July 31, 2025

IndieVoice: From Gamer to Guardian | Building a Platform on Passion

IndieVoice: From Gamer to Guardian | Building a Platform on Passion

What happens when a deep love for games evolves into a mission to uplift others? In this episode of Gamertagged, we explore how IndieVoice transformed from a childhood username into a platform dedicated to championing indie developers and preserving digital history. From his early days as ShadowMegaManZX to becoming the Neon Guardian of indie games on YouTube, his story is one of evolution, purpose, and impact. A gamer. A developer. A reviewer. A guardian. We talk: The origin of “ShadowMegaMa...

What happens when a deep love for games evolves into a mission to uplift others?
In this episode of Gamertagged, we explore how IndieVoice transformed from a childhood username into a platform dedicated to championing indie developers and preserving digital history. From his early days as ShadowMegaManZX to becoming the Neon Guardian of indie games on YouTube, his story is one of evolution, purpose, and impact. A gamer. A developer. A reviewer. A guardian.

We talk:

  • The origin of “ShadowMegaManZX” and what it meant
  • Why IndieVoice became a mission, not just a moniker
  • Game preservation, review ethics, and fighting burnout
  • The emotional power of being seen by devs you admire

🃏 And in the ReRoll, we co-create IndieVoice’s official Gamertagged Trading Card — a robotic indie hero lit by a glowing star core, ninja mask on, saber in hand — defending small creators one pixel at a time.

Guest: IndieVoice
Hosts: Scarto46 & Ryanocerus
Produced by: Gamertagged Studios

🎧 IndieVoice:
YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@IndieVoice
X – https://x.com/TheIndieSupport

🌐 Gamertagged Links:
Website – https://www.gamertaggedpodcast.com
Discord – https://discord.com/invite/5pmkhvq6wN
Support the Studio – https://ko-fi.com/gamertagged
Everything Gamertagged – https://linktr.ee/gamertagged

Tell us your gamertag story 🎮

Support the show

Gamertagged is a podcast by Gamertagged Studios
Digital identities. Real stories.

We explore the meaning behind gamertags, usernames, and online personas through interviews with gamers, creators, and the people behind the screen.

Spotlights & Partnerships
We collaborate with aligned creators and causes. From mental health to digital identity advocacy, we use our platform to lift others up.
Now spotlighting: Take This - Supporting Mental Health in Games https://www.takethis.org/

Meet the Crew
Scarto46 – Host & founder. Game dev, storyteller, identity nerd. Architect of the ReRoll.
Ryanocerus – Cohost & composer. Chaos generator with a lo-fi heart.
Portabella – Producer & editor. Emotional compass of the pod.
Sue-She – Art director. Turns identities into cards and vision.
Marthah Maple – Guest & partnerships lead. Builds the bridge between story and studio.

What is Gamertagged Studios?
A studio built by friends and family. We tell stories that matter about identity, memory, and what it means to be seen online.
Learn more: gamertaggedpodcast.com

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00:00 - Cold Open: Cut Man Was Useless

00:34 - Intro: From ShadowMegaManZX to IndieVoice

04:03 - What Mega Man Power Would You Choose?

05:06 - Becoming IndieVoice: A Platform with Purpose

06:56 - Reviewing Games to Uplift Developers

09:40 - Games & Beyond: Expanding the Mission

11:51 - Reclaiming the Golden Age of Gaming

13:33 - Game Design as a Form of Communication

17:26 - Emotional Connections to Indie Devs

18:02 - From Game Dev Student to Reviewer

21:43 - Team Projects and Creative Ideas

23:14 - Being Seen at PAX: “I’m Doing the Right Thing”

26:18 - Preserving Game History and Digital Legacy

29:18 - Where IndieVoice Feels Most Himself

31:13 - Metamorphosis: ZX to IndieVoice

34:04 - What ShadowMegaManZX Looks Like

34:53 - What IndieVoice Looks Like

35:49 - GDC, Burnout, and the Reality of AAA

42:25 - ReRoll Begins: The Neon Guardian

42:31 - Final Reflections and Where to Find Him

WEBVTT

00:00:00.020 --> 00:00:03.791
I know I don't want to make fun of him, but CutMan was useless.

00:00:03.791 --> 00:00:07.503
You threw out a pair of scissors, man, I had dodged those.

00:00:07.503 --> 00:00:08.848
Is that all he did?

00:00:08.848 --> 00:00:09.750
He's just cutting.

00:00:11.925 --> 00:00:13.951
So it's like, oh, there we go, I figured it out.

00:00:13.951 --> 00:00:15.781
Game attack.

00:00:34.595 --> 00:00:36.517
Welcome to today's episode of Gamertagged.

00:00:36.517 --> 00:00:39.268
Today's guest is someone who's more than just a voice in the crowd.

00:00:39.268 --> 00:00:44.808
He is the Voice, a champion for independent creators and a lifelong gamer with roots in game development.

00:00:44.808 --> 00:00:51.704
Indie Voice has spent the last nine years building a platform to spotlight the overlooked, be underfunded and the downright brilliant.

00:00:51.704 --> 00:00:59.460
From quick hit reviews to deep dives on game preservation, he's out here giving indie games the respect they deserve and making sure their developers feel seen.

00:00:59.460 --> 00:01:04.243
He's published over 700 videos helping to support independent developers.

00:01:04.243 --> 00:01:06.224
He's published over 700 videos helping to support independent developers worldwide.

00:01:06.224 --> 00:01:17.671
Today's story is one about passion that comes from understanding and seeing folks in positions where they were overlooked and not given the support they need, and trying to make a platform to do that.

00:01:17.671 --> 00:01:26.097
Today's story is the metamorphosis from once ShadowMegaManZX, where his roots start, to today as IndieVoice.

00:01:26.097 --> 00:01:30.265
Let's roll.

00:01:30.265 --> 00:01:35.394
So, first thing, right, shadowmegamanzx, that is your gamer tag, your original gamer tag.

00:01:39.683 --> 00:01:40.944
What's the story behind that gamer tag?

00:01:40.944 --> 00:01:44.668
So ShadowMegaManZX, it was something that in the beginning I didn't.

00:01:44.668 --> 00:01:53.180
I got my first console like Xbox 360 or something, and at the time I was like I don't have any idea what's right here.

00:01:53.180 --> 00:02:00.067
A friend of mine, kevin, was like man, you played Mega man Battle Network a lot, so why don't you call it Mega man something?

00:02:00.067 --> 00:02:01.867
And I'm like, okay, yeah, that makes sense.

00:02:01.867 --> 00:02:13.985
And then at the same time, there was I think it was Mega man Zero which happened, and that was the Game Boy Advance and yeah, I was super into that because they did a really good job on it.

00:02:14.707 --> 00:02:32.960
And then, along the way, advent Children, then there was Mega man ZX, and then it was something like I was like you know what, and the Shadow the Hedgehog wasn't one of my favorite sonic characters because he was just I'm this dude that comes out of nowhere, I'm a bad guy, let me just come out of here save you, and then I'm gonna walk away.

00:02:32.960 --> 00:02:35.284
Yeah, that's awesome.

00:02:35.284 --> 00:02:41.264
So that I just fused them together and then I was like, yeah, that you know what that works.

00:02:41.264 --> 00:02:47.794
I'm just something that gives a bit of retro and more of hey, shadow the Hedgehog, that dude's awesome.

00:02:48.495 --> 00:02:49.116
Oh yeah, yeah.

00:02:49.116 --> 00:02:56.450
So that name really represents like different parts of your personality, right, because you were just talking about how Sonic was like the game when you were younger.

00:02:56.450 --> 00:03:04.626
And then you have a love for the Mega man series too, right, and you just fuse it all together and that's Shadow Mega man ZX.

00:03:05.780 --> 00:03:07.403
I played my Mega man one, two, three.

00:03:07.403 --> 00:03:23.580
I played all through them and then at a point in time it was like ballot network showed up and then that's pretty much what spammed it yeah and yeah I stuck to that name for years because it was just like it's a part of a history that started a good chunk of what I do.

00:03:23.580 --> 00:03:31.409
I'm that one kid that was in class that probably had two handhelds and all the Nintendo power game informers and all that stuff in the backpack.

00:03:32.322 --> 00:03:33.848
And they were like where's your school books?

00:03:33.848 --> 00:03:35.669
You're the reason why they made a Wii.

00:03:36.978 --> 00:03:37.280
Probably.

00:03:37.280 --> 00:03:42.669
We can get out there and they're like Joe that's it.

00:03:42.669 --> 00:03:43.651
That's awesome.

00:03:43.670 --> 00:03:44.453
That's all to say.

00:03:44.453 --> 00:03:45.634
That's the name.

00:03:45.634 --> 00:03:57.771
Have you ever thought about, I guess, if you're like going to be a Mega man character, right, Since you were talking about like how deep that was in your lore which Mega man character would you be?

00:03:58.659 --> 00:04:03.586
Like of all the supervillains or heroes, I think about it like which power would you want?

00:04:03.687 --> 00:04:05.882
Leap man, yeah, so out of the villains.

00:04:05.882 --> 00:04:09.337
Right, because you acquire those powers over over the journey of megaman.

00:04:09.337 --> 00:04:12.068
Right, you get those powers and you can then use them as megaman.

00:04:12.068 --> 00:04:13.495
Which one was?

00:04:13.495 --> 00:04:14.800
Which one of those powers?

