IndieVoice: From Gamer to Guardian | Building a Platform on Passion

What happens when a deep love for games evolves into a mission to uplift others?
In this episode of Gamertagged, we explore how IndieVoice transformed from a childhood username into a platform dedicated to championing indie developers and preserving digital history. From his early days as ShadowMegaManZX to becoming the Neon Guardian of indie games on YouTube, his story is one of evolution, purpose, and impact. A gamer. A developer. A reviewer. A guardian.

We talk:

• The origin of “ShadowMegaManZX” and what it meant
• Why IndieVoice became a mission, not just a moniker
• Game preservation, review ethics, and fighting burnout
• The emotional power of being seen by devs you admire

🃏 And in the ReRoll, we co-create IndieVoice’s official Gamertagged Trading Card — a robotic indie hero lit by a glowing star core, ninja mask on, saber in hand — defending small creators one pixel at a time.

Guest: IndieVoice
Hosts: Scarto46 & Ryanocerus
Produced by: Gamertagged Studios

🎧 IndieVoice:
YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@IndieVoice
X – https://x.com/TheIndieSupport

🌐 Gamertagged Links:
Website – https://www.gamertaggedpodcast.com
Discord – https://discord.com/invite/5pmkhvq6wN
Support the Studio – https://ko-fi.com/gamertagged
Everything Gamertagged – https://linktr.ee/gamertagged

In this episode, we’re taking a moment to spotlight Take This, a nonprofit at the intersection of mental health and gaming. From AFK Rooms at conventions to their Accelerate mentorship program, they’re building safer, more human spaces for players and creators alike. Learn more or support their work at TakeThis.org.

Transcript

Cold Open: Cut Man Was Useless

IndieVoice 0:00

I know I don't want to make fun of him, but CutMan was useless. You threw out a pair of scissors, man, I had dodged those. Is that all he did? He's just cutting.

Ryanocerous 0:11

So it's like, oh, there we go, I figured it out. Game attack.

Scarto46 0:34

Welcome to today's episode of Gamertagged. Today's guest is someone who's more than just a voice in the crowd. He is the Voice, a champion for independent creators and a lifelong gamer with roots in game development. Indie Voice has spent the last nine years building a platform to spotlight the overlooked, be underfunded and the downright brilliant. From quick hit reviews to deep dives on game preservation, he's out here giving indie games the respect they deserve and making sure their developers feel seen. He's published over 700 videos helping to support independent developers. He's published over 700 videos helping to support independent developers worldwide. Today's story is one about passion that comes from understanding and seeing folks in positions where they were overlooked and not given the support they need, and trying to make a platform to do that. Today's story is the metamorphosis from once ShadowMegaManZX, where his roots start, to today as IndieVoice. Let's roll. So, first thing, right, shadowmegamanzx, that is your gamer tag, your original gamer tag.

IndieVoice 1:39

What's the story behind that gamer tag? So ShadowMegaManZX, it was something that in the beginning I didn't. I got my first console like Xbox 360 or something, and at the time I was like I don't have any idea what's right here. A friend of mine, kevin, was like man, you played Mega man Battle Network a lot, so why don't you call it Mega man something? And I'm like, okay, yeah, that makes sense. And then at the same time, there was I think it was Mega man Zero which happened, and that was the Game Boy Advance and yeah, I was super into that because they did a really good job on it.

IndieVoice 2:14

And then, along the way, advent Children, then there was Mega man ZX, and then it was something like I was like you know what, and the Shadow the Hedgehog wasn't one of my favorite sonic characters because he was just I'm this dude that comes out of nowhere, I'm a bad guy, let me just come out of here save you, and then I'm gonna walk away. Yeah, that's awesome. So that I just fused them together and then I was like, yeah, that you know what that works. I'm just something that gives a bit of retro and more of hey, shadow the Hedgehog, that dude's awesome.

Scarto46 2:48

Oh yeah, yeah. So that name really represents like different parts of your personality, right, because you were just talking about how Sonic was like the game when you were younger. And then you have a love for the Mega man series too, right, and you just fuse it all together and that's Shadow Mega man ZX.

IndieVoice 3:05

I played my Mega man one, two, three. I played all through them and then at a point in time it was like ballot network showed up and then that's pretty much what spammed it yeah and yeah I stuck to that name for years because it was just like it's a part of a history that started a good chunk of what I do. I'm that one kid that was in class that probably had two handhelds and all the Nintendo power game informers and all that stuff in the backpack.

Scarto46 3:32

And they were like where's your school books? You're the reason why they made a Wii.

IndieVoice 3:36

Probably. We can get out there and they're like Joe that's it. That's awesome.

Scarto46 3:43

That's all to say. That's the name. Have you ever thought about, I guess, if you're like going to be a Mega man character, right, Since you were talking about like how deep that was in your lore which Mega man character would you be?

What Mega Man Power Would You Choose?

IndieVoice 3:58

Like of all the supervillains or heroes, I think about it like which power would you want?

Scarto46 4:03

Leap man, yeah, so out of the villains. Right, because you acquire those powers over over the journey of megaman. Right, you get those powers and you can then use them as megaman. Which one was? Which one of those powers?

IndieVoice 4:15

yep, that's the one I think I want to be probably most likely electric man or ice man, but other than, but only those two, because they're probably the most useful when it comes to daily life situations. The only one I found just as just super useless was cut man. I know I don't want to make fun of him, but cut man was useless. You threw out a pair of scissors, man. I could dodge those. Yeah, man, he's just cutting, so it'll freeze you to death. There we go, I figured it out.

Scarto46 4:54

I can move faster Because I can throw down the ice.

Ryanocerous 4:57

Electric.

Becoming IndieVoice: A Platform with Purpose

Scarto46 4:57

Man Was really hard to fight and it was like oh man, that was such a brutal fight. Brian, did you have a question that you wanted to answer?

Ryanocerous 5:06

yeah, yeah, no, I just. We talked about the gamer tag being shadow mega man the act, but your youtube and other stuff is indie void and that feels more like a mission than a nickname. When I first heard it I'm a musician so I thought music stuff. But really when did you realize that is who you wanted to be and the community you wanted to uplift?

