Indie Game Magazine was an online publication dedicated to reviewing and promoting indie games and their developers. Originally launched in 2008, it went through a number of changes over several years; a formal relaunch was engineered on April 1, 2014.
IGM (not to be confused with IGN 64) dedicated itself to providing industry news, hosting a forum for gamers and developers to interact, and a special section where gamers could try independent games at no charge. Past issues of the official digital magazine could be viewed via a special section of the website. Daily website updates included game reviews, previews, and links to fundraisers. The monthly magazine, when it was still being produced, included developer interviewers, special news, lengthy reviews and various exclusive content; readers had the option to subscribe to the publication in digital format, but print copies of each issue were also available for purchase for a time.
Unfortunately, due to a series of ownership and staffing shifts, the monthly publication was discontinued as of December 2015. The website remained active for a few more years, continuing to provide on a daily basis the same sort of content that the monthly magazine had been offering, but as of spring 2018 the website and Twitter account have been abandoned.
The site includes examples of:
- Artifact Title: Indie Game Magazine stopped producing a monthly magazine, but the site retained the name.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: The title makes it fairly clear what the site covered.
- Indie Game: The bread and butter of the site.
- Most Gamers Are Male/Most Writers Are Male: The demographic of the writing staff reflected this, for better or worse; there were roughly a dozen staff writers, but by the time the publication ceased, none of them were women.note
- Multi-Platform: Most of the games promoted fell into this, with a particular emphasis on mobile games.
- Review: Originally, IGM game reviews focused on four particular points - graphics, gameplay, sound, and replayability. However, in late 2014 the writers stopped including scores in their reviews.
- Video Game Culture: The staff members were well versed in different aspects of this, which showed in their individual work.
