Sean Murray I just said that Mario Galaxy was my game of the year. Why does it feel like I said my favourite book is The Da Vinci Code?

His was You Have to Burn the Rope. Nominated for the IGF Innovation Award, it’s a game that works on many levels. Well just one level really, with a rope at the end of it that you have to burn. The game is a wry joke with a nice punch line, one of the few recently to actually make me laugh, but can it really be what you enjoyed playing most last year? A year with everything from GTAIV to The Space Game to Modern Warfare to Braid.

So if your favourite game this year was a spoof then might you not be enjoying games any more? “Well, I only play indie games now. Mainstream gaming is eating itself; I’ve not played a Mario since SNES.” There are nods of agreement around the table, and I can sort of admire that. After all, who needs supporting more than independent developers? Every art needs its patrons. There’s only one problem, though – no one at the table can agree just what is ‘indie’ anymore. And the irony is that we’re all independent developers.

I have just come to the US for work, but I wanted to meet some fellow developers while I’m out here. We meet in a little bar with good music and even better beer. When I walk in I recognise most of them instantly, just from having played their games. That says something about just how personal an expression independent development often is.

This is a table of some of the most talented, driven, single minded and creative people you’re likely to meet. It’s inspiring and we’ve already spent hours discussing gaming culture, old-school classics, comics and technology. I was feeling instantly at ease with this group, but now suddenly I’m worried I might not belong.

The discussion has turned to something everyone here is passionate about. Which developers are truly indie? It’s a byword for respect, integrity, value and struggle. Indie credentials can mean a more sympathetic press and public. It can be the difference between minimalist and low quality, between rough edges and shovelware. And as someone jokes, “Don’t get busted by the indie police”.

I used to work for big companies and I’m playing catch-up. I name some of the well-known independents and get the judgement. Media Molecule? Too well supported. Twisted Pixel? Too large now. Q-Games? No one can agree why, but not indie. Introversion? Too established. The Behemoth? Too successful.

It’s all surprising, but I particularly can’t get my head around this last one. I guess the logic goes that success means you are no longer a struggling artist. Although I detect a hint of something else. It reminds me of when I was a kid and Ash were a local band. I followed them as they played at desolate venues and I had a copy of their demo tape. Then they cut their first proper album. I remember walking into a club to find every second person wearing an Ash T-shirt and suddenly they had lost their edge.

It seems to be indie, you have to be small, unfunded, unsuccessful and for the sake of this argument, sitting at this table. Well, at least Hello Games qualifies. I’ve got some screenshots of Joe Danger on my phone. One look, though, and a couple of people shake their heads. Not indie. Someone says too “traditional”, another “marketable” and finally “high production values” like a line has been crossed. I feel like I just ordered steak at the vegan table. I’ll get my coat.

It’s not entirely a shock – we’re no Blueberry Garden. Joe Danger is bright, vibrant and unapologetically fun. The screenshots are of a cute little dude collecting coins, dodging man-sized mousetraps and being punched by a giant boxing glove. I’m slightly embarrassed and I know it’s not exactly high-art, but that doesn’t mean the game’s not a huge personal expression for us. It’s something we’ve always wanted to make, a call back to the spirit of 80s gaming when vibrant didn’t mean casual and everyone was indie. We’ve made huge sacrifices to make this game, and turned down some pretty awesome opportunities just to maintain our creative control. Does a game need pained prose, abstract visuals or experimental gameplay to be considered indie?

The short answer is it doesn’t hurt. My friend across the table, who doesn’t play mainstream games, also writes for an indie website in his spare time. He explains even if they wanted to, they just don’t have the bandwidth to cover every interesting game made by a small team, so having an indie theme is essential to qualify for coverage. I can imagine the challenge, especially when you consider the number of Flash and iPhone games in that category. For him there are actually lots of unofficial subcategories and divisions - experimental indie, retro indie, commercial indie, remakes, art games. His current game is experimental indie. “You play a tortured soul, stuck in Limbo. He needs to collect his regrets to escape his suffering”. OK. “It’s basically Bomb Jack”. Well fine, just so long as it is.

My experience, though, is that for publishers and platform holders these shades of grey don’t exist. Microsoft keeps the door open to independent studios because Castle Crashers sold well. Steam scoops up the IGF winners every year because Darwinia was a success. If, like me, you want to see Terry Cavanagh’s brilliant VVVVVV on Steam, then it actually helps to support any other indie title already on there (and make a donation on his page). I guess as far as the mainstream is concerned we’re all in this together. If independent development is going to become as prominent as we all want it to be, then we should all probably think like that too.

Hello Games contributes a fortnightly column to Edge and is a small, new independent game developer based in southern England. Its first game, Joe Danger, aimed at XBLA, PSN and PC, will be released just as soon as it feels right - let’s say spring next year.