An indie game refers to a game produced by an independent, small-scale team or individual developer. In the provided context, the rise of indie games in the late 2000s is described as a major force that changed game culture. Especially in North America and Europe, an indie game movement emerged and brought forth many auteur-driven and experimental works. The key significance of indie games in this context is that they operate with relatively few commercial and technical constraints, giving developers more room to pursue distinctive personal visions.
This freedom helped create fertile ground for games with artistic, critical, or avant-garde ambitions. From the indie scene, works that emphasize aesthetic expression over entertainment or marketability began to attract attention, leading to the broader recognition of so-called art games. These are described as a kind of “game version” of art-house cinema: works that foreground the creator’s artistic intent and experimental character rather than conventional commercial goals. Many are made by a single person or a very small team, and often use short playtimes to deliver conceptual or critical messages.
In the context provided, indie games are therefore not only a production category but also an important historical condition for the idea that games can be art. The passages do not provide enough information to define the term more narrowly in terms of industry standards or formal classification.