{"id":5967,"date":"2026-07-16T06:13:51","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T13:13:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nathalielawhead.com\/candybox\/?p=5967"},"modified":"2026-07-16T06:13:51","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T13:13:51","slug":"the-groundwork-for-resilience-musings-from-the-glasgow-independent-games-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nathalielawhead.com\/candybox\/the-groundwork-for-resilience-musings-from-the-glasgow-independent-games-festival","title":{"rendered":"The groundwork for resilience – musings from The Glasgow Independent Games Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"

Years ago, during my second time at IndieCade, and when I was fairly new to attending video game events, there was a lot of talk about prioritizing events that focus on local community over an international crowd. The conversation being that it was more important to build things specific to local spaces.
\nAt the time things like IndieCade, GDC… All seemed so new and amazing to me. I thought not prioritizing “the international” was a loss!
\nIt’s amazing to attend an event and meet people from all over the world that share a collective passion for games. It hypes you up.
\nAs years have passed, and I better understand the politics (or, for a lack of a better word, “realities”) of events, I now get why local is so incredibly important.
\nI think there’s truth to that argument from long ago… especially now more than ever.<\/p>\n

I don’t think you can have anything relevant, especially in light of a global “scene”, without a strong local community. That’s the undercurrent that caries the relevance of art.<\/p>\n

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\n(( Pictured above: A photograph of a graffitti poem I took near the Barras Market. ))<\/em><\/p>\n

This has been on my mind often over the years.
\nIndie events in the US started to lose what I felt like was relevance, especially after the pandemic. Things just didn’t bounce back the way they were. The non-commercial part was more dead than ever.
\nEven before that, attending these events always took a lot out of me. I’m not complaining! I met incredible people… but there was always this commercialism that you couldn’t escape. It hovered over every conversation. It was the priority after all!<\/p>\n

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\n(( The 100 carefully cut and folded zines I made for GiGF. They were gone at the end of the event :) ))<\/em><\/p>\n

I’ll share some examples because I think the juxtaposition is important for the point I want to make… Yes, I said juxtaposition. I am an artist after all!<\/p>\n

As amazing an opportunity it was to be able to go, attending GDC never failed to be incredibly draining afterward.
\nYou couldn’t ever shake these smaller interactions that sucked the life out of you… Not only life, but they’d often take away hope for the future.<\/p>\n

I’ll post an animated gif of an appropriate pop culture reference to lighten the mood before continuing:<\/p>\n

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Like when I would showcase at IGF I would often go back to the hotel and cry because it exhausted me to my core.
\nLittle interactions like guys just being gross, sexist, and these remarks that eventually added up over the day. I can’t count the number of times that I would be talking to a developer that I respected, and I would listen to the paragraphs of information he would say… When it was my turn to talk, as is appropriate in any interaction with another human (you don’t just listen and nod, you say stuff back too), in the middle of barely my second sentence the guy would just turn around and walk away. No “excuse me”, no body language indication whatsoever that he’d leave… Just walk away.
\nI wasn’t even saying anything controversial. It was just not beneficial to talk to me anymore. It’s a networking event and eventually I understood that there are optics to how you network. It looks good to talk to someone like me, or it looks bad, but there’s always some ulterior motive to interactions at commercial events. Nobody is really human. Not even friendships are true friendships.<\/p>\n

The great majority of friends that I made at these events threw me under the bus when I was asking for an article that exploited my sexual assault to be taken down<\/a>. In a way I understand. Being my “friend” made them look bad because my request for this industry (for game journalism especially) to actually stand for something, made important people with platforms and a big following look bad… Optics is everything. It’s all just kind of a performance, but this is turning into a ranty tangent…<\/p>\n

I say this to highlight how easy it is to become opportunistic. It’s just what you turn into. Online game industry is the same with the way it regularly dunks on people that have the poor fortune of turning into “the next talking point”. I was the talking point too for a time. It was awful.<\/p>\n

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Aside from the obvious predatory behavior that you have to navigate while at GDC… The drinks being spiked, the stories shared where girls warn eachother that someone is a predator, and what he did to them or their friend, when they see you talking to a guy… You are left with the feeling of all the hope completely draining out of you at the end. I’d go back to the hotel and cry, thinking about some story a girl shared about how she was horribly preyed on by the guy I was literally just talking to. It’s so hard. Too hard. It takes everything to put on your game face and go back the next day.<\/p>\n

