Welcome, one and all, to Splitkick.

I’m going to take this opportunity to try to explain to you who we are, what we plan to do, and why you should care. It won’t be an easy task, but if you stick with me I will guarantee you something few people are prepared to offer: a voice.

Splitkick is a group of likeminded gaming journalists who have banded together to create something different. We understand there are hundreds of sites out there you can visit for the latest trailers and developer diaries; sites that post every press release or serve up lists like “Top 5 Racks in Gaming”. These sites serve their function, but they are also redundant. You don’t need more sites like this, but rest assured they will continue to crop up. Six more launched while I was writing this sentence.

At Splitkick, we’ve assembled a team of writers who are free of this news treadmill. This freedom gives us the ability to focus entirely on bringing you opinion-based articles that will spur community conversation. It gives us more time to review games the way you want them reviewed. It frees us up to interact with our readers in ways other sites cannot.

Serving as the throbbing bassline to our chorus of content are our dual podcasts: Fall Damage and Rocket Jump. A splitkick is when you kick two dudes in the face at the same time, and these podcasts serve as those twin boots to the skull. Both shows offer unfiltered access to the lives and minds of some of our most prominent writers.

But at Splitkick we want to build more than just a site with great editorial content, insightful developer interviews, and two killer podcasts (though that’s a pretty damn good start.) Perhaps the most unique aspect to Splitkick is our review process, which is where we’ll find that voice I promised you.

When a writer at Splitkick plans on writing about a game they’re playing, you’ll know about it. It will be added to our “Now Playing” section which is found on the right sidebar of every page. Within this area, users are free to discuss whatever they’d like to about that particular title. If you’ve got questions about something, they’ll be answered quickly in a conversational manner. This can spur the writer to shape his or her review based on the aspects you’re most interested in.

That’s not the only thing different about our reviews, though. Hit the bottom of a posted review and instead of a prototypical star rating or percentage grade you will find our F.P.S. chart. By F.P.S. we mean fun per session, a unique way of evaluating experience over the course of a game. Every time one of our reviewers ends a gameplay session, they score the experience on a scale of 1 to 10. Through this chart you get to see the pacing of the game, whether it starts slow or lulls in the middle, and whether or not it goes out with a bang. When the reviewer has finished the game these session scores are averaged to provide our review score.

I’ve only introduced you to a few ways in which Splitkick intends to differentiate itself and lend a voice to our community. I urge you to use that voice! Visit some of our currently open reviews to ask questions and help shape the eventual review itself. Go join in the conversation in one of the featured editorial articles. Reach out to our writers on Twitter or by email and tell them what stories interest you. Subscribe to our podcasts through your service of choice and get kicked in the face twice a week by feet forged out of pure sound.

Splitkick: Read. React.

Adam Bash – Co-founder
Jim Hunter – Co-founder
Ben Daniels – Co-founder
Peter Tell – Co-founder