🌆 Indie Is Not A Genre, It's A Scene

Indie is not a genre.Nor is indie synonymous with “low budget”, “self published” or “small team”. Each of these definitions have counter examples–I encourage you to come up with your own before expanding the spoilers.SpoilersIf Rockstar developed Balatro, it wouldn’t be an indie game.Amensia: The Dark Descent and Luck Be A Landlord evoke wholly different experiences, despite both being indie games.Journey is an indie game despite having a publisher.Cyberpunk 2077 is not an indie game despite being self published.If Amazon Game Studios put together a team of three people to make a mobile game, the result wouldn’t be indie.What Remains of Edith Finch is an indie game despite listing 131 professional roles in its credits.Slay the Spire‘s financial success doesn’t make Slay the Spire II any less indie.Indie is not a genre, it’s a scene.In fact, like any major art scene, the indie game scene is an amalgamation of smaller scenes.For example, I’m part of the Portland indie game scene. I…