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[Aquin]

Hey, just attend IGF to find out what it means to be indie!

Tuxedos, line-ups to get in, presentations by IGN, and games sponsored by EA, Activision, and other large corporate entities waiting and hoping for a slice of the indie pie!

Really though, the spectrum has become much too broad.  And a lot of guys who are "yeah I'm indie hurray!" have moved up in the world and hope to bring up the indie definition with it.  They'll become successful developers and indie will snap back once the concept has been stretched too thin.

I expect this in perhaps four or five years.  Maybe sooner.

[Zaratustra]

Indie can mean any of these things.

- You made the game with your pocket change
- You got money from publishers but not much
- You got money from publishers but they're cool guys
- You got money from publishers but didn't really listen to them
- You got money from publishers but only changed your game design an itsy bit
- You got money from DigiPen
- You got money from Microsoft
- You got money from grandma
- You got money from the profits of a previous game, some facebook iphone thing
- You got money from publishers and pretty much followed them every step of the way but hey your game has physics

Feel free to mock other people for being insufficiently indie if they do any of the following things

- Selling their game for money
- Selling their game for too much money
- Branding their game with a flash portal
- Spending money of any sort while developing their game
- Having an art budget
- Having a marketing budget
- Having a beta testing period
- Listening to audience feedback
- Wearing nice clothes to events
- Going to events
- Knowing people in events
- Going to GDC
- Developing for iPhone
- Developing for Facebook
- Developing for XBLA
- Making a high-definition version of their game

[Zenorf]

- Selling their game for money

Ooo Guilty

- Selling their game for too much money

Definately not guilty

- Branding their game with a flash portal

I did way worse than that. I made a game about a brand.

- Spending money of any sort while developing their game

Even on food? I admit I bought some of that.

- Having an art budget

What's a budget?

- Having a marketing budget

What's marketing?

- Having a beta testing period

That's something to do with radiation right?

- Listening to audience feedback

You need an audience for that.

- Wearing nice clothes to events

What are nice clothes?

- Going to events

that would require an events budget

- Knowing people in events

That would require knowing people.

- Going to GDC

Get Digestive Crumbs. Somedays that's all there is to eat.

- Developing for iPhone

that requires some technical knowhow

- Developing for Facebook

That requires some understanding of people

- Developing for XBLA

If you mena XNA then I'm guillty. Game practically made it's self though.

- Making a high-definition version of their game

That was the only flavour it came in.


What percentage indie does that make me?

[Aquin]

I dare you to post that on PIGscene. :O

[Zenorf]

I dare you to post that on PIGscene. :O

I thought TIGsource was the pretentious indie gamers scene?
I mean we all gather round and go "YAY! 8bit is awsome, just look at those big chunky low detail images and listen to that fantastic chiptune buzzing." and the general public sit and wonder what the hell we are seeing that they aren't.

[Aquin]

Yeah, we're bad.  But man...we got nothing on them.

[rayteoactive]

Indie can mean any of these things.

- You made the game with your pocket change
- You got money from publishers but not much
- You got money from publishers but they're cool guys
- You got money from publishers but didn't really listen to them....

hmmm....I tried to do all that, but still made peanuts. What does that make me?

[C.A. Sinner]

Personally I don't really feel that indie relates to the spirit of things even. That attitude is precisely what makes a lot of "indie" people seem so snobbish... The Flaming Lips have a major label contract, Fumito Ueda works for Sony, but can anyone really question the genuinity of spirit and thriving experimentalism in their work? "Indie" is purely an economic situation - if the stuff you make is good, if you've got a creative spirit, I'd rather just call it that than say it's "indie".

Yup, the whole "indie spirit" thing is bullshit. I guess it's simply convenient to put yourself into a category and act like all indies share a common "ideology", which couldn't be further from the truth.

[jwk5]

I've always seen "indie" as being more about community than finances. TIGS is a prime example of what I mean. You have a bunch of people that make games chatting it up with a bunch of people who enjoy games, usually fairly casually, without PR people or advertisers standing in the middle. That level of communication generally gets lost the closer you get to commercialization. I think "indie" is maintaining your ties to the people that support you.

[Zenorf]

Yup, the whole "indie spirit" thing is bullshit. I guess it's simply convenient to put yourself into a category and act like all indies share a common "ideology", which couldn't be further from the truth.

Like I said. Indie is a badge. Wear it if you like.

[Mipe]

I prefer to wear the "I heart bacon" badge.

[jwk5]

"I heart bacon"

Last words uttered before the fatal heart attack...

[Richard Kain]

Indie is actually easy to define. Indie is short for "independent." If your studio is owned by, or beholden to, a major publisher, then you are not independent. Basically, if there is someone else pulling your strings and calling the shots on your game, then you are not independent.

Indie games are games produced apart from any outside interference. If you start a game company, then initially, you are indie. If your company goes public on the stock market, you are no longer indie. Why? Because you are now at the beck and call of your shareholders. If you accept funding from a major publisher, you are no longer indie.

[Gimym TILBERT]

There is only one indie and it is WEST INDIES, we don't have rock n roll but we do have DANCEHALL, you may had never heard dancehall, nobody listen to dancehall

ok i quit

[Sos]

- Selling their game for money

Ugh..... does this disqualify me as indie?