Let’s make better games
What is Indie Game Clinic?
Indie Game Clinic is a YouTube channel and online community focused on helping game developers at the intermediate stage. The channel focusses on game design, production, and creative direction, rather than giving technical advice for specific development tools. With weekly live critiques, regular topical video lectures, and opinion pieces on the state of indie game development, Joe Baxter-Webb shares his professional experience of game design using examples drawn from the indie and retro-games spaces. If you’ve got an unfinished game, and you’d like to see it on the weekly Indies Under the Knife stream, please submit it here.
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weekly shows and streams
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exclusive Discord community
Shows & Streams
IGC is constantly experimenting with new content formats and topics, but the core elements of the channel currently include:
INDIES UNDER THE KNIFE
A weekly “critical playtest” show where Joe showcases work-in-progress games by viewers. Indies Under The Knife is intended to help developers improve their unfinished games before release, and submissions are only open to games which haven’t been commercially released yet. You can send us your game here.
“The Game Developers’ Library” Podcast
A monthly podcast where Joe and a guest visitor review a book about game design, or a related creative discipline. You can subscribe to the RSS feed, or find The Game Dev Library on whatever podcast platform you usually listen on.
Lectures & Video Essays
Regular live lectures and video essays covering key topics including UX, genre-specific systems and mechanics, narrative design, and creative direction. Free-to-view on YouTube, with ad-free versions and other exclusive learning materials available to Patreon members.
About the Creator
Indie Game Clinic is led by Dr. Joe Baxter-Webb, a video game designer, critic, and educator. Joe has worked for studios and publishers including Adult Swim and King, as well as helping to create games for various music and media brands. He holds a PhD in Media & Cultural Studies, and a senior fellowship for teaching adults to degree and masters’ level in games and the creative arts.
Indie Game Clinic is home to Joe’s content about indie games and how they are made, provided free-to-watch thanks to the generous support of our Patreon members. In addition, Joe is occasionally available for private design services, including long-term design help with projects, short-term 1:1 consultations, and more.
Fan-Funded
Indie Game Clinic is funded by viewers who want to see Joe continue to make high quality game design content. Patreon supporters help to fund the creation of regular IGC features like “Indies Under the Knife”, where Joe reviews developers’ work-in-progress games and uses them to showcase common issues and examples of best practice.
Supporters receive Discord access, as well as behind the scenes insights, such as show notes. A mentorship-level tier is also available for those who want to receive 1:1 help.
Joe’s Game Credits
Here’s a list of all of the games that Joe has worked on over the years.
Amateur Surgeon: Regenerations by Adult Swim – level and narrative design, game systems and economy. All level and narrative design for and the game’s “Epilogue” DLC, and a crossover with Rick & Morty.
BLACKPINK: The Palace (Roblox) by Karta – core systems, level/environment design and production.
Bounty Stars by DeNA Corp./Mediatonic – quest design, tutorial iteration, and game balance during live ops.
Candy Crush Soda Saga by King – senior game designer, events department.
Planet HUGO (Roblox) by Karta – systems and economy design, creative leadership.
Spotify: Wrapped Realms (Fortnite) by Karta – level/environment design.
Beat Builder (Fortnite) by Karta – technical design.
Personal Projects
Fairview Slipstream – an RPG-maker homage to David Lynch.
Maid in Sherwood – a hidden-movement boardgame with no note-taking.
Shutterbugs – a competitive arcade game of seaside drone photography.
StarCross – an adaptation of Frogger; a sci-fi romance about planets drifting apart.
Strange Voyage – a procedurally-generating nautical fantasy prose bot.
We’re All in This Together – a psychedelic horror Twine set in a Cyberpunk London.
Music for Games
I also composed the music for Electric Tortoise by Dillon Rogers, Vex Puzzles by Itzy Interactive, and most of the soundtrack for Amateur Surgeon: Regenerations.