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[Rudolf Kremers]

Seems this thread is as relevant this year as last year :-)
2 cents: there will always be some grey areas. When Half Life 2 was first shown a lot of people didn't pick up on the fact that it had no publisher. It was in fact an independently made game though but clearly not "Indie" :-)

I consider myself an indie developer but I am also chasing investment, but only the kind of investment that allows me to make games on our own conditions andonly if we keep hold of the IP. The line isn't always clear where indie ends and corporate game dev begins...

For now we/I have no money or investorrs and we are developing weird games so I must be indie :-D

[Corpus]

EDIT:
OSHIT NECROMANCY IS AFOOT

[Zaratustra]

How To Find Out If Your Game Is Indie

Is it 2D? (+2)
Does it use 256 colors or less? (+3)
- Does it use 16 colors or less? (+3)
Is the resolution 320x240 or smaller? (+4)
Is it playable online without a download? (-6)
Is it playable with a joystick? (-3)
Does it use Z and X as buttons? (+5)
- Does it let you reconfigure the controls from within the game? (-3)
Does it have a gimmick? (+3)
- Is it a physics gimmick? (+3)
-- Is the game nothing but an extended tutorial for said gimmick? (+5)
Does it have hella blood spatters when anything dies? (+5)
Is the main character's head larger than the rest of their body? (+3)
Is the game extremely, keyboard-throwing hard? (+3)
- Did it cause death threats to be sent or received? (+3)
Is the game text written in English as spoken in Sarajevo? (+5)
Is the music budget larger than the actual game budget? (+3)
Has anything that could be called a 'team' been involved in the development of this game? (-3)
Does it have an ending? (-5)
Does it cost money? (-10)
Do you have a 'development blog'? (+3)
Are you Derek Yu? (+100)

Add all the points. If the value is above 10, you're indie!

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

How To Find Out If Your Game Is Indie

Is it 2D? (+2)
Does it use 256 colors or less? (+3)
- Does it use 16 colors or less? (+3)
Is the resolution 320x240 or smaller? (+4)
Is it playable online without a download? (-6)
Is it playable with a joystick? (-3)
Does it use Z and X as buttons? (+5)
- Does it let you reconfigure the controls? (-5)
Does it have a gimmick? (+3)
- Is it a physics gimmick? (+3)
-- Is the game nothing but an extended tutorial for said gimmick? (+5)
Does it have hella blood spatters when anything dies? (+5)
Is the main character's head larger than the rest of their body? (+3)
Is the game extremely, keyboard-throwing hard? (+3)
- Did it cause death threats to be sent or received? (+3)
Is the game text written in English as spoken in Sarajevo? (+5)
Is the music budget larger than the actual game budget? (+3)
Has anything that could be called a 'team' been involved in the development of this game? (-3)
Does it have an ending? (-5)
Does it cost money? (-10)

Add all the points. If the value is above 10, you're indie!

That test doesn't quite work out. Plenty of games which I'd consider indie (like Aquaria) don't reach 10, and some reach into the negative. Even Cave Story doesn't actually reach 10.

[Zaratustra]

I calculate Cave Story as a 15. And, of course, your perception of Aquaria being indie is wrong. Aren't you glad you have this test?

[Gold Cray]

That test doesn't quite work out.

I agree. It also needs:

Does it make sense? (-5)
Is it fun? (-2)
Did you write a long analysis for people to read after playing? (+10)
Did you tell anyone about it after uploading it? (-3)
Does it use premade content? (-2)
-[under music] Does it use anything other than noise, square wave, and sawtooth wave? (-2)

Also, I get 7 for cave story:
Is it 2D? (+2)
Does it use 256 colors or less? (+3) (I haven't counted. That's a guess.)
Does it use Z and X as buttons? (+5)
Does it let you reconfigure the controls? (-5)
Is the resolution 320x240 or smaller? (+4)
Is the main character's head larger than the rest of [his] body? (+3)
Does it have an ending? (-5)

What did I miss?

[Gnarf]

Does it have hella blood spatters when anything dies? (+5)

Whoops! How did you get there? You little rascal! Back in the list of Awesome you go.

[Zaratustra]

OK, slight adjustments to jigger values for Cave Story and Aquaria.

[Impossible]

Are you Derek Yu? (+100)

Shouldn't that be -100?

[Corpus]

 

Yep, Derek is renowned for his near-preposterous lack of indieness.

[Cheater‽]

As has been repeatedly demonstrated by out comrades of PIGSCENE.

[agj]

retro and niche game-oriented.

This part of your definition of an indie game bothers me, Simon. Are you saying that indie games are, by definition, created for a reduced, hardcore, nostalgic audience?

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

Cave story's tiles and sprites are less than 256 colors I believe, but it did use some particle effects, which used more than 256 colors.

[moi]

That test doesn't quite work out. Plenty of games which I'd consider indie (like Aquaria) don't reach 10, and some reach into the negative. Even Cave Story doesn't actually reach 10.

SPOILER : NOT INDIE

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

Immortal Defense gets -10!!! 

Is it 2D? (+2)
Is the game extremely, keyboard-throwing hard? (+3) [in latter levels]
Has anything that could be called a 'team' been involved in the development of this game? (-3)
Does it have an ending? (-5)
Does it cost money? (-10)
Do you have a 'development blog'? (+3)

[Guert]

When you are indie, you don't need to have a test to know if the game you play is indie or not. You naturaly know. It's in you.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

I liked the earlier definition in this thread: when the game was not made with publisher money, but was made for either nothing or self-funded. Whoever controls the funding of a project is the one who really controls it. Which is what we saw with Spore in that other thread.

[William Broom]

Testing to be indie is pointless because trying to be indie is pointless.

/2c

[Daniel Benmergui]

If my game wins something, I'll agree with PixelJunk Eden being in the IGF. But if I lose, I will think I've been cheated by Sony. I also know where some of the judges live.

That's because I'm so indie, I'm the only indie.

But if you ask me to be reasonable instead of indie, then I think it all depends on what the objectives of the IGF are. If it's about showing how spectacular games are to boost the public perception of indie games, there might be a problem, since corporate-funded games tend to err on the spectacular side at the expense of everything else.

But if the objective of the IGF is to show different games, done differently, it doesn't matter which ones enter, as the judges will be picked in order to weed them out.

Bottom line, I think it all depends on how the contest is implemented. Undoubtedly, the IGF holds an enormous amount of power over what is considered indie or not by everybody, and I certainly hope it doesn't slide into the dark side.

[Eclipse]

so i was talking with jon (mak) just now and he brought up something that had been bugging me for a while.

what the fuck is pixeljunk racers doing at IGF?
its being published by sony, and q-games have acted as a nintendo 3-rd party many times in the past.

how exactly is that "in the spirit of indie development"

DISCUSS.

 

even if a game is self funded i just can't imagine how this can be called indie, ok, was done by a fair amount of people (i'm going to check the credits somewhere) but it already has some big publishing contracts behind and IGF should promote more who's in the shadows rather than a software house that works for such high names...

Just heared that Gears of War was self funded, may Epic join the IGF too? 

We can expect hard times for the IGF, indie gaming is becoming every year more popular, that's a really good thing but it will also make big(ger) software houses to put their xbla\psn products into the competition.

Who's next? Megaman 9 looks indie enough?