writer (derogatory). lead designer on Fallen London.
http://twitter.com/notbrunoagain
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Serious take: I think you should answer the question of 'what is an indie game' based on why the question is being asked. Like what is the filter being set here? What is the purpose of the filter? Why are we saying something is an indie game?
And if the goal of calling something indie is to promote the work of independent game developers, then no, Dave the motherfucking Diver is not, in fact, a motherfucking indie game!
the funny thing is that this is kind of my philosophy when it comes to igf; the question for me is not "is it indie" so much as "is it a thing I think it would be valuable or interesting for the independent game awards to recognize" and that alone is enough to eliminate a number of games that I do consider indie
Hot take but I'm glad Geoff Keighly has inadvertently killed the concept of Indie Games since a vast majority of them have multi-millon dollar budgets, require publisher support to run massive PR campaigns to get any kind of attention, and are so far removed from what basement and bedroom coders can do that bridging the gap is impossible.
"Indie" should mean "independent". Yes, that means that Valve is an indie.
Indie doesn't mean "quirky". Indie games are often quirky because the people making them aren't beholden to shareholders or to their sponsors to hit specific targets of revenue.
Publishers used to make quirky stuff, they used to diversify their portfolios, they used to seek out new talent, they used to have studio systems. Late-stage capitalism has been working against it.
"Diver Dan" might be an attempt to resurrect that spirit of diversity, but you're right, we shouldn't be branding quirky as "indie". Because indie games shouldn't have to be quirky. They might be dark, they might be serious, they might be personal, they might be instructional, and they might even be soul-less sell-outs.
The point being made is that Dave the Diver wasn't financially independent. Where did any of this come from?
I think from the post itself being about, "what is an indie game"
a large part of it is devoted to a concept that wasnt in the original post is where im confused. who mentioned quirkiness