00:04:15.060 --> 00:04:30.966
yep, that's the one I think I want to be probably most likely electric man or ice man, but other than, but only those two, because they're probably the most useful when it comes to daily life situations.

00:04:30.966 --> 00:04:36.139
The only one I found just as just super useless was cut man.

00:04:36.139 --> 00:04:40.526
I know I don't want to make fun of him, but cut man was useless.

00:04:40.526 --> 00:04:43.071
You threw out a pair of scissors, man.

00:04:43.071 --> 00:04:44.192
I could dodge those.

00:04:44.192 --> 00:04:50.848
Yeah, man, he's just cutting, so it'll freeze you to death.

00:04:50.848 --> 00:04:52.225
There we go, I figured it out.

00:04:54.435 --> 00:04:56.346
I can move faster Because I can throw down the ice.

00:04:57.331 --> 00:04:57.737
Electric.

00:04:57.776 --> 00:05:03.884
Man Was really hard to fight and it was like oh man, that was such a brutal fight.

00:05:03.884 --> 00:05:06.723
Brian, did you have a question that you wanted to answer?

00:05:06.744 --> 00:05:08.711
yeah, yeah, no, I just.

00:05:08.711 --> 00:05:19.081
We talked about the gamer tag being shadow mega man the act, but your youtube and other stuff is indie void and that feels more like a mission than a nickname.

00:05:19.081 --> 00:05:22.411
When I first heard it I'm a musician so I thought music stuff.

00:05:22.411 --> 00:05:27.947
But really when did you realize that is who you wanted to be and the community you wanted to uplift?

00:05:28.821 --> 00:05:39.130
So when I came to the name of Indie Voice, it took me a while to get through to the name because before I had this channel I was called Sky Terror Reviews.

00:05:39.130 --> 00:05:40.805
It was the old name.

00:05:40.805 --> 00:05:41.281
I just.

00:05:41.281 --> 00:05:44.509
I went through Latin dictionary and I said, okay, this means what?

00:05:44.509 --> 00:05:44.685
After a while the channel didn't feel.

00:05:44.685 --> 00:05:45.298
Just I went through Latin dictionary and I said, okay, this means what?

00:05:45.298 --> 00:05:48.567
After a while the channel didn't feel like what I wanted.

00:05:48.567 --> 00:05:49.468
It felt useless.

00:05:49.468 --> 00:05:52.925
So I deleted it and I decided to restart again.

00:05:53.425 --> 00:06:05.476
Then Indie Voice I saw all these indie games, all these amazing accomplishments, people breaking barriers of genres of games more than triple a title companies could ever do.

00:06:05.476 --> 00:06:07.762
I need to make something like that.

00:06:07.762 --> 00:06:20.000
So my first logo was a microphone and it had indie voice on the side of it, because I'm being the voice of all these indie games that are people never heard of or they're going.

00:06:20.000 --> 00:06:20.942
This game sucks.

00:06:20.942 --> 00:06:23.266
I'm like let's look deeper into this and why.

00:06:23.266 --> 00:06:24.168
It may be bad.

00:06:24.168 --> 00:06:28.845
It could be bad, but it has something that you may have never experienced before.

00:06:28.845 --> 00:06:32.632
So with indie voice, it was more of.

00:06:32.632 --> 00:06:56.392
I am being the voice of those that you can't hear or those that you never seen before, or games out there that are just so buried amongst all these other AAA titles you can't even see where it is, so, like you, you wanted to represent like marginalized developers who just don't have the money to advertise, or go marketing to social media marketer or anything like that.

00:06:56.759 --> 00:07:14.163
So, I'm being the person that's out there reviewing all these games, like the one game I reviewed was jump team, team, and even though that game was the most stressful thing in my life, it was a useful mechanic of you have to be accurate with your jumps to reach from platform to platform.

00:07:14.163 --> 00:07:28.754
Sure, you're gonna fall down always at the bottom it's screen internally but it was a game that gave you a challenge to say, hey, I need to be as accurate as possible to get to this area, to this area, to get to the top, where it's going to be more challenging.

00:07:28.754 --> 00:07:33.151
And people, when they saw this game, the developer saw the review for it.

00:07:33.151 --> 00:07:39.410
Sure, he was laughing because I was in complete disarray because that game was like a bane in my existence.

00:07:39.410 --> 00:07:41.906
So, but what's funny?

00:07:41.906 --> 00:07:45.978
Like it was something that made me challenged from the usual games.

00:07:45.978 --> 00:07:53.685
I played that, oh man, I can jump to this platform and then I misjump it and I land it on my face and I'm just like I really want to destroy my controller today.

00:07:54.982 --> 00:08:07.411
Do you feel like there's been times in that cycle you're talking about where maybe it's the first time for some of the devs to see someone like QA that game and walk through it and then ask the question of is that really what I wanted to create?

00:08:07.411 --> 00:08:10.569
Has that ever been like an experience you've had in the work you've been doing there?

00:08:11.100 --> 00:08:26.076
I would think from my experiences of the many games I reviewed, there have been people that showed me these games and some of them look like they may be saying you may or may not be interested in this, or they'll boost my first game, be interested in this, or they'll boost my first game.

00:08:26.076 --> 00:08:30.249
And then it's like they're throwing out the little confidence they have about their game because they're not sure if it's going to be like a major hit or something.

00:08:30.249 --> 00:08:44.142
And I'm giving them the positive reinforcements of comments so it gives them more of hey, this game may have this issue, but you are improving it with this issue.

00:08:44.142 --> 00:08:45.668
You just need to fine tune things.

00:08:45.668 --> 00:08:52.186
So constructive, positive, constructive criticism yeah, feedback, not the harsh reality as many others.

00:08:52.527 --> 00:09:01.489
If we want to say who we know who is giving up the harsh reality of what their game is and barely giving them much constructive criticism.

00:09:01.489 --> 00:09:05.068
But you released a game and that is what you wanted to do.

00:09:05.068 --> 00:09:14.505
But now expand on that, improve on what you missed up and then do something better, because there's always going to be a golden egg from your game.

00:09:14.505 --> 00:09:15.149
There may be.

00:09:15.149 --> 00:09:24.210
It may not be done automatically, but over time you will reach that area where it's like finely tuned and you're going to love it and you're going to be like man.

00:09:24.210 --> 00:09:24.890
I'm proud of myself.

00:09:28.100 --> 00:09:28.644
That's super cool.

00:09:28.644 --> 00:09:33.849
I did notice on your like your logo with the microphone that it says games and beyond.

00:09:33.849 --> 00:09:36.147
I'm curious what is the beyond?

00:09:36.147 --> 00:09:37.200
Where has that taken you?

00:09:37.200 --> 00:09:39.006
That is, outside of the gaming space?

00:09:40.221 --> 00:09:40.380
Oh.

00:09:40.520 --> 00:09:55.267
So I have been trying to co collect some ideas or things that I want to expand from not just video games, but maybe expand to tabletops, to maybe some other things out there, because I want to try to expand that.

00:09:55.419 --> 00:10:01.212
It's just, life has not been easy or I have not figured out a way to implement that yet.

00:10:01.212 --> 00:10:07.283
I'd probably need like a group of like maybe 10 people or maybe five to do, like, tabletop games.

00:10:07.283 --> 00:10:52.292
I want to expand to tabletop games but at the same time, it's the only one man right now, so you can only do video games, but you want to expand to maybe tabletop, to, yeah, some vr stuff or maybe some other things that people have made in the in the industry that have helped the world in a better way or done something that many of these other corporations could do, but they don't want to do so as a person like I think you're listening, or you're listening to what the developers are saying, not just like verbally, but you're listening to the content that they're creating and you see it as I want to elevate this idea, even though that idea could be something that, like, isn't necessarily polished or whatever, but it's a, you see, the idea that someone's created.

00:10:53.582 --> 00:10:55.052
It's a good idea that's sitting there.

00:10:55.072 --> 00:11:09.283
Sure, it may not be polished, sure, and that'd be like the best thing since sliced bread, but it is something that can easily grow into something 10 times better over time I.

00:11:09.803 --> 00:11:12.450
I think people can be drawn to the simple games.

00:11:12.450 --> 00:11:20.743
Games have gotten to the point where sometimes you're pushing, you've got to push eight different buttons in different orders and stuff and it's thinking.

00:11:20.743 --> 00:11:25.607
I'm thinking back to the days when we had the smaller controllers with left buttons and left.

00:11:25.900 --> 00:11:39.004
I didn't realize things have gotten, as the world has gotten, more intricate and complicated, games have followed suit, and so I think there is this draw to a game like Geek that's two buttons, you have one goal.

00:11:39.004 --> 00:11:43.022
It's not a thousand side quests or anything like that, like it's just two buttons.

00:11:43.163 --> 00:11:46.932
A or B club down left and then just go about what you want to do here.

00:11:46.932 --> 00:11:51.542
Yeah, like two-homics zone, that was pretty much what that was Like in that same vein.

00:11:51.562 --> 00:11:57.529
Like you had a review that dropped for N-Cycle and you said that felt like Battle Network all over again.

00:11:57.529 --> 00:11:58.763
So what is it?

00:11:58.763 --> 00:12:06.162
And I think, like you both are talking about it, but we don't have to talk game.

00:12:06.162 --> 00:12:12.302
Games, we can talk about philosophy, but like, what is it about that era of like battle network that you think we've lost and what indie games are trying to reclaim it?

00:12:12.624 --> 00:12:24.869
the indie scene is trying to get the era of the golden age of gaming, where people actually enjoy the games they have, while triple-a title companies are barely doing that anymore.

