As September came to a close, I attended this year's Portland Retro Games Expo, which as the name implies is a gathering of retro gaming enthusiasts and developers looking to create games for them. Along with a plethora of artists, pinball machines, arcade cabinets, and free-play gaming setups, the Portland Indie Game Squad (PIGSquad) hosted a large table where attendees could try out a handful of games made by local indie developers. After the event, I was lucky enough to interview two co-devel...

Those who attended the Portland Retro Gaming Expo this past September remember how incredible the event was. Plenty of vendors and artists, arcade cabinets galore, a pinball alley the likes of which I'd never seen, and who could forget the Saturday afternoon fire alarm?

When the alarm went off and everyone had to evacuate the building temporarily, I was in the middle of my best run yet in an indie game called Retromine. This turn-based mining-themed deck builder sees the player going through 1...

During my time at Portland Retro Gaming Expo, I came across a uniquely inspired RPG. Finding its home on the Playdate, a small handheld console featuring a crank on its side, Initial Daydream is inspired by the NES era of games like Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy. I sat down with the game’s developer Viktor Krause, and his partner and full screen artist/boss designer Julia Barnacle and asked them about their experience putting together such an interesting game for an very unique hardware platfor...

During my time at the Portland Retro Games Expo, Portland Indie Game Squad hosted a myriad of unique indie games with developers based in the PNW. Among these, I got to try out a game I thought only existed in my dreams. Super Dungeon Designer is a Zelda-inspired dungeon builder where players can create their own dungeons and share them with other players. I sat down through Discord with Thomas McGrath, Lead Programmer at Squish Studios, and asked him about the thoughts, ideas, and inspiration b...