Check Out the Indie Arcade Wave Podcast on YouTube
Indie Arcade Wave is a set of social media pages I’ve been meaning to cover for a long time. There’s no better encapsulation of what I love—what I stand for—than their stuff on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.
To briefly sum it up, Indie Arcade Wave highlights any and all developments to come out of the indie arcade scene, from one-off cabinets to full releases. There are some games I’d probably never have discovered if the pages didn’t exist.
Joe Wagner, the mastermind behind Indie Arcade Wave, began interviewing game developers and location owners about their work in a series called “In the Scene” beginning May 29, 2020. Since then, there have 16 episodes, featuring such names as Rob Howland, Anthony Prusakowski, Chris Meyers, Belia Portilla, Melissa Geils, and many more.
"I think it really hit me that someone needed to do [the scene] at BumbleBash 4," he said. "This was the first time that all of the indie folk had come together in one place. I had met Tony (Deathball), Dan (DSM Arcade), Josh and Nikita (Killer Queen), Shane and Dave (Cosmotrons), at conventions in the past, but I met Anthony and Rob (Armed and Gelatinous) and members of the BumbleBear team at BB4. Seeing how large the KQ scene was really what made me think about how long it took for them to build this and how cool that was.
"I think back to starting with Galactic Battleground, and I remember how much fun I had in that experience," he continued. "I wanted to create a space where new developers could go for advice and community. As well as help existing creators grow their reach. I have so many new friends and so many amazing memories from all of the trips I've been on. I just want to give back to all the joy that scene and community has given me."
Minnesota-based Wagner manages sales and marketing for Galactic Battleground in addition to his work on Indie Arcade Wave.
Although I’m probably a bit biased—indie arcade games are my favorite modern arcade games to play by far—I seriously recommend following the social media pages and subscribing to the YouTube channel. It’s a simple yet fun way to support to burgeoning indie dev community. Heck, it’s not unlikely that you’ll even discover something new to play.
As for me, I’ll keep trying my darnedest to support the games I love by covering them on my blog. I’ve also got a ton of “In the Scene” episodes to catch up on. (I, uh, get kinda busy with school.)
Until next time, I’m out. Keep the conversation going by joining the Wilcox Arcade Discord server—and maybe the Indie Arcade Wave Discord server, too?