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An indie game, short for independent video game, is a video game created by individuals or smaller development teams without the financial and technical support of a large game publisher, in contrast to most "AAA" (triple-A) games. Because of their independence and freedom to develop, indie games often focus on innovation, experimental gameplay, and taking risks not usually afforded in AAA games. Indie games tend to be sold through digital distribution channels rather than at retail due to a lack of publisher support. The term is analogous to independent music or independent film in those respective mediums.
Indie game development bore out from the same concepts of amateur and hobbyist programming that grew with the introduction of the personal computer and the simple BASIC computer language in the 1970s and 1980s. So-called bedroom coders, particularly in the United Kingdom and other parts of Europe, made their own games and used mail order to distribute their products, later shifting to other software distribution methods with the onset of the Internet in the 1990s, such as shareware and other file sharing distribution methods, though by this time, interest in hobbyist programming had waned due to rising costs of development and competition from video game publishers and home consoles.
The modern take on the indie game scene resulted from a combination of numerous factors in the early 2000s, including technical, economic, and social concepts that made indie games less expensive to make and distribute but more visible to larger audiences and offered non-traditional gameplay from the current mainstream games. A number of indie games at that time became success stories that drove more interest in the area. New industry opportunities have arisen since then, including new digital storefronts, crowdfunding, and other indie funding mechanisms to help new teams get their games off the ground; low-cost and open-source development tools available for smaller teams across all gaming platforms; boutique indie game publishers that leave creative freedom to the developers; and industry recognition of indie games alongside mainstream ones at major game award events.
The term "indie game" itself is based on similar terms like independent film and independent music, where the concept is often related to self-publishing and independence from major studios or distributors.[1] However, as with both indie films and music, there is no exact, widely accepted definition of what constitutes an "indie game" besides falling well outside the bounds of triple-A video game development by large publishers and development studios.[2][3][4][5] One simple definition, described by Laura Parker for GameSpot, says "independent video game development is the business of making games without the support of publishers", but this does not cover all situations.[6] Dan Pearce of IGN stated that the only consensus for what constitutes an indie game is a "I know it when I see it"-type assessment, since no single definition can capture what games are broadly considered indie.[7]
Another means to evaluate a game as indie is to examine its development team, with indie games being developed by individuals, small teams, or small independent companies that are often specifically formed for the development of one specific game.[3][9][10] Typically, indie games are smaller than mainstream titles.[10] Indie game developers are generally not financially backed by video game publishers, who are risk-averse and prefer "big-budget games".[11] Instead, indie game developers usually have smaller budgets, usually sourcing from personal funds or via crowdfunding.[2][3][5][12][13] Being independent, developers do not have controlling interests[4] or creative limitations,[3][14][5] and do not require the approval of a publisher,[2] as mainstream game developers usually do.[15] Design decisions are thus also not limited by an allocated budget.[14] Furthermore, smaller team sizes increase individual involvement.[16]
However, this view is not all-encompassing, as there are numerous cases of games where development is not independent of a major publisher but still considered indie.[1] Some notable instances of games include:
Yet another angle to evaluate a game as indie is from its innovation, creativity, and artistic experimentation, factors enabled by small teams free of financial and creative oversight. This definition is reflective of an "indie spirit" that is diametrically opposite of the corporate culture of AAA development, and makes a game "indie", where the factors of financial and creative independence make a game "independent".[26][2][10][16][27][28][29][30] Developers with limited ability to create graphics can rely on gameplay innovation.[31] This often leads to indie games having a retro style of the 8-bit and 16-bit generations, with simpler graphics atop the more complex mechanics.[26] Indie games may fall into classic game genres, but new gameplay innovations have been seen.[28] However, being "indie" does not imply that the game focuses on innovation.[10][32] In fact, many games with the "indie" label can be of poor quality and may not be made for profit.[5]
Jesper Juul, an associate professor at The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts that has studied the video game market, wrote in his book Handmade Pixels that the definition of an indie game is vague, and depends on different subjective considerations. Juul classified three ways games can be considered indie: those that are financially independent of large publishers, those that are aesthetically independent and significantly different of the mainstream art and visual styles used in AAA games, and those that present cultural ideas that are independent from mainstream games. Juul however wrote that ultimately the labeling of a game as "indie" still can be highly subjective and no single rule helps delineate indie games from non-indie ones.[33]
Games that are not as large as most triple-A games, but are developed by larger independent studios with or without publisher backing and that can apply triple-A design principles and polish due to the experience of the team, have sometimes been called "triple-I" games, reflecting the middle ground between these extremes. Ninja Theory's Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice is considered a prime example of a triple-I game.[34][35] A further distinction from indie games are those considered double-A ("AA"), tending to be from mid to large-size studios ranging from 50 to 100 team members and larger than typically associated with indie games, that often work under similar practices as triple-A studios but still retain creative control of their titles from a publisher.[7][36]
Indie games are distinct from open source games. The latter are games which are developed with the intent to release the source code and other assets under an open source license. While many of the same principles used to develop open source games are the same as for indie games, open source games are not developed for commercial gain and instead as a hobbyist pursuit.[37] However, commercial sales are not a requirement for an indie game and such games can be offered as freeware, most notably with Spelunky on its original release and Dwarf Fortress with exception of its enhanced visual front-end version while its base version remains free.[38]
The onset of indie game development is difficult to track due to the broadness of what defines an indie game, and the term was not really in use until the early 2000s.[39] Until the 2000s, other terms like amateur, enthusiast, and hobbyist software or games were used to describe such software.[40] Today, terms like amateur and hobbyist development are more reflective of those that create mods for existing games,[41] or work with specific technologies or game parts rather than the development of full games.[4] Such hobbyists usually produce non-commercial products and may range from novices to industry veterans.[4]
There is some debate as to whether independent game development started prior to the 1977 home computer revolution with games developed for mainframe computers at universities and other large institutions. 1962's Spacewar! was not commercially financed and was made by small team, but there lacked a commercial sector of the video game industry at that time to distinguish from independent works.[42]
When the first personal computers were released in 1977, they each included a pre-installed version of the BASIC computer language along with example programs, including games, to show what users could do with these systems. The availability of BASIC led to people trying to make their own programs. Sales of the 1978 rerelease of the book BASIC Computer Games by David H. Ahl that included the source code for over one hundred games, eventually surpassed over one million copies.[44] The availability of BASIC inspired a number of people to start writing their own games.[3][30]
Many personal computer games written by individuals or two person teams were self-distributed in stores or sold through mail order.[39] Atari, Inc. launched the Atari Program Exchange in 1981 to publish user-written software, including games, for Atari 8-bit computers.[45] Print magazines such as SoftSide, Compute!, and Antic solicited games from hobbyists, written in BASIC or assembly language, to publish as type-in listings.
In the United Kingdom, early microcomputers such as the ZX Spectrum were popular, launching a range of "bedroom coders" which initiated the UK's video game industry.[46][47] During this period, the idea that indie games could provide experimental gameplay concepts or demonstrate niche arthouse appeal had been established.[42] Many games from the bedroom coders of the United Kingdom, such as Manic Miner (1983), incorporated the quirkiness of British humour and made them highly experimental games.[48][49] Other games like Alien Garden (1982) showed highly-experimental gameplay.[42] Infocom itself advertised its text-based interactive fiction games by eschewing their lack of graphics in lieu of the players' imagination, at a time that graphics-heavy action games were commonplace.[42]
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