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In order to live from that passion there is no many way out. Except maybe from sponsors or Mécènes.

The conclusion is obvious but were are the real solutions ?

Game is another kind of art after all. There have been artists everywhere at every time.

What's happen today is short release cycles impinges on the quality of products that "could have been better".

We need a new economic model for this area but impossible to get it from very busy indie game developer.

It's sometime hurtful to hear that video-game is one of the most richest industry when thousand of developers hardly living from it.

To all : I would love to hear your opinions on this.

Jeff Vogel at Spider Web has written about profitability in indie gaming
http://jeff-vogel.blogspot.com/
I think that the indie gaming awards has a definite impact on a title's chances for success. And as Steam (and the other digital services) continue to pickup and sell award winners, then the pc can (continue to) be a springboard.
Still, much like writing a book, writing an indie game can often be more hobby and potential supplement to income. Like with many dreams, don't quit your day job until you start earning money.

Today, like in music or cinema, anyone can create an independent videogame for digital distribution, which has generated a situation where the market is completely saturated. Indie games are becoming uninspired, orthodox even. I'd be rich if I was given a dollar bill for every Super Mario clone out there calling itself a "new game" just because of some new and, most of the times, inefficient gimmick.

The small ammount we pay for these games have led us to forfeit our standards. Price is irrelevant, even it the game is downloable for free. We must demand more from these creators who, in spite of the small funs, can afford the right of creative freedom. That is the element that corporate designers can't afford, no matter how high the budget can be.

I was talking with Jason Rohrer last month and he told me about how his funds are running out. Being a full time game designer who released most of his games for free, he is now working on a DS release that will, hopefully, generate enough revenue for him to continue on his game design journey.

Indie creators have some interesting tools. The internet is an economic means to advertise a game, especially if you contact the right people. There's an increasing number of players and websites interested in these alternative gaming trends. The golden rule is to create expectations, run for an indie games festival, possibly win an award and meanwhile create a solid fan base or cult following before publishing.

Steam is just the beginning. Some, like Blow or Chen, have even made it to the big leagues, publishing games for major corporates while still retaining their integrity and truly independent spirit. That is the perfect balance between finance and creation: to have money to create a game with little or no restrictions.

Introversion is a sad case because, unlike so many others going through similar problems, they did create worthy videogames. Anyone who has given a look to Uplink, Defcon or Darwinia knows of their keen sense of innovation. It would be a shame if the group was forced to dissolve. Let us hope their new market strategies can hold.

"...especially if you contact the right people"

It is key and it is a real problem, for example Indiegames, Tigsource and many other indie blogs show only a partial number of indie material, leaving alone a lot of nice games just because they are not in the "inner circle", instead some games are publicized even in the alpha stage.

And about Introversion:
# Uplink (2001)
# Darwinia (2005)
# DEFCON (2006)
# Multiwinia (2008)[7][8]
# Darwinia+ (ETA 2009) [9]

5 (4) games in 8 years show a poor performance, specially where all of those games are not AAA.

@magallanes: Regarding you blaming us for not posting about 'a lot of nice games' and instead only talking about 'inner circle' games... not meaning to sound rude, but you clearly have no idea how we find the games we post about.

Both myself and Tim constantly search high and low (metaphorically speaking, of course) for every great indie game, but at the end of the day, if a developer makes a fantastic game but does a poor job of spreading the news, how on Earth do you expect us to find out about their game?

If developers do not bother to get in touch with sites which may be interested in posting about their game, then you can hardly expect the sites to know anything about their game!

Ok, if you say so.

^_^

but

www.indiegames.com/blog
(using the search feature)
"braid" :232 post
"zeno" :64 post.
"darwinia" :19 post.

magallanes, you clearly did not understand my point. Let me take Zeno Clash which you mentioned, for example. ACE Team regularly contact us personally whenever there is some news regarding their game. This is an example of them marketing their product correctly - it causes us to read the email they have sent to us and decide whether we believe it is worthy of a post.

So to repeat my point again in the hope you 'get it' this time, if developers get in contact with us, or at least spread the word about their projects properly, their chances of getting noticed are highly increased.