Everyone is out for themselves. It’s a commercial event where networking is king!
\nCapitalism just prefers predators because that’s what it takes to win anyway.
\nSo where is hope?<\/p>\n

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I don’t think I could do it anymore. I don’t see a future in it.<\/p>\n

All this was years ago. I never went back to GDC after the pandemic.
\nThe industry continues to burn down nonetheless. The last newsletter from GameDeveloper.com looked like this<\/p>\n

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\n((Never mind the screams…))<\/em><\/p>\n

As horrible as it is to watch, at the same time I feel very little. Maybe I should feel bad for that but… This industry was never kind to someone like me.<\/p>\n

So what does the future look like after all this? What is left?<\/p>\n

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“The thing is I only really think commercial\/industry work loses more by putting more distance between itself and non-commercial work. Hobbyist stuff both preceded it and has better chances of outliving it. It’s like horseshoe crabs, every other animal has come and gone in its time.”
\n– @dayofthemutants.bsky.social<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In “Why Not Manifest”<\/a>, a retrospective of sorts on the response that the last Manifesto Jam<\/a> garnered over social media… pointed out a lot of cultural shift that resulted in experimental non commercial work being thrown under the bus. It’s an important piece of writing, as is most of the manifesto jam, because it’s a good time capsule to this moment in games<\/a>.
\nOne of the conversations that stayed with me (quoted above) equated hobbyist work to horseshoe crabs. It just tends to survive…
\nThey will be here long after everything burns down and starts over.<\/p>\n

I see that resilience now in local communities. I saw a lot of it at A MAZE, I see even more of that at local events like Overkill Festival<\/a>, PLAY Hamburg<\/a>, and Glasgow Indie Game Festival<\/a>…<\/p>\n

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The local spaces are the ones where all the opportunism is stripped away.
\nWhat can you even GET as a professional out of attending a place like that? No. You don’t ask that. That’s not the point!<\/p>\n

It’s the love of people, peers, and to celebrate eachother. To lift eachother up.
\nThe true spirit of indie is alive here.
\nIt’s where I see the future of games being. In the midst of all The Bad, this is what survives.<\/p>\n

I had the pleasure of being able to attend the Glasgow Independent Games Festival<\/a> last weekend. This is why I’m writing this post. The above intro ended up being very long. Sorry. I had to get that off my chest!<\/p>\n

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\n(( Sidenote: GiGF is probably the first event I went to where the festival photographer used a GameBoy camera with a custom setup… It was SO COOL… Ok… ))<\/em><\/p>\n

GIGF took place at Barras Art and Design<\/a>, in the Barras Market<\/a>, a historic market that is full of local stalls, food, art, antiques… I can’t think of a more appropriate placement for an indie game event that this. It is full of life, art, and beautiful people.<\/p>\n

individualism in the dead-internet age: an anti-big tech asset flip shovelware r?a?n?t? manifesto<\/a> was accepted into their lineup of games. It was beautiful to see this particular game dev scene in person, finally! I’ve been watching the indie games coming from that corner of the world for so long. At last I was there in person.
\nThey built something truly special. I can’t tell you enough!<\/p>\n

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\n(( Pictured above: Phone Call from the Edge of the Universe<\/a>, one of the alternative controller instalations showcased at GIGF ))<\/em><\/p>\n

One thing that stood out the most during GIGF was the diversity of the audience.
\nFor years one of the biggest criticisms of indie game events that I’ve had (mostly geared toward the US), was that they can’t seem to escape “the bubble”.
\n“The Bubble” is the indie game bubble. When you go to an event, everyone there is going to be a game developer. You are not going to meet people that exist outside of that. It just doesn’t seem to attract a crowd outside of itself.
\nAs a result, most of the games featured, coming out of, getting made, inspired by, collaborated… Are a response to games. It’s kind of a cultural echo chamber. To enjoy games you need game literacy. To enjoy *these* games you need that literacy finetuned. It’s very much informed by itself.
\nSo what I always thought “holds games back” (as a culture thing) is how it is kind of stuck inside itself.
\nWhen you talk to people outside of games and they say they don’t play games because they’re “not good at games”, and have these mainstream conceptions about what a Gamer is, this is what I mean. This is the byproduct of “The Bubble”.<\/p>\n

I could never really wrap my head around how to break out of that.
\nHow can games grow in relevance if they are so stuck inside the walls of commercialism and the game echo chamber?<\/p>\n

