About

Indiecator

Hey, I’m Dan, the creator and editor of Indiecator.

I created this site out of a passion for indie games and a desire to write thoughtful reviews, conduct developer interviews, and explore the creative side of game development.

Since this is a passion project, Indiecator is an independent, non-commercial publication. I don’t publish content to chase algorithms or advertising revenue. I do it because I enjoy games and want to contribute meaningful discussion to the community.

Mission

I believe games deserve thoughtful criticism, honest reporting, and respectful discussion.

Through Indiecator, I aim to publish reviews, interviews, and editorial pieces that are transparent, well-researched, and independent from commercial influence. While my primary focus lies on indie games, I do also cover other titles at times, including bigger games, industry topics, and even off-topic commentary on issues that I find important or that I wanted to talk about.

Every article reflects my honest opinions.

Editorial Principles

Independence

Indiecator is independently operated and is not owned by a publisher, media company or game developer.

Editorial opinions are formed without outside influence.

I strive to remain fair, honest, and transparent in every publication.

Transparency

Transparency is fundamental to journalism. Whenever relevant, information and circumstances that could reasonably influence the reporting will be disclosed. This includes physical goods, monetary exchanges as well as (most commonly) review keys and personal relationships. Readers deserve, after all, to understand the context behind every article.

Funding

I don’t want Indiecator to become a source of income for me. As it stands, I pay to keep this website ad-free, which helps provide a good reading experience. If readers want to, they may support the website by gifting me a subscription to the WordPress plan I’m using (more information on that here). I won’t know who did so if that’s the case, but I will write a post about it to thank whoever that was.

For more information on other ways in supporting Indiecator.org, check out this page.

Human Authorship

Indiecator is committed to promoting human creativity and craftsmanship in game development.

As such, Indiecator’s articles, reviews, interviews, and other editorial content are written by me, a human, and will never feature AI-generated writing.

Creative analysis, criticism, opinions, interpretation, and journalistic integrity as a whole require human experience and accountability.

Review Policy

A lot of what I’m about to share here will sound familiar if you’ve read the sections above, but for the sake of transparency and clarification, I want to set a couple of rules and boundaries, which primarily will be helpful for developers, publishers, and PR teams.

As a one-person operation, run alongside a part-time job and my university studies, I try to cover as many titles as I can do myself, but I can’t guarantee coverage for every title I get reached out to for.

Also, since I don’t own any consoles, I won’t be able to cover any games that are not released on PC.

Review Keys

Receiving review copies does not guarantee coverage or a positive review.
Review copies attained from others will always be disclosed.
Unsolicited review copies without prior contact may not be covered.

Readers deserve to know what predispositions may be at play. A review of a game I bought may be perceived differently from a review I got a key for, after all.

Bias, whether conscious or unconscious, is inevitable. The least I can do is disclose any factors that may influence my perspective so readers can make informed decisions while I maintain the integrity of my work.

I aim to provide honest feedback and constructive criticism. As such, I also avoid publishing overly harsh negative reviews. If I receive a key for a title and it ends up being in a state where I can’t fairly discuss it, I may reach out to the developers with my feedback instead of covering it or hold out until further updates come out for it.

Conflict of Interest

Any personal relationships, gifts, or other factors that might reasonably influence my opinion in the review will be disclosed in one way or another. I will be up front about it if I’m a huge fanboy of a studio, for instance.

Should I ever make a game, then I may talk about it, but I won’t publish a review on my own site about said game. The same goes for any games that I may have worked on in one way or another. It hasn’t happened yet, but if there is a conflict of interest at play, then it will be either disclosed in a very clear way or there just won’t be a review.

AI Content Disclosure

As a matter of editorial policy, I do not cover games that make use of generative AI assets, including but not limited to AI-generated artwork, music, voice acting, dialogue, or other creative content in and outside of the game that are intended to replace human authorship. This policy exists because I want Indiecator to highlight and celebrate human artistic work.

This policy reflects my current personal belief that creative works should be the result of human effort, artistic intent and individual expression. As such, I ask developers to please disclose if any AI was used in the process of making the game.

If I learn after publication that a game I covered contains undisclosed AI-generated assets, I will review the available evidence and contact the developer for clarification whenever appropriate.

If it is confirmed that generative AI was used in violation of my editorial policy, I may:

update the original article with an editorial note explaining the situation;
withdraw coverage if the article no longer reflects my editorial standards;
decline future coverage of the title or developer until transparency can be re-established.

My goal isn’t to punish developers but rather to maintain editorial integrity and ensure that readers can trust the standards under which Indiecator operates, as well as make educated purchases.

For the purpose of this policy, “generative AI” refers to machine learning systems used to create original creative assets, such as artwork, music, voice performances, dialogue, or written content, that would otherwise have been produced by human creators.

Content that utilises LLMs and other “AI” models to generate content inside of games as the player plays will not be covered by Indiecator. Similarly, games with AI-generated store assets or social media content will also not receive coverage.

This definition as well as this policy may be subject to change over time.

Coverage

Depending on the game and time available to me, coverage may include:

Full Reviews (~1.1k words): Highlight strengths, weaknesses and overall impressions
First Impressions (shorter ~300-700 words): A “first look” discussing demos, early builds, or the first couple hours of gameplay on full releases.
Roundups or listicles: Showcasing multiple games in one article

I cannot promise embargo-day coverage, but I will do my best to release posts around that time. Embargoes and NDAs are always respected. Maintaining trust and integrity is more important than short-term traffic gains, after all.

Reviews (no matter the form they take) reflect opinions not ultimate verdicts. Every review published on here reflects my personal experience with a game at the time it was played. They are intended to help readers make informed decisions, not to porivde an “objective” measure of quality. Different players value different aspects of games, and disagreement is both expected and welcome!

I do not use numerical scores, as I believe that comparisons between games often set misleading expectations, and numerical scores do have the effect of creating comparisons. As such, I will simply recommend or not recommend. At times, I will list caveats. Other times, I may list examples of similar titles, or I may highly recommend something.

Reviews focus on what I liked and what I didn’t as well as whether my enjoyment outweighed the downsides. A game can be excellent but not my cup of tea, and that’s okay. It happens and I will discuss that as well in my reviews.

I do also showcase indie games on other platforms but Indiecator is my biggest platform. If you want me to cover titles on YT/Twitch, please make a note in the email in question.

Contact

For business inquiries, please contact me at dan.indiecator@gmail.com.

For review requests, please include:

the title of the game, release date and a short pitch
a press kit (logo/key art at minimum)
embargo information (date + time + timezone)
AI Disclosure
other information as you see fit
what platform you want coverage on (Indiecator, Twitch, YouTube)
in the case of Early Access games, include a roadmap

While I do run a Discord server that the community can join, please do not join the server to promote your services or games.

Editorial Values

Indiecator is founded on the belief that games, like every artistic medium, have the power to inspire creativity, empathy, curiosity, and meaningful discussion. As such, I will not knowingly provide coverage to games whose primary purpose is to promote or encourage hatred, discrimination, or the denial of fundamental human dignity.

This includes works that advocate or glorify prejudice against people on the basis of characteristics such as race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, disability, sex, gender identity, or sexual orientation.

I believe everyone deserves to be treated with dignity and respect. These values inform my editorial decisions and the projects I choose to feature on Indiecator.

Editorial independence also means exercising editorial discretion. Not every game will be covered, and I reserve the right to decline coverage of projects that are fundamentally incompatible with these principles.