How We Actually Find Indie Games Worth Playing

People ask how we find the games we cover, assuming there's some secret feed. There isn't. Mostly it's patience and a few habits that filter out the noise.

Game jam showcases are gold. Dozens of tiny experiments get made for a theme, and the clever ones often grow into full releases. Following a jam's results is like reading the future app store months early.

We also watch small developer accounts rather than publishers. One person posting daily clips of their project will tell you more about a game than any trailer. And honestly, reader emails do a lot of the work too.

The last trick is just being willing to install something ugly. A rough icon hides a lot of brilliant games. If the first two minutes feel good, the look stops mattering fast.