Indies

The IGDA Indie Special Interest Group (Indie SIG) exists to advocate on behalf of independent game developers, and to assist them in the difficult task of bringing their games to a larger audience. For purposes of this SIG, an "independent / indie" is defined as a game developer who owns and controls their intellectual property ("IP") with respect to Publishers and Distributors. The terms “Publisher” and “Distributor” are not regarded as equivalent or in any way synonymous; the former implies control of IP, the latter does not. A self-publishing game development studio is independent. However, a company that wholly owns a game development studio as a subsidiary company, or has multiple game development studios as corporate divisions, is not regarded as independent, as the company is removing IP ownership and control from the game development studios. A game developer who gives up ownership of their IP to a Publisher in exchange for funding, or a game development studio owned by a parent company, is not independent. A game developer who seeks a distribution deal with a third party, and retains full rights to their own IP, is independent.

The Indie SIG is an inclusive organization. Members must have an interest in contributing to the indie game development community; other than that, there are no specific requirements, e.g. shipped games etc. IGDA membership is strongly recommended, but not required.  Membership is reserved to actual persons, not to spammers or duplicate accounts.

The Indie SIG is governed by our Constitution, which was ratified by a vote of the membership.

The current Indie SIG mailing List can be found here.