IndieVoice 5:28

So when I came to the name of Indie Voice, it took me a while to get through to the name because before I had this channel I was called Sky Terror Reviews. It was the old name. I just. I went through Latin dictionary and I said, okay, this means what? After a while the channel didn't feel. Just I went through Latin dictionary and I said, okay, this means what? After a while the channel didn't feel like what I wanted. It felt useless. So I deleted it and I decided to restart again.

Reviewing Games to Uplift Developers

IndieVoice 5:53

Then Indie Voice I saw all these indie games, all these amazing accomplishments, people breaking barriers of genres of games more than triple a title companies could ever do. I need to make something like that. So my first logo was a microphone and it had indie voice on the side of it, because I'm being the voice of all these indie games that are people never heard of or they're going. This game sucks. I'm like let's look deeper into this and why. It may be bad. It could be bad, but it has something that you may have never experienced before. So with indie voice, it was more of. I am being the voice of those that you can't hear or those that you never seen before, or games out there that are just so buried amongst all these other AAA titles you can't even see where it is, so, like you, you wanted to represent like marginalized developers who just don't have the money to advertise, or go marketing to social media marketer or anything like that.

IndieVoice 6:56

So, I'm being the person that's out there reviewing all these games, like the one game I reviewed was jump team, team, and even though that game was the most stressful thing in my life, it was a useful mechanic of you have to be accurate with your jumps to reach from platform to platform. Sure, you're gonna fall down always at the bottom it's screen internally but it was a game that gave you a challenge to say, hey, I need to be as accurate as possible to get to this area, to this area, to get to the top, where it's going to be more challenging. And people, when they saw this game, the developer saw the review for it. Sure, he was laughing because I was in complete disarray because that game was like a bane in my existence. So, but what's funny? Like it was something that made me challenged from the usual games. I played that, oh man, I can jump to this platform and then I misjump it and I land it on my face and I'm just like I really want to destroy my controller today.

Scarto46 7:54

Do you feel like there's been times in that cycle you're talking about where maybe it's the first time for some of the devs to see someone like QA that game and walk through it and then ask the question of is that really what I wanted to create? Has that ever been like an experience you've had in the work you've been doing there?

IndieVoice 8:11

I would think from my experiences of the many games I reviewed, there have been people that showed me these games and some of them look like they may be saying you may or may not be interested in this, or they'll boost my first game, be interested in this, or they'll boost my first game. And then it's like they're throwing out the little confidence they have about their game because they're not sure if it's going to be like a major hit or something. And I'm giving them the positive reinforcements of comments so it gives them more of hey, this game may have this issue, but you are improving it with this issue. You just need to fine tune things. So constructive, positive, constructive criticism yeah, feedback, not the harsh reality as many others.

IndieVoice 8:52

If we want to say who we know who is giving up the harsh reality of what their game is and barely giving them much constructive criticism. But you released a game and that is what you wanted to do. But now expand on that, improve on what you missed up and then do something better, because there's always going to be a golden egg from your game. There may be. It may not be done automatically, but over time you will reach that area where it's like finely tuned and you're going to love it and you're going to be like man. I'm proud of myself.

Ryanocerous 9:28

That's super cool. I did notice on your like your logo with the microphone that it says games and beyond. I'm curious what is the beyond? Where has that taken you? That is, outside of the gaming space?

IndieVoice 9:40

Oh.

IndieVoice 9:40

So I have been trying to co collect some ideas or things that I want to expand from not just video games, but maybe expand to tabletops, to maybe some other things out there, because I want to try to expand that.

IndieVoice 9:55

It's just, life has not been easy or I have not figured out a way to implement that yet. I'd probably need like a group of like maybe 10 people or maybe five to do, like, tabletop games. I want to expand to tabletop games but at the same time, it's the only one man right now, so you can only do video games, but you want to expand to maybe tabletop, to, yeah, some vr stuff or maybe some other things that people have made in the in the industry that have helped the world in a better way or done something that many of these other corporations could do, but they don't want to do so as a person like I think you're listening, or you're listening to what the developers are saying, not just like verbally, but you're listening to the content that they're creating and you see it as I want to elevate this idea, even though that idea could be something that, like, isn't necessarily polished or whatever, but it's a, you see, the idea that someone's created.

Scarto46 10:53

It's a good idea that's sitting there.

IndieVoice 10:55

Sure, it may not be polished, sure, and that'd be like the best thing since sliced bread, but it is something that can easily grow into something 10 times better over time I.

Ryanocerous 11:09

I think people can be drawn to the simple games. Games have gotten to the point where sometimes you're pushing, you've got to push eight different buttons in different orders and stuff and it's thinking. I'm thinking back to the days when we had the smaller controllers with left buttons and left.

Ryanocerous 11:25

I didn't realize things have gotten, as the world has gotten, more intricate and complicated, games have followed suit, and so I think there is this draw to a game like Geek that's two buttons, you have one goal. It's not a thousand side quests or anything like that, like it's just two buttons.

Reclaiming the Golden Age of Gaming

IndieVoice 11:43

A or B club down left and then just go about what you want to do here. Yeah, like two-homics zone, that was pretty much what that was Like in that same vein.

Scarto46 11:51

Like you had a review that dropped for N-Cycle and you said that felt like Battle Network all over again. So what is it? And I think, like you both are talking about it, but we don't have to talk game. Games, we can talk about philosophy, but like, what is it about that era of like battle network that you think we've lost and what indie games are trying to reclaim it?

IndieVoice 12:12

the indie scene is trying to get the era of the golden age of gaming, where people actually enjoy the games they have, while triple-a title companies are barely doing that anymore. They're not even touching the fun aspects of a video game. Now they mostly want more profit, which is not what gamers want today. If I'm spending $70 to $80 on a game, I want it to be fun, at least worth of the time that you're giving the price tag. And sadly I'm estimating this entirely. 70, maybe 8, maybe 75 percent are just like. The games aren't fun anymore. They're not like what people want. So indie games are reclaiming the golden age where every game was like oh man, this is good, I can't wait to go back home and play it. Or friends are talking about I man, I caught this thing in power world where, and then a whole bunch of other stuff, so it's yeah for me.

