It’s ALIVE!

It’s been a long time coming, but newretro.org is finally here!

I’ll be posting about a wide range of topics about different aspects of game development, and particularly about indie games. I’ll also have be posting a few items about other things that interest me, such as about vinyl toys, genre film and television.

For more about me, drop by the about page.

Roll on my first proper post!

Who am I?

I’m Alex Amsel and, for better or worse, newretro.org is the home for my articles about games and indie game development, as well as my rants and ramblings about films, toys, and pop culture.

I’ve been developing games commercially since 1995, but I’ve been writing them since I was an ickle 9 year old with a BBC Model B. I started independent developer Tuna Technologies in 1996 soon after leaving university with an AI degree, and we are still working playing to this day as you can see over at TunaSnax.

Old Tuna vs New Tuna

Tuna have worked on over 80 products, many of them well known IPs such as Atari classic Asteroids, Sega’s Virtua Tennis, and Disney’s 102 Dalmations. However, our work on the Gameboy Advance version of fabulous indie hit Alien Hominid only confirmed what, deep down, I already knew.

I Was Bored

In particular, I was bored of churning out average titles with little or no creative input when I knew we had so many crazy ideas and weren’t getting a chance to explore them. I realized that not only was I bored, but I’d become directionless, being steered along by the whims and fancies of publisher boardroom shenanigans. And there were lots of shenanigans it has to be said.

Go Indie!

The industry was changing, digital distribution was coming, and a true indie scene was bubbling under. It was time to take a risk on what I believed in. I decided to go back to my roots and get involved in creating original projects again, taking the time to learn about new ways of gaming and meeting creative people outside of the insular world of game development that many of us inhabit.

Going indie wasn’t easy, but now I’m involved in some truly amazing projects with a handful of excellent people both inside and outside of Tuna, all talented, focussed, and fun to work with.

The Future

My plan is to continue helping designers and developers innovate in a commercially viable way, without having to sell their soul or seeing their dreams dashed. Not everyone can succeed, but much can be learned and enjoyed simply by making the journey.

Why newretro.org?

There is something interesting about taking old ideas and finding new ways to explore them. That could be anything from porting retro games to new hardware, or creating a fully fledged console game where all the artwork is physically modeled and animated using classic stop motion techniques.

New Retro™ - the reworking of old concepts within a contemporary context. Sort of.