Alex Nitschke

Alex Nitschke
(Previously published as Alex Ney / Alexander Ney)

Founder / Editor / Writer at Mainstream Outside
Contact: alex/at/mainstream-outside.com

Short bio:

Games journalist since 2013, gamer since the early ’80s, formerly signed recording artist (Taxim), indie developer, and tech-testing nerd with a suspicious relationship to frametime graphs.

What I cover:

• Reviews and technical analysis
• Indie discoveries and overlooked releases
• Games industry commentary
• Digital privacy topics
• Satire
• Retro context and preservation
• Game development, audio and design perspectives

Background:

1982 — First contact with video games
Started playing on early home systems like Magnavox Odyssey 2 and never fully recovered.

1990 — First game development experiments
Began making games on the C64.

2013–2025 — Professional games journalism
Wrote for outlets including Yps, GameStar, GamePro, PC Games Hardware, Play3, and RETURN.

2013–2021 — P1X3L.net
Joined indie studio P1X3L.net, released games Space Lords "Centaurus", C-2048, Monster Buster, SpaceChem Nano, and Voivod Attack (as Taxim / Alex Ney).

Since 2015 — Knights of Bytes & Sam’s Journey
Joined indie studio Knights of Bytes, the team behind the award-winning (Zzap! Gold Medal, RGN Gamers Choice Award) platformer Sam’s Journey (C64 / NES).

Since 2024 — Haunted Mouse
Founded indie game studio Haunted Mouse, focused on PC horror games and quirky mobile titles.

Since 2026 — Mainstream Outside
Launched an independent games magazine built around criticism, personality and actual human writing.

Game development & audio

Game development and audio work are part of my background, not just side notes. I’ve worked with classic systems, modern engines like Unity, and music production tools like Cubase, which also shapes the way I look at game design, performance, atmosphere, sound, and how games actually feel to play.

Selected articles:

• Review: My Summer Love Memories: The Best FMV Dating Sim? For Me, Absolutely
• Column: I Used to Think My Digital Purchases Were Mine — How Cute
• Satire: Steam Boss Wants to End Monopoly, Fails Because Millions of Customers Are Happy
• Industry commentary: While Xbox Talks Ads, AI Eyes the Whole Business

Reference games & Influences

Long-running reference points include RPGs like The Elder Scrolls, Dragon Quest and Deus Ex; horror and atmosphere-heavy games like Silent Hill, System Shock, Fatal Frame, White Day and F.E.A.R.; shooters like Doom, Quake, Hexen and Aliens versus Predator; and open-ended or systems-driven games like No Man’s Sky, The Sims, Euro Truck Simulator and X.

Links:
Mainstream Outside
Haunted Mouse
Knights of Bytes
X / Bluesky / Instagram / Mastodon