features: The big ones
The bread and butter
Now Playing: Reviews from the back alley
games we love, games we hate, everything in-between
Editorials: Columns and critiques
From our intrepid editors and erstwhile friends
The world’s supply of Nintendium has been exhausted
Working at a game store in the mid-2010s, a coworker of mine, in reference to the Wii U , remarked Nintendo was “all out of Nintendium.” That specific moment played back in my head as I opened up my phone at nine in the morning, navigated to Nintendo’s YouTube page, and prepared to watch the Nintendo…
Writers & Gamers Celebrated at American Writers Museum Exhibit
Nestled in the heart of downtown Chicago, the American Writers Museum stands as a celebration of American writers.
Level Up: Writers & Gamers, the museum’s latest exhibit, continues their commitment to celebrating writing in all its forms. In honor of the 50th anniversary of Dungeons & Dragons, the exhibit focuses on the individuals who turned their…
Dev Logs: Interviews and Developer notes
From developers of in-progress or completed indie projects
Wordlock
In programmer Nick Kalita’s world, Mavis Beacon teaches magic.
Wordlock, Kalita’s top-down, illustrated dungeon crawler, merges the word-based combat of Typing of the Dead with the frantic pace of Enter the Gungeon.
Avitium
Loyalty is a difficult thing. Some have it for themselves, others for a leader, and others still for a place. Avitium, Studio MiK’s 2025 card battler, asks its audience to stand behind their ideals or die trying.
Dock King
Cozy life simulation games have gained massive popularity since the early 2000s, with series like Animal Crossing and titles like Stardew Valley (ConcernedApe, 2016) taking over the gaming world. In a post-lockdown world, escapism is popular. Go figure.
However, the appeal of kind neighbors and mist-cloaked forests is lost entirely on Keith Thomas, developer of Dock…
Cold Calling
Ah, the switchboard. One of history’s most important and unsung political tools.
If legend is to be believed, total nuclear annihilation was narrowly avoided by a single telephone operator routing international calls.
CARNiVORY
Kill, loot, boss, repeat, return.
This is the gameplay loop of CARNiVORY, an upcoming roguelite shooter from Chicago-based studio Chowdahound.
Archive: Icg Zine (2024)
Writing and event coverage from the ICG Zine
Take that mainstage! Interview
In this interview with Mark and Cassandra, the creators of the upcoming game Take That Mainstage!, we explore the game’s history, the creators’ journey, and their inspirations.
Detect-Dev Interview
Detect-Dev bills itself as an alternative to the usual sleuthing fare in games, shifting its focus from hardboiled detectives to a near-future version of Chicago (“New-Chi”), featuring psychic powers, advanced AI sidekicks, set within a narrative game that seeks to provide a new lens on…
Terror at 240p: Haunted ps1’s low-Rez horror
The Haunted PS1 is a group of independent video game developers who specialize in “low-rez horror.” These games draw inspiration from the late 90s, harnessing nostalgia to conjure uncanny, low-resolution horror experiences.
Tall Trails Interview
Developer Brady Soglin (Overfull Games) took some time to talk about his current project, Tall Trails.