Game Design as a Form of Communication

Scarto46 13:12

I can totally identify with that because I sort of like when I think about, like what games like make me up as a person, like that is something that resonates with me is like braid with jonathan blow or fez by Phil Fish, right, like games that were trying to say something or do something with a very common interaction method.

Scarto46 13:33

They're both one's a 3D platformer, the other is a 2D platformer but it's a vessel or a way to express a different mechanic or a story or like even try weird things. A different mechanic or a story or like even try weird things. And what I always love doing is trying to understand the designer and the developer and their intention behind the art that they've created, cause I don't ever look at them as it's a game that I paid money for. I look at it as a person sat down over multiple months or years and laid out this experience they wanted someone to have. And one of the cool things I think about games is they are a quiet communication of both interaction, expectations and progression to a player that they've never met, and so your game has to do that and like those things became very formative to me of trying to understand what the developer is saying, not like verbally, but like with their actual design and intent. Is that something that like, resonates with you?

IndieVoice 14:34

yeah, because there was a. What was the game called? I can't think about them all, but there was there. Every time I get an indie game or I purchase one, I immediately look at this and go, okay, so I know I bought this, but I want to see how this game plays and how it's something that could easily be like, different than all the rest of the games Vampire Survivors, now that has a mass niche of like video games that follow that same genre of that, but they all do different things, even though they all use the same mechanics.

IndieVoice 15:09

This person looked at the original and said how can I improve this? How can I make this more fun? How can I expand more of the tree of the entire characters that I'm creating? So it's like they're all not piggybacking, but they're more like I'm giving inspiration for something that maybe you want to expand on. Something I didn't see, though, yeah, I do feel that like it's something that the indie developers are helping each other, not verbally, but more of inspiring more indie developers to do what they want to do and make that game they've been dreaming yeah, man, I love your passion, like I.

Scarto46 15:47

I think your head face is in a similar one as mine and for me my background comes like from an education, from game dev, right, like I grew up, I wanted to make games, I got into game dev and then I was like, oh, this industry is brutal. But I've always been fascinated with trying to understand the like, the outskirts of the industry, like the people who make stuff or the people who engage with stuff, or just even, like in this exact show, the social spaces and the communities that are born out of the industry itself, where you don't have the word gamertag without having a reason to build those environments or communities where you're a unique thing engaging with something and people know you by that name and I think that all that's so cool and I guess it's.

Emotional Connections to Indie Devs

IndieVoice 16:37

I've always been really fascinated with the fringes of the industry, just coming from that background yeah, and as these are some people that were used to being in the industry back then and then they separated from the triple a industry to make their own company like Team 17. I think that's what it was the same people who used to work for Rare and now they're their own little thing. They're trying to bring back the age of where you can feel comfortable playing whatever game you want without having to have any sort of worries about the world as it is. And that's what I like about video games, because video games take me out of. If I had a long stressful day, I want to play Spider-Man 2. I just swing about, beat up some bad guys, do some cool air tricks, switch between Miles and Peter and just have fun.

Scarto46 17:26

Yeah, your content doesn't like just review games. Right, Like you build a space. You have a lot of folks who who followed you for a long time and they engage with you and they really trust the content you make. But there's something like deeply personal about how you like champion these smaller voices in the industry. What drives that emotional connection for you to the devs that you feature?

From Game Dev Student to Reviewer

IndieVoice 17:47

So, when it comes to me reviewing most of these games for, like, smaller devs, big devs or the rare chance it's a AAA title game that I actually enjoy or want to review what drives that connection for me to do these things?

IndieVoice 18:02

Because I used to be a developer myself.

IndieVoice 18:05

I know the ins and outs of like how Unreal Engine works, how Unity works, how CryEngine works works, how unity works, how cry engine works, and I know it's tough because you want to make something that you want to bring to life that you've been dreaming about, but you have no idea how to put it out there successfully.

IndieVoice 18:20

And when I see these people and I see their like backgrounds, how they like made the videos or how they made the games and everything, and you know how they take the time doing it I feel like inspiration that these people took hours of doing this throughout their day working at day jobs or great jobs, drawing up plans, making ideas, taking the time to make a game that they want to put out there the world, to see how much they can get by impressing all these gamers out there that play video games daily to say what do you you think of what I'm dreaming of? Yeah, yeah, for sure I want to build that space, that look, I may not get to everybody's games I'm only one man but I would try to make sure to make your game be visible out there, because you worked hard on this. You don't want like any old game journalist, just oh, thumbs down, sucks.

Scarto46 19:13

So you, as a game dev right, You're looking at this through the eyes of someone went into this, this classic type of media right A genre.

Ryanocerous 19:20

All right A genre.

Scarto46 19:22

And then they wanted to do something unique and different and they may. They took what they thought was funny or fun or interesting rap mechanics around it Made it actually an interesting experience for you. And then you're like, ok, cool, you maybe missed the point. Like the larger reviews, the reviewer missed the point of that whole thing, and so you're like this has to change.

IndieVoice 19:45

Yeah, and I understand you trying to make sure to review all these AAA title games, but there are a lot of indie games here that do better than them, sadly enough.

Scarto46 19:54

What are some games you worked on during indie dev? Like when you were doing development, we probably had a lot of projects you worked on, but what are some things that stuck out to you as moments where you were trying to like, take something and make it feel new?

IndieVoice 20:06

So I had several game ideas in the past. It was some really ideas. I wanted to try to expand also, but if you remember the game, it was a parasite. No, it was a parasite. It was something with a character named Alex Mercer and I try to remember what that is. It was some game with a dude with a jacket and a hoodie but he was going around getting power ups to expand his like. Yeah, that's it, Thank you. Thank you, I remember Alex Mercer, but I couldn't remember the name for the life of me.

