Now here's an interesting proposition: "At 4pm GMT ish today, a hand-picked collection of game developers simultaneously blogged their thoughts on the current state of the Independent games industry", writes Gibbage indie game creator Dan Marshall - and his own post on the matter has links to all the posts discussing it.

He further explains: "The "So you want to be a Indie Developer?" project features articles of advice on the reality of making your own games from every corner of the sector; from those currently risking everything by going full-time Indie to established industry leaders such as DEFCON's Introversion via unmitigated nonsense like Lemmy and Binky."

Also excellent is advice from Democracy/Kudos' Cliffski, who comments, among other gems: "Ideas ARE worth something. In fact they are worth a lot. Common armchair-pundit wisdom is that "an idea isnt worth anything, its the implementation that matters", but I disagree. Take a look at the current 'casual' and 'indie' game markets. Lots and lots and lots of clones. An original game DOES sell better than a simple clone, all other things remaining equal. The thing is, you have to really believe in your idea, stick to your guns, and still turn out a good (as well as original) game. The great news is, that if your game is original, there is virtually ZERO competition."