What do indie developers need/want today?

#1 Good Contractors
Solid Tools and Addons
Ways to gather and work with people remotely
Robust Documentation with helpful support for products
Better Liscencing / distribution rights and procedures for games - make it easier to get your game out there and make money off of it.

#2 not needed post

#3 Documentation... Lots of documentation, especially on modeling.

At least for me, but from what I notice a lot is the need for good tools and addons.

But no, seriously... Documentation is the most important thing an indie could have...

#4 Good documentation, video tutorials, good beginner guides ;)

#5 For me - a job. Anyone hiring? :-)

#6 Cheers, I am going indie myself and this helps me pit my own criticisms about the path of indie development against others. The result is the exact same more or less.

#7 Art resources.

In my case, I need 2d art resources, preferably resources that I can use for multiple games. When I find free resources on the Internet, they always seem to have an overly restrictive license - such as the Creative Commons Share-alike license or the GPL, both of which require that I make my game open source.

When I look up non-free resources, I have a difficult time finding exactly what I need.

Keep in mind, I'm only talking about terrain and standard objects. I don't expect to find sprites for my game already drawn somewhere.

I've had a hard time getting actual artists to enough art for an entire game, though I must admit I'm not exactly the fastest programmer in the world anyways.

#8 Thank you for additional perspective....

#9 It has been my experience that we need documentation, as the majority has said. Ive red through both of ken Finney's 3DGPAI1 books, as well as a 3D artist's guide to Torque, and none of them really covered it all. Granted this is very hard to do in one book, but it seems to me that they just don't touch on certain important aspects, so here's my list of what I would personally like to have broken down and explained...

-The GUI system, and how to make new menus and title screens...

this is extremely important to making your game "look and feel" like your own creation.

-Getting your characters into the game engine properly...

There are some very excellent resources out there, but they require lots of digging and collecting to aquire.

-HOW to make your game art to scale...

this is a bit more abstract, and really only comes from experimentation and fine-tuning, but it would be nice to have a rough idea in terms of scale right from the beginning

-How to get an entire level from "3D Applioation" into Torque...

i.e.: should i import the whole thing as Collada and just run with it? half a map at a time? individual objects and buildings? What about non-organic terrain such as streets and curbs?

-Doors, Weapons, and Items...

Extremely important to a newbie designer. Knowing how to implement these things right off the bat would be very nice.

-MOST IMPORTANTLY (to me anyways :D)
A list of script-side functions that I can use to start coding my game rules, such as manipulating the camera, playing a sound, executing a menu or event, and changing basic variables. This would speed things up immensely if we didn't have to cruise the forums everytime we "just wanted to know how to do this or that"

Sorry so long, and i'm pretty sure i replaced the word "indie" in your thread to "newbie" but me and my buddies were having a convo about T3D earlier and they refuse to use it due to lacking information in these core areas. Thought i'd throw in my 11 cents

#10 Throw in what you like. Its all helpful.

#11 I would say stock artwork sourcing is the hardest that I've run into.

#12 Learning resources (e.g. documentation, tutorials, etc.) are the most valuable tools I can think of.

#13 I have a total disregard for Documentation, and even Tutorials... but what I need the most is a motivational coach to keep me from being distracted! :D