IndieVoice 20:37

That game had a really unique concept of you're jumping around superhuman strength, everything like that but then over time you gain abilities which changes the form of how your body works and expands on that. I had an idea to use like metals or things like that to kind of figure the character's body into different types of shapes of what they wanted to do, and that was an idea I had and I worked on one game. It's not really fully out there, it's just a private game we haven't really touched in years, but it was called dia deos dinosaur. It was like a school project type of thing. It was supposed to be like Day of the Dead with dinosaurs. That sounds rad, yeah it was really fun.

IndieVoice 21:19

It was a really cool game and then it was an end of school project, but we still had, like our game dev recordings and things like that Worked on it with Unity and really good people. They edited, they did art. They did a lot of amazing stuff for it. Sure, it wasn't like the most polished thing, but we had a really good idea for making like a platformer and then unique type of things about Day of the Dead and a lot of other things that I remember about it.

Scarto46 21:43

Do you think back to those moments of doing that work with your team? Because it's never, it's rarely, one person who's building it and, like you, start to have this emotional bond with the team who's building it. The group and everything Right and so the game becomes a manifestation of the vibe of that group Right, is that kind of? Is that something else that, like, maybe stands out to you?

Being Seen at PAX: “I’m Doing the Right Thing”

IndieVoice 22:02

If we had the time, or more things like more time to do all this for years of time or just leaving our own team or anything. Sure, I would love to be a game designer again to try to redo what I could do or try to fix a lot of stuff in Unity and things. But then at the same time you realize we could do this, but we're going to need a lot of help just to make sure we keep this going. And then you have a lot of competition, the niche, everything, and then it's. I would love to keep going. Even if it wasn't the most successful game or anything like that, I would still say I released a game and we did it together. I don't see the downsides here.

Scarto46 24:16

Bro, I think you just described indie game development, which is exactly why you're in this business and trying to help people.

IndieVoice 24:21

Because it's not easy out there when you have, like Final Fantasy VII, new Horizons, so part four, I'm like, yeah thanks, I need that one now.

Ryanocerous 24:29

Yeah, you were talking about uplifting those indie devs. There was a moment from Packed Wet. There's a clip where a dev thanked you directly for featuring their work. Just what did that feel like to be recognized and be seen by a voice that matters.

IndieVoice 24:48

Honestly, when I shook that person's hand and then talking to all of them there over time and introducing myself and things like that, sure it was very busy and people were like talking very loudly and going it felt like I'm doing the right thing, like it felt like I'm making somewhat of a difference in the world.

IndieVoice 25:04

I really want to try to make my mark on the world. I want to try to leave something behind and say, hey, I did this. I made indie games important. I made indie games into something that, hey, doesn't matter how small your game is, if you did it. You put your blood, sweat and probably many keyboards that are probably broken right now. You did this. You took the time to now. You did this. You took the time to make the game. You took the time to work on it with your team or just by yourself. You made something inspirational.

IndieVoice 25:35

When that dude took my hand, I said thank you for reviewing my game and thank you for talking to me about it and thanks for taking the time to even look at it or even review the demo or something. And I'm like, hey, man, look it. Look. I'm always happy to help them. I'm always happy to make sure that they know that their game, that they put all their time in, has some sort of visibility Somehow, some way. And it felt great that I did something inspirational to someone to keep going and keep making their games. It's something that someone is out there watching all of them.

Scarto46 26:04

Watching what?

IndieVoice 26:05

they do Not like some sort of soccer or something, someone that you want people to feel seen.

Scarto46 26:10

So you're watching, you're trying to be a supportive voice for them. Yeah, I totally get that. The world is still connected, though.

Preserving Game History and Digital Legacy

Ryanocerous 26:16

Really, we're going to sound super cliche, but one person can really have that impact because of how connected we are as a society. Totally.

Scarto46 26:24

Totally, yeah, yeah, of how connected we are as a society. Totally, totally, yeah, yeah. You've been out here making content like that for nine years, dude, and I would say that a lot yeah. But like that, you're trying to be a positive ripple and make that happen every day. We were talking before the show and one of the things you were talking about was like how you focus on the process and how to make it more effective and make sure that the reviews can be consumable and thinking about the audience who's consuming them, but also trying to make sure that you're building content that's valuable and people are interested in, and really like you're doing that in the pursuit of. I want you to watch this, because I think it's important for you to watch it, and I'm trying to make sure that I'm doing my part in enabling you to do that.

IndieVoice 27:04

That's cool and I've reviewed. I've done. I try to expand from just doing game reviews to doing good old games video where I show like good old games, or GOG is making preservation for video games. I try to make sure people know that we are part of video game history. We have experienced it we have been there. We have been through the point where someone goes the ps2 was out or the we, and then seeing halo 3 being released

IndieVoice 27:36

But it's just, you were part of that history and you try to forget the fact that you did that, and you should be proud of the fact that you got to experience something over time that nobody else today has ever experienced, and they wish they were there to see that.

Ryanocerous 27:52

I remember pre-ordering games and going to GameStop to get them and that's not a thing anymore. Everything, even hard copies of games, aren't really much of a thing anymore. Yeah, you just hey. Oh, the game came out today. I'm going to download, or you can pre-download it, so it's ready to go.

IndieVoice 28:11

it's just like on release date, but there's not that feeling of paying up late, going to game stop or wherever waiting in line, and then going home and being like.

Ryanocerous 28:16

I know it's like 12 30, but I'm gonna play this game now.

Scarto46 28:19

I'm just gonna play a couple hours yeah, but I hear you, I hear you hear say that and I think, based on everything we've talked about, like you're not saying that because, oh, I just want more games. That's not like why. That's not the motivation, I don't think. I think the motivation is people made cool stuff and we shouldn't just throw it away. We should like appreciate it and understand it and celebrate it. Like you're not coming at it from the perspective of oh, I really like video games. You're not coming at it from the perspective of oh, I really like video games. I think you do, but I think you're coming at it from the perspective of I think we shouldn't just throw people's art away.

IndieVoice 28:50

Like we shouldn't throw away history.