00:12:24.869 --> 00:12:30.436
They're not even touching the fun aspects of a video game.

00:12:30.436 --> 00:12:35.349
Now they mostly want more profit, which is not what gamers want today.

00:12:35.349 --> 00:12:44.450
If I'm spending $70 to $80 on a game, I want it to be fun, at least worth of the time that you're giving the price tag.

00:12:44.450 --> 00:12:48.423
And sadly I'm estimating this entirely.

00:12:48.423 --> 00:12:51.850
70, maybe 8, maybe 75 percent are just like.

00:12:51.850 --> 00:12:53.234
The games aren't fun anymore.

00:12:53.234 --> 00:12:55.123
They're not like what people want.

00:12:55.123 --> 00:13:03.644
So indie games are reclaiming the golden age where every game was like oh man, this is good, I can't wait to go back home and play it.

00:13:03.644 --> 00:13:12.303
Or friends are talking about I man, I caught this thing in power world where, and then a whole bunch of other stuff, so it's yeah for me.

00:13:12.684 --> 00:13:33.014
I can totally identify with that because I sort of like when I think about, like what games like make me up as a person, like that is something that resonates with me is like braid with jonathan blow or fez by Phil Fish, right, like games that were trying to say something or do something with a very common interaction method.

00:13:33.519 --> 00:13:44.734
They're both one's a 3D platformer, the other is a 2D platformer but it's a vessel or a way to express a different mechanic or a story or like even try weird things.

00:13:44.734 --> 00:13:47.583
A different mechanic or a story or like even try weird things.

00:13:47.583 --> 00:13:55.390
And what I always love doing is trying to understand the designer and the developer and their intention behind the art that they've created, cause I don't ever look at them as it's a game that I paid money for.

00:13:55.390 --> 00:14:04.620
I look at it as a person sat down over multiple months or years and laid out this experience they wanted someone to have.

00:14:04.620 --> 00:14:32.154
And one of the cool things I think about games is they are a quiet communication of both interaction, expectations and progression to a player that they've never met, and so your game has to do that and like those things became very formative to me of trying to understand what the developer is saying, not like verbally, but like with their actual design and intent.

00:14:32.154 --> 00:14:34.206
Is that something that like, resonates with you?

00:14:34.508 --> 00:14:36.172
yeah, because there was a.

00:14:36.172 --> 00:14:37.615
What was the game called?

00:14:37.615 --> 00:14:39.969
I can't think about them all, but there was there.

00:14:39.969 --> 00:15:08.258
Every time I get an indie game or I purchase one, I immediately look at this and go, okay, so I know I bought this, but I want to see how this game plays and how it's something that could easily be like, different than all the rest of the games Vampire Survivors, now that has a mass niche of like video games that follow that same genre of that, but they all do different things, even though they all use the same mechanics.

00:15:09.005 --> 00:15:12.294
This person looked at the original and said how can I improve this?

00:15:12.294 --> 00:15:14.089
How can I make this more fun?

00:15:14.089 --> 00:15:19.924
How can I expand more of the tree of the entire characters that I'm creating?

00:15:19.924 --> 00:15:28.068
So it's like they're all not piggybacking, but they're more like I'm giving inspiration for something that maybe you want to expand on.

00:15:28.068 --> 00:15:46.667
Something I didn't see, though, yeah, I do feel that like it's something that the indie developers are helping each other, not verbally, but more of inspiring more indie developers to do what they want to do and make that game they've been dreaming yeah, man, I love your passion, like I.

00:15:47.989 --> 00:16:01.034
I think your head face is in a similar one as mine and for me my background comes like from an education, from game dev, right, like I grew up, I wanted to make games, I got into game dev and then I was like, oh, this industry is brutal.

00:16:01.034 --> 00:16:36.980
But I've always been fascinated with trying to understand the like, the outskirts of the industry, like the people who make stuff or the people who engage with stuff, or just even, like in this exact show, the social spaces and the communities that are born out of the industry itself, where you don't have the word gamertag without having a reason to build those environments or communities where you're a unique thing engaging with something and people know you by that name and I think that all that's so cool and I guess it's.

00:16:37.041 --> 00:16:54.413
I've always been really fascinated with the fringes of the industry, just coming from that background yeah, and as these are some people that were used to being in the industry back then and then they separated from the triple a industry to make their own company like Team 17.

00:16:54.413 --> 00:17:00.655
I think that's what it was the same people who used to work for Rare and now they're their own little thing.

00:17:00.655 --> 00:17:10.674
They're trying to bring back the age of where you can feel comfortable playing whatever game you want without having to have any sort of worries about the world as it is.

00:17:10.674 --> 00:17:15.352
And that's what I like about video games, because video games take me out of.

00:17:15.352 --> 00:17:18.592
If I had a long stressful day, I want to play Spider-Man 2.

00:17:18.592 --> 00:17:26.413
I just swing about, beat up some bad guys, do some cool air tricks, switch between Miles and Peter and just have fun.

00:17:26.845 --> 00:17:29.133
Yeah, your content doesn't like just review games.

00:17:29.133 --> 00:17:30.525
Right, Like you build a space.

00:17:30.525 --> 00:17:35.872
You have a lot of folks who who followed you for a long time and they engage with you and they really trust the content you make.

00:17:35.872 --> 00:17:42.095
But there's something like deeply personal about how you like champion these smaller voices in the industry.

00:17:42.095 --> 00:17:46.471
What drives that emotional connection for you to the devs that you feature?

00:17:47.627 --> 00:18:02.780
So, when it comes to me reviewing most of these games for, like, smaller devs, big devs or the rare chance it's a AAA title game that I actually enjoy or want to review what drives that connection for me to do these things?

00:18:02.964 --> 00:18:04.711
Because I used to be a developer myself.

00:18:05.045 --> 00:18:19.969
I know the ins and outs of like how Unreal Engine works, how Unity works, how CryEngine works works, how unity works, how cry engine works, and I know it's tough because you want to make something that you want to bring to life that you've been dreaming about, but you have no idea how to put it out there successfully.

00:18:20.088 --> 00:18:54.634
And when I see these people and I see their like backgrounds, how they like made the videos or how they made the games and everything, and you know how they take the time doing it I feel like inspiration that these people took hours of doing this throughout their day working at day jobs or great jobs, drawing up plans, making ideas, taking the time to make a game that they want to put out there the world, to see how much they can get by impressing all these gamers out there that play video games daily to say what do you you think of what I'm dreaming of?

00:18:54.634 --> 00:19:07.372
Yeah, yeah, for sure I want to build that space, that look, I may not get to everybody's games I'm only one man but I would try to make sure to make your game be visible out there, because you worked hard on this.

00:19:07.372 --> 00:19:12.155
You don't want like any old game journalist, just oh, thumbs down, sucks.

00:19:13.484 --> 00:19:20.653
So you, as a game dev right, You're looking at this through the eyes of someone went into this, this classic type of media right A genre.

00:19:20.792 --> 00:19:21.375
All right A genre.

00:19:22.569 --> 00:19:24.743
And then they wanted to do something unique and different and they may.

00:19:24.743 --> 00:19:32.894
They took what they thought was funny or fun or interesting rap mechanics around it Made it actually an interesting experience for you.

00:19:32.894 --> 00:19:37.070
And then you're like, ok, cool, you maybe missed the point.

00:19:37.070 --> 00:19:44.855
Like the larger reviews, the reviewer missed the point of that whole thing, and so you're like this has to change.

00:19:45.135 --> 00:19:53.871
Yeah, and I understand you trying to make sure to review all these AAA title games, but there are a lot of indie games here that do better than them, sadly enough.

00:19:54.311 --> 00:19:56.396
What are some games you worked on during indie dev?

00:19:56.396 --> 00:20:05.365
Like when you were doing development, we probably had a lot of projects you worked on, but what are some things that stuck out to you as moments where you were trying to like, take something and make it feel new?

00:20:06.186 --> 00:20:08.911
So I had several game ideas in the past.

00:20:08.911 --> 00:20:10.432
It was some really ideas.

00:20:10.432 --> 00:20:15.500
I wanted to try to expand also, but if you remember the game, it was a parasite.

00:20:15.500 --> 00:20:16.441
No, it was a parasite.

00:20:16.441 --> 00:20:20.730
It was something with a character named Alex Mercer and I try to remember what that is.

00:20:20.730 --> 00:20:28.991
It was some game with a dude with a jacket and a hoodie but he was going around getting power ups to expand his like.

00:20:28.991 --> 00:20:30.974
Yeah, that's it, Thank you.

00:20:30.974 --> 00:20:34.460
Thank you, I remember Alex Mercer, but I couldn't remember the name for the life of me.

00:20:37.724 --> 00:20:48.192
That game had a really unique concept of you're jumping around superhuman strength, everything like that but then over time you gain abilities which changes the form of how your body works and expands on that.

00:20:48.192 --> 00:21:03.070
I had an idea to use like metals or things like that to kind of figure the character's body into different types of shapes of what they wanted to do, and that was an idea I had and I worked on one game.

00:21:03.070 --> 00:21:10.334
It's not really fully out there, it's just a private game we haven't really touched in years, but it was called dia deos dinosaur.

00:21:10.334 --> 00:21:12.417
It was like a school project type of thing.

00:21:12.417 --> 00:21:14.851
It was supposed to be like Day of the Dead with dinosaurs.

