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The past year has been a really weird transition year for us. If you are familiar with our site and with Xbox indie games in general, you probably know there hasn’t been a ton to write about these past 12 or so months. There have been some fantastic games released, but the quantity of titles that previously existed under the XBLA brand drastically diminished during the transition from the Xbox 360 to the Xbox One. The great news for fans of all things indie on Xbox platforms is that this looks to be changing. E3 brought fantastic games to the spotlight. It was great to see a ton of indies get some love (and as always see Phil Spencer rep a few of his shirts).

As such, we actually have more games to review and cover than we have people able to cover them. This is an awesome problem for us, as it means we get to open things up and give new writers a chance to move on with their goals. We know that we have been and continue to be a fantastic starting position within the industry for dozens of talented writers. Just recently, our own Brandin Tyrrel transitioned over to IGN. We love seeing that and would love to work with you to help you improve and gain experience as a writer. In general, this is not a paid position, though we have helped some editors with monthly stipends when it was clear the amount of time they were investing merited it.

As of now we are looking for the following:

News Editor: Your job will consist of writing news and helping to maintain quality control across all news posted on the site. You will work closely with Managing Editor Nick Santangelo and myself to prioritize stories and seek original news and angles for stories. We expect a larger time commitment from our editorial staff, but we are incredibly flexible. Nick and I would love to chat with you personally and see if this would be a fit for you. Please note that for this position some demonstrable previous experience will be expected.

Staff Writer: This is more or less our catchall position. We will expect at least two posts from you a week (obviously we are flexible around finals and with vacation time). Precise work will depend on rotating needs, but expect the obvious: news, features and reviews. Expectations are higher here than on contributors as we are trying to help push you to be prolific enough to move forward with your career aspirations.

Contributor: If you are doing this entirely for fun, and just want to help when you can, we are still willing to talk to you and see if their is a role that makes sense. Maybe a weekly feature or something or the occasional review when we need help.

General Requirements:

You will need to be comfortable interviewing developers and asking questions, and must be 18 or older, as we use real names for our writers. Beyond that requirement, we can teach the rest. The position is entirely voluntary, but it provides you with a great resume builder. Feel free to talk to our team about what it’s like working at XBLA Fans; we think they’ll give it a pretty great recommendation. For these general writing positions you can live anywhere in the world, all you need is writing ability and an Xbox One.

If any of these positions interests you, please send an email with a resume and writing sample to John@XBLAFans.com. If you have any questions feel free to post them in the comments or include them with your application email.