Where IndieVoice Feels Most Himself

Scarto46 28:53

Look, you're building a really cool world right of talking about these things, and I love your perspective on preservation and I'm totally passionate about the same thing, right, because at some point, like it all becomes digital garbage where it just gets thrown out and it's not that, and I think, as Rhinoceros pointed out, a lot of these things end up where they're a download today and then they just vanish into the ether. In building this world, there's also like a sense in what I'm, what I've watched your videos of, like protectiveness, right, because you're protective of the industry. Are there parts of yourself or your story you intentionally keep off?

IndieVoice 29:24

camera. Are there parts of yourself or your story you intentionally keep off camera? Like I mentioned, in school I was. I wasn't really excited about school whenever I went to it because it was just like I'm back in reality. I'm like, yeah, back to doing homework.

IndieVoice 29:35

So I was just that kid that read all the Game of Thrones magazines, I had Nintendo Power, I had all the Ubisoft games, microsoft ones, and I was reading and looking at the pictures and seeing how colorful and how somebody put a lot of detail on something. I'm like I want to play that one. Next, I want to play that one. Friends came up to me asking what's the newest game, man, what's up? And then a whole bunch of other stuff.

IndieVoice 30:00

And sure, I did do my homework. But then at a point in time, it's just, you figure, you want to be a game journalist. So then you know you want to try to do something supportive, try to do something that's hey, this game looks fun. It became part of my persona that I loved video games for what they are how they bring people together, how they do something different, how they keep expanding and doing something new, bringing more creativity out than probably would on a painting on the wall or there probably is a video game that does that right now with VR, and it's just like we are making history.

Scarto46 30:39

Where do you feel like you're like today? Where do you feel like most yourself online? Is it in YouTube comments or discord or Twitter debates, like? Where do you feel like most yourself online? Is it in youtube comments or discord or twitter debates, like. Where do you feel like most yourselves today?

Metamorphosis: ZX to IndieVoice

IndieVoice 30:51

oh, I would have said twitter, but twitter is, uh oh, a mess of youtube comments. I've gotten more supportive comments on youtube where people say, hey, I like your videos, I got a about this. And then I give them like a response and they add and they say thank you, thank you for taking the time to do this. India developers commenting on there as well and I get to tell them hey, I played your game, it was great. But just a couple of things. I appreciate you saw the video, but you're doing a great job on what you're doing here. Just keep it up.

IndieVoice 31:22

And most of them go. I need to hear that.

Scarto46 31:24

Yeah, I look through some of your YouTube comments and, like that, you have people that are jumping in to ask questions about this particular game or give feedback even to you on your reviews, and you're super into hey man, give me feedback. I'm cool taking feedback. Just, I think you're cool giving positive feedback. What I noticed is that, like, you have a bunch of folks who are like-minded, who are like just jamming and that's the space you've created with being so open and kind and willing to give feedback, friendly like you've allowed those people to have that like engagement as well.

IndieVoice 31:53

Yeah, because I want them to be. You need a comfortable space, as hard as life is right now. You need a place to breathe, Breathe out, breathe in and just do be you.

Ryanocerous 32:05

Yeah, man, for sure, 100.

IndieVoice 32:07

I can't, I can't just be like oh hey, no, it's locked down, you have to be robotic yeah, yeah, people are people dude it's you're gonna get. You're gonna get those type of people in the comments that'd be like, oh, your viewers are too short. I could do better than I'm just like did, please do. Yes, what can I tell you, man? The more visibility you get to indie games, I have no problem with that.

Ryanocerous 32:29

Please do it almost feels like those kind of two personalities the shadow man zx and the indie voice are connected, you know. Do you view them separately, as representing yourself as a person, or do you see them as aligned?

IndieVoice 32:47

When it comes to both Shadow Mega man ZX and Indie Voice, I feel like it's like a. This is going to be very probably what's the word for this one Lame to say Just do it, man it's all good.

IndieVoice 33:03

It's like a metamorphosis. Oh, that's interesting. It's like when I was down on Mega man ZX. I was just a gamer playing games. I played Mega Legends at a point, I will say that but I was probably the person that was the most supportive. I didn't rage in those games. Or like when I'm playing Xbox and I'm playing with people online, I'll just say hey, dude, good job on that. They said I suck or something. I'm like hey, man, I probably do. But.

IndieVoice 33:29

And then after a while, when I got from pretty much probably in college, where I and Shadow Mega man ZX transformed and configured itself like a Rubik's Cube into what Indie Voice is now, where I expanded on just playing video games but being the person that's running about there showing people off their games, retweeting them, sharing about hey man, you seen that game, you seen that game?

What ShadowMegaManZX Looks Like

IndieVoice 33:58

I'm showing you this one, look at this trailer. And then I'm just reviewing the games, taking five minutes a day to audio record edits, and then it takes me about, sadly, about an hour plus to make sure I add the videos correctly and post them schedule times, social media, all that jazz, and it feels sure I may not get a lot of likes and stuff, whatever it is, or thumbs ups on youtube or a whole bunch of stuff on twitter or instagram, but I put it out there myself because I believe into that game and I want them to see something that could be a good time interest for them, and that's what I want to do and and after I did this, it just feels great People actually taking the time to look.

What IndieVoice Looks Like

Scarto46 34:43

Yeah, for sure, that's awesome, man. Do you feel like? When I hear you say that? I feel like you think today Indie Voice more represents you, right? Because you're saying it's a metamorphosis from Shadow of Mega man ZX to Indie Voice. So you feel like today you are Indie Voice.

IndieVoice 35:03

Yeah, it feels like I voice. So you feel like today you are indie voice. Yeah, it's just I'm being the voice of indie games and I'm being supportive, as I like being who I am. So now it's just I feel better about me and they breathe more to my persona, of what I want to be. But shadow megaman zx is always there. It's always been part of the history. It's's part of the metamorphosis. It's just now carried along with it.

Ryanocerous 35:23

It sounds like you're just a supporting person in general and you just happen to also be someone who likes video games, so you're putting yourself into those phases where you're not seeing support and trying to foster some of that.

GDC, Burnout, and the Reality of AAA

Scarto46 35:38

So I have a question. So have you ever thought about what Shadow Mega man ZX looks like? Probably like a. You can say anything, by the way, whatever you want to say, a robotic android.

