In our travails, we spotted a new Associated Press ASAP story on the rise of indie video games (ASAP being the youth-oriented AP division for the under-35s, interestingly!), and it's focused around the IGF-licensed 'IG: Independent Games' retail compilation done by the Moondance Games folks.

[DISCLAIMER: Some of the GSW folks also run the Independent Games Festival, whose name has been licensed by the Moondancers!]

Since the Amazon page is a bit non-specific about what games are on there, a Gamasutra story from late last year is a bit more exact: "Previously IGF-entered games featured on the compilation include full versions of Dark Horizons Lore, Global Defense Network, Rocketbowl and Strange Adventures In Infinite Space, as well as demo versions of Gish, Creatrix and others."

The piece notes the oft-discussed centerpiece: "In the '90s, indie studio Miramax forged onto big screens. Today, Moondance hopes to do the same on store shelves. It's been nearly 10 years since indie films swept the Oscars and changed the Hollywood landscape. Indie games, however, remain a decidedly niche and small-time affair. Who's ready to play?"

One suspects that outfits like Grasshopper Manufacture and even Quantic Dream could be called indies in some way, of course - just on a slightly larger, console-based scale - so the point is as characteristically blurred as always. But we love the indies who are IGF-sized, whatever.

The story also notes, rightly: "Moondance's biggest challenge has been convincing retailers like Best Buy that this subculture of gamers don't just wanna play indie games online at sites such as GameTunnel.com and MadMonkey.net." It's likely that most indie games will continue to flow to consumers digitally - but we like Moondance for trying!