Indie G Zine

A lot of fanart "Z-ines" have been in production and released in past years. I know there was one for Kill La Kill, Splatoon, Steven Universe, multiple for My Little Pony, etc. I wonder what started this trend or if this has always been a thing and I only became aware of it a few years ago? Either way I think this is a super awesome idea - I hope they reach the goal that lets them add an additional page to the each section with the Bio info and Interview.

I will say I'm a bit puzzled/put-off that they would put game caricatures on the cover from games they haven't confirmed to cover yet. Like I know they specifically say "we don't have Undertale yet" but if you don't, then why is it on your cover (or at least the mock-up) at all? My experiences with crowdfunding has made it SUPER CLEAR that people often DON'T read the campaign pages thoroughly enough. Putting caricatures on the cover that aren't confirmed to be in the magazine yet is just asking for trouble.

Anyway I think it's super cool you were able to get in on this Mana . I'm not familiar at all with Death's Gambit but given your other work I've seen I'm sure the art will turn out excellent. How did you get involved in this? Did you already know the project organizer? Since you're kind of a liaison already, maybe ask IGA if he's interested in giving permission for a Bloodstained related piece being contributed (or maybe this project is too small-time for his consideration? I dunno). I would have no idea how each artist gets picked to do a piece though. Would that have to fall on you? I'd have no idea if you'd be able or interested in contributing two pieces (it's also not clear to me via the campaign how the artists are being compensated for their work if at all).

I saw this one a couple days ago and backed at the 1 euro level... at least until it's more clear who they have actually agreed to participate.

They just posted an update with a little bit more information (but seeming to be focused more on those who were not participating).

It seems a little odd. Maybe I'm a bit shy on these things, after the Pepper and Carrot fiasco of a guy trying to print the webcomic without the creator's permission....

So, is there actually a list of the indie games (the games, not the artists) who have agreed to participate...?

The definition of an "indie" is variable enough that I think you'll find different people with different opinions on the subject. It's often something more based on "feel" than on "fact". I think you'll find, however, that the vast majority of people out there would consider Bloodstained an indie game. I think a lot of that has to do with how the game was positioned and introduced - a game to take the place of the gothic Metroidvania hole that was created when Castlevania, at least for now, was put out to pasture by the EVIL Konami. "EVIL" is hyperbole of course but given the tangible ways in which Konami had messed with both the franchises and game creators a lot of us love (IGA being one of many examples), Konami is the publisher with the least good will among the "hardcore" gaming community. Bloodstained was very much set forth as a counter to "big publishers who don't know what we want and won't give it to us" in the same vein as Mighty No 9, Yooka-Laylee, etc.

I also think as a crowdfunded game (even with publisher support, crowdfunding makes up a significant portion of the total budget) that has and will likely continue to seek a lot of backer interaction & feedback, Bloodstained development looks a lot more like a typical indie game than a standard publisher game - even one with a smaller, non-AAA budget.

Hi, guys!

I'm the person behind the Indie G Zine

I thought it'd be cool to personally answer your different inquiries

XombieMike : as Mana told you, Bloodstained being part of the Indie G Zine+ (if we get to that stretch goal) depends entirely on them. I'd be honored to include such a promising game in the + version, but a requirement for the games is they need to be indie. Being indie is such an ambiguous thing: what makes a game indie? It's really hard to tell. So I just ask the devs if they consider themselves indie.

crocodile : ah! You're right. Here's the thing: the promotional art was created first, before all the project started. It was also a way of conveying the essence of the project and contacting artists. Don't worry, since it started I've personally reached the gamedevs to ask for consent to include a piece based on their games. All the 30 games included in the zine have proper consent from one or more of its creators. To be COMPLETELY HONEST, there's an exception: Cave Story. I hoped that the KS project did enough noise to get Pixel or Nicalis attention to ask for their consent. But I'm a 100% legit guy: I've talked to the artist behind that piece and we agreed that if by the end of the KS we don't get the consent, we will change that piece for another one based on a game we have consent.
But yes, the poster includes some games that aren't included in the zine. But it's just that: promotional art to convey the essence of the project to the people. We carefully detail which games are actually being portrayed, so there's no misunderstanding.
I discovered Mana navigating through Twitter and was insta-love. Her style is really marvelous.
As said before: I'd love to include a Bloodstained piece in the "+" version. But that's contingent to the team really feeling the game is indie. It's a complex matter, for sure.

