Check out "The Bill of Players' Rights", and "The Tao of Game Design" for some ideas, and "The No Twinkie Database" for an extensive list of common game design mistakes to avoid. You might also enjoy some of the points raised in "Steambirds: Why indie games are good for fans" and "A Game Business Model: Learning from Touring Bands".

You might consider a simple guiding statement similar to Google's "don't be evil" -- consider from your players' perspectives whether or not they will consider a particular decision to be good or evil, and try to avoid the evil.

Honestly, players couldn't care less about whether or not you make a deal with a larger company unless it somehow negatively impacts their experience. A better guideline might be to be careful when making deals with large companies. Only make a deal which benefits (or at least doesn't harm) both you and your players, and which isn't evil.

Likewise, not all DRM is necessarily evil as long as you're not inconveniencing your players. There's a growing trend of "DRM-free" games, and that's almost likely the way I would go as well, but ultimately if it doesn't hurt/inconvenience your genuine customers or put off potential future players some unobtrusive DRM doesn't have to be a problem.

I think Andy474 has pretty much nailed the core idea though: make a great game, and then only charge a fair and reasonable price for it. Try to keep your costs low enough so that you can make a living whilst charging less than standard industry pricing.

Hope that's helpful!

No DRM.

Don't make deals with large companies.

Don't charge full retail price for your games.

The title is misleading. zuhon is asking about being an "honorable" publisher, not game designer, and the term "honorable" is from an end-user point of view rather than a business point of view. So I guess the most appropriate forum for this is the Lounge.

Treat contributors/comrades/contractors fairly -- give them due credit and a share of profits if there are any.

I think releasing your game on less popular platforms such as Linux or *BSD shows that you are interested in allowing as many people as possible play your game rather than just going for the biggest markets and ignoring anyone else.

Of course, depending on what tools you use, you may be unable to support anything other than Windows or Mac OS X however.

Just a silly quick question, but can somebody compile a list or send me to a link giving information on how to be an honorable indie game designer, that people won't look down upon? I've already thought of a couple things.

No DRM.

Don't make deals with large companies.

Don't charge full retail price for your games.

DRM isn't a problem, bad DRM that forces legitimate customers to jump trough hoops to play, or worse, prevents legitimate customers from playing is a problem.

Charge customers what you believe they will pay for your game, be objective about the pricing.

Make sure your deals with other companies don't make you dependant on them or cause you to lose control over your products.