IndieVoice 35:52

That is more of being that superhero that goes around saving people, maybe giving advice or helping those that need some help, or it's there in the time of need.

Scarto46 36:03

So a robotic android hero, I got you. So do you see that in like a cityscape? Do you see that in space Like where?

IndieVoice 36:12

is Shadow Megalovania Cityscape like, maybe like the internet or something.

Scarto46 36:17

Okay, all right.

Ryanocerous 36:17

All right yeah. I was thinking Tron, For sure. All right, All right yeah.

Scarto46 36:20

I was thinking Tron Sure All right, I like that. And when you think about indie voice, like what does indie voice look?

IndieVoice 36:26

like. It's another version of me, just like more cartoony, like a Saturday morning cartoons from Disney. That's pretty much how I look at him. He's probably the realer version of me, where we still both support people, but one is having more of a louder voice to millions and millions of people, but he is still doing his best to get through all of these other people to say these things about games you may not know about, and he's like that newspaper boy that you're just like. Yeah, there he is, he's on a star, he's zooming around with newspapers.

Scarto46 37:00

I get it. I get it. That's awesome. Thank you for describing that. That's pretty cool.

Ryanocerous 37:05

Yeah, you had said earlier that you started Indie Voice because the games were losing something. We were losing something in the big games that were coming out. Was there a certain moment that triggered that, for you a turning point? Or was it just a slow, brooding thing that finally hit triple a games?

IndieVoice 37:22

are losing cool. They were like these publishers. It's not the game companies, I could probably say they are not the ones responsible for how their games are being dissected and made into dlc or something, or oh, I don't like that, don't like that. I say it's mostly the publishers not all of them, but probably the main big three that have dissected the game industry into. I need more money, not the game to be fun. They are losing who they were and the industry is seeing it.

IndieVoice 37:54

You're doing crunch time. They're wearing themselves thin. They're literally not like having any more creative ideas because they just want to get this over with. Yeah, and when I went to gdc that one time in school I saw this and then that's where the moment sparked into my head that these developers are putting a lot of themselves in these games, in the work and time, barely able to see their families. Some of them have to sleep in their office under the desk just to make sure they wake up tomorrow to get it done. And it's just sad to see that these people that put all their dreams and be like I want to work for capcom and be the best, make the best team ever, and then you talk to them now and they're just like dude. I just want to go home, I just want to go eat dinner and then just stop thinking about a game for a second, and development.

IndieVoice 38:45

The illusion of what I saw as a kid as the game industry as being like this golden city of Willy Wonka and the chocolate factory is just a runes. And these big CEOs or publishers not all of them, I'm not saying not all of them, just main three don't care on how they all feel and how they're all stressed out.

Scarto46 39:09

I really respect your perspective on, for those who don't know, gdc is a game developers convention and that's a place where game devs meet up, they learn new tools and new tricks and experiences and skills together and that happens annually and so when you hear indie voice talking about that going to see that happen, it's really a place where people are sharing their best practices in the games industry and so like understanding like that people like that exist and what they're going through, versus like the juxtaposition of big publishers who don't care about that. I think that's like when I in any voice, you can tell me if I'm wrong, but when I hear you talk about that, I think that's like the driving thing is that you really just want to take care of people and you want to make sure they're well represented.

IndieVoice 39:58

It's hard to put your game out there today. It really is because you're fighting against millions and millions of other developers out there that are also trying to reach what they want to reach. It feels good seeing that I can do something to make somebody stay better. Yeah, man for sure.

Ryanocerous 40:14

For sure, yeah, and your content, I think, is already doing some serious work for Indie Visibility. I know you've talked about going live soon. What does the Twitch version of Indie Voice look like?

IndieVoice 40:26

So it would probably be a more, slightly longer content, because now I am playing the full experience with the viewers out there to say, hey, today's game we're looking at today is this, and then I'm going to be talking about indie games and you know, about the game industry, or talk about some funny stuff and maybe some past funny things I've had to deal with, and then make them all feel welcome that hey, welcome to the Twitch stream. I want you all to sit down, enjoy something, get fooled something, just to watch me play indie games. I probably make a fool of myself every two seconds, but look, that's not the point.

Scarto46 41:00

Yeah, that's right. That's right. Whenever you're streaming or making content, someone's going to think what you're doing is dumb, and that's okay.

IndieVoice 41:06

It's like you know, you have to work your audience. This is a whole new experience on YouTube. So you're live streaming. People are going to show up. They may leave, people may go, stay for a couple minutes and then they go. The point is it's not about, like, how many subscribers or views you get from like Twitch, it's more of just you showing off you.

Scarto46 41:28

Engaging.

IndieVoice 41:29

Right and don't be like everybody else. Don't be like a copy and paste. We've seen too many of those on a daily basis. Just be who you are and show off what you want to do when you think about it.

Scarto46 41:40

I like you, think about all the work you've done over the last nine years. When you like, look at, look back at all the voices that you've amplified, like through indie games. What part of your own voice have you found along the way?

IndieVoice 41:51

If I was like if I'm talking to like my younger self while I was doing this cause, my younger self really wanted to be a game journalist, but when it comes to me today, I'm pretty sure the younger me that would be really happy and surprised on how much I've improved and how much I've been doing the things we both wanted to do. We made a platform of people that are supportive of what indie games were revealing. We may not have a lot of people, but we're still getting that big chunk that is slowly growing and growing. It may take a couple of years, but look's worth the fact that we're doing something that's making it groundbreaking.

ReRoll Begins: The Neon Guardian

Final Reflections and Where to Find Him

IndieVoice 42:24

People are getting games reviews in five minutes or less. Some people are getting demos out there that they did not know about. It feels great when I see somebody that's a gamer, that sure they may leave a negative comment or something, but then they're also liking the video. Because now I didn't give you a whole bunch of bluff, I didn't give you a whole bunch of cringe jokes. I'm actually gonna give you, like the straightforward, honest opinion of what I'm talking about. I'm gonna give you some positive criticism about the game and then at the end I'm gonna give you my rating score, which to not give numbers but give a recommended needs work, very recommended, highly recommended. When I say needs work, it's not bad. It's just you need to put a little bit more polish onto it, but it is still something that you could be proud of.

