“It’s not a game I made for other people,” he says. “I made it for myself.”

That might be the creative creed for a new generation of independent video games and game makers that has sprung up in the past five years or so. Unlike the makers of mainstream blockbuster games — slick packages produced by creative teams numbering in the hundreds — indie game makers working alone or within groups of just a few individuals bring a more personal and idiosyncratic stamp to their craft.

That model sounds much like another longtime art form called literature. Substitute books for video games, and think of solitary authors instead of often-lonely indie game makers, and you start to understand the draw for someone like Adam Hammond. —Indie video gaming creativity a bit like making literature.