Rise of the Videogame Zinesters (subtitle: "How Freaks, Normals, Amateurs, Artists, Dreamers, Drop-outs, Queers, Housewives, and People Like You Are Taking Back an Art Form") is a seminal 2012 book about how free and open game-making tools like Twine are allowing new, often marginalized voices to contribute to a stagnating art form.
What to Make a Game About?
Your hopes, your dreams, your fears, your secrets, the dream you had last night, the thing you were afraid of when you were little, the thing you’re afraid of now, the secret you think will come back and bite you, the secret you were planning to take to your grave, your hope for a better world, your hope for a better you, your hope for a better day.
The passage of time, the passage of memory, the experience of forgetting, the experience of remembering, the experience of meeting a close friend from long ago on the street and not recognizing her face, the experience of meeting a close friend from long ago and not being recognized, the experience of aging, the experience of becoming more dependent on the people who love you, the experience of becoming less dependent on the people you hate.
“Equal parts autobiography, ethnography, and how-to manual, this book concisely makes the case for the unique power of 'zinester' games.”
“These days, everybody can make and distribute a photograph, or a video, or a book. Rise of the Videogame Zinesters shows you that everyone can make a videogame, too. But why should they? For Anna Anthropy, it's not for fame or for profit, but for the strange, aimless beauty of personal creativity.”
Rise of the Videogame Zinesters! is available from the publisher's page or at your local bookstore.