What makes a game indie?

To some people, there are only two types of games: AAA and indie. Those two descriptors do a hell of a lot of lifting, especially because they’re rarely applied by their definition. I don’t know why the terms are used so broadly since they actually have very specific meanings. I can at least tell you what the specific meaning of “indie” is.

As you probably already know, indie is short for independent. The idea of an independent game is one that is produced without the support – financially or otherwise – of a publisher. It doesn’t matter what size of publisher. If a publisher is backing it, it isn’t indie. If it’s self-published, then it’s considered indie.

However, this definition creates some complications. Fortnite is both developed and published by Epic Games, so is it indie? Hmm. Other times, a small developer will go through a publisher only to help them get through a certification process on a platform without any financial backing.

Meanwhile, publishers like Devolver Digital and Apogee Entertainment consider themselves to be “indie publishers,” which is a bit of an oxymoron. Torture Star Video is the publishing label of Puppet Combo, and for a while there, it was just one guy. Does that mean that Bloodwash isn’t an indie game?

So, what actually is an indie game?

It’s not really clear. But you’d better make sure you get it right, or someone will yell at you.

I think when addressing this, it’s important to recognize that there’s a middle ground between AAA and indie. AAA isn’t about quality; it’s about budget. Bigger budgets enable larger teams and higher production values, which are sometimes perceived as quality. But the important part there is the amount that is spent on it. That, in itself, isn’t a really clear threshold. What constitutes a “big budget” is changing as the years progress.

Furthermore, we don’t usually hear how much of a budget went into creating a game. I don’t know how much money went into creating Doom Eternal. Some companies don’t disclose that detail outside of their own shareholders, or by accident.

There have been proposals for using terms like AA game or B game, and that feels gross to me. Why would we grade games based on budget? They’re not steaks. Meanwhile, calling something like Disgaea a mid-range or low-budget game is going to offend some poor marketing person somewhere.

So, I guess what I’m saying is that you can’t win. I give up. It’s all up to marketing teams what they call their games, and they’re pretty attached to just two descriptors. Big publishers will keep disguising smaller productions as “indie” and smaller productions will reach for the coveted rank of AAA. And that’s lame, but it’s where we are.