Critical Hits: An Indie Gaming Anthology

by Zoë Jellicoe (Editor, Contributor), Cate Meredith, Leo Devlin

Critical Hits is a collection of original journalism from ten writers and developers in the independent gaming community, including Leo Devlin, Holly Gramazio, Joe Griffin, Owen Harris, Zoë Jellicoe, Dámhín McKeown, Katharine Neil, Emilie Reed, Austin Walker and Aidan Wall, with a foreword by Cara Ellison. Compiled and edited by Zoë Jellicoe, the anthology was created to reflect the diverse range of insightful and unusual voices in online independent gaming journalism and development, exploring everything from spatial design and existential fear, the digitisation of female care, procedural generation and the representation of dating through text-based mechanics.

Genres: Video Games, Nonfiction, Games

224 pages, ebook

First published November 1, 2016

Reviews

[Kalin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Impressions:

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[Paul J · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like all anthologies, some essays will hit and others miss depending on your preferences. Overall an enjoyable read, the last two essays in particular (on the benefits and risks of procedural generation, and an examination of narrative perspectives and the need for diversity).

[Andrey Kurenkov · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a short collection of 10 essays about indie games circa 2016, and one I mostly enjoyed. Though there are misses - I thought 2 of the essays were plainly bad, in argumentation as well as writing - most of the essays work and are informative, entertaining, or just interesting. A crowdfunded effort (one I backed), it skews far more towards simple to understand rather than academic-style essays, making it easily readable and quick to get through. Still, it does cover unexpected ground - even as a person who keeps up with indie games and games criticism, I discovered many new types of games and thoughts about games. For that, for its readability, for its good and varid selection of authors, and for its clearly-passion-project nature, this is worth a read.

[Elise · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic collection of essays. I would recommend it in a heartbeat particularly for game lovers, video game scholars or the digital culture curious.