Make no mistake either, we are done with the “indie” tag. I have replaced this vocabulary in our blurbs and such, for the most part with the term “underground“. I know, seems like a little thing. But it’s the little things that set the tone, and more importantly, tell people something about you in the first 10 seconds.

Why you ask? Because the line has been irrevocably blurred. When you say, “indie“, you think of a group of entrepreneurs, working independently of the usual norms and structures that their chosen industry has built up over time. In the Alternative, you might think of a struggling little band of folks, seeking to strike out in an effort to drive the car down avenues never ventured.

Now, there are certain industries where this idea, while a bit diluted in some areas…still rings quite true. We are based in Chicago, and there are loads of “indie” record companies. Plenty of “indie” film studios. There are even tons of “indie” design and illustration houses.

But there is at least one place where indie has become a completely useless term. That place is the game industry. In the game developer world, “Indie” is the new fashion. It’s the new cottage fries. It’s the new fad. So let me let you in on a little secret: I am personally disturbed by the amount of big corporate backing of so called “indie” game dev houses. I am really disturbed by some of the places out there, on the web…where the only thing “indie” about them is the use of the word in the slogan under the logo, or in the domain name itself.

I think, by and large the “indie” game scene is a lost cause. There’s too many fat checkbooks floating around. Way too many. While you may be able to retain some control when you take money from someone, at the end of the day they can still pressure you to do what they want and when (not if) that happens…

Well, that is about as far from “independent” as you can get. From there, you start down the road of being a “dependie” game developer. You depend on the good graces of the people who hold the purse strings.

So, we here at Double Cluepon are completely done with “indie”. At the end of the day, “indie” is becoming another niche for big companies. Like “Organically Grown”. Just another tapped market for the people who tend to care about the control and manipulation of the players, rather than the enabling of them. From there, you can only go underground.  Underground culture is where you find stuff you imagine, but never find in Wal-Mart. Underground is where you find the innovators, and the people doing cool things. In the game industry, at least for me, I have found out that “indie” is another name for a queue of people who are looking for the next big buyout with big bucks, and all the whammies that go with it. They want to be the next Zynga. Thats fine. We will be happy to give you the carnival huckster business model. You can have it. No fun lies there. At least…not for us.

So, yeah. We are about as far from “indie” as you can be. You can be sure, we are proud to say so too. How you describe yourself is just as important as how others describe you. What’s more, there is something to be said for who you choose to stand up to be counted with. We no longer want to stand up to be counted with people taking money from HUGE corporations who simply want to tap into a fad, without caring about the integrity of the field.