Game Over
I heard too late. Superlevel, the German indie game blog, was shutting down. Eight and a half years, finished.
It made me sad. For more reasons than one.
There are only a handful of blogs from those early days still around. Nerdcore, maybe. UARR. Sara’s stuff, whatever shape it takes. And then Superlevel, where Fabu just kept swinging that refusal—committed, strange, somehow still relevant. But relentless rebellion and financial stability don’t mix. They never do.
For the devoted readers, Superlevel was this constellation of subjective writing, experimental podcasts, weird mixtapes. For me, it was proof that you could run a blog on pure disdain—this arrogant, rooted, almost vicious fuck all of you
philosophy—and actually matter. At least for a while.
In the end it was always going to be money. The American indie media thing sort of works—ignore ads, convince a handful of people to back you on Patreon, hope it adds up. Europe doesn’t seem to work that way. Or maybe it does and you just have to prostitute yourself, the way this blog does. Money instead of dignity. Not a great motto, but it works.
I want to thank Fabu for trying. For standing against the endless compromise, against everyone selling out, against the idea that you have to become the thing you hated just to survive. He didn’t win. But he tried.
Superlevel tried more ideas in less time than almost anything I’ve seen. A new podcast every few weeks. The Diablo 3 key generator thing—joke or not—made entire classrooms of German teenagers lose their minds. The forum was home to people who hated the mainstream consensus, who thought differently, who wanted something weirder. That mattered.
Now I feel like an asshole at a funeral, suddenly teary about someone I never made time for when they were alive. Too busy. Taking it for granted. Too caught up in my own shit to even say thank you. Now it’s gone and I’m the kind of person who shows up late.
Fabu has a real job now at a real company with real money behind it. I still hope that in a few years he gets bored and tries again, brings everything he learned into something new, something that might actually work. If that’s even possible anymore.
So long, Superlevel. May you find peace next to all the other internet things we killed through indifference. If you’re just discovering there was something wild and colorful in the German gaming world, the archive is probably still there. Go read it before it’s gone for good. This was the thing worth your time. It’s over now. That’s on us.