Definitions and differences. By Aidin Zolghadr

Software Engineer. Garshasp. Hasan Kachal and Secret of The Red Apple. Black Elixir. 2

in·die/ ˈ indē/ Adjective:(of a pop group or record label) Not belonging to or affiliated with a major record company. (of a movie) Not produced by a major studio: "she's landed herself the lead in an indie horror movie". 3

There is no exact definition.(McDonald 2005) Individuals or small teams or small indie companies. Usually smaller than mainstream titles. No publisher support and have little to no budget. Lack of money doesn’t affect decisions. Smaller team -> innovation, creativity and artistic experimentation. Indie doesn’t mean focus on innovation. Is not hobbyist game dev. If it's cool, creative and different, it's indie! :] 4

Latter half of 2000s. XBLA, Steam, OnLive, etc. Tools such as Flash, XNA. Software Packages: Game Maker. 5

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Innovation. Freedom. Creativity. Get in the industry. Hobby. 7

Publisher. Mainstream. Repetition. Lack of creativity. Safe side of the road. Build with business in mind. 8

Game development is NOT easy. Game development is NOT for everyone. Indie game dev is EVEN harder. Competition. Sacrifices. 9

Limbo. Super Meat Boy. World of Goo. Braid. Fez. Minecraft. VVVVV. Nifflas. 10

Flash game. 840,000 views. Attention of Microsoft and Nintendo. Steam and Xbox 360 versions had sold over 600,000 copies combined. 11

Based on sketch of a “mood image of a secret place”. Personal budget + Danish government grant. Attracted but ignored large publishers. Ignore outside advices to keep the vision. 1,000,000 copies sold. 12

Made the games 4 times. Planned for 2007, released in spring

Narbacular Drop, DigiPen school. Enters Valve. "they had actually carried the concept through“ – Newell. 14

Based on a collection of concept art by one of their employee Developed the game without a publisher. They have since made enough money, making them even more independent. Budget … $100,000! 15

Persian. Development expectancy 1 month, actually took … 3 months! :] Post mortem on Saturday. Trailer. 16

Flash: FGL. iOS: Apple Store. Android: Google Play. HTML5: Starting to grow. 17

Super Meat Boy. Fez. Braid. 18

The only stupid question is the one not asked. – Einstein. 19

Consulting. Want help? (Financing, technical, business, etc)