Ryanocerous 43:11

Yeah.

Scarto46 43:12

So what do you think Indie Voice would say to ShadowMegaManZX?

IndieVoice 43:16

We became something better, even though we were just a gamer, one of the random gamers out there. We have expanded into something that has now brought more positive light to the Internet. We have evolved into something that you should be proud of and that we can keep growing into something that is something that we can both be proud of and that you should be proud of that we evolved into this.

Scarto46 43:42

I love it, man. This is so awesome. We're going to take a quick break and we'll come right back after this with more Indie Voice and we'll also be doing our re-roll segment and we'll see if we can visualize the metamorphosis of Shadow Megaman ZX into Indie Voice during re-roll. We'll be right back, all right, everyone, thanks for coming back and joining us. We're here with Indie Voice and we're going to be doing our re-roll segment. So, on, re-roll Indie.

Scarto46 44:15

This is how this works. So we have been taking notes throughout the podcast about your key personality traits podcast about you know, your key personality traits, preferred roles, favorite genres, signature, style or vibe, visual inspiration, and we take, we've been taking notes and we're going to share that with you here in a second. But throughout this process, as we've been listening to your story, we've been documenting this and what we're going to do now is a segment called re-roll and, on re-roll, we are going to put this into our bot to create a picture of your avatar, of your digital persona, and so how this will work is we've already input this you get two re-rolls to make alters to the picture. You can change whatever you like as part of this process. What we'll do first we'll share the prompt with you and Rhinoceros will read off what we have documented throughout the show, and we'll make sure you have a visual of what we're entering in, and then we'll generate your first re-roll. Does that sound cool?

IndieVoice 45:10

Sounds cool to me, all right.

Ryanocerous 45:13

So we took some notes throughout our hangout here. So we're looking at a few different areas, but the first thing is key personality traits that we we jotted down voice for indie developers, for small game developers, helpful and supportive of his community, preferred roles or gameplay we wrote support and hero favorite genres megaman, thonic, sega that all came up a few times. Signature style we wrote down Retro Tron, robotic Cityscape and Kirby Star. And then visual inspirations Electric man from Mega man, robotic Android, t-rex that metamorphoses into a Saturday morning cartoon male from Disney. That was a mouthful.

Ryanocerous 45:58

And then also Robot Hand.

Scarto46 46:01

That was like a whole pair. I was trying to capture the essence of what you said, the metamorphosis.

IndieVoice 46:06

Yeah, look, I can't argue with that I said that, I said it.

Scarto46 46:11

So what do you think about this? Did we?

IndieVoice 46:17

accurately capture the vibe throughout the podcast.

Scarto46 46:18

I believe you did yeah, okay, we have no idea what this will do, no idea. So this is going to be as exciting for us as it is for you, and if you're ready, we'll reroll. All right, I don't know. Let's see what happens.

IndieVoice 46:33

It looks like Mega Man's helmet. I swear this is going to make the Saturday morning cartoon Mega man. I'm like, yeah, that's it, that's what I can certainly often be.

Scarto46 46:45

Yeah, it does. Alright, so in podcast form, of course. What we are seeing is a robotic cityscape with a Mega man style character in a. Saturday morning cartoon with a Kirby star on his chest and on his helmet it looks like Speed Racer in a Mega man outfit.

IndieVoice 47:02

Oh my God, shits exactly the same.

Scarto46 47:05

Really.

IndieVoice 47:06

It's like the Gunslinger Racer's that put this suit on yeah it looks so much like Speed Racer. We don't need the car. I like that because that's pretty on point about Mega man. Yeah, you like that.

Scarto46 47:18

You can change anything you want, right, we can, and the cool part about this is we can enter the prompt together. We'll all agree on the prompt. We've been doing this a little bit so we've gotten better at making sure. We're good at trying to preserve parts of the prompt where we can, but it's always a dice roll how it comes back. If there's anything you want to change for your first re-roll, we totally can do that, or we could stay here.

IndieVoice 47:39

Jeez. I wonder if we could add like a face mask to us. Everything else is perfect. It's just we can add a face and a cool face mask or something. It would be really good.

Scarto46 47:50

What would you want the face mask to look like?

IndieVoice 47:53

What kind of like a ninja-like thing, like a ninja face cover, like halfway to the face. God, that literally looks like the Mega man from the animated series. I didn't even mean to make that problem, it's just sort of yeah, it's pretty cool.

Scarto46 48:13

The way we've tried to design this is you see it and you're like, oh man, that's I so resonate with that. It's so cool you Okay. What I wrote is I love this picture. I want to keep everything the same, but could we add a mask to cover the face? It would be a half face cover, like a ninja, just covering from the eyes down. So does that prompt kind of jive with what your feelings are? Yeah, yeah, brian Osteris, what are you thinking?

Ryanocerous 48:38

No, that sounds good, I think.

Scarto46 48:42

Let's enter this again and we will do our second re-roll. What? What do I feel like it's just gonna become ninja dyden.

IndieVoice 48:48

Now what are we like? Okay, what happens?

Ryanocerous 48:50

all right.

Scarto46 48:51

Yeah, that's why we probably call it re-roll, because it is a dice roll. So I think we've done our best to preserve the things you like about it. Yeah, hey, it's just, it's art. Maybe it goes up from here, who knows? Oh yeah, let's see okay all right.

IndieVoice 49:05

Yeah, I can see that. Yeah, because he's just it's covering his face. So now he's one of those android superheroes that you see around town. That's just uh nice to help you citizen, then just jumps off yeah yeah, I like that do you like this?

Scarto46 49:19

you can change anything you want, right? You still have one reroll remaining. It's totally up to you if you want to change anything else about this picture.

IndieVoice 49:26

Can we add a beam saber to his hilt?

Scarto46 49:30

Okay, all right, let me type that in Like around his hilt like on a hilt or something.

