (at a friends house). Ever since I was there with my family I have soo wanted to walk those small streets filled with masked people during some fantastic carnival. And so much work the developer must have put into building it, just to ruin it all again. Sad.

Just read this little article by the guy who made Gravilux, Bubble Harp, and Antograph for the iPad/iPhone.

http://www.snibbe.com/blog/2010/05/19/art99/

I love Americans! And some of their games! The only thing I hate is when people don't have the guts to use themselves as the foundation for their creative work; something that seems to happen a lot in Europe.

For instance all the big Swedish game companies are making games that I'm sure the rest of the world think are made in the US (the Battle Field series, Just Cause, World in Conflict). It's ridiculous!

A lot of the problems with video games that we perceive here in this forum would be fixed a lot faster if more people just made games a bit more for themselves and the people around them, about things in their lives that interests them. I really hope notgames can help some people to gather the courage to do so.

Well, to me commercial video games are American. Even if they are made in Sweden or Japan or wherever, they still are trying (desperately) to be American. To make a successful video game is to make it the American way.

Thanks! Yeah there were a bunch of Europeans there (+1 Canadian dude, Michael Todd). I think Finland, Denmark, Germany and Italy were also represented. I have also thought about how there is a slight European kinda feel to this forum.
For a couple of years I have seen part of my goal as a game creator to be a counter force to the American way of making video games, which is the same kind of "negativity" (as a creative force) that is behind notgames I think...

Is that a motivation that anyone else here recognizes? (And of course you could have that motivation even if you're actually American)

Just wanted to report that I gave a presentation "What is Notgames" this weekend. It was very short but I think it resonated with some people there (Jonatan/Cactus said it made a lot of sense). I think some people will start lurking here at least We actually had to cut the discussions afterward because people were asking a lot of questions. Maybe the talks will be put online so that you all can see it.

It's going to be free! It's not an event for fans, you should be interested in actually making stuff. But you are, right?

Me and some pals will run yet another No More Sweden event this summer. It's a place for indie game developers from all over the world to meet up (without us Europeans having to travel to San Francisco).

Here's the website: www.nomoresweden.com

Previous years we've had a big focus on the game jam and making stuff. This year we will try another approach and have people present their previous work or talk about something game creation-related close to their heart. I'm thinking about maybe talking about the notgames initiative since I think a lot of people are interested and/or suspicious of it. If so I will probably post some ideas for my presentation here to see what you guys think.

If anyone here's interested in attending you're very welcome! (more info about registering at the website)

Doesn't have anything to do with hardware though

Well, that's not true at all. The reason programs like Gamemaker and Unity works is that the slowness of the code they produce (by being easy to use, creating portable code, etc) doesn't matter because our computers are so fast.

A good thing with these new weaker, smaller computers is that they require a lot less energy... just screaming for more power doesn't feel good for me. And even if computers were say 10 times faster I'd still have to optimize eventually; there doesn't seem to be a logical "end point" were enough is enough. My solution is to just be happy with what I have and embrace the limitations. The problem of preservation is way worse in my mind... dunno what to do about that. These two things are kind of related in an interesting way; I know that my games will run faster and faster in the next couple of years but I can't be sure they will run at all in 2020.