What Is Indie?

By Fraser McMillan

I feel like I should have a big pile of crumpled up paper next to me as I write – or, more accurately, compile – this article.

It would make for an interesting introduction, that’s for sure, but in truth what you read is my very first attempt to assemble this piece. The question at hand is a tough one, but it’s one I’m confident I, and the five contributors, can answer fully and succinctly. That’s probably being somewhat unrealistic. Chances are what follows could be both meandering and rife with contradiction; well, perhaps just the copy outwith the quotation marks. So…

//What is indie?
Independent. That’s the answer, the clear-cut, easy, simple answer. But it’s not, really, is it? That’s actually a bit rubbish. Here’s a better one: “Being indie is getting up out of bed, making a short trip into the living room and spending the day at your computer working in your underpants.” This comes courtesy of Paws development duo and operators of The Indie Stone community Lemmy and Binky (aka Chris Simpson and Andy Hodgetts). Maybe it’s unfair to quote the closing statement of a lengthy and through email so early on, but the possibility that it’s absolutely spot on can’t be ignored.

There’s more to it than that on the whole, obviously, so allow them to flesh it out: “To us, it’s an opportunity to do things the way we want for a change. In the commercial games industry there is such an emphasis on target markets and franchise potential and so on that even if you’re a games designer – unless you’re working at one of a few studios and are world famous – chances are you’re never going to get the opportunity to make a game that is completely your vision in which you’re free to be as experimental or absurd as you want to.” This seems to be a core thread of all indie discussion. Independent development by definition sits on the outskirts of the gaming landscape in a kind of creative oasis. Unhindered by the nonsense outlined by the mainstream of the industry, the little guy can craft his dream project from the ground up without a publisher peering over his shoulder and compromising the vision. That said, there’s at least one exception. Luckily, we have him here as well.

“Indie to me means small teams, even smaller budgets, and big ambitions – usually bloated because of the size of the team and budget,” says Experimental Gameplay Project stalwart Kyle Gray, whose own pet project, Henry Hatsworth and the Puzzling Adventure, was published by EA this year. Is Hatsworth indie? Small team, check. Small budget, check. Big ambitions, check. Just because a game is picked up by the second biggest publisher in the world, doesn’t mean it can’t reek of boundless independent spirit, imagination and, as is the indie way, insanity. By that same token, does Noby Noby Boy qualify? Keita Takahashi might be in the employ of Namco-Bandai, but it didn’t stop him from crafting an esoteric and utterly bizarre micro-masterpiece that would feel right at home as a freeware PC game linked to on TIGSource. What about LittleBigPlanet, then? The ethic is bang on and Media Molecule is a tiny studio, though we may have to draw the line somewhere.

Everyone’s favourite former Resolution indie columnist Matthew Reynolds chips in. “One way to spot an indie game is its developer, and more importantly if there is a publisher behind it, a factor which has become less common thanks to digital distribution. The likes of Number None (Braid) and 2D Boy (World of Goo) easily fall into this category, and their games are clearly indie. The PixelJunk series has all the hallmarks of being indie, but what of its developer, Q-Games? It’s backed by Sony for that particular series, and had developed Star Fox Command for Nintendo. The lines blur. Then there are those that regard themselves as independent studios, such as 5th Cell (developer of Scribblenauts) and the recently absorbed Free Radical Design (developer of TimeSplitters) – we can hardly expect these to be branded as indie games, surely?

“If there is financial and publishing weight behind the product, then it that discounts the game as being indie.” It’s an interesting consideration. Perhaps the Hatsworth case falls through if the mere presence of a publisher negates the state of indie. I don’t think I entirely agree with Matt’s point, but it’s not so much food for thought as a ten course meal. This is perhaps where we can draw the line between competing schools of thought. Gray defines it by the developer’s status, whereas Reynolds does so by the publishing method. Does it have to mean independently distributed as well as independently made?

Matt goes for what could be described as a hardcore realist perspective, and a gloomy one at that. In a similar vein to the film industry’s exploitation of “indie” values, he claims that publishing houses are cottoning on to the notion that the tag sells. “The very recent puzzle platformer Lucidity was self-branded as indie, inspired by the likes of Braid, and released by digital distribution – but because it’s developed in-house by LucasArts, does it count? What about services? Microsoft has renamed Xbox Community Games to the cooler and more subversive Indie Games, but by highlighting the fact they’re indie, are they not dragged them away from that very definition?

“Indie has now become a brand rather than a definition, one that publishers are keen to exploit in order to gain favour with the hardcore. But regardless of any of this, I still think we know what is and isn’t indie. In which case, is there actually a problem with how it’s being used?” There might be, but I don’t honestly know. What about Xbox Live Arcade? When Derek “High-Priest of Indie” Yu’s Spelunky arrives on Live Arcade, will it have to be stripped of its indie status? We’re all happy for him to get it out there and make a return on his excellent effort, but, like a favourite band hitting the top of the charts, I always feel a little annoyed when a PC game we all played and loved months ago is suddenly the recipient of great acclaim just because it has shown up on the console. Braid, the definitive indie game, might not actually be indie. It received plenty mainstream press coverage proclaiming that games were officially art thanks to Blow, though it attracted ire in equal measure for being “pretentious”. Is it still indie if Solja Boy plays it? Were the people who jumped on it to prove their point about art even aware of the swathes of thematically, visually and mechanically interesting freeware titles out there?

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