qaantar : my old friend! You were one of our most committed backers in our last project, Pop Middle Ages. I see your concern and I will study the possibility of making an update solely focused on the games included. Long story short, we have consent from them all (with one exception, explained in my comment to Crocodile, above this one). We have made a huge effort into reaching all the devs to get their consent as we did last time on PMA. It has been a lot of work since this time is 30 instead of 3-4. But you can be sure we asked all the devs before going through (except Cave Story but, as told, we have a contingency plan to change that piece in case we don't get the consent). Indiedevs are amazing, mega nice people. Some of them just answered "yes" (which is already awesome), but some of them have been super supportive: sharing on social media, sending us foootage from their games to use in our vids, pledging money and even more (Shovel Knight creators' added my name to the credits after our collaboration in Pop Middle Ages).
So yes: there's a list of the indie games who have agreed to participate, and that's the list of games included in the zine (except Cave Story). We even already have consent for more games just in case we reach the stretch goal to include +20 artists/games.
(:

Mana: people here seems to agree on Bloodstained being an indie game... so maybe we would consider it for the + version if we hit the right stretch goal, if you agree with them. I will respect your decision, Mana. So far, you have showed me that you are a very good professional, a talented artists and a really nice person. So I'm with you whatever you decide (:

@all THE PEOPLE: yeah, I think this is a really interesting issue - the criteria to decide whether a game is indie or not. Even beyond the Indie G Zine or Bloodstained. As a person who have worked for the indie industry, it's an issue often discussed. To me, in the end is not an important matter as long as the final product -indie or not- is a good product made from the heart. But now it's specifically important to decide if a game meets the criteria to be included in the zine.


I hope I answered your questions in a satisfying manner.
Excuse my English, I'm Spanish so my English level is rather low.

Welcome beautifulglitch! I apologize for not getting back to you fast enough.

It's hard to consider what's indie and what's not indie since indie games nowadays are really high quality. I always assumed indie games were made by 5~10 people or by lesser known developers (of course my knowledge is kind of old.....). But if many of you consider it indie/has an indie feel, I can definitely ask IGA if we can have Bloodstained be part of Indie G Zine+! And congrats for reaching the initial goal!!

PS. I'll ask my sister if she wants to participate when I get the chance.

qaantar: the name is different just because some years ago KS wasn't available at Spain for creators, so I managed it through a good friend who's living in the UK (:
Just in case I crafted an entire update dedicated to the thing about gamedevs, consent and such. I'm all about transparency!

Mana: I just think that the "indie" label is pretty ambiguous, so you always will find people that believe a certain dev is indie and then other people will say the contrary. It's hard to define who's the judge on that. Normally it is a term used as an antonymous of AAA games, which are the ones that spend a HUGE budget on marketing and such. Once, a guy from Amazon (from FireTV, to be exact) told me that the term was first used to differentiate the most important game of the season for a company. This game would be called the AAA game, to point out that it needed the most part of Marketing budget. So technically the term is related to Marketing budget. But nowadays, what makes us think a game is Indie or not? The popularity of the dev? the experience of the team? the budget? the marketing plan? the way its dev is funded? Hard to tell. It's because of this I prefer always to ask the devs if they feel indie themselves.
This being said, what IGA thinks/feels about this "indie" thing? Can we include "Bloodstained" in case we increase the artist/game roster?
And yeah, in that case we'd also love to have Noa in our roster. You both are fantastic and mega-talented artists (:

XombieMike: thanks for the reference! (:

I honestly don't think of this game as Indie. Like Mana said, there seems to be a decent sized team working on the game, it's no more indie than Castlevania SOTN was. Just because it's in the 2.5d spectrum doesn't mean it should be labeled indie. I get that the kickstarter makes it seem that way but this isn't a title I would see as a digital game for a few bucks. They were trying to get this going without a kickstarter, the only reason they went with kickstarter was because people didn't originally think it was viable.