Alternative Games

Mission Statement

Alternative Games is dedicated to increasing coverage and awareness of the wide variety of gaming experiences available today. Mainstream gaming coverage typically lacks adequate coverage of alternative gaming experiences such as retro gaming, interactive fiction, experimental mods, independent games, student projects, fine arts games, and much more. Alternative Games hopes to serve the alternative gaming community by bringing more attention to these kinds of less popular (or perhaps simply less profitable) game experiences.

Alternative Gamers are tired of endless sequels, slap-dash franchise-based tie-ins and me-too game design. Alternative Gamers seek compelling, resonant experiences through their games. Alternative Gamers recognize that different games can be enjoyable for different reasons, and they celebrate the diversity of experience and expression achievable only in the medium of the interactive electronic game.

Video games are the art form of the 21st Century; we believe in that statement, and we work to find evidence of it. Video games provide social interaction, intellectual stimulation, and an outlet for creative expression. Through video games we hope to better understand the world around us. We do not want to slip comfortably into an amalgam of convention and cliche. We want games to make us uncomfortable, to provoke us to exclamation, to grab us and take us to somewhere new.

This is why we are here.

Are you with us?

Alternative Games is experimenting with a new method of shared site income in order to make participation in Alternative Games a more (literally) rewarding experience. Advertisements you see on this site directly benefit the authors of our content. Each author receives half of the ad revenue earned on her articles, and the other half goes to the site itself to cover costs of hosting.

And if all of these quirky ideas about games and websites feels right to you on some core level, then you might be somebody we want to work with. Alternative Games accepts submissions at submissions@alt-games.com (PDF or RTF format attachments preferred). Feel free to query us with article ideas or other ideas. We are just getting going, so now is a perfect time to become involved. If you’ve got some strange ideas about gaming, or just love to think and talk about these things SO MUCH, and if you can write, draw or otherwise express yourself in digital media forms, we want to hear from you.