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[Alex Higgins]

     A bunch you saw that FreeIndieGam.es published their last post yesterday. I'm sadden by this. It was easily one of the best cross-community hubs for curating free indie games. For me, it was one of the central institutions for the indie gaming scene.

     Obviously, you can dig around on TIGsauce or GameJolt or Oddities or FreeIndieGameHunt and find some good freeware projects, but I was wondering if there exists another site with the same mission and scope as FreeIndieGam.es? Is working on making a site to take its place? Would anyone be interested in starting a such a project?

     There's a hole where FreeIndieGam.es used to be - what can we do to fill it?

EDIT:
I haven't checked all of these out yet, but here's some sites that apparently curate FIGames:
http://forestambassador.com/
http://odditie-s.tumblr.com
http://indiegames.com/
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/tag/live-free-play-hard/
http://www.giantbomb.com/profile/patrickklepek/blog/
http://www.roguetemple.com/
http://indieplague.blogspot.com.es/
http://gamemorphosis.tumblr.com/
http://www.pivotstates.com
http://justsoindie.tumblr.com/
http://www.giocoindie.it/
http://tetromino.wordpress.com/
http://sassyechidna.blogspot.com/search/label/recommendations
http://wip.warpdoor.com

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

there's still indiegames.com, although it also covers commercial games it tends to have a lot of free game coverage too (or at least did back when TimW was writing for it)

[s0]

freeindiegam.es was kinda what indiegames.com used to be when timw was still with them haha. it was insane, you'd get multiple "freeware game picks" a day and they were almost always interesting.

indiegames.com is still ok right now, but it's obv nowhere near as focused as freeindiegam.es.

[InfiniteStateMachine]

suffered a similar fate to superfriendsclub. I'm glad at least this time I was conscious enough to know it existed while it did. Even better they are keeping the site up as a monument.

[Golds]

there's still indiegames.com, although it also covers commercial games it tends to have a lot of free game coverage too (or at least did back when TimW was writing for it)

freeindiegam.es was kinda what indiegames.com used to be when timw was still with them haha.

Yo, you guys realize Tim W has been writing for indiegames.com again since the beginning of the year?

[Ant]

Why didn't they try and find other people to take over? Reading the gushing on twitter their seemed to be no shortage of willingness

suffered a similar fate to superfriendsclub

btw SFC recently reformed as makega.me

[Alex Higgins]

indiegames.com is still ok right now, but it's obv nowhere near as focused as freeindiegam.es.

Yeah, that's pretty much how I feel about it.

Why didn't they try and find other people to take over? Reading the gushing on twitter their seemed to be no shortage of willingness

That definitely would have been an ideal solution.

btw SFC recently reformed as makega.me

Oooh, I didn't know that, will have to check that out, thanks!

[Irock]

Man, freeindiegam.es was a really solid little site. It's a shame to see it discontinued. Tim W covered a silly flappy jam game I made on there (and indiegames.com) a couple months ago and I squealed like a schoolgirl.

[Alex Higgins]

Tim W covered a silly flappy jam game I made on there (and indiegames.com) a couple months ago and I squealed like a schoolgirl.

Terry posted a Ludum Dare entry I made, and I squealed too. Having people share your games is one thing; but having it shared on that site had a little extra meaning.

[Noogai03]

god remember when terry tweeted about starting up freeindiegam.es and I read the RPS article...
I feel old now

[Razz]

It's a shame that it's ending. God, has it really been two years? It feels like just yesterday that I first heard about it on twitter.

Tim W covered a silly flappy jam game I made on there (and indiegames.com) a couple months ago and I squealed like a schoolgirl.

Terry posted a Ludum Dare entry I made, and I squealed too. Having people share your games is one thing; but having it shared on that site had a little extra meaning.

I didn't realize that one of my games was posted until I got the news about it closing down. It was Ludum Dare too. I should have reached out and given Terry some thanks earlier, I need to be keeping up with this kind of stuff.

Out of curiosity, could you guys link to your games?

[Alex Higgins]

Out of curiosity, could you guys link to your games?

      All of my games can be found on my blog, linked in my signature, but it was Digital Toilet World that got the special treatment. How about you?

[Razz]

Out of curiosity, could you guys link to your games?

      All of my games can be found on my blog, linked in my signature, but it was Digital Toilet World that got the special treatment. How about you?

Awesome, I'll have to check it out.