00:21:14.851 --> 00:21:18.420
That sounds rad, yeah it was really fun.

00:21:19.046 --> 00:21:28.550
It was a really cool game and then it was an end of school project, but we still had, like our game dev recordings and things like that Worked on it with Unity and really good people.

00:21:28.550 --> 00:21:30.645
They edited, they did art.

00:21:30.645 --> 00:21:32.307
They did a lot of amazing stuff for it.

00:21:32.307 --> 00:21:42.855
Sure, it wasn't like the most polished thing, but we had a really good idea for making like a platformer and then unique type of things about Day of the Dead and a lot of other things that I remember about it.

00:21:43.416 --> 00:21:46.538
Do you think back to those moments of doing that work with your team?

00:21:46.538 --> 00:21:52.663
Because it's never, it's rarely, one person who's building it and, like you, start to have this emotional bond with the team who's building it.

00:21:52.663 --> 00:21:59.673
The group and everything Right and so the game becomes a manifestation of the vibe of that group Right, is that kind of?

00:21:59.673 --> 00:22:01.384
Is that something else that, like, maybe stands out to you?

00:22:02.048 --> 00:22:09.471
If we had the time, or more things like more time to do all this for years of time or just leaving our own team or anything.

00:22:09.471 --> 00:22:16.394
Sure, I would love to be a game designer again to try to redo what I could do or try to fix a lot of stuff in Unity and things.

00:22:16.394 --> 00:22:26.594
But then at the same time you realize we could do this, but we're going to need a lot of help just to make sure we keep this going.

00:22:26.594 --> 00:22:30.865
And then you have a lot of competition, the niche, everything, and then it's.

00:22:30.865 --> 00:22:32.228
I would love to keep going.

00:22:32.228 --> 00:22:38.057
Even if it wasn't the most successful game or anything like that, I would still say I released a game and we did it together.

00:22:38.057 --> 00:22:39.798
I don't see the downsides here.

00:22:43.005 --> 00:22:46.798
Bro, I think you just described indie game development, which is exactly why you're in this business and trying to help people.

00:22:47.986 --> 00:22:55.599
Because it's not easy out there when you have, like Final Fantasy VII, new Horizons, so part four, I'm like, yeah thanks, I need that one now.

00:22:55.923 --> 00:22:58.513
Yeah, you were talking about uplifting those indie devs.

00:22:58.513 --> 00:23:00.432
There was a moment from Packed Wet.

00:23:00.432 --> 00:23:04.856
There's a clip where a dev thanked you directly for featuring their work.

00:23:04.856 --> 00:23:10.298
Just what did that feel like to be recognized and be seen by a voice that matters.

00:23:14.484 --> 00:23:30.473
Honestly, when I shook that person's hand and then talking to all of them there over time and introducing myself and things like that, sure it was very busy and people were like talking very loudly and going it felt like I'm doing the right thing, like it felt like I'm making somewhat of a difference in the world.

00:23:30.534 --> 00:23:32.919
I really want to try to make my mark on the world.

00:23:32.919 --> 00:23:36.775
I want to try to leave something behind and say, hey, I did this.

00:23:36.775 --> 00:23:40.615
I made indie games important.

00:23:40.615 --> 00:23:46.307
I made indie games into something that, hey, doesn't matter how small your game is, if you did it.

00:23:46.307 --> 00:23:51.077
You put your blood, sweat and probably many keyboards that are probably broken right now.

00:23:51.077 --> 00:23:53.153
You did this.

00:23:53.153 --> 00:23:53.959
You took the time to now.

00:23:53.959 --> 00:23:54.281
You did this.

00:23:54.281 --> 00:23:55.346
You took the time to make the game.

00:23:55.346 --> 00:23:58.900
You took the time to work on it with your team or just by yourself.

00:23:58.900 --> 00:24:01.007
You made something inspirational.

00:24:01.828 --> 00:24:10.027
When that dude took my hand, I said thank you for reviewing my game and thank you for talking to me about it and thanks for taking the time to even look at it or even review the demo or something.

00:24:10.027 --> 00:24:11.951
And I'm like, hey, man, look it.

00:24:11.951 --> 00:24:12.292
Look.

00:24:12.292 --> 00:24:13.957
I'm always happy to help them.

00:24:13.957 --> 00:24:21.050
I'm always happy to make sure that they know that their game, that they put all their time in, has some sort of visibility Somehow, some way.

00:24:21.050 --> 00:24:27.778
And it felt great that I did something inspirational to someone to keep going and keep making their games.

00:24:27.778 --> 00:24:30.574
It's something that someone is out there watching all of them.

00:24:31.164 --> 00:24:31.689
Watching what?

00:24:31.709 --> 00:24:36.173
they do Not like some sort of soccer or something, someone that you want people to feel seen.

00:24:36.424 --> 00:24:39.315
So you're watching, you're trying to be a supportive voice for them.

00:24:39.315 --> 00:24:40.590
Yeah, I totally get that.

00:24:40.590 --> 00:24:42.391
The world is still connected, though.

00:24:42.451 --> 00:24:49.551
Really, we're going to sound super cliche, but one person can really have that impact because of how connected we are as a society.

00:24:49.551 --> 00:24:50.453
Totally.

00:24:50.914 --> 00:24:52.557
Totally, yeah, yeah, of how connected we are as a society.

00:24:52.557 --> 00:24:53.138
Totally, totally, yeah, yeah.

00:24:53.138 --> 00:24:57.772
You've been out here making content like that for nine years, dude, and I would say that a lot yeah.

00:24:57.772 --> 00:25:02.656
But like that, you're trying to be a positive ripple and make that happen every day.

00:25:02.656 --> 00:25:21.910
We were talking before the show and one of the things you were talking about was like how you focus on the process and how to make it more effective and make sure that the reviews can be consumable and thinking about the audience who's consuming them, but also trying to make sure that you're building content that's valuable and people are interested in, and really like you're doing that in the pursuit of.

00:25:21.910 --> 00:25:30.013
I want you to watch this, because I think it's important for you to watch it, and I'm trying to make sure that I'm doing my part in enabling you to do that.

00:25:30.355 --> 00:25:36.965
That's cool and I've reviewed.

00:25:36.965 --> 00:25:37.185
I've done.

00:25:37.185 --> 00:25:43.499
I try to expand from just doing game reviews to doing good old games video where I show like good old games, or GOG is making preservation for video games.

00:25:43.499 --> 00:25:48.396
I try to make sure people know that we are part of video game history.

00:25:48.396 --> 00:25:51.538
We have experienced it we have been there.

00:25:51.538 --> 00:25:59.218
We have been through the point where someone goes the ps2 was out or the we, and then seeing halo 3 being released

00:26:03.193 --> 00:26:18.673
But it's just, you were part of that history and you try to forget the fact that you did that, and you should be proud of the fact that you got to experience something over time that nobody else today has ever experienced, and they wish they were there to see that.

00:26:18.964 --> 00:26:24.112
I remember pre-ordering games and going to GameStop to get them and that's not a thing anymore.

00:26:24.112 --> 00:26:29.557
Everything, even hard copies of games, aren't really much of a thing anymore.

00:26:29.557 --> 00:26:30.468
Yeah, you just hey.

00:26:30.468 --> 00:26:31.431
Oh, the game came out today.

00:26:31.431 --> 00:26:37.631
I'm going to download, or you can pre-download it, so it's ready to go.

00:26:37.651 --> 00:26:42.827
it's just like on release date, but there's not that feeling of paying up late, going to game stop or wherever waiting in line, and then going home and being like.

00:26:42.907 --> 00:26:45.556
I know it's like 12 30, but I'm gonna play this game now.

00:26:45.615 --> 00:26:54.833
I'm just gonna play a couple hours yeah, but I hear you, I hear you hear say that and I think, based on everything we've talked about, like you're not saying that because, oh, I just want more games.

00:26:54.833 --> 00:26:56.388
That's not like why.

00:26:56.388 --> 00:26:58.295
That's not the motivation, I don't think.

00:26:58.295 --> 00:27:02.076
I think the motivation is people made cool stuff and we shouldn't just throw it away.

00:27:02.076 --> 00:27:06.817
We should like appreciate it and understand it and celebrate it.

00:27:06.817 --> 00:27:09.228
Like you're not coming at it from the perspective of oh, I really like video games.

00:27:09.228 --> 00:27:10.910
You're not coming at it from the perspective of oh, I really like video games.

00:27:10.910 --> 00:27:16.656
I think you do, but I think you're coming at it from the perspective of I think we shouldn't just throw people's art away.

00:27:17.278 --> 00:27:19.000
Like we shouldn't throw away history.

00:27:19.599 --> 00:27:40.260
Look, you're building a really cool world right of talking about these things, and I love your perspective on preservation and I'm totally passionate about the same thing, right, because at some point, like it all becomes digital garbage where it just gets thrown out and it's not that, and I think, as Rhinoceros pointed out, a lot of these things end up where they're a download today and then they just vanish into the ether.

00:27:40.260 --> 00:27:47.127
In building this world, there's also like a sense in what I'm, what I've watched your videos of, like protectiveness, right, because you're protective of the industry.

00:27:47.127 --> 00:27:50.836
Are there parts of yourself or your story you intentionally keep off?

00:27:50.896 --> 00:27:51.258
camera.

00:27:51.258 --> 00:27:54.305
Are there parts of yourself or your story you intentionally keep off camera?

00:27:54.305 --> 00:27:56.646
Like I mentioned, in school I was.

