{"id":1208153,"date":"2023-12-01T15:52:11","date_gmt":"2023-12-01T20:52:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/?p=1208153"},"modified":"2023-12-01T15:52:11","modified_gmt":"2023-12-01T20:52:11","slug":"the-game-awards-raises-an-old-question-what-does-indie-mean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/?p=1208153","title":{"rendered":"The Game Awards raises an old question: What does indie mean?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Game Awards got it wrong this year. One of the titles nominated for Best Independent Game, Dave the Diver<\/em>, was produced by Nexon, one of the largest video game studios in South Korea. No matter how hard you squint, it is not indie. Dave the Diver<\/em> is an excellent pixel-art game about deep-sea fishing and restaurant management, but it was commissioned and bankrolled by Nexon subsidiary Mintrocket, with billions of dollars and decades of experience at its back.<\/p>\n

When The Game Awards nominees were announced<\/a> on November 13, fans were quick to point out the error, and the recurring debate over what \u201cindie\u201d means was reignited. Taehwan Kim, Nexon\u2019s overseer of Mintrocket, weighed in on November 14, saying Dave the Diver<\/em> \u201cmay look like an indie, but it’s not necessarily the case.\u201d The official tweet<\/ins><\/a> listing the nominees for Best Independent Game now carries a reader-generated context tag reading, \u201cDave the Diver<\/em> is not an indie game. Mintrocket, the game’s developer, is a subsidiary of Korea’s biggest game company Nexon. They are not independent in any sense of the word.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Dave
\n
Nexon<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

A discussion around the definition of \u201cindie\u201d bubbled up throughout November, but it raised more questions than it answered. One common conclusion was that the media outlets who voted Dave the Diver<\/em> into the independent category were fooled by its pixel art, a style that\u2019s associated with indie games. During a live Q&A on Twitch<\/a> on November 26, The Game Awards organizer Geoff Keighley argued that \u201cindependent\u201d was a broad term with an unknowable definition, before essentially saying Dave the Diver<\/em>\u2019s inclusion in the indie category was the jury\u2019s fault.<\/p>\n

Specifically, Keighley said the following: \u201cIt\u2019s independent in spirit and [it\u2019s] a small game with a, I don\u2019t know what the budget is, but it’s probably a relatively small-budget game. But it is from a larger entity, whereas there are other games on that list that are from much smaller studios. Even like Dredge<\/em> I think is published by Team17, so is that independent or not because you have a publisher? It\u2019s a really complicated thing to figure out and come up with strict rules around it, so kinda we let people use their best judgment. And you can agree or disagree with the choices, but the fact that Dave the Diver<\/em> was on that list meant that, out of all the independent games the jury looked at, or what they thought were independent games, that was one of the top five they looked at this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

The jury comprises 120 media outlets (Engadget has traditionally been one of these, but we did not participate in voting this year and look what happened<\/em>), so Keighley is chalking the mistake up to mass hysteria and moving on. Meanwhile, there\u2019s still little consensus on what constitutes an indie game, at The Game Awards or elsewhere.<\/p>\n

\"Dave
\n
Nexon<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

I\u2019ve reported on video games for 13 years and indies are a central theme of my coverage. I ran The Joystiq Indie Pitch<\/ins><\/a> back in the day, and I\u2019ve made a concerted effort<\/ins><\/a> to write about smaller games<\/ins><\/a> from creators working outside<\/ins><\/a> of the mainstream machine<\/ins><\/a>, because these are the experiences that speak to me personally. The indie scene is the source of the industry\u2019s magic. This isn\u2019t just a debate about language \u2014 \u201cindie\u201d is a distinction that identifies which games and teams need outside support to survive and expand on their innovations. Understanding the label can help players make decisions about where to spend their money, the lifeblood of any game-development studio.<\/p>\n

All that to say, the debate over the definition of \u201cindie\u201d is not new, but it is constantly changing, and it\u2019s something I\u2019ve spent a lot of time contemplating. So, I\u2019m here to offer guidance on the question of what makes an indie game or studio indie. It is a weirdly complicated topic and my approach is one of many, but the loose framework I use could help resolve some common, recurring arguments.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Basically \u2014 it\u2019s all about the system, man.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m joking, but also I\u2019m not. Generally, when I\u2019m trying to decide whether something is actually indie, I rotate through three questions:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. \n

    Is the team on the mainstream system\u2019s payroll?<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  2. \n

    Is the game or team owned by a platform holder?<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  3. \n

    Do the artists have creative control?<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The first question is about identifying where a studio\u2019s money is coming from and what kind of support a game has outside of sales. If a team is wholly owned by another company of any size, it is not indie. We\u2019re not talking about publishing deals; this opening question is about acquisitions or subsidiaries of bigger studios. Dave the Diver<\/em> is a prime example here \u2014 it\u2019s developed by Mintrocket, a subsidiary of Nexon that was created just to develop more contained, experimental games for the publisher. Dave the Diver <\/em>is definitely not indie, and we\u2019re only on question one.<\/p>\n

