Is every indie game independent? Towards the concept of independent game

This paper is an attempt to explicate the concept of “independent game” and its relation to the concept of “indie game”. We claim that, despite the etymology, the term “indie” is not just an abbreviation of the term “independent”. In fact, it should be understood as a distinct historical notion within the wider concept of “independent” video game. Our argument is inspired by the works of Reinhart Koselleck (2002) on conceptual history and applies explication - introduced in analytical philosophy by Rudolf Carnap (1950) - as a methodological tool. We argue that the concept of “independent game” can be explained as a disjunction of three types of independence. These three types of independence can be defined as a relation between the game and a respective external factor. We distinguish between (A) financial independence (constituted by the developer -- investor relation), (B) creative independence (developer -- intended audience) and (C) publishing independence (developer -- publisher). Although the definition we propose is disjunctive, all of its three disjuncts (A, B and C) remain functionally similar (they all represent an independence from something). None of these disjuncts taken in isolation presents a necessary condition for game independence but the whole disjunction can be treated as such. Moreover, in a particular time period, the properties described above become highly correlated with a set of contingent properties (e.g. digital distribution, retro style or small team) determined by cultural, social, economic and technological circumstances of the video game culture of the era. As these contingent properties are oftentimes much easier to recognize (e.g retro style) then the details of financial, creative and publishing situation of a game, they become heavily associated with independent games produced in a given time and place. We believe that the term “indie game” refers simply to a set of contingent properties - “indie markers” - correlated with a specific kind of independent games that has emerged around the mid-2000s in the Western world.