00:27:56.646 --> 00:27:58.342
I wasn't really excited about school whenever I went to it because it was just like I'm back in reality.

00:27:58.342 --> 00:28:00.811
I'm like, yeah, back to doing homework.

00:28:01.765 --> 00:28:18.637
So I was just that kid that read all the Game of Thrones magazines, I had Nintendo Power, I had all the Ubisoft games, microsoft ones, and I was reading and looking at the pictures and seeing how colorful and how somebody put a lot of detail on something.

00:28:18.637 --> 00:28:19.847
I'm like I want to play that one.

00:28:19.847 --> 00:28:21.152
Next, I want to play that one.

00:28:21.152 --> 00:28:24.388
Friends came up to me asking what's the newest game, man, what's up?

00:28:24.388 --> 00:28:25.813
And then a whole bunch of other stuff.

00:28:26.433 --> 00:28:29.208
And sure, I did do my homework.

00:28:29.208 --> 00:28:32.537
But then at a point in time, it's just, you figure, you want to be a game journalist.

00:28:32.537 --> 00:28:41.640
So then you know you want to try to do something supportive, try to do something that's hey, this game looks fun.

00:28:41.640 --> 00:29:05.127
It became part of my persona that I loved video games for what they are how they bring people together, how they do something different, how they keep expanding and doing something new, bringing more creativity out than probably would on a painting on the wall or there probably is a video game that does that right now with VR, and it's just like we are making history.

00:29:06.049 --> 00:29:08.655
Where do you feel like you're like today?

00:29:08.655 --> 00:29:10.406
Where do you feel like most yourself online?

00:29:10.406 --> 00:29:11.674
Is it in YouTube comments or discord or Twitter debates, like?

00:29:11.674 --> 00:29:12.619
Where do you feel like most yourself online?

00:29:12.619 --> 00:29:14.867
Is it in youtube comments or discord or twitter debates, like.

00:29:14.867 --> 00:29:18.035
Where do you feel like most yourselves today?

00:29:18.255 --> 00:29:24.778
oh, I would have said twitter, but twitter is, uh oh, a mess of youtube comments.

00:29:24.778 --> 00:29:31.117
I've gotten more supportive comments on youtube where people say, hey, I like your videos, I got a about this.

00:29:31.117 --> 00:29:35.770
And then I give them like a response and they add and they say thank you, thank you for taking the time to do this.

00:29:35.770 --> 00:29:42.236
India developers commenting on there as well and I get to tell them hey, I played your game, it was great.

00:29:42.236 --> 00:29:43.548
But just a couple of things.

00:29:43.548 --> 00:29:47.473
I appreciate you saw the video, but you're doing a great job on what you're doing here.

00:29:47.473 --> 00:29:48.275
Just keep it up.

00:29:48.414 --> 00:29:49.134
And most of them go.

00:29:49.134 --> 00:29:50.016
I need to hear that.

00:29:50.615 --> 00:30:01.906
Yeah, I look through some of your YouTube comments and, like that, you have people that are jumping in to ask questions about this particular game or give feedback even to you on your reviews, and you're super into hey man, give me feedback.

00:30:01.906 --> 00:30:03.009
I'm cool taking feedback.

00:30:03.009 --> 00:30:05.676
Just, I think you're cool giving positive feedback.

00:30:05.676 --> 00:30:19.194
What I noticed is that, like, you have a bunch of folks who are like-minded, who are like just jamming and that's the space you've created with being so open and kind and willing to give feedback, friendly like you've allowed those people to have that like engagement as well.

00:30:19.525 --> 00:30:20.851
Yeah, because I want them to be.

00:30:20.851 --> 00:30:25.694
You need a comfortable space, as hard as life is right now.

00:30:25.694 --> 00:30:31.355
You need a place to breathe, Breathe out, breathe in and just do be you.

00:30:32.145 --> 00:30:33.671
Yeah, man, for sure, 100.

00:30:33.711 --> 00:30:42.946
I can't, I can't just be like oh hey, no, it's locked down, you have to be robotic yeah, yeah, people are people dude it's you're gonna get.

00:30:42.946 --> 00:30:47.906
You're gonna get those type of people in the comments that'd be like, oh, your viewers are too short.

00:30:47.906 --> 00:30:50.031
I could do better than I'm just like did, please do.

00:30:50.031 --> 00:30:53.278
Yes, what can I tell you, man?

00:30:53.278 --> 00:30:55.951
The more visibility you get to indie games, I have no problem with that.

00:30:55.971 --> 00:31:07.339
Please do it almost feels like those kind of two personalities the shadow man zx and the indie voice are connected, you know.

00:31:07.339 --> 00:31:13.057
Do you view them separately, as representing yourself as a person, or do you see them as aligned?

00:31:13.984 --> 00:31:19.178
When it comes to both Shadow Mega man ZX and Indie Voice, I feel like it's like a.

00:31:19.178 --> 00:31:28.651
This is going to be very probably what's the word for this one Lame to say Just do it, man it's all good.

00:31:29.826 --> 00:31:31.112
It's like a metamorphosis.

00:31:31.112 --> 00:31:33.569
Oh, that's interesting.

00:31:33.569 --> 00:31:35.791
It's like when I was down on Mega man ZX.

00:31:35.791 --> 00:31:38.473
I was just a gamer playing games.

00:31:38.473 --> 00:31:43.164
I played Mega Legends at a point, I will say that but I was probably the person that was the most supportive.

00:31:43.164 --> 00:31:45.333
I didn't rage in those games.

00:31:45.333 --> 00:31:51.009
Or like when I'm playing Xbox and I'm playing with people online, I'll just say hey, dude, good job on that.

00:31:51.009 --> 00:31:52.770
They said I suck or something.

00:31:52.770 --> 00:31:53.932
I'm like hey, man, I probably do.

00:31:53.932 --> 00:31:54.833
But.

00:31:56.173 --> 00:32:24.231
And then after a while, when I got from pretty much probably in college, where I and Shadow Mega man ZX transformed and configured itself like a Rubik's Cube into what Indie Voice is now, where I expanded on just playing video games but being the person that's running about there showing people off their games, retweeting them, sharing about hey man, you seen that game, you seen that game?

00:32:24.292 --> 00:32:26.273
I'm showing you this one, look at this trailer.

00:32:26.273 --> 00:33:08.550
And then I'm just reviewing the games, taking five minutes a day to audio record edits, and then it takes me about, sadly, about an hour plus to make sure I add the videos correctly and post them schedule times, social media, all that jazz, and it feels sure I may not get a lot of likes and stuff, whatever it is, or thumbs ups on youtube or a whole bunch of stuff on twitter or instagram, but I put it out there myself because I believe into that game and I want them to see something that could be a good time interest for them, and that's what I want to do and and after I did this, it just feels great People actually taking the time to look.

00:33:09.452 --> 00:33:11.075
Yeah, for sure, that's awesome, man.

00:33:11.075 --> 00:33:11.981
Do you feel like?

00:33:11.981 --> 00:33:13.667
When I hear you say that?

00:33:13.667 --> 00:33:18.319
I feel like you think today Indie Voice more represents you, right?

00:33:18.319 --> 00:33:22.759
Because you're saying it's a metamorphosis from Shadow of Mega man ZX to Indie Voice.

00:33:22.759 --> 00:33:25.028
So you feel like today you are Indie Voice.

00:33:29.660 --> 00:33:30.261
Yeah, it feels like I voice.

00:33:30.261 --> 00:33:31.344
So you feel like today you are indie voice.

00:33:31.344 --> 00:33:34.592
Yeah, it's just I'm being the voice of indie games and I'm being supportive, as I like being who I am.

00:33:34.592 --> 00:33:40.827
So now it's just I feel better about me and they breathe more to my persona, of what I want to be.

00:33:40.827 --> 00:33:42.893
But shadow megaman zx is always there.

00:33:42.893 --> 00:33:44.845
It's always been part of the history.

00:33:44.845 --> 00:33:46.588
It's's part of the metamorphosis.

00:33:46.588 --> 00:33:49.303
It's just now carried along with it.

00:33:50.164 --> 00:34:03.786
It sounds like you're just a supporting person in general and you just happen to also be someone who likes video games, so you're putting yourself into those phases where you're not seeing support and trying to foster some of that.

00:34:04.307 --> 00:34:05.409
So I have a question.

00:34:05.409 --> 00:34:08.875
So have you ever thought about what Shadow Mega man ZX looks like?

00:34:08.875 --> 00:34:12.784
Probably like a.

00:34:12.784 --> 00:34:17.739
You can say anything, by the way, whatever you want to say, a robotic android.

00:34:18.322 --> 00:34:29.686
That is more of being that superhero that goes around saving people, maybe giving advice or helping those that need some help, or it's there in the time of need.

00:34:30.219 --> 00:34:33.449
So a robotic android hero, I got you.

00:34:33.449 --> 00:34:35.427
So do you see that in like a cityscape?

00:34:35.427 --> 00:34:38.344
Do you see that in space Like where?

00:34:38.364 --> 00:34:43.027
is Shadow Megalovania Cityscape like, maybe like the internet or something.

00:34:43.289 --> 00:34:43.971
Okay, all right.

00:34:44.090 --> 00:34:45.521
All right yeah.

00:34:45.521 --> 00:34:46.246
I was thinking Tron, For sure.

00:34:46.246 --> 00:34:46.911
All right, All right yeah.

00:34:46.931 --> 00:34:48.079
I was thinking Tron Sure All right, I like that.

