A developer that is independent and typically doesn't have a publisher (i.e - the develop and publish the game themselves). They are usually small teams of devs too.
been discussed many times. here's Frand's (secret exit) response from before http://forums.toucharcade.com/showpost.php?p=101720&postcount=5
The way I look at it is if you have creative control, and you're not owned by another company, then you're indie. Something like that. The key thing is creative control. To me, a company like Valve could almost even be considered indie, despite the fact that they're relatively huge. Also, I believe "indieness" is a sliding scale and not on or off, so one company can be more indie than another one. The fewer the number of people who work at your company also makes it more indie, etc. If you're making games based on some else's IP and you're basically just a production shop, that's not indie. If you're just making rip-off games like Doodle Jumper, that's not indie either.
Actually independent studios often do go thru a publisher, there just not publisher owned... For instance Sumo Digital are an independant developer, but they are funded and publish games through a bunch of publishers (Sega, EA etc). Although yeah "indies" are typically considered small self-publishing development houses, while "independant developers" are considered larger...
Hehe The App store has been rather useful for us indie devs and gives us a reasonable shot against the big companies. Partly why so many are drawn to the iPhone, other than the fact that is an amazing device!
Yeah, someone like Insomniac would still kinda be an indie. Just a particularly successful independent! We do need a different term for the small low-budget (or no-budget) indies, though you can often tell by the context in which they are being referred to, looking at their resume, etc. "indie iPhone developer" usually means a pretty tiny crew. If Activision or EA owns you, then you're not an indie. If Activision or EA publishes you (but doesn't own), then you may be indie (and in this case you may be doing work for both of them simultaneously)
Independent video game development is the process of creating video games without the financial support of a video game publisher.The observation came during a public debate in regards to the future of micro-studios.They are usually self-funded small teams that operate over the Internet.They can retain creative control over the games that they make because they need not answer to an outside funder.
"indie developer" It includes war stories, videos links to sites where you can upload games, e-business, legal, free assets, game development techniques, and more. Its easy for developer.