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IGDA Indie SIG To Aid Independent Developer
zratchet writes "The IGDA Independent Game Development Special Interest Group is just getting started - this group is for game developers interested in pursuing game development and distribution outside the standard channels as presented by the mainstream industry today. For purposes of this SIG, the definition of 'indie' is: 'Not having any formal relationship with a publisher.' The purpose of this SIG is to provide information and resources to help build the community of indie developers and support their efforts, and we're currently identifying 3 types of Indie Game Developers: Commercial (small self-publishing companies and those using small publishers - for example Sunspire Studios of Tux Racer fame) and GarageGames), Open Source, Shareware, Freeware, and Public Domain (including OSI and Creative Commons licensed games) such as those listed at Sourceforge, and 'mods', such as those hosted at PlanetQuake."
No, there really isn't. This isn't even a case of RTFA, just RTFDescription - indie just means self-published. The product is games that aren't swayed by the same influences as commercial ones, which allows them to be experimental and to address niches that mainstream games ignore (see: Uplink). The purpose of this organization is to provide indie developers with resources that will help them create quality games - it doesn't strip them of their creative independence.