Indie gaming is changing the game - illustration by Lydia Silver for ES magazine
(Picture: illustration by Lydia Silver for ES magazine)While many might write off gaming as a mindless source of entertainment — the preserve of nerdy subcultures and darkened bedrooms — in 2022, video games are now not only mainstream, they’re the apex of culture. With an astonishing three billion people worldwide describing themselves as gamers, the swelling industry is worth an estimated $300 billion. But it is not just the big developers of top sellers such as Grand Theft Auto and Call of Duty reaping the rewards; now an influx of indie developers is sparking a reinvention of the medium to make the physical world a better place, too.
‘There’s been a monopoly on who makes games for so long,’ says Angela Washko, 36, a feminist media artist who released the critically acclaimed video game, The Game: The Game, in 2016. It’s a dating simulator enabling players to ‘learn’ about the practices of several problematic seduction coaches. ‘The resources required to make a triple-A, large-scale game have created an exclusionary culture towards women, people of colour and members of the queer community. As a result, a market for more experimental games has exploded alongside an appreciation for why they’re important.’
