The Independent Games Festival is a key moment each year for Indie Games.  This year's festival gave little surprises with Darwinia taking most of the awards while the other hopeful Indie developers slowly surrendered their hopes.

Independent Games have continued to find their voice, though with the increase in the number of Independent developers has lead to a proliferation in approaches to Independent development.  Notably Independent games is catholic in its diet.  It is such a wide encompassing set of games that it makes defining independent games difficult if not impossible.

This year's IGF started off Wednesday's sessions with a round-table on the state of Independent Games.  As is the case in most years, many in the audience were in attendance to determine how to create and distribute their Indie games.  However, the round-table gave little discussion time for such topics as it began with a hopeless attempt at defining Indie games.

Notably, while creating a definition was an impossible task, the discussion itself did a wonderful job at describing the state of independent games.  The lively and sometimes explosive discussion was in fact a perfect model and demonstration of what is happening in Indie games today.  Independent games have diversified to the point that many who are creating Independent Games feel that what is being represented as Independent Games currently does not fall under the moniker of 'Independent.'  The strongest opinion on the matter that I noted from the round-table suggested that any game that makes money should not be considered an Independent Game. 

The 2006 IGF has done a good job of bringing back to a point an industry in transition.  Casual games are becoming big business.  Every single session about Casual games was packed to the brim with eager publishers and developers hoping to get a piece of the pie in a field that has many well-established players, but still plenty of opportunity.  Independent Games is truly a sub-section of Casual Games with less opportunity for monetary rewards, but more room for creative freedom. 

With an increasing amount coming to the online games space, which notably is already over-crowded with too many good games, independent developers are looking lustily at the opportunities in distribution that have been created by the Xbox 360 Live Arcade.  However, the success of Live Arcade as a distribution platform will leave only a handful (8?) of developers who will have much chance of putting their games on that platform.  Alternatives such as the PS3 and Valve's Steam service are likely to quickly grow a following of those who don't make it into Live Arcade.

So where does that leave the average Independent Game developer?  With an increasing number of developers creating higher quality games that are playing through digital download on next generation titles, the IGF is likely to find itself moving away from its PC roots without a change to its rules.  If that were to happen it may actually be a good thing for Independent Gaming as a whole.  However, for the little Indie developer trying to make a mark in the world, the importance to build a strong distribution and marketing plan will be ever more vital in creating commercial or verbal success (whatever the aim may be).  Certainly the intensification of the parties involved in this type of development will lead to more lively discussions in the future as many find their joy in game-making threatened as ever more experienced and well-financed studios step into the space. 

Through all of this, innovation will always have a place in Indie gaming.  While the IGF could never be perfect, it has done a good job of showing off some games that are doing things different than the mainstream.  From the game-mechanic of time distortion in Braid that you will be definitely seeing again to the micro-transactions of Dofus, many of the IGF finalists show the type of risk in development that make the IGF so enjoyable every year.  While the combustible nature of Independent games will likely only increase as more developers enter the space, I'm convinced that the cream will rise, and in the end, Independent Games will be the better for it.