台灣的遊戲產業發展從80 年代開始，因為科技技術的演化與社會經濟環境變遷等因素，經歷了一連串世代的轉型與變化，台灣的主流主機遊戲硬體市場，相對於其他在娛樂科技發展較優勢的國家，處於中階位置的發展中國家，長久以來，由主導的市場龍頭美國與日本所左右，本土電腦遊戲開發市場於 90 年代時崛起，進一步結合上網際網路的全球普及化，曾短暫地在華語市場有所表現，在這全球遊戲的較力中，尤以南韓在遊戲軟體開發上2000 年左右得到政府的大力支持與推動而取得先機。
反觀今天國內的電腦市場，在過去20 年間，由台灣公司代理且受玩家青睞的美歐日韓遊戲比例大幅度提高，間接排擠到國內遊戲開發和市場空間。學者如張玉珮曾於2012 年特別針對台灣遊戲產業30 年來的發展，透過檔案研究與業界深度訪談的方式紀錄並分析了手機遊戲市場崛起前的整體電玩產業變遷情況。然而，近年來因為手機遊戲的全球擴散，與大陸市場徹底超越美國市場成為最大的手機遊戲消費重鎮，重新燃起台灣本土遊戲開發的新契機，國內的獨立遊戲開發團隊，一方面因為在遊戲開發技術條件上出現更先進且方便的設計軟體而降低設計門檻，一方面又因為App Store與Google Play Store 提供更便捷的銷售與下載平台給予更多小規模遊戲開發團隊國際曝光的機會，進一步帶動本地的獨立開發團隊數量大幅度成長，在著名Tokyo Game Show 參展的遊戲製作團隊數量，便由2013 年的20 多家竄升到2016 年的上百家。
有鑑於此，本研究嘗試探究台灣獨立遊戲的在地發展脈絡，將獨立遊戲視為遊戲文化全球化進程中突顯異質化的重要指標，嘗試在諸多學者選擇關注主流遊戲的發展之外，檢閱台灣獨立遊戲的社會文化關係與現貌；因此，本研究在研究方法的執行上，一方面初步透過次級資料收集與回顧勾勒出獨立遊戲的基本定義與社會歷史變遷，另一方面則以非正式訪談為主軸，經由與獨立遊戲產業專家與團隊的對話探討非商業主導(non-mainstream, alternative)性質的遊戲產業生態與社會文化關係，藉由上述研究方法並行，本研究期盼脈絡化台灣獨立遊戲的演化、歷史社會文化脈絡和發展進程。

Historically speaking, the mainstream game development in Taiwan birthed in the 1980s. There have been several external and internal technological and socio-cultural influences to divide the different periods of industrial transformations and historical transitions. As in most technology second-tier countries, Taiwanese console game market has long been colonized by games distributed by giant companies based in the first-tier leading countries of the United States and Japan. Since online games joined the global game business competition from the 90s, South Korea grasped the golden opportunity to dominate the market and successfully create several legendary internet games due to its huge government supports. In the last 20 years or so, the numbers of Korean games, normally agented by bigger scale Taiwanese local publishers, remain stable. The well-known game scholar, Yu-Pei Chang (2012) conducted a solid industrial research which profoundly reviewed Taiwanese game development and its socio-cultural roots before the rising mobile game industry. In 2016, China mobile game market predictably overtook the US market to become the new game consumption base. This change seems to create more chances to local independent game production teams in Taiwan. Because of the appearance of app stores lowering game-developing conditions, there has been a huge increase on the number of indie game production teams. For example, the Taiwanese indie games participated in Tokyo Game Show increased from 20 of them in 2013 to a hundred in 2016.
Within such context, this research attempts at grasping the local-historical context and development of indie games in Taiwan. By interpreting indie games as a cultural products and cultural icon reflecting the “heterogeneity” that globalization thesis once defined, this research shall provide a thorough discussion on the socio-cultural relationship of indie games outside mainstream. In the first approach of research method, it proposes to conduct a secondary data collection, review and analysis, in order to fully contextualize its historical development. In the second stage of this research, a survey with local indie game producers and developers will be executed to cultivate our knowledge on mobile game industrial environment.