An indie game, short for independent game, is a game where the creator of the game is independent of any publishers or corporate dominion. Essentially there’s no funding from a larger entity and because of that the creator of the game has total freedom over their vision. While you may initially consider this to be a good thing, which it definitely can be, there are drawbacks to that situation.
What are indie games known for? What are they typically defined by? Usually an indie game is defined by the size of their dev team, usually small or solo and Publisher independence. Due to these definitions the indie games you’ll play are almost always drastically different than a AAA (there's always exceptions) game. We’ll discuss the definitions of indie games and the pro's and con's as an indie developer below.
Publisher Independence: The Heart of Indie
This is at the heart of an indie game, hence, “Indie”. The developers of the game are completely independent and free from any outside influence. They’re free to bring their vision to life without any interference from the hand that feeds them because it’s their own hand… and typically people don’t want to bite their own hand(I hope). I’m sure you can think of an innumerable amount of reasons this is a good thing, because it is but this can also be a bad thing. Many projects are cancelled due to lack of funding or… the funding they do have is squandered due to lack of experience and direction that a publisher provides. They have total artistic freedom and no corporate overhang. That means the developers can take risks or implement offensive and controversial subjects in their game. The only judge is the players themselves.
There are pro’s and con’s to being an indie game developer. As an indie developer myself I would prefer the freedom but man.. It sure would be great to be able to work on my game as my main job as opposed to a side project. That’s the benefit of having a publisher, developers can make it their main job.
Small Teams: Innovation through Limitation
The small team aspect of an indie game shouldn’t need much of an explanation. Due to the lack of massive funding from a publisher the dev teams are typically much smaller. The finances of the dev team is actually in the shape of a piggy bank sitting on the desk next to the developers as they work in their garage. Okay.. This isn’t the case for all of them but probably most indie devs because there’s so many. Valve actually announced there were 19,000 new games added to Steam in 2025, I can guarantee you most of them were indie games. Being on a small team has pro’s and con’s, one being that the boat is a lot smaller and easier to turn. You won’t need 4 meetings and several cuss out sessions to make a character's pants a different color.
The small team aspect will also drive the scope of the project down, this usually makes indie games on a smaller scale but typically with a lot more passion. Developing my own game ROBA has certainly opened my eyes to the importance of scope and having to prioritize your time correctly. The lack of more people to rely on completing work is unfortunate but also helps prioritize what’s important. The small team aspect of an indie game influences every aspect of the game and will often times require and produce tons of innovation, something indie games are quite known for.
Let’s recap what an indie game is highlighting, the good, the bad and ugly in some quick bullet points.
Pro’s:
- Artistic Freedom
- Complete ownership of IP
- No outside influence
- No PC or politic policing
- Innovate features due to a small team
- Small team(can easily change direction)
Con’s:
- No funding(many projects are never completed),
- no expectations from a hierarchy so scope can get out of hand(lack of direction)
- No PC or Politic Policing(Sometimes you need saving from yourself)
- Small team(can easily change direction. Sometimes you can change too many directions)
- Lack of features due to a small team
Love or Hate em’...Indie Games
There’s big arguments over the meaning of an indie game but I believe these 2 facets to hold true. So what is an indie game? It’s how all game companies started. It starts with the fire and passion of garage dwelling devs who contain the desire to play the game they’re making. It starts with “Wouldn’t it be cool if” and becomes a reality because of the developers blood(probably blisters), sweat and tears.The gaming market has become flooded with indie games due to the availability of tools and resources. This choice can be a great thing but with that flood comes some damage. Many games are lost in the abyss of the marketplace they’re listed and even more games never come to fruition due to the reasons listed above. But man.. When an indie game happens and it has that fire and passion, there’s no better game out there. As an indie game developer myself, working on my project ROBA, I know the pain and excitement that comes with it.
It’s an interesting time for gaming, never before have so many resources been available to people and I’m excited to see what the indie game market will evolve into. The endless possibilities of a small team and no corporate overreach will undoubtedly produce innovative and endless fun. Ultimately though, indie devs need to overcome some of the hurdles presented in this article that comes without direct funding. Follow ROBA and get updates if you're interested in the progress or just devlogs about indie developing. Thanks for reading.