Although independent game development is probably as old as PC gaming itself, indie games have been exploding critically and commercially as of late, and indie development is slowly becoming a more popular and accessible activity.
Services like the XBox Live Arcade, Playstation Network, WiiWare and Steam are creating a niche for smaller, artful titles that are far less expensive than average triple-A gaming fare and allow indie developers to gain widespread visibility and make a name for themselves. Games like Bastion, Braid, World of Goo, Super Meat Boy, The Binding of Isaac and Limbo started out on these services and eventually achieved great success.
Valve's Steam Greenlight, in particular, is a project through which the gamer community itself can help promote and support games they feel are worthy. A notable example is the recently-released viral hit Surgeon Simulator 2013. Some developers are looking to Kickstarter, as well, as a means to fund their ventures directly through the community and bypassing big-name publishers entirely. FTL: Faster than Light is an example of this.
IGN named the indie PSN title Journey as their best game of 2012, beating out, among others, indie critical darling The Walking Dead. But perhaps the most notable independent game of recent times is Minecraft, an addictive sandbox which started as an idea in the head of one Swedish game programmer and has since become ubiquitous in gaming culture.
What are some indie games you all like?
Off the top of my head, I'm particularly crazy about Bastion, World of Goo, Psychonauts, Hotline Miami, Amnesia: The Dark Descent and FTL.
And the word Indie comes from the word Individual.
Actually, as far as I know, indie means "independent" (at least that's the case in music), as in a studio that's independent from major publishers. Studios with tiny crews, that fund themselves and make what they want to make. There's a lot of small studios that are subsidiary to big companies like Sony and EA. Maxis was an indie studio a thousand years ago and belongs to EA now. Supergiant Studios, on the other hand, made Bastion entirely on their own and made a publishing deal with WB.
An indie game could actually be from just about any genre, or it could belong to two or more genres, or it could even be "genre-busting", as in, very hard to classify. I suppose Minecraft, Psychonauts, Super Meatboy, Gunpoint, Don't Starve and Guns of Icarus are among my favorite indie games, though it is sometimes difficult to tell indie games and officially published games apart, since the major difference between them is the fact that one is created by a small, self-reliant group and the other is sponsored, backed up and marketed by a publisher. The former is often free of charge or seeks sponsorship and advertisement either through a commercial platform such as Steam or a donation-oriented community forum such as Kickstarter. Although I am all for independent game designers, I do not quite understand why some gamers tend to place indie games on such a high pedestal; personally, I respect indie game creators as much as the publisher-backed game designers, as both types of designing teams have their own advantages and inconveniences: indie designers have more freedom and flexibility in terms of time and creativity, but they work with a smaller budget and often with a low-experienced team, and not every designer is guaranteed a monetary reward for his hard work; a "dependent" designer, on the other hand, is often pressured by time constraints and limits to the style and creativity of a game, but they have a wider budget, work with an experienced team, have access to special equipment (for Sound FX, Motion Capturing, etc.) and a (semi-)steady source of income.
Path of Exile which is a new Indie developed Action RPG by Grinding Gear Games that has been in Closed Beta for about 5 years in testing, however went into Open Beta. Its a game that rivals the Diablo series and due to its extreme depth and customization it offers it is a game you'll want to check out for yourself. The ability to use any skills and customize them with support gems such as adding more projectiles, making projectiles faster, more melee attacks, splash damage, etc and of course the massive Passive Skill Tree which you can make your own builds for your character, as well.
