Indie Games

My friend sent me a link to a website listing every independently made game from the year 2012.  Looking through the list I was just trying to recognize some names when I saw Legend of Grimrock followed by Fez. My first comment to my friend upon seeing that was, "I didn't know Legend of Grimrock was an indie game" to which he replied, "Who funded it?"  What made me stop and think is that the funding source isn't what makes a game an indie game to me even though the definition of an indie game is a game made by a developer independent of any other company.

I started musing over what it is that makes a game an indie game in my mind.  I think to me, an indie game developer is like a hipster of the gaming community.  They use retro graphics and music not for any actually valid or game mechanic reason, but because it's cool and retro.  They make games where the message and/or being artsy is so much more important than actually making something fun - which is the difference to me between an interactive experience and a game.

Clearly, this is a ridiculous definition, but I think it's because to me those are the type of developers that embrace the label indie game developer whereas most independent game developers are just game developers.  They focus more on making enjoyable experiences for people or making money doing something they enjoy.  This is what being an indie game developer should be about.  I would love it if one day I never have to hear that term again and can just talk about various game developers.  Thanks to things like Kickstarter and Gambitious changing the way games are funded, this may be possible someday.