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2013 will be the year when indie developers reclaim their rightful place as the creative engine of the industry. I'm not going to claim any great powers of prognostication for this one, since it really feels like stating the obvious, so much so that it barely even qualifies as a trend, which suggests a fleeting fad to be seized, exhausted and abandoned. This is more of an inexorable march, the inevitable result of the commercial entropy that is demolishing the games industry systems that have endured for over twenty years.Indie gaming has always been around, but 2012 felt like a tipping point where what had been a hobbyist niche finally matured into a legitimate, if charmingly eccentric, arm of industry.
Indie's rise has been a slow and steady affair, but there's little doubt that it has accelerated in recent years. What crystallised it for me was the realisation while compiling my own Best of 2012 list and comparing it to those of my peers that the usefulness of "indie game" as a label may soon be redundant. More than any previous year, the lists were a truly eclectic mixture of high profile mainstream console releases, quirky downloadable tiles and all points in between. Nothing felt like a token entry, there was no patronising seat at the big boy table reserved for an duly anointed indie title. Every game deserved its praise and success, regardless of the vast gulf in resources poured into their construction.
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