At GIGF I saw that just kind of… pulled away? No bubble!? They made it look so easy.
\nThe crowd this event drew in was overwhelming. The majority of people were not game people at all. It was kids, moms… people with interests outside of games… All enjoying the game showcase.
\nIt was the first event I ever attended where someone that had a game in the festival lineup told me that they are not a game developer. Let me explain: they don’t view themselves as a gamedev but they made a game.
\nThis event is a perfect example of how creating a strong local community, one that uplifts and supports each other, has a reach far outside of itself.<\/p>\n

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Interesting observations from people I met there…<\/p>\n

I always found thecatamites <\/a>to be a cornerstone to alternative games.
\nWhat speaks to me the most is that you don’t need a strong social media presence to make your work known. In fact… Not having one seemed to make thecatamites even more of a legend.
\nYou need a steady commitment to the art and authenticity of the craft.
\nNow I think that this is the only way to really sustainably exist. To create out of love for art and block out all the noise. To just be a generous person…<\/p>\n

Maybe that is cliche. I’m often told by people online that I sound like a highschool guidance counselor, but I stand by that. Amid all the noise, condemnation, ridicule, and general tone of things… it’s incredibly easy to forget that being a genuine human being maters most.<\/p>\n

I met Jordan from Game Poems Magazine<\/a>. This magazine is a beautiful new initiative to celebrate short form games that act as poems. I love this because I think just a few years ago something like this would still be generously misunderstood. It signifies to me that there were enough social and cultural shifts within games that there’s finally space for a term like “game poem” to take off. The interest that this work garners is something I find the most encouraging. People really care about it.<\/p>\n

An interesting thing to note from watching my own *deep breath* individualism in the dead-internet age: an anti-big tech asset flip shovelware r?a?n?t? manifesto<\/a> being shown at GIGF, is that the table was always full.
\nSomeone was always playing it. Most everyone sat through the whole thing.
\nIt’s a big difference from showing it at a commercial oriented event where I know I would have to put on my thick skin and get ready for… comments… The audience here was just different. People were genuinely touched by the messaging, and resonated with it. It’s so different. I see there’s this stark contrast, and I think events like GIGF are pioneering something precious.
\nAt least they continue to bring humanity into the picture.<\/p>\n

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The Best in the show winner of Glasgow Independent Game Festival was Grease Trap ’99<\/a>, a fish-and-chips horror game by James Muirhead<\/a>. A game that also features the Gaelic language and is something personal to the person that made it.
\nI think it’s a fascinating contribution to the indie horror genre. I probably could write a whole other post about what I think it represents as a piece of media… But this post is getting long. I’ll just strongly encourage you to check it out<\/a>.<\/p>\n

No, really, you need to play it when it comes out!<\/a> Wishlist it!
\nThen go follow the creator<\/a> because this is just the beginning. They’re doing great things!<\/p>\n

All this said, I think I get it… A strong local community that lifts eachother up, celebrates eachother, and creates space to support eachother, is the backbone of indie games. I think this is how games will survive in light of what the industry is facing right now.<\/p>\n

When you strip back the commercialism, the urge to “sell”, and with that remove all the predatory behavior capitalism encourages… you are left with something human that creates the groundwork for games to be relevant to everyone. It’s the groundwork for resilience.
\n…There’s something hopeful in that.<\/p>\n

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\n(( Pictured above: The day I returned the storm left a beautiful rainbow over the neighborhood. I feel like that’s a good photo to end this post with :) ))<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Years ago, during my second time at IndieCade, and when I was fairly new to attending video game events, there was a lot of talk about prioritizing events that focus on local community over an international crowd. The conversation being that it was more important to build things specific to local spaces. At the time things like IndieCade, GDC… All seemed so new and amazing to me. I thought not prioritizing “the international” was a loss! It’s amazing to attend an event and meet people from all over the world that share a collective passion for games. It hypes you...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5968,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"http:\/\/nathalielawhead.com\/noodles\/GIGF\/FEST-PHOTOS-0.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-games"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nathalielawhead.com\/candybox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nathalielawhead.com\/candybox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nathalielawhead.com\/candybox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nathalielawhead.com\/candybox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nathalielawhead.com\/candybox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5967"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.nathalielawhead.com\/candybox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5967\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5979,"href":"https:\/\/www.nathalielawhead.com\/candybox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5967\/revisions\/5979"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nathalielawhead.com\/candybox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nathalielawhead.com\/candybox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nathalielawhead.com\/candybox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nathalielawhead.com\/candybox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}