What SPE Covers
SPE focuses primarily on single-player games, with particular attention given to independent developers and the wide range of experiences being created outside the industry’s largest publishers.
Our coverage includes game reviews, editorial commentary, the Single Player Experience podcast, and the SPE Indie Power Rankings, which bring individual reviews together into a larger record of the independent games that stand out each year.
Our coverage is not limited to one genre or one style of game. Single-player gaming encompasses narrative adventures, role-playing games, strategy games, horror, action games, platformers, simulations, puzzle games, experimental projects, and experiences that deliberately refuse to fit into a traditional category. That variety is part of what makes the space so compelling, and SPE’s goal is to explore that variety rather than narrow the definition of what a meaningful single-player experience can be.
While major releases will always have a place in the gaming conversation, independent games hold a particularly important position within SPE. Smaller teams often have the freedom to experiment with ideas that may be difficult to pursue within a larger commercial production, and some of the most distinctive gaming experiences come from developers willing to take those risks. The SPE Indie Power Rankings are designed to give those games a permanent place within our editorial record rather than allowing them to disappear as soon as the next release arrives.
A review from The Single Player Experience is intended to evaluate the game as a complete experience rather than judging it on a single feature or isolated moment. We consider how the individual parts of a game work together, including its gameplay, narrative, presentation, design, technical execution, strengths, weaknesses, and overall ability to deliver a satisfying single-player experience.
Our reviews typically examine the game through several lenses. We consider the initial impression it creates, how its core gameplay systems develop over time, whether its narrative and world contribute meaningfully to the experience, which elements stand out as genuine strengths, and which decisions or shortcomings prevent the game from reaching its full potential. The final assessment is based on the experience as a whole.
That does not mean every review is going to produce the same conclusion as another critic, and it is not supposed to. The purpose of criticism is not to manufacture universal agreement. It is to provide readers with enough context to understand what a game does well, where it struggles, and whether those strengths and weaknesses are likely to matter to them.
For that reason, SPE does not believe that a review score should be viewed in isolation. The score provides a concise assessment, while the review itself provides the reasoning behind it. You can read the complete methodology behind the SPE Review Score on our SPE Review System page.
Two Scores That Answer Two Different Questions
One of the defining elements of the SPE review system is the separation between our Review Score and our Passion Score.
The Review Score is our critical assessment of the game. It asks, “How good is this game?” The score considers the quality and execution of the overall experience, including gameplay, narrative, presentation, design, polish, and the strengths and weaknesses identified during the review.
The Passion Score asks a different question: “How much do we personally love this game?”
That distinction matters because critical quality and personal connection are not always the same thing. A game can receive a strong Review Score because it is exceptionally well designed and executed while receiving a relatively modest Passion Score because it simply does not connect with us personally. The opposite can also happen. A flawed game may receive a lower Review Score while earning a very high Passion Score because something about the experience resonates with us in a way that its technical or creative shortcomings cannot erase.
We believe readers deserve to know both.
The Review Score tells you how we evaluate the game as a piece of work. The Passion Score tells you how strongly the experience connected with us as players.
Neither score replaces the other, and neither is intended to be a shortcut around the actual review.
A Particular Focus on Independent Games
Independent games are not a secondary category at The Single Player Experience. They are one of the central pillars of the publication.
The independent development community continually produces games that challenge established conventions, experiment with new ideas, explore underserved genres, and demonstrate what small teams can accomplish without the resources of the industry’s largest publishers. Some become critical successes. Others develop passionate communities years after release. Some disappear almost immediately. A few become games that players remember for decades.
SPE wants to help identify those experiences while they are still finding their audience.
Our Indie Power Rankings build on that philosophy by creating a living editorial record of the independent single-player games we review. Rather than treating each review as an isolated article, the rankings allow those games to exist within a larger conversation about the year’s strongest indie experiences and, eventually, the most significant indie games across generations.
The rankings are not intended to replace individual reviews. They are an extension of them.
Every ranking has a review behind it, and every review contributes to the larger picture we are building.
The SPE Podcast
The Single Player Experience is also a podcast designed to extend the conversation beyond the written review. The podcast provides a space for gaming discussions that are more personal, conversational, and immediate than a traditional written review. Solo episodes explore the games being played, the broader state of the industry, the indie games receiving attention through the SPE rankings, and the experiences that are shaping the way we think about gaming. Other episodes can bring developers, creators, journalists, and fellow players into the conversation to offer perspectives that would not exist within a traditional review.
The written site and podcast are intended to complement one another. A review can provide the detailed examination of a game, while the podcast can explore the personal experience, broader conversation, and ideas surrounding it. Together, they form different parts of the same editorial identity.
What We Value
SPE values honesty, curiosity, context, and genuine enthusiasm for games.
We do not believe every game needs to be treated as a masterpiece, and we do not believe criticism becomes more credible simply because it is negative. A strong review should be willing to recognize what a game accomplishes while also being honest about where it falls short. It should explain the reasoning behind its conclusions rather than relying on exaggerated praise or criticism to generate attention.
We also believe personal taste has a legitimate place in gaming criticism, provided it is clearly distinguished from the broader assessment of a game’s quality. That distinction is one of the reasons the SPE scoring system includes both a Review Score and a Passion Score.
Most importantly, we want our coverage to respect the reader’s time. There are more games being released than any individual player could possibly experience, and choosing what to play has become its own challenge. Our responsibility is to provide enough information, context, and perspective to help readers make better decisions about the games they choose to spend their time with.
An Independent Voice
The Single Player Experience is an independently operated publication. Our editorial direction is built around the interests of the audience and the games we believe are worth covering rather than the priorities of a major publisher or corporate media organization.
Independence does not mean that every opinion will be universally correct, nor does it mean that personal preference disappears from our coverage. It means that our editorial conclusions should be our own and that commercial relationships should not determine the outcome of our reviews.
When a game is provided to SPE for review, that access does not guarantee a positive review, a particular score, or favorable coverage. Our responsibility is to evaluate the game honestly and explain our conclusions to the audience.
As SPE continues to grow, we intend to make those standards increasingly transparent through a dedicated Editorial Standards page covering review copies, corrections, conflicts of interest, partnerships, advertising, and other aspects of how the publication operates.
Building Something That Lasts
The long-term goal of The Single Player Experience is not simply to publish more reviews. We are building an editorial platform that can document the games that matter to us and create a lasting record of the experiences that define different periods of indie gaming. The reviews, podcast episodes, Indie Power Rankings, social content, and future community initiatives are all intended to contribute to that larger purpose.
A great game should not disappear from the conversation simply because another release arrived the following week. A developer who created something remarkable should have the opportunity to have that work discovered months or years later. And a player searching for their next great single-player experience should be able to find more than a score—they should be able to understand why a game might be worth their time.
That is the publication SPE is working to become. The goal is simple: to build a credible, independent platform for people who care about games and the experiences they create.