I know I’ve written a few posts already on Kotaku Australia but I figured it’s better late than never to introduce myself to you all so…
Hello freaks, geeks, losers, weirdos, and slimy little goblins. I am Ruby Innes and I’m a disgusting amalgamation of all those things, as well as the newest recruit to the Kotaku Australia team. I don’t know what a video game is, but I’m excited to find out someday. I was never born, I just started existing at some point and everybody accepted it to be true so I expect the same from you.
I was previously a producer and later host of various Daily/Drive shows on the community radio station 2SER in Sydney, where I’d rattle off a bunch of garbage, interview people far more interesting than myself, and play new music that you normally wouldn’t hear on other radio stations. I used those shows often to cover gaming content, including reviews for games like Spiritfarer and A Short Hike, and chats with Kotaku Australia’s former editor Alex Walker about Aussie gaming news.
I’ve been playing video games all my life, beginning with Reader Rabbit 1st Grade in 1999 for the Windows 95 PC that we kept in our ‘computer room’. I installed it myself because I was a weird little kid that learned how to read early thanks to my dad, who taught me to read with his thick Scottish accent. This meant my preschool teachers loved getting me to read to the class because suddenly Little Baby Braveheart was in the building. I stayed in my Windows 95 era for a bit, meeting my close personal friends Freddy Fish, Pajama Sam, and Putt-Putt and doing the cheats to get the Large Baby With A Gun in Age of Empires.
When it comes to games in my youth, I always played multiplayer games with my friends and family, like Halo at the old Xbox Lounge on Parramatta Road, or Mario Kart 64 with my brother and dad. I was generally drawn to Nintendo games, with my first console that I actively got my own games for being the Nintendo Gamecube which I still personally believe has some of the best IP entries out of all the consoles — e.g. Paper Mario & The Thousand Year Door, Pikmin, Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life, Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, Sonic Adventure 2 Battle, etc.
When I grew up a bit and started delving into other consoles, I found myself becoming interested in games with unique or interesting game mechanics like the Katamari series and the Bioshock series, as well as some darker games like Alice: Madness Returns and Fragile Dreams. At this time I was also dabbling in various online games, from Habbo Hotel to Runescape to Maplestory to World of Warcraft. I was absolutely the type of person that would start a lot of different games at one time and desperately try to divide my time with them like I was some dorky Bachelorette.
Into my adulthood of gaming, I’ve kind of developed a mish-mash of everything that I played at a kid when it comes to my taste. A lot of the games I play are very heavily story-oriented with unique game mechanics, clever writing, good soundtracks, and aesthetically pleasing graphics. I always struggle when asked what my favourite games are because it’s changing regularly, but at the moment my shortlist is probably:
- Undertale
- Underhero
- Ni No Kuni 2
- Alice: Madness Returns
- Earthbound
- Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker
- Portal 2
- The Wild At Heart
But that’s for now and is always subject to change because I am incredibly indecisive and am always looking for new games to play!
I also love watching long-form YouTube commentaries on video games, music, random niches of internet history, and trashy YouTube drama about the worst people you’ve ever heard of. Some of my favourite creators include Kappa Kaiju, The Cozy Representative, penguinz0, Ro Ramdin, SomeOrdinaryGamers, Hailey Elizabeth, and Izzzyzzz.
I’m very passionate about the indie game market and bringing focus to creators in the Australian video game industry as I believe our independent creators are at the forefront of Australia’s return to the limelight — e.g. Hollow Knight, Untitled Goose Game, Unpacking. I can’t wait to bring more focus to our local game designers and devs and I’m super excited to talk a lot of shit!
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