IndieVoice 49:36

What is it called? I'm being dumb. Something to hold on to, or something like going around like a belt, or something with a beam saber in it.

Scarto46 49:43

Like a blue beam saber, or like a red color Red.

IndieVoice 49:48

This is a game character. I'm like you know what. That's fine. He has Mega man looking helmet. He can go around town saving people. Sorry about the noise, because it's Fireworks and dogs hate Fireworks, oh yeah.

Scarto46 49:59

It's that time of year, I it's fireworks and dogs heat fireworks. Oh yeah, it's that time of year. I totally get it. I'm like, oh boy, here we go. So I wrote I love everything about this picture. I want to keep everything the same, but I would love to see him with a led red beam saber on his belt. Yeah, yeah, or do you want it in his hand? She ends yeah no at hand.

IndieVoice 50:18

because I that? Because I see a bad ending here. Yeah, man, I have the beam saber, it's on my belt. It's not stabbing me directly in the leg, right now.

Scarto46 50:26

All right, let's do it. So we typed in I love every part about this picture. I want to keep everything the same, but I would love to see him with a LED red beam saber. This is your last re-roll, so whatever happens after this, we're stuck with it. Are you confident in this re-roll? I am 80% confident. 80% confident. Rhinoceros, what is your confidence level?

Ryanocerous 50:52

I feel pretty good, pretty good, we created that thing, okay, yeah.

Scarto46 50:56

All right, let's do it. We will do our final re-roll. Always wait to see the first part happen, and then I'm like all right, so it did, we did, we did or we didn't, oh God, yeah, exactly.

IndieVoice 51:10

They just see some sort of nightmare. You're like oh God, what happened?

Scarto46 51:14

Oh, I see a beam saber.

Ryanocerous 51:16

Helmets looking the same. So far, we're looking.

IndieVoice 51:19

good, we're looking good Sending up a star on my forehead, Yep At this point. So I was going to say it's a scent. No, no, no, I just like this color.

Scarto46 51:31

Oh, oh, the mask looks better. I like the mask. The angle of the beam saber is different now.

Ryanocerous 51:38

Yeah, straight up. So maybe it got put in that left hand.

IndieVoice 51:40

I like the mask a little different, I like that yellow around the mask.

Ryanocerous 51:45

All right, there it is.

Scarto46 51:47

We did it. Indie Voice. Do you feel like this represents you? It took a while to get there, but do you feel like this is a?

IndieVoice 51:57

good representation of you. I do the fact on the helmet, and now it seems I'm going to start with bangs like arrow, and then the Kirby star in the middle, and now you have a lifestyle saber tool Perfect.

Scarto46 52:07

Perfect.

IndieVoice 52:08

Yeah.

Scarto46 52:09

Cool man. All right, you are the Neon Guardian. You're a robotic indie hero lit by a glowing star core ninja mask, on saber in hand, defending small creators, one pixel at a time. That is perfect. Awesome guys, Awesome bro. This is your official Gamertag trading card and folks can see it on GamertagPodcastcom and we'll make sure that we get this Neon Guardian and your summary added to the card as well for the audience. The last 30 seconds of the show are yours bud. Whatever you want to say, whatever you want to say, whatever you want to leave folks with, about indie games or about the space you're building or just whatever's on your heart. Man like you're welcome to say whatever you want. Just last 30 seconds or less. Yeah, man, whatever the floor is yours bud all right.

IndieVoice 52:54

If you want to check out indie game reviews that are about maybe three to five minutes, probably less less but also gives you no fluff, but straight to the point positive criticism and constructive criticism. You can check out Indie Voice on YouTube. I am at 3,733 subscribers right now. I'm getting closer to 1K, so any subscriptions or any sharing amongst friends and family also helps. And if you want to see more stuff on there that I do game deep dives and talks and things about what I think about the industry as it is, I have a couple of new videos coming out soon. I do have one talking about the new Stop Killing Games initiative that is happening right now and I hope I'll have that over the weekend, and a lot of other things will be coming out soon. So if you want to see more indie games that you have never seen before or gems that you have not seen amongst all the others, check out Indie Voice on YouTube.

Scarto46 53:50

Awesome dude. And remember, Indie Voice is doing this out of the passion of his heart to help support small creators out there who are building big things with big ideas. Indie Voice, thanks for coming on the show tonight. Thanks for being a part of this episode of Gamertag. We super appreciate your time, Appreciate you hanging out. I appreciate you working through a re-roll with us. We had a great time, man.

IndieVoice 54:11

Glad I got able to help and glad to talk to you guys about this stuff. Definitely, if you ever get invited to this, definitely worth the time to check this out. They are great podcasts. They make you feel comfortable and they want to make sure you feel comfortable talking about your stories.

Scarto46 54:26

Thanks, buddy, we really appreciate it. Thank you for joining us for this episode of Gamertagged. That was an awesome with IndieVoice and you can find his no fluff indie game reviews, deep dives and dev highlights on youtubecom slash at indie voice or follow his updates on Twitter at twittercom slash indie voice YT. We'll make sure we have all of the links for his social and his YouTube channel in the description below and if you're a dev out there dreaming up something wild indie voice is already rooting for you. Feel free to reach out to him. He'd love to hear your content and love to see what you're working on. You can catch the re-roll card from today's episode at gamertagpodcastcom. And don't forget, every follow, like and sub helps us spotlight more creators just like him. Until next time. One more tag remembered, and we'll see you on the next episode of Gamer, tag G. And we'll see you on the next episode of Gamertagged.

Scarto46 55:25

Gamertagged is produced by the team at Gamertag Studios, hosted by Scarto46, with original music by Ryan Osiris, editing by Portabella and visual design by Sushi at Opal and Ink. That's a wrap for this episode of Gamertagged. We hope you felt today's story and maybe saw a little bit of yourself in it too, to help power the podcast. Follow and subscribe. It means so much to us. Want to see the re-roll card? Join our Discord. You'll find everything episodes, cards and our crew at GamertagPodcastcom. Until next time, one more tag remembered Transmission ending.

IndieVoice 56:04

Goodbye.