00:34:48.079 --> 00:34:52.987
And when you think about indie voice, like what does indie voice look?

00:34:53.047 --> 00:34:53.208
like.

00:34:53.208 --> 00:34:58.007
It's another version of me, just like more cartoony, like a Saturday morning cartoons from Disney.

00:34:58.007 --> 00:35:00.186
That's pretty much how I look at him.

00:35:00.186 --> 00:35:21.987
He's probably the realer version of me, where we still both support people, but one is having more of a louder voice to millions and millions of people, but he is still doing his best to get through all of these other people to say these things about games you may not know about, and he's like that newspaper boy that you're just like.

00:35:21.987 --> 00:35:25.346
Yeah, there he is, he's on a star, he's zooming around with newspapers.

00:35:27.161 --> 00:35:27.583
I get it.

00:35:27.583 --> 00:35:28.186
I get it.

00:35:28.186 --> 00:35:28.688
That's awesome.

00:35:28.688 --> 00:35:30.204
Thank you for describing that.

00:35:30.204 --> 00:35:30.887
That's pretty cool.

00:35:31.619 --> 00:35:37.432
Yeah, you had said earlier that you started Indie Voice because the games were losing something.

00:35:37.432 --> 00:35:40.780
We were losing something in the big games that were coming out.

00:35:40.780 --> 00:35:44.867
Was there a certain moment that triggered that, for you a turning point?

00:35:44.867 --> 00:35:49.043
Or was it just a slow, brooding thing that finally hit triple a games?

00:35:49.184 --> 00:35:50.849
are losing cool.

00:35:50.849 --> 00:35:53.516
They were like these publishers.

00:35:53.516 --> 00:36:04.135
It's not the game companies, I could probably say they are not the ones responsible for how their games are being dissected and made into dlc or something, or oh, I don't like that, don't like that.

00:36:04.135 --> 00:36:11.791
I say it's mostly the publishers not all of them, but probably the main big three that have dissected the game industry into.

00:36:11.791 --> 00:36:15.505
I need more money, not the game to be fun.

00:36:15.505 --> 00:36:20.217
They are losing who they were and the industry is seeing it.

00:36:20.659 --> 00:36:22.021
You're doing crunch time.

00:36:22.021 --> 00:36:23.963
They're wearing themselves thin.

00:36:23.963 --> 00:36:28.168
They're literally not like having any more creative ideas because they just want to get this over with.

00:36:28.168 --> 00:36:44.849
Yeah, and when I went to gdc that one time in school I saw this and then that's where the moment sparked into my head that these developers are putting a lot of themselves in these games, in the work and time, barely able to see their families.

00:36:44.849 --> 00:36:49.686
Some of them have to sleep in their office under the desk just to make sure they wake up tomorrow to get it done.

00:36:49.686 --> 00:37:05.911
And it's just sad to see that these people that put all their dreams and be like I want to work for capcom and be the best, make the best team ever, and then you talk to them now and they're just like dude.

00:37:05.911 --> 00:37:11.030
I just want to go home, I just want to go eat dinner and then just stop thinking about a game for a second, and development.

00:37:11.579 --> 00:37:21.632
The illusion of what I saw as a kid as the game industry as being like this golden city of Willy Wonka and the chocolate factory is just a runes.

00:37:21.632 --> 00:37:35.313
And these big CEOs or publishers not all of them, I'm not saying not all of them, just main three don't care on how they all feel and how they're all stressed out.

00:37:35.661 --> 00:38:12.804
I really respect your perspective on, for those who don't know, gdc is a game developers convention and that's a place where game devs meet up, they learn new tools and new tricks and experiences and skills together and that happens annually and so when you hear indie voice talking about that going to see that happen, it's really a place where people are sharing their best practices in the games industry and so like understanding like that people like that exist and what they're going through, versus like the juxtaposition of big publishers who don't care about that.

00:38:12.804 --> 00:38:24.429
I think that's like when I in any voice, you can tell me if I'm wrong, but when I hear you talk about that, I think that's like the driving thing is that you really just want to take care of people and you want to make sure they're well represented.

00:38:24.528 --> 00:38:27.043
It's hard to put your game out there today.

00:38:27.043 --> 00:38:34.048
It really is because you're fighting against millions and millions of other developers out there that are also trying to reach what they want to reach.

00:38:34.048 --> 00:38:39.369
It feels good seeing that I can do something to make somebody stay better.

00:38:39.369 --> 00:38:40.612
Yeah, man for sure.

00:38:41.012 --> 00:38:46.172
For sure, yeah, and your content, I think, is already doing some serious work for Indie Visibility.

00:38:46.172 --> 00:38:48.969
I know you've talked about going live soon.

00:38:48.969 --> 00:38:52.050
What does the Twitch version of Indie Voice look like?

00:38:52.300 --> 00:39:16.688
So it would probably be a more, slightly longer content, because now I am playing the full experience with the viewers out there to say, hey, today's game we're looking at today is this, and then I'm going to be talking about indie games and you know, about the game industry, or talk about some funny stuff and maybe some past funny things I've had to deal with, and then make them all feel welcome that hey, welcome to the Twitch stream.

00:39:16.688 --> 00:39:22.530
I want you all to sit down, enjoy something, get fooled something, just to watch me play indie games.

00:39:22.530 --> 00:39:25.822
I probably make a fool of myself every two seconds, but look, that's not the point.

00:39:26.324 --> 00:39:26.884
Yeah, that's right.

00:39:26.884 --> 00:39:27.864
That's right.

00:39:27.864 --> 00:39:32.469
Whenever you're streaming or making content, someone's going to think what you're doing is dumb, and that's okay.

00:39:32.809 --> 00:39:35.032
It's like you know, you have to work your audience.

00:39:35.032 --> 00:39:37.693
This is a whole new experience on YouTube.

00:39:37.693 --> 00:39:39.376
So you're live streaming.

00:39:39.376 --> 00:39:40.496
People are going to show up.

00:39:40.496 --> 00:39:43.744
They may leave, people may go, stay for a couple minutes and then they go.

00:39:43.744 --> 00:39:53.487
The point is it's not about, like, how many subscribers or views you get from like Twitch, it's more of just you showing off you.

00:39:54.289 --> 00:39:55.452
Engaging.

00:39:56.052 --> 00:39:58.427
Right and don't be like everybody else.

00:39:58.427 --> 00:39:59.885
Don't be like a copy and paste.

00:39:59.885 --> 00:40:01.918
We've seen too many of those on a daily basis.

00:40:01.918 --> 00:40:06.708
Just be who you are and show off what you want to do when you think about it.

00:40:06.728 --> 00:40:09.106
I like you, think about all the work you've done over the last nine years.

00:40:09.106 --> 00:40:13.788
When you like, look at, look back at all the voices that you've amplified, like through indie games.

00:40:13.788 --> 00:40:17.489
What part of your own voice have you found along the way?

00:40:18.260 --> 00:40:35.137
If I was like if I'm talking to like my younger self while I was doing this cause, my younger self really wanted to be a game journalist, but when it comes to me today, I'm pretty sure the younger me that would be really happy and surprised on how much I've improved and how much I've been doing the things we both wanted to do.

00:40:35.137 --> 00:40:39.385
We made a platform of people that are supportive of what indie games were revealing.

00:40:39.385 --> 00:40:44.887
We may not have a lot of people, but we're still getting that big chunk that is slowly growing and growing.

00:40:44.887 --> 00:40:51.152
It may take a couple of years, but look's worth the fact that we're doing something that's making it groundbreaking.

00:40:51.211 --> 00:40:54.565
People are getting games reviews in five minutes or less.

00:40:54.565 --> 00:40:58.362
Some people are getting demos out there that they did not know about.

00:40:58.362 --> 00:41:05.625
It feels great when I see somebody that's a gamer, that sure they may leave a negative comment or something, but then they're also liking the video.

00:41:05.625 --> 00:41:10.317
Because now I didn't give you a whole bunch of bluff, I didn't give you a whole bunch of cringe jokes.

00:41:10.317 --> 00:41:15.469
I'm actually gonna give you, like the straightforward, honest opinion of what I'm talking about.

00:41:15.469 --> 00:41:29.074
I'm gonna give you some positive criticism about the game and then at the end I'm gonna give you my rating score, which to not give numbers but give a recommended needs work, very recommended, highly recommended.

00:41:29.074 --> 00:41:31.206
When I say needs work, it's not bad.

00:41:31.206 --> 00:41:36.788
It's just you need to put a little bit more polish onto it, but it is still something that you could be proud of.

00:41:37.329 --> 00:41:37.530
Yeah.

00:41:38.400 --> 00:41:41.831
So what do you think Indie Voice would say to ShadowMegaManZX?

00:41:42.320 --> 00:41:47.630
We became something better, even though we were just a gamer, one of the random gamers out there.

00:41:47.630 --> 00:41:55.153
We have expanded into something that has now brought more positive light to the Internet.

00:41:55.153 --> 00:42:08.030
We have evolved into something that you should be proud of and that we can keep growing into something that is something that we can both be proud of and that you should be proud of that we evolved into this.

00:42:08.891 --> 00:42:09.413
I love it, man.

00:42:09.413 --> 00:42:10.195
This is so awesome.

00:42:10.195 --> 00:42:24.914
We're going to take a quick break and we'll come right back after this with more Indie Voice and we'll also be doing our re-roll segment and we'll see if we can visualize the metamorphosis of Shadow Megaman ZX into Indie Voice during re-roll.

