It's no secret that indie gaming is becoming much stronger lately, especially with XBLA, iOS apps, etc. as well as good ol' PC gaming. Dust: An Elysian Tail was a one-man project that looks as good as any VanillaWare game. Smaller developers are creating a lot of games that many of us seem to clamor for more than the bigger boys. Look at all the successful Kickstarters out there (i.e. for the new Shadowrun) and even the growth of commercial RPG Maker games utilizing good production values (like Rainblood: Town of Death or Whisper of Rose.)
So what are some of your favorite games created by independent developers? Who are some indie studios that you're keeping an ear to the ground for? Do you have any RPG Maker games that you particularly like?
I'm still scratching the surface of indie/homebrewed/underground gaming so I'm still figuring out which development houses I like. My favorite RPG Maker games are easily Eternal Eden by Blossomsoft and To The Moon by Freebird. The former is very ambitious (their debut RPGM game changed the way RPGM games are presented and they now create their own engines and eventually want to take their games to 3DS) and the latter has amazing storytelling (Quintessence: A Blighted Venom and The Mirror Lied are cool too).
As far as indie publishers, I was a big fan of the late Hirameki for localizing a lot of visual novels. Sure their text-editing was a little rough, but Ever17 in English= awesome. I'm still scratching the surface on the indie publishers out there, though.
Shadowdawn Genesis is a title that looks promising, but it's been in development forever.