Comic: https://www.deathbulge.com/comics/441
Alt text: Yeah yeah, there's always exceptions, I mean look no further than the game in the 2nd panel, not the most thrilling gameplay, is it?
Comic: https://www.deathbulge.com/comics/441
Alt text: Yeah yeah, there's always exceptions, I mean look no further than the game in the 2nd panel, not the most thrilling gameplay, is it?
Depends on how you define indie. By my definition, Deltarune is still indie but made by a quintillionaire so like, meh. Celeste was indie when it was just a fantasy console bs thing.
So if an indie game blows up because it’s great then it’s not indie? That’s a silly way to define it.
Have some mid-sized studios co-opted the term? Sure. Expedition 33 is on that AA spectrum, but a game by a very small team? In what definition is Celeste not an indie game?
Here’s one definition. If you go to the Steam page for Deltarune, it says “tobyfox” as developer, that’s a (nick)name. OneShot (2016) says “Future Cat LLC” but that seems to be made up since Steam asks for “company name”. Celeste’s “Maddy Makes Games Inc.” seems real, however. Therefore, Celeste isn’t indie.
I think the most accurate definition is “produced without a publisher”. That’s the thing they’re independent of.
Where it gets grey is things like “okay it has a publisher, but they’re tiny and cute and only publish indie-feeling game”
So the “feeling” of indie is “made by a small group of people with a shared cohesive vision and minimal outside influence”, where publishers tend to be large sources of outside influence, and teams larger than, like, 50 people tend to be unable to all have a truly shared cohesive vision. And a single person, by definition, always has a shared vision no matter what they make. But if a publisher is low-touch, or brings a game that’s basically done to market without asking for changes, and the game feels cohesive and personal, then that’s good enough.
That’s also a really shitty definition since Valve and Nintendo are publishing themselves too. If you argue “well they are their own publisher” then I counter with “well anyone uploading to itch.io will have itch.io as their publisher”.
And ultrakill probably sold the least out of these 3 but actually has a publisher (it’s also my favorite of the 3)
I mean Deltarune was made by toby fox who became a millionaire from his other indie game Undertale. I think it definitely counts.
I did say “is still indie”.
You also said, “but made by a quintillionaire,” as if that is a point lowering its indie status, and as if money is the defining aspect of indie vs. AAA.