    The second query feeds into the first, and it\u2019s helpful in making fine distinctions about games that exist in gray areas. What about something like Cyberpunk 2077<\/em>? It\u2019s a big-budget game built by CD Projekt RED (CDPR) \u2014 a studio that, at first glance, seems like it could be indie. However, there are two factors that take it out of the running for me. First, CD Projekt, the umbrella organization that supports CDPR\u2019s game-making, is a publicly traded company with shareholders and a board to answer to. Second, CD Projekt is the owner of GOG, a distribution hub that allows the studio to sell its own games and DLC outside of Steam and the Epic Games Store. This ability to sell directly to players at massive scale takes CD Projekt out of the indie realm. Generally, companies with the most influence and money are console makers and platform holders like Valve, Xbox, PlayStation, Epic Games, Ubisoft, EA, and, yes, CD Projekt. They are the AAA system, and anything they own is not indie.<\/p>\n

    \"Dave
    \n
    Nexon<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

    Lastly, on to publishers. Sorry, Keighley, but securing a publisher has very little to do with whether a game is indie nowadays. We\u2019re blessed in 2023 to have a thriving indie industry constantly pushing against the AAA complex with different goals, more diverse voices and a broader sense of innovation \u2014 and publishing is a big part of this system. Today, indie-focused publishers (of which there are <\/ins>many<\/ins><\/em><\/a>) tend to include clauses that protect a developer\u2019s creative vision, preventing the larger company from interfering with artistic decisions and keeping the game indie to the core. Once upon a time, it might\u2019ve made sense to only consider self-published games indie, but that era is long gone.<\/p>\n

    The indie scene has evolved massively since the early 2010s, when games like Braid<\/em>, Super Meat Boy<\/em> and Fez <\/em>were carving out the market\u2019s modern form. Back then, self-publishing was all the rage for independent developers because it was often their only option, and as a result there were more distinct lines between AAA, AA and indie games. Devolver Digital found its first breakout hit as an indie publisher with Hotline Miami<\/em> in 2012, and that\u2019s around the time the floodgates opened. In 2014, as the industry\u2019s largest companies started funding and publishing programs for them, the number of indie games skyrocketed across platforms including Steam (remember Greenlight<\/ins><\/a>?), the App Store, Xbox, PlayStation and Ouya (RIP).<\/p>\n

    Today, indie games come standard on every console. There are multiple indie-focused publishers, including Devolver, Annapurna Interactive, Panic, Raw Fury, Team17 and Netflix, and most of them offer complete creative freedom as a main selling point. Meanwhile, platform holders like Sony and Xbox are hungry to sign distribution deals with developers of all sizes in an effort to score exclusives and pad their streaming libraries. It\u2019s the most stable (and crowded) the indie scene has ever been. Having a publisher has no bearing on whether a game is indie.<\/p>\n

    Being owned<\/em> by a publisher, however, changes everything (see question one). This is more of a concern than ever, as platform holders like Microsoft, Sony and Epic Games have recently been buying studios they like, no matter their size<\/ins><\/a>. Hell, even Devolver has dipped its toes in the acquisition pond recently \u2014 which, yeah, means those teams are no longer indie.<\/p>\n

    \"Dave
    \n
    Nexon<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

    The \u201cindie\u201d label is transitory. Certain studios can be indie but an individual game may not be, and plenty of small companies flow between states as they age and take advantage of growth opportunities. Bungie, for example, started out as an independent outfit, then it was absorbed by the AAA complex under Xbox, and then it broke free and was briefly indie again, before Sony pulled it back into the mainstream system\u2019s cold embrace.<\/p>\n

    So, yeah, that’s my way of determining if a game or studio is indie. By all means, take my triplet of questions and have fun trying to break the logic \u2014 it probably won’t take long. There is no perfect structure here and there are plenty of outliers within my own framework. Alan Wake II<\/em>, according to my questions, would be considered an indie game \u2014 but its developer, Remedy Entertainment, is a publicly traded company, which brings shareholders and a board of directors. This pushes the studio and the game into The System for me, but honestly, I\u2019m still unsure about those labels as I type this. That\u2019s OK \u2014 when all else fails, look inside your game-loving soul and ask, can this team exist without my support? <\/em>(Alan Wake II<\/em>, for what it\u2019s worth, is a delicious and unique experience<\/ins><\/a> that\u2019s worth playing, regardless of your feelings on Remedy’s shareholders).<\/p>\n

    Does Mintrocket need my support to keep Dave the Diver<\/em> and its creative team going? Probably not, and definitely not in the same way as Larian Studios, the independent developer and publisher of Baldur\u2019s Gate 3<\/em>. Baldur\u2019s Gate 3 <\/em>is an excellent, expansive 3D adventure from an indie studio and it\u2019s up for Game of the Year at The Game Awards, but it was snubbed in the Best Independent Game category. Meanwhile, Dave the Diver<\/em>, a cute title backed by billions of dollars, is up for the indie award, but not Game of the Year. It seems like The Game Awards jury made the classic mistake of seeing pixel art and immediately calling it indie. That\u2019s an unforced error, but it reveals one point where we can all agree:<\/p>\n

    Indie is not an aesthetic.<\/p>\n

    This article originally appeared on Engadget at https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/the-game-awards-raises-an-old-question-what-does-indie-mean-205211035.html?src=rss
    \n
    \nSource: Engadget –     The Game Awards raises an old question: What does indie mean?<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The Game Awards got it wrong this year. One of the titles nominated for Best Independent Game, Dave the Diver, was produced by Nexon, one of the largest video game studios in South Korea. No matter how hard you squint, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99,110],"tags":[98],"class_list":["post-1208153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-engadget","category-unfiltered-rss","tag-engadget"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1208153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1208153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1208153\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1208153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1208153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1208153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}