Review Policy

What is the purpose of IndieLoupe.com?

IndieLoupe.com was founded as a dedicated review site for independent video games.

This, naturally, covers a broad spectrum. While there will always be ‘must-review’ games, even in the independent sphere, the hope is that we can also provide reviews for games which might otherwise be overlooked by larger publications. Our primary aim is to champion independent games and, even when our review is not entirely favourable, bring wider attention to them. 

How does IndieLoupe.com pick which games to review?

We will only review games which, ahead of playing, we believe are likely to have merit and to be of interest to our readers. Additionally, as a smaller publication, there are currently several genres we tend not to review due to lack of expertise within our staff — we want to ensure games are reviewed by a reviewer with a significant interest in the game’s genre and one who can provide meaningful critique.

All our reviews are, by their nature, subjective. Statements made are the opinions of our reviewers after a thorough examination of the game, but will likely differ from our reader's experiences from time to time. We hope that, regardless of these differences, our reviews are informative and helpful for our readers.

Why are your reviews typically positive?

As of mid-2025, our policy is to only publish negative reviews of games where we believe the developer’s conduct is questionable, e.g. (but not limited to) a developer knowingly putting out an unfinished product with no intention of completing it.

In simple terms, we play a number of games each year that we don’t enjoy, but it’s clear the developer has attempted to create something worthwhile — in such instances, we would rather put out no review than a negative one, particularly given the area of the market we cover.

Ultimately, we want to champion good games, not denigrate bad ones.

How does IndieLoupe.com get their games?

Products reviewed are typically sent to us by developers/publishers, but on rare occasions will be purchased by IndieLoupe.com. In either instance, the source of the product is clearly written at the bottom of each review. When the product has been given to us, developers/publishers have no editorial control over our reviews, and receive no preferential treatment during the review process. We never receive financial recompense for publishing a review.

Last updated 29/10/25.