When people ignore indies is only when they talk about system sellers

Indie means simply Independent. It has nothing to do with budget,but usually it is low budget. But Star Citizen and Elite Dangerous is good examples of indie titles that are independent,but with pretty big budgets.

I liked this definition, until I thought about kickstarter. How does that fit in?

Join this with Lortsamler's explanation and my explanantion and you've got it. In other words, Indie (in terms of games and in general in media) is a game made without constraints (aka money) from a bigger corporation.

Indie = independent.

An indie studio IMO is one which is not working for or on behalf of any other company. They have full control over the funding, and full creative control over the project in development. There are no constraints imposed on them by anyone else in any way.

The size of the project and/or the number of people working on it makes no difference to the definition. Nor does the past history of any individuals working on it. As long as everything they're doing is self-contained, without help from outside, and without having to conform to restrictions imposed from outside, they're independent.

That's my opinion, anyway.

Well for one it has to be bad. All indie games are bad.

/sarcasm

Please don't ban me mods.

@hedra42

http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail203.html

Indie games definiton has almost changed from it's initial use. Like indie music it seem to be used to describe a style of game more than the true roots of it's funding.
Often smaller, stylised games attract the label. Games that might focus one or two gameplay mechanics or "hooks" over the shorter period of the game.

literally, so that means independently funded games. These are games that the developer funds directly, even if some of that funding is "borrowed" from a bigger publisher.

Due to how indie games are typically funded, it usually means the teams making them are Mich smaller, and that they practically have zero marketing budget unless a larger publisher or platform holder chooses to help them. That's why their games are usually also smaller and more focused.

At the end of the day, they are all games to me.

same here :)

Insomniac Games had backing from Sony, and Obsidian Entertainment as well (from Bethesda).

But had Insomniac nor Obsidian had financial help from either, I would say both the Resistance franchise and Fallout: New Vegas would be indie, indeed. It's simple as that.

EDIT: and still, if Sony only published the Resistance franchise but did not gave money nor support to the developer at all outside that, then I'd say Resistance is indeed indie.