Here's mine

[Irock]

It's a shame that it's ending. God, has it really been two years? It feels like just yesterday that I first heard about it on twitter.

Tim W covered a silly flappy jam game I made on there (and indiegames.com) a couple months ago and I squealed like a schoolgirl.

Terry posted a Ludum Dare entry I made, and I squealed too. Having people share your games is one thing; but having it shared on that site had a little extra meaning.

I didn't realize that one of my games was posted until I got the news about it closing down. It was Ludum Dare too. I should have reached out and given Terry some thanks earlier, I need to be keeping up with this kind of stuff.

Out of curiosity, could you guys link to your games?

http://www.freeindiegam.es/2014/02/flapbound-cory-martin/

I regret not having a better game up there.

[Razz]

Hey Irock, I played your game last night and I thought it was pretty neat. I liked the dialogue for when the player scores a point, unfortunately I didn't get very far because my space button is kind of wonky right now.

Alchiggins, I'm downloading your game now but I have to run in a bit, I'll try to remember to play it and post my thoughts later.


Lots of inspiration from this little site, I wish it wasn't dead. Maybe somebody would be interested in starting something similar?

[dapperswine]

One thing I've found in my travels of these great interwebs is that independent content creators (be they curators, game developers, or game journalists) are in a massive surplus right now. Free Indie Games served a great purpose, but I'm willing to bet there are dozens of other sites out there dedicated to the exact same thing, or at least similar sites in the works.

The real trouble will come in when it's time to grab our shovels and go digging for them; in such a surplus, being discovered is the only valuable commodity.

[Alex Higgins]

Free Indie Games served a great purpose, but I'm willing to bet there are dozens of other sites out there dedicated to the exact same thing, or at least similar sites in the works.

The real trouble will come in when it's time to grab our shovels and go digging for them; in such a surplus, being discovered is the only valuable commodity.

In any DIY community, being discovered is so damned valuable. That's what the community's for.

In the comments thread on the last FIG post, people have been posting links to various other curator sites. I haven't checked all of these out yet, but I'm going to dump them here:

http://forestambassador.com/
http://odditie-s.tumblr.com
http://tigsource.com/
http://indiegames.com/
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/tag/live-free-play-hard/
http://www.giantbomb.com/profile/patrickklepek/blog/
http://www.roguetemple.com/
http://indieplague.blogspot.com.es/
http://gamemorphosis.tumblr.com/
http://www.pivotstates.com
http://justsoindie.tumblr.com/
http://www.giocoindie.it/
http://tetromino.wordpress.com/

I also curate some games on my own blog too, but it isn't its primary purpose.

_Molten, Irock, I'll play your stuff soon! : )

[InfiniteStateMachine]

well maybe this is a chance for a new site to emerge.


It would be really cool to see something like freeindiegames but with even less restriction on content. IIRC it was last managed by 4 people. It would be great if all these people who exhibited sentiments to continue freeindiegames could all contribute to the same site.

Obviously the reality would be that if it was truly open then people would sign up and abuse the site to promote their own projects.

Why didn't they try and find other people to take over? Reading the gushing on twitter their seemed to be no shortage of willingness

suffered a similar fate to superfriendsclub

btw SFC recently reformed as makega.me

Is this site running on discourse? I feel like it is because I want to like it but in reality it's a nightmare.

I really like Jeff Atwoods blog but he is not winning me over with his software so far.

[Alex Higgins]

It would be great if all these people who exhibited sentiments to continue freeindiegames could all contribute to the same site.

Obviously the reality would be that if it was truly open then people would sign up and abuse the site to promote their own projects.
 

I've been thinking of maybe starting a similar project. As long as the site is well moderated, I don't think it would be too abused.

Part of the reason that the curator base of FIG was so small was because the original posters needed people they could trust. Opening up the curator base could be disastrous, but it might also be really cool. Think of all of the shit we'd uncover and share.

[InfiniteStateMachine]

It would be great if all these people who exhibited sentiments to continue freeindiegames could all contribute to the same site.

Obviously the reality would be that if it was truly open then people would sign up and abuse the site to promote their own projects.
 

I've been thinking of maybe starting a similar project. As long as the site is well moderated, I don't think it would be too abused.

Part of the reason that the curator base of FIG was so small was because the original posters needed people they could trust. Opening up the curator base could be disastrous, but it might also be really cool. Think of all of the shit we'd uncover and share.

it would certainly be interesting to see something like that no matter what course it takes


edit: a moderation queue system for new posters would probably help a lot