What we think of as the rise of indie gaming was when they started getting publishers to promote them. You needed one in order to be listed on XBLA back in the day.
Comment on 2025 Game Awards Results Discussion
atomicbocks@sh.itjust.works 3 days agoThe original meaning of indie was independently published. I would think having a publisher would pretty squarely put you in the not indie category.
ampersandrew@lemmy.world 3 days ago
atomicbocks@sh.itjust.works 3 days ago
When I think of the rise of indie gaming I think about the early 2000s when people could put their game on their own website and things like Steam were coming out. The Xbox doesn’t even cross my mind. Consoles were very much not the realm of indie games until like the Wii U.
ampersandrew@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Xbox 360 and Summer of Arcade are major pillars in bringing indie games into the spotlight around exactly that era. There may have been Darwinia and Ragdoll Kung Fu on Steam at the time, but it was the likes of Braid, Super Meat Boy, Bastion and such that really came up within the XBLA promotions.
atomicbocks@sh.itjust.works 3 days ago
You clearly missed out on a whole era of shit like Pocket Tanks and Zuma.
DaedalousIlios@pawb.social 2 days ago
Kepler, IMHO, is the exception, because they are specifically a coalition of indie devs pooling resources to give other indie devs the best shot of success.
And to the comment above yours: I think any devs who don’t have a board of investors or any obligation to anyone but their fans counts as “indie” in my still-honest opinion.