Indie Games Guide: What They Are and Why They Matter
Indie games occupy a distinct and increasingly influential corner of the video game landscape — one defined less by budget than by creative independence. This page covers what qualifies a game as "indie," how independent development and publishing actually work in practice, where indie games appear most prominently across the broader gaming world, and how players and developers alike can think about the boundaries that separate indie from everything else.
Definition and scope
Stardew Valley — one of the most commercially successful games of the 2010s — was built almost entirely by a single developer, Eric Barone, working alone for four years. It sold over 20 million copies (ConcernedApe, via Steam announcements). That fact lands harder once you know that a mid-sized AAA studio might employ 300 to 500 people to ship a title. The contrast captures something essential about indie games: the defining characteristic is independence from major publisher funding and control, not smallness for its own sake.
The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) and academic researchers who study game development generally apply "indie" as shorthand for games produced without the financial backing, marketing infrastructure, or creative oversight of a major publisher — companies like Electronic Arts, Activision Blizzard, Nintendo, or Sony Interactive Entertainment. The developer retains the intellectual property, controls the creative direction, and typically self-publishes or partners with a small third-party distributor.
Scope matters here. The indie category spans:
- Solo developers producing games in their spare time with near-zero budget
- Small studios of 5–20 people with modest funding from grants or crowdfunding
- Mid-tier independent studios with dozens of employees and publishing partnerships that preserve creative autonomy
What all three share is the absence of the major-publisher relationship — the contract that typically exchanges creative control and IP rights for a multi-million-dollar development budget.
For a broader look at where indie games fit across the full taxonomy of games, the video game genres reference on this site provides useful structural context.
How it works
Independent game development runs on a mix of funding sources that have expanded significantly since the mid-2000s rise of digital distribution. Before Steam launched in 2003, physical retail shelf space was controlled almost entirely by publishers, which effectively locked out small developers. Digital storefronts changed the distribution equation and made indie development economically viable at scale.
Funding typically flows from one or more of these channels:
- Personal savings or income — the developer funds development out-of-pocket
- Crowdfunding — platforms like Kickstarter have funded notable titles; Shovel Knight raised $311,502 on Kickstarter in 2013 (Kickstarter campaign, archived)
- Government arts grants — the Canada Media Fund and the UK's Creative England have historically funded game development as a cultural medium
- Publisher partnerships (limited) — some developers take advances from boutique publishers like Devolver Digital or Annapurna Interactive while retaining IP ownership
- Early access revenue — selling an unfinished game at reduced price to fund ongoing development
Once shipped, indie games typically distribute through Steam, the Epic Games Store, itch.io, Nintendo eShop, PlayStation Store, or Xbox marketplace. Revenue split on Steam defaults to 70/30 in favor of the developer (Valve Steam distribution terms), though the split improves to 75/25 after $10 million in gross revenue and 80/20 after $50 million.
The full picture of how these business structures work is covered in more depth on the video game business models and video game publishers and developers pages.
Common scenarios
Indie games cluster around certain genres and experiences — not by rule, but because creative freedom tends to push developers toward stories and mechanics that larger commercial pressures would filter out.
Role-playing games, narrative adventures, puzzle games, and horror titles appear disproportionately in the indie space. Undertale, Hollow Knight, Celeste, and Disco Elysium — all critically acclaimed titles — were built by teams of 1 to 6 people. Disco Elysium, developed by the 8-person Estonian studio ZA/UM, won the 2019 Game Award for Game of the Year.
Indie games also appear frequently in retro gaming communities, where pixel-art aesthetics and mechanics that echo 1980s and 1990s arcade design find enthusiastic audiences. This is partly nostalgia, partly a practical budget decision — 3D photorealistic graphics require engineering resources most indie teams don't have.
The video game history and evolution page traces how the conditions that enabled indie development — cheap middleware like Unity and Unreal Engine, accessible digital distribution, and online communities for marketing — emerged over roughly two decades.
Decision boundaries
The line between "indie" and "not indie" blurs in specific ways worth thinking through carefully.
Indie vs. AA: A "double-A" or AA game sits between indie and AAA in budget and team size — often $5 million to $20 million in development costs — but typically still involves publisher backing. The distinction from indie is funding source and IP control, not headcount.
Indie with a publisher vs. AAA: A game made by a 10-person studio but funded by a major publisher like Microsoft or Sony is generally not considered indie, even if it looks and plays like one. The creative and financial control has shifted.
Former indie studios: Studios like Mojang (Minecraft) and Supergiant Games occupy complicated positions after commercial success or acquisition. Mojang's acquisition by Microsoft in 2014 for $2.5 billion (Microsoft press release, September 2014) removed it from the indie category by most definitions, despite the game's independent origins.
The broader video game development process page explains how team structures and milestone contracts — the mechanics that define the AAA relationship — work in practice. Understanding those mechanics makes the indie/non-indie distinction considerably more concrete. A full overview of the gaming landscape is available at the site's main reference page.