what is an indie game?

[PlayerReview]

So, I have noticed that I am not sure what an indie game is. Or, for that matter, what an indie developer is?

I know they are independent, but what does that really mean by definition in the industry? Even Wikipedia's entry is ambiguous.

Does anyone have any input as to what they think is an indie game and/or indie developer?

This is one of those questions that you will never get a clear answer. People have diffrent deffinitions.

I go by an Independent game is a game released without a publisher. An Independent Developer is a Developer not owned or associated with a Publisher.

IE. Epic Games is an Indie dveloper because they are not a subsidiary of any publisher (although it can be argued they are one themselves) although most of their games are NOT Indie games since they are published by Microsoft. Naughty Dog on the other hand is NOT an Indie developer because they are a subsidiary of SOE.

Then of course you have all your games and developers that are "obviously" indie that most people associate "Indie" with. IE. Almost every game featured on this site .

I prefer not using the term indie at all just because of how much baggage comes with the term.

TLDR;
Indie is normally associated with limited resources (Money, Manpower, Exposure).
My Definition is any game or developer without an external publisher (Which includes an ENORMOUS, population everwhere from Flash to AAA games).

[mgnade]

For what it's worth my definition has always been that an indie developer is any studio (usually small) that does not take money from a publisher while the game is in development. The game is made to the vision of the game development studio is not influenced by publishers, a marketing department. The game is often self-funded though nowadays there's crowd-funding, alpha-funding, etc. The big point is that the game makers are not influenced or compromised in their vision.

That being said, I do feel like the game scene has created a sort of "mindie" studio. This are the bigger budget indie games that do not really embody that hard to quantify 'indie spirit' and experimentation. Games like Orcs Must Die are technically indie, but Robot Entertainment is a much larger studio that came from the AAA space.

Just my 2 cents.

I agree with mgnade's interpretation or what constitutes "Indie". To me, any game that is not developed by a big studio and is not either influenced or funded by a AAA publisher during the course of development qualifies as an indie game. That means that games like Mark of the Ninja, Deadlight, and Iron Brigade can be considered indie, despite being published/marketed by Microsoft. Or for example "The Cave", developed by Double Fine but published by SEGA.

I agree with mgnade, and would like to add that in my book, any game that isn't subject to deadlines, budgets, or any kind of 'pressure' during development is probably indie.

Also I wrote a thing about indie games for school a little while ago.

[mgnade]

Years ago, I wrote this:
What Exactly is an Indie Game

[PlayerReview]

awesome articles! thanks for the replies, i really enjoyed everyone's thoughts and input on this most intriguing of questions.