Well, people of VGChartz. Right now there's a lot of things going on in the gaming industry, but something that is strucking now harder than ever is Indie gaming. In fact, there's a thread about whether you love or hate them, but that's not why I'm making this thread.

I make this thread so that you, please, explain me what an "indie game" is and how you differenciate it from a "game".

Please. I need help with this. Only you, VGChartz, can help me!

Independent developers.

Where do you cross the line between "Independent Developer" and "Developer"?

I don't know. It's a good question. There's a certain connotation attached to the word indie, but since it's just a diminutive of "independent" technically a developer like Insomniac is just as much an indie as some bedroom coder making iOS games.

People who are publishing their own games are independent developers. Or they don't have a big company owning them in other words.

But that's the problem. We've stopped calling developers "developers" just to call them "indie developers" because, apparently, that makes them better.

There's a good misconception about the term, and no one is clear enough on it. We just shout "INDIE" whenever we feel like.

So all those indie games that are being published by Sony because they want to support indie gaming stop being indie because Sony is publishing them?

Could be a little game one kid makes in their basement - like the first one of this was: http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Product/Solar-2/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d802585508b4

or a game made by a small team not associated with a major developer.

Think of it like an unsigned artist on a talent show. Some are good, some are bad, and some are going to be absolutely huge once people learn about them.

So if it is a huge team associated with an unknown developer their game is not indie?

I'm pretty sure Activision is indie now.