Handmade Pixels

Video games are often dismissed as mere entertainment products created
by faceless corporations. The last twenty years, however, have seen the
rise of independent, or “indie,” video games: a wave of small, cheaply
developed, experimental, and personal video games that react against
mainstream video game development and culture. In Handmade Pixels,
Jesper Juul examines the paradoxical claims of developers, players, and
festivals that portray independent games as unique and hand-crafted
objects in a globally distributed digital medium.
Juul explains that independent video games are presented not as
mass market products, but as cultural works created by people, and are
promoted as authentic alternatives to mainstream games. Writing as a
game player, scholar, developer, and educator, Juul tells the story of how
independent games—creative, personal, strange, and experimental—became a historical movement that borrowed the term “independent” from
film and music while finding its own kind of independence.
Juul describes how the visual style of independent games signals their
authenticity—often by referring to older video games or analog visual
styles. He shows how developers use strategies for creating games with
financial, aesthetic, and cultural independence; discusses the aesthetic
innovations of “walking simulator” games; and explains the controversies
over what is and what isn’t a game. Juul offers examples from independent games ranging from Dys4ia to Firewatch. The text is richly illustrated
with many color images.