00:42:24.914 --> 00:42:35.735
We'll be right back, all right, everyone, thanks for coming back and joining us.

00:42:35.735 --> 00:42:39.431
We're here with Indie Voice and we're going to be doing our re-roll segment.

00:42:39.431 --> 00:42:42.027
So, on, re-roll Indie.

00:42:42.047 --> 00:42:42.989
This is how this works.

00:42:42.989 --> 00:42:56.369
So we have been taking notes throughout the podcast about your key personality traits podcast about you know, your key personality traits, preferred roles, favorite genres, signature, style or vibe, visual inspiration, and we take, we've been taking notes and we're going to share that with you here in a second.

00:42:56.369 --> 00:43:20.628
But throughout this process, as we've been listening to your story, we've been documenting this and what we're going to do now is a segment called re-roll and, on re-roll, we are going to put this into our bot to create a picture of your avatar, of your digital persona, and so how this will work is we've already input this you get two re-rolls to make alters to the picture.

00:43:20.628 --> 00:43:23.387
You can change whatever you like as part of this process.

00:43:23.387 --> 00:43:35.385
What we'll do first we'll share the prompt with you and Rhinoceros will read off what we have documented throughout the show, and we'll make sure you have a visual of what we're entering in, and then we'll generate your first re-roll.

00:43:35.385 --> 00:43:36.146
Does that sound cool?

00:43:36.989 --> 00:43:38.612
Sounds cool to me, all right.

00:43:39.800 --> 00:43:42.869
So we took some notes throughout our hangout here.

00:43:42.869 --> 00:44:05.443
So we're looking at a few different areas, but the first thing is key personality traits that we we jotted down voice for indie developers, for small game developers, helpful and supportive of his community, preferred roles or gameplay we wrote support and hero favorite genres megaman, thonic, sega that all came up a few times.

00:44:05.443 --> 00:44:12.648
Signature style we wrote down Retro Tron, robotic Cityscape and Kirby Star.

00:44:12.648 --> 00:44:23.735
And then visual inspirations Electric man from Mega man, robotic Android, t-rex that metamorphoses into a Saturday morning cartoon male from Disney.

00:44:23.735 --> 00:44:24.835
That was a mouthful.

00:44:25.217 --> 00:44:26.938
And then also Robot Hand.

00:44:28.119 --> 00:44:30.164
That was like a whole pair.

00:44:30.164 --> 00:44:32.889
I was trying to capture the essence of what you said, the metamorphosis.

00:44:32.969 --> 00:44:37.266
Yeah, look, I can't argue with that I said that, I said it.

00:44:37.407 --> 00:44:38.268
So what do you think about this?

00:44:38.268 --> 00:44:42.541
Did we?

00:44:43.664 --> 00:44:44.989
accurately capture the vibe throughout the podcast.

00:44:45.009 --> 00:44:47.998
I believe you did yeah, okay, we have no idea what this will do, no idea.

00:44:47.998 --> 00:44:53.806
So this is going to be as exciting for us as it is for you, and if you're ready, we'll reroll.

00:44:53.806 --> 00:44:56.818
All right, I don't know.

00:44:56.818 --> 00:44:57.380
Let's see what happens.

00:45:00.032 --> 00:45:01.360
It looks like Mega Man's helmet.

00:45:01.360 --> 00:45:07.650
I swear this is going to make the Saturday morning cartoon Mega man.

00:45:07.650 --> 00:45:11.282
I'm like, yeah, that's it, that's what I can certainly often be.

00:45:11.503 --> 00:45:12.668
Yeah, it does.

00:45:12.668 --> 00:45:15.541
Alright, so in podcast form, of course.

00:45:15.541 --> 00:45:21.268
What we are seeing is a robotic cityscape with a Mega man style character in a.

00:45:21.268 --> 00:45:27.360
Saturday morning cartoon with a Kirby star on his chest and on his helmet it looks like Speed Racer in a Mega man outfit.

00:45:28.423 --> 00:45:31.715
Oh my God, shits exactly the same.

00:45:32.097 --> 00:45:32.340
Really.

00:45:33.242 --> 00:45:38.329
It's like the Gunslinger Racer's that put this suit on yeah it looks so much like Speed Racer.

00:45:38.329 --> 00:45:39.295
We don't need the car.

00:45:39.295 --> 00:45:43.215
I like that because that's pretty on point about Mega man.

00:45:43.215 --> 00:45:44.059
Yeah, you like that.

00:45:45.224 --> 00:45:49.786
You can change anything you want, right, we can, and the cool part about this is we can enter the prompt together.

00:45:49.786 --> 00:45:51.090
We'll all agree on the prompt.

00:45:51.090 --> 00:45:53.626
We've been doing this a little bit so we've gotten better at making sure.

00:45:53.626 --> 00:45:58.889
We're good at trying to preserve parts of the prompt where we can, but it's always a dice roll how it comes back.

00:45:58.889 --> 00:46:03.469
If there's anything you want to change for your first re-roll, we totally can do that, or we could stay here.

00:46:06.092 --> 00:46:06.713
Jeez.

00:46:06.713 --> 00:46:10.438
I wonder if we could add like a face mask to us.

00:46:10.438 --> 00:46:11.605
Everything else is perfect.

00:46:11.605 --> 00:46:15.307
It's just we can add a face and a cool face mask or something.

00:46:15.307 --> 00:46:16.704
It would be really good.

00:46:16.885 --> 00:46:18.463
What would you want the face mask to look like?

00:46:19.288 --> 00:46:24.525
What kind of like a ninja-like thing, like a ninja face cover, like halfway to the face.

00:46:24.525 --> 00:46:30.512
God, that literally looks like the Mega man from the animated series.

00:46:30.512 --> 00:46:37.108
I didn't even mean to make that problem, it's just sort of yeah, it's pretty cool.

00:46:39.420 --> 00:46:43.724
The way we've tried to design this is you see it and you're like, oh man, that's I so resonate with that.

00:46:43.724 --> 00:46:46.010
It's so cool you Okay.

00:46:46.010 --> 00:46:48.588
What I wrote is I love this picture.

00:46:48.588 --> 00:46:53.391
I want to keep everything the same, but could we add a mask to cover the face?

00:46:53.391 --> 00:46:57.992
It would be a half face cover, like a ninja, just covering from the eyes down.

00:46:57.992 --> 00:47:01.969
So does that prompt kind of jive with what your feelings are?

00:47:01.969 --> 00:47:04.184
Yeah, yeah, brian Osteris, what are you thinking?

00:47:04.686 --> 00:47:05.590
No, that sounds good, I think.

00:47:08.581 --> 00:47:11.606
Let's enter this again and we will do our second re-roll.

00:47:11.606 --> 00:47:11.706
What?

00:47:11.706 --> 00:47:14.353
What do I feel like it's just gonna become ninja dyden.

00:47:14.413 --> 00:47:15.101
Now what are we like?

00:47:15.101 --> 00:47:16.284
Okay, what happens?

00:47:16.605 --> 00:47:17.025
all right.

00:47:17.807 --> 00:47:21.025
Yeah, that's why we probably call it re-roll, because it is a dice roll.

00:47:21.025 --> 00:47:24.237
So I think we've done our best to preserve the things you like about it.

00:47:24.237 --> 00:47:26.385
Yeah, hey, it's just, it's art.

00:47:26.385 --> 00:47:27.920
Maybe it goes up from here, who knows?

00:47:27.920 --> 00:47:30.548
Oh yeah, let's see okay all right.

00:47:31.672 --> 00:47:32.434
Yeah, I can see that.

00:47:32.434 --> 00:47:34.902
Yeah, because he's just it's covering his face.

00:47:34.902 --> 00:47:38.934
So now he's one of those android superheroes that you see around town.

00:47:38.934 --> 00:47:45.974
That's just uh nice to help you citizen, then just jumps off yeah yeah, I like that do you like this?

00:47:45.994 --> 00:47:47.184
you can change anything you want, right?

00:47:47.184 --> 00:47:48.429
You still have one reroll remaining.

00:47:48.429 --> 00:47:51.550
It's totally up to you if you want to change anything else about this picture.

00:47:52.679 --> 00:47:55.967
Can we add a beam saber to his hilt?

00:47:56.789 --> 00:48:01.425
Okay, all right, let me type that in Like around his hilt like on a hilt or something.

00:48:02.327 --> 00:48:03.030
What is it called?

00:48:03.030 --> 00:48:03.871
I'm being dumb.

00:48:03.871 --> 00:48:09.235
Something to hold on to, or something like going around like a belt, or something with a beam saber in it.

00:48:09.697 --> 00:48:13.951
Like a blue beam saber, or like a red color Red.

00:48:14.659 --> 00:48:15.603
This is a game character.

00:48:15.603 --> 00:48:16.387
I'm like you know what.

00:48:16.387 --> 00:48:16.981
That's fine.

00:48:16.981 --> 00:48:18.608
He has Mega man looking helmet.

00:48:18.608 --> 00:48:20.226
He can go around town saving people.

00:48:20.226 --> 00:48:25.724
Sorry about the noise, because it's Fireworks and dogs hate Fireworks, oh yeah.

00:48:25.965 --> 00:48:29.023
It's that time of year, I it's fireworks and dogs heat fireworks.

00:48:29.023 --> 00:48:29.766
Oh yeah, it's that time of year.

00:48:29.766 --> 00:48:30.128
I totally get it.

