iji posts

Independent Minds aims to take various aspects of indie gaming and present them to you each week. From game round-ups to design elements to interviews with prominent members of the scene, it's an exploration of what makes indie gaming great as well as what makes someone an indie.

There's a division in the indie community. No, I'm not talking about who likes top hats and who likes bowlers, but rather whether an indie game that is merely a concept of a potential full game should be given the same treatment as a game somebody spent the last few years working on to perfect. Frankly, it's way too complicated to even bother with discussing how to classify them. Instead, this article is about which one you should choose, given your personal preferences. Each has benefits that the other does not, and fits a specific kind of person.

Welcome to the Indie Showcase, a semi-regular column on Big Download that takes a look at games we haven't covered on the site that we really think you should play.

Wow. 2008 sure was a whirlwind year for independent games on PC and console alike. Games like World of Goo, Braid, and Everyday Shooter have defied our expectations and brought forth a sort of indie gaming renaissance. So let's take a look back at all those indie games released or significantly updated in 2008. There's a lot that can be learned from the independent and the auteur, after all. These games will be in no particular order, because I don't want to taint this list with trying to name a best, second best, and so on. They are all great games.

Click on the image above to continue reading about the best indie games of 2008

Every so often there comes an indie game that completely blows away those who play it. The second Freeware Friday ever covered one of those games, the incomparable Cave Story. There's a new game out, though, that has joined the ranks of indie games that must be played by everyone. It's a platformer/shooter/puzzler with an interesting story, excellent mechanics, and tight controls. I'm talking about Iji, a game released only a few weeks ago that has already grabbed the attention of quite a few players.