Technological imagination and the question of identity in contemporary Japanese
In this essay we elaborate on the phenomenon of independent computer games by com-paring it to the independent stream of American cinema – also known as Indiewood. The parallel between the film and gaming industries, that can be observed in the United States, has its roots in the early years of arcade games when the young companies like Atari were bought by media giants like Warner Communications. Having this influence in mind, we investigate the similarities and differences between those two segments of audiovisual media production. To illustrate the argument, we examine the two most prominent indie game titles of the past few years: World of Goo and Braid. In the last part of our article we also try to introduce a more national perspective by describing the situation of independent computer games in Poland