00:48:30.128 --> 00:48:30.791
I'm like, oh boy, here we go.

00:48:30.791 --> 00:48:32.155
So I wrote I love everything about this picture.

00:48:32.155 --> 00:48:38.449
I want to keep everything the same, but I would love to see him with a led red beam saber on his belt.

00:48:38.449 --> 00:48:42.820
Yeah, yeah, or do you want it in his hand?

00:48:42.820 --> 00:48:44.342
She ends yeah no at hand.

00:48:44.362 --> 00:48:44.744
because I that?

00:48:44.744 --> 00:48:46.766
Because I see a bad ending here.

00:48:46.766 --> 00:48:50.030
Yeah, man, I have the beam saber, it's on my belt.

00:48:50.030 --> 00:48:52.153
It's not stabbing me directly in the leg, right now.

00:48:52.454 --> 00:48:53.175
All right, let's do it.

00:48:53.175 --> 00:48:56.146
So we typed in I love every part about this picture.

00:48:56.146 --> 00:49:02.407
I want to keep everything the same, but I would love to see him with a LED red beam saber.

00:49:02.407 --> 00:49:06.552
This is your last re-roll, so whatever happens after this, we're stuck with it.

00:49:06.552 --> 00:49:08.496
Are you confident in this re-roll?

00:49:08.496 --> 00:49:12.771
I am 80% confident.

00:49:12.771 --> 00:49:14.445
80% confident.

00:49:14.445 --> 00:49:16.762
Rhinoceros, what is your confidence level?

00:49:18.505 --> 00:49:21.851
I feel pretty good, pretty good, we created that thing, okay, yeah.

00:49:22.572 --> 00:49:23.994
All right, let's do it.

00:49:23.994 --> 00:49:25.626
We will do our final re-roll.

00:49:25.626 --> 00:49:33.929
Always wait to see the first part happen, and then I'm like all right, so it did, we did, we did or we didn't, oh God, yeah, exactly.

00:49:36.561 --> 00:49:37.967
They just see some sort of nightmare.

00:49:37.967 --> 00:49:39.286
You're like oh God, what happened?

00:49:40.282 --> 00:49:41.226
Oh, I see a beam saber.

00:49:42.480 --> 00:49:43.661
Helmets looking the same.

00:49:43.661 --> 00:49:45.465
So far, we're looking.

00:49:45.505 --> 00:49:54.623
good, we're looking good Sending up a star on my forehead, Yep At this point.

00:49:54.623 --> 00:49:55.327
So I was going to say it's a scent.

00:49:55.327 --> 00:49:56.672
No, no, no, I just like this color.

00:49:57.340 --> 00:50:00.262
Oh, oh, the mask looks better.

00:50:00.262 --> 00:50:01.242
I like the mask.

00:50:01.242 --> 00:50:04.164
The angle of the beam saber is different now.

00:50:04.644 --> 00:50:05.545
Yeah, straight up.

00:50:05.545 --> 00:50:07.186
So maybe it got put in that left hand.

00:50:07.206 --> 00:50:11.190
I like the mask a little different, I like that yellow around the mask.

00:50:11.331 --> 00:50:13.052
All right, there it is.

00:50:13.592 --> 00:50:14.052
We did it.

00:50:14.052 --> 00:50:15.072
Indie Voice.

00:50:15.072 --> 00:50:17.916
Do you feel like this represents you?

00:50:17.916 --> 00:50:23.920
It took a while to get there, but do you feel like this is a?

00:50:23.940 --> 00:50:24.561
good representation of you.

00:50:24.561 --> 00:50:33.385
I do the fact on the helmet, and now it seems I'm going to start with bangs like arrow, and then the Kirby star in the middle, and now you have a lifestyle saber tool Perfect.

00:50:34.085 --> 00:50:34.485
Perfect.

00:50:34.965 --> 00:50:35.407
Yeah.

00:50:35.867 --> 00:50:36.347
Cool man.

00:50:36.347 --> 00:50:38.949
All right, you are the Neon Guardian.

00:50:38.949 --> 00:50:46.273
You're a robotic indie hero lit by a glowing star core ninja mask, on saber in hand, defending small creators, one pixel at a time.

00:50:46.273 --> 00:50:48.313
That is perfect.

00:50:48.313 --> 00:50:51.255
Awesome guys, Awesome bro.

00:50:51.255 --> 00:51:02.710
This is your official Gamertag trading card and folks can see it on GamertagPodcastcom and we'll make sure that we get this Neon Guardian and your summary added to the card as well for the audience.

00:51:02.710 --> 00:51:05.219
The last 30 seconds of the show are yours bud.

00:51:05.219 --> 00:51:12.099
Whatever you want to say, whatever you want to say, whatever you want to leave folks with, about indie games or about the space you're building or just whatever's on your heart.

00:51:12.099 --> 00:51:13.844
Man like you're welcome to say whatever you want.

00:51:13.844 --> 00:51:15.929
Just last 30 seconds or less.

00:51:15.929 --> 00:51:19.528
Yeah, man, whatever the floor is yours bud all right.

00:51:20.291 --> 00:51:32.128
If you want to check out indie game reviews that are about maybe three to five minutes, probably less less but also gives you no fluff, but straight to the point positive criticism and constructive criticism.

00:51:32.128 --> 00:51:34.931
You can check out Indie Voice on YouTube.

00:51:34.931 --> 00:51:39.735
I am at 3,733 subscribers right now.

00:51:39.735 --> 00:51:48.173
I'm getting closer to 1K, so any subscriptions or any sharing amongst friends and family also helps.

00:51:48.173 --> 00:51:57.528
And if you want to see more stuff on there that I do game deep dives and talks and things about what I think about the industry as it is, I have a couple of new videos coming out soon.

00:51:57.528 --> 00:52:09.648
I do have one talking about the new Stop Killing Games initiative that is happening right now and I hope I'll have that over the weekend, and a lot of other things will be coming out soon.

00:52:09.648 --> 00:52:16.885
So if you want to see more indie games that you have never seen before or gems that you have not seen amongst all the others, check out Indie Voice on YouTube.

00:52:17.226 --> 00:52:17.608
Awesome dude.

00:52:17.608 --> 00:52:26.461
And remember, Indie Voice is doing this out of the passion of his heart to help support small creators out there who are building big things with big ideas.

00:52:26.461 --> 00:52:28.184
Indie Voice, thanks for coming on the show tonight.

00:52:28.184 --> 00:52:30.184
Thanks for being a part of this episode of Gamertag.

00:52:30.184 --> 00:52:33.327
We super appreciate your time, Appreciate you hanging out.

00:52:33.327 --> 00:52:35.590
I appreciate you working through a re-roll with us.

00:52:35.590 --> 00:52:36.771
We had a great time, man.

00:52:37.532 --> 00:52:40.353
Glad I got able to help and glad to talk to you guys about this stuff.

00:52:40.353 --> 00:52:47.347
Definitely, if you ever get invited to this, definitely worth the time to check this out.

00:52:47.347 --> 00:52:47.869
They are great podcasts.

00:52:47.869 --> 00:52:52.251
They make you feel comfortable and they want to make sure you feel comfortable talking about your stories.

00:52:52.840 --> 00:52:54.244
Thanks, buddy, we really appreciate it.

00:52:54.244 --> 00:52:59.134
Thank you for joining us for this episode of Gamertagged.

00:52:59.134 --> 00:53:14.255
That was an awesome with IndieVoice and you can find his no fluff indie game reviews, deep dives and dev highlights on youtubecom slash at indie voice or follow his updates on Twitter at twittercom slash indie voice YT.

00:53:14.255 --> 00:53:23.351
We'll make sure we have all of the links for his social and his YouTube channel in the description below and if you're a dev out there dreaming up something wild indie voice is already rooting for you.

00:53:23.351 --> 00:53:24.804
Feel free to reach out to him.

00:53:24.804 --> 00:53:27.630
He'd love to hear your content and love to see what you're working on.

00:53:27.630 --> 00:53:33.407
You can catch the re-roll card from today's episode at gamertagpodcastcom.

00:53:33.407 --> 00:53:38.945
And don't forget, every follow, like and sub helps us spotlight more creators just like him.

00:53:38.945 --> 00:53:40.309
Until next time.

00:53:40.309 --> 00:53:50.079
One more tag remembered, and we'll see you on the next episode of Gamer, tag G.

00:53:50.079 --> 00:53:51.309
And we'll see you on the next episode of Gamertagged.

00:53:51.329 --> 00:54:02.710
Gamertagged is produced by the team at Gamertag Studios, hosted by Scarto46, with original music by Ryan Osiris, editing by Portabella and visual design by Sushi at Opal and Ink.

00:54:02.710 --> 00:54:05.668
That's a wrap for this episode of Gamertagged.

00:54:05.668 --> 00:54:12.266
We hope you felt today's story and maybe saw a little bit of yourself in it too, to help power the podcast.

00:54:12.266 --> 00:54:13.865
Follow and subscribe.

00:54:13.865 --> 00:54:15.606
It means so much to us.

00:54:15.606 --> 00:54:18.065
Want to see the re-roll card?

00:54:18.065 --> 00:54:19.083
Join our Discord.

00:54:19.083 --> 00:54:24.286
You'll find everything episodes, cards and our crew at GamertagPodcastcom.

00:54:24.286 --> 00:54:30.625
Until next time, one more tag remembered Transmission ending.

00:54:31.266 --> 00:54:31.809
Goodbye.