Weekend Debate: What’s your definition of an ‘indie’ game?

UPDATE: Thanks to everyone who took part this week – I really enjoyed going through your responses! This week’s winners are as follows: BobfocRJG, RedMustang72, bradigor1981, bigmat319 and randomtrav132. Look out for a PM to your profile on the official forums in the next 24 hours or so!

ORIGINAL POST:

As many of you will no doubt have noticed, the indie community figured prominently in our Gamescom coverage last week, with well over 20 announcements here on PlayStation Blog of new titles coming to PS3, PS4 and PS Vita, including FEZ, Rogue Legacy, Volume, Hotline Miami 2 and Velocity 2X.

Reading your comments beneath many of these posts, my big takeaway was all the discussion over what exactly constitutes an ‘indie’ game. Is it a game with a small budget? Is it a game that’s being self-published by the developer? Is it is a game with a retro art style? Is it a game that showcases experimental and innovative ideas? Is it a game that’s only available via digital download?

To me, all of these qualifiers seem unsatisfactory in some way, and I still struggle to come up with a good answer when someone asks for an easy definition. So, over to you. How do you define what makes a game ‘indie’?

Is Minecraft an indie, even though it’s sold countless millions of copies? Is Journey an indie, even though it’s published by Sony? Are self-published MMOs like Blacklight Retribution and War Thunder indie, even though they have all the gloss and bombast you’d expect from a AAA blockbuster? Let me know your thoughts.

I’ve a nice prize for you this week. The five most thoughtful posters win themselves a super-rare, highly collectible ‘No Hurdles, Just Games’ T-shirt, created by acclaimed designer Cory Schmitz. These are not on sale anywhere, and are generally utilised as an impromptu uniform by our hard-working developer relations team when out in public! Good luck!