features: The big ones
The bread and butter
The State of Gaymes in 2025
To be blunt about it, indie games are pretty fucking gay. However gay you think they are, make it gayer. Trust me.
Queer art has a tendency of finding its way into subculture and mediums off the beaten path, a side effect of creators often being pushed out of mainstream spaces and seeking both community and…
The weight of carrying both
Fiction has always been humanity’s most honest mirror, reflecting back the wars we wage within ourselves long before we have the capacity to understand them.
Following in this ancient tradition, Kuro Games’ latest character release, Cartethyia, the wandering knight of Wuthering Waves (2024), emerges as an avatar of our most fundamental conflict: the courage required…
Getting down with Gerbert Croski
Guerrilla journalist Warren Hernandez tracked down the enigmatic developer behind the SICK’s pack-in title, Down with the Sickness. Driving to Toronto to interview him, Hernandez provides a rare look into the mind of an elusive ’90s video game pioneer.
GOMIBAKO NO DENSETSU is still lost media despite team’s best efforts
The team at Kohococoa Design Works is proud to restore a critical piece of the history of the Chicago-built SICK. This was made possible thanks to a friend and SICK fan based out of Odawara, Japan.
Brushing Cobwebs off blades of Exile
One day when I was a kid, my dad heard about this game called Geneforge. He set my brother and me up with the free demo of Geneforge 3 (Spiderweb Software, 2005) on the Mac Mini we shared. My brother got the first turn playing it and I watched.
It blew my f@#$ing fourth grader mind.
Now Playing: Reviews from the back alley
games we love, games we hate, everything in-between
Spring itch.io roundup
The five best things we played on itch.io this spring, brought to you by our editor-in-chief
MiO: Memories in Orbit
MIO: Memories In Orbit is a game about hope lost, about the moment in the journey where the crush of the world wins and you curl up and wait for the end. About a tiny robot. About a little spark of hope?
Everything Next Fest: Feb. 2026
If you were curious what you should be looking forward to on Steam this year, look no further. Here are eight of the best demos we played this fest alongside our (objectively) correct opinions.
Creature Kitchen: Charmingly Retro
Heart, humor, and horror are balanced expertly with the stupid simple cooking mechanics and delightful Dreamcast-era graphics. In short, this game cultivates a vibe.
Fallout 4’s settlement builder is so bad it’s fantastic
Sometimes I enjoy things that are bad.
Zelda CD-i cutscenes. The Johnny Depp remake of “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.” Fallout 4 base building.
Zelda CD-i cutscenes. The Johnny Depp remake of “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.” Fallout 4 base building.
Editorials: Columns and critiques
From our intrepid editors and erstwhile friends
Bleeding trees and ballet
There is a force in the city that weighs me down. A force that until recently I had blamed on living in a metropolitan area. A weight I suspect we all feel. I am referring to the churn – the hustle and bustle, the work work work – that seems to define much of the…
It’s Peak all the way down
Every upcoming indie game is friendslop. Or at least, that’s the impression that certain corners of the internet will give you.
A new old way to play music
A few weeks ago, I spent the better part of an evening or so putzing around the utility apps on the Nintendo DSi and 2DS I grew up with. It was like a weird time capsule from a pre-algorithmic era where interactions with music meant something.
Onstage couple’s therapy: catharsis and breakup songs
Breakup songs are one of the best vessels for exploring the feeling of catharsis, even more so when the subject of that heartbreak (or ire, or ambivalence) is sharing the stage with the author.
Fighting fascism through play
You don’t need me to tell you that things are bad, but many players have stepped up in the last few months to do what they can to fight against fascism and support our communities, and they have been doing it all through the thing they know how to do best: play.
Dev Logs: Interviews and Developer notes
From developers of in-progress or completed indie projects
Uncle Henry Isn’t Home: Baby’s first video game
Uncle Henry Isn’t Home is the very first video game I’ve ever worked on. If you’re familiar with my other works, you know I usually make TTRPG systems. Short fiction is often a part of those books, but it’s been a while since I did some real, meaty character writing instead of just improv. And…
Uncle Henry Isn’t Home: Creating a full audio experience for a jam game
Dani Orizaba outlines their process for making all things sound for Chicaghoul standout Uncle Henry Isn’t Home.
Uncle Henry Isn’t Home: Postmortem
Uncle Henry Isn’t Home was one of the standouts of Chicaghoul 2025, a real deal point-and-click adventure game presented in an arcade cabinet and capturing the existential, lonely horror of both games like Myst and H.P. Lovecraft’s mythos.
Raysing!
In Raysing!, you’re a car. Your friends are cars, too. There are no humans on this island. Have fun exploring.
Ghoul Kazool
Ghoul Kazool is an alt-control experiment where players use either their keyboard or the custom “kazool” controller to make sounds and rack up “Ghoul Power” in an endless rave throughout looping days and nights. Something in the experience may be lost when it’s played in-browser, but we think it’s still worth a look for the…
Archive: Icg Zine (2024)
Writing and event coverage from the ICG Zine
Interviews: AllStars 2024
Seb Galvez interviews the developers behind winning games from Indie City Games AllStars 2024.
Now Playing: August 2024
The ICG board members detail what they were playing in August 2024.
Now Playing: Deepest Chamber Resurrection
Seb Galvez reviews a roguelite deck builder with the appropriate amount of skeleton armies.
Buddy Simulator 1984 Interview
Buddy Simulator 1984 is a game where you play games with an AI buddy. Former ICG Board member Kailey Phan Mitchell interviewed all four of its developers.
Pop Pup Interview
Pop Pup is a one-button skateboarding game where the goal is to get as high a combo as possible. Think Tony Hawk meets the Sonic comics.
Amazing Grace interview
Amazing Grace is a pixel platformer where you dive down into hell to rescue your child.
Hello again interview
Hello Again is a time-looping adventure game set on an island filled with ancient ruins. Explore abandoned structures, solve clockwork puzzles, and befriend quirky characters to uncover the island’s secrets and break the loop.
The following interview is with Dwight, the game’s developer.