Welcome!
In short: A Hardy Developer’s Journal is a place for all hardy indie developers and other hardy people to read about independent gaming, about adventure games and sometimes about other amazing creations that are either off-beat, old school, or just plain cool for some other reason.
The long (and personal) version: HardyDev started out as a simple blog of mine. In the first few days of its existence I didn’t have any clear vision for it, I just wanted to have a place to show things I create for fun (e.g. comics, animations, games)*. Yet I quickly realized I didn’t want to run something THAT self-centered, so I started to turn the blog into an online magazine with articles about – things I always find worthwhile – game design and adventure games. And old-school anime. And martial arts. Also, keeping the game coverage focused on indie productions felt absolutely necessary for some reason . And so, HardyDev quickly became a semi-professional magazine updated almost regularly by a ragtag team of veteran gamers and up-start game creators (and now and then by real game creators). A must-read for all people interested in serious amateur game developing and fans of Leiji Matsumoto alike.
So here is hoping, dear reader, you’ll find among these pages many things that will make you go “Ah!”. And don’t hesitate to visit our archives – they’re kept up to date!
Have fun!
Igor Hardy
* you can dive into the Intermissions to relive those modest beginnings archived in several shocking episodes.
The gallery of staffed heads:
Igor Hardy is an old school casually hardcore PC gamer very much interested in how the crazy minds of game players and game designers work. Ultimately, this curiosity convinced him to start developing some games of his own. While his primary love are adventure games, he avidly played classics of most genres, especially during the 90s. Today when he gets excited about anything at all it is usually about stand-out indies or the prospects of making adventure games a popular genre again. Also, doodles sometimes.
e-mail: igor [at] hardydev dot com
Martin Mulrooney is first and foremost a lover of a good story, regardless of the medium. This has resulted in him embarking on a journey to tell a few stories of his own, dabbling in key areas of the media such as magazine writing and design, voicework and screenwriting. Concurrently, he cultivated his fascination with the world of gaming which fits naturally in it all. Although he is now very much a console gamer – part of the playstation generation – he also still fondly holds on to the games of yesteryear (when the PC was king), and the adventure genre in particular.
Joe Davison is the youngest of the team at 16, and is still fine-tuning his writing skills. Joe, like Martin is all about story. Forget special effects and gameplay, it’s the story that matters. Adventure Games are Joe’s one and true gaming love, but he likes to vent frustration on DOOM or listen to Duke Nukem’s snappy wit once in a while, or pretend to be a Pirate in Sid Meier’s Pirates!. Being a tough critic himself, Joe is open to criticms on his reviews, so if have any comments or queries, any hatemail or lovemail or just some tips on writing, drop Joe an email. He’ll appreciate it.
e-mail: joe [at] thosedamnpeanuts dot com
Drew Wellman, expert in bad decisions, seen here doing very regrettable things to his hair, is a gamer through and through. Though he’s hard to please, he appreciates solid storytelling, compelling characters, and a good steak. Raised as a Nintendo fanboy, he has since expanded his entertainment horizon to include games from just about every genre. He’s trying to get more into PC gaming, much to the disapproval of his computer, but always has enough power to play adventure games. Top three games of the decade: Paper Mario: Thousand Year Door, Half-Life 2, and Mass Effect. Plays the drums.
