I don't exactly know where I'm going with this; if it's too random maybe I'll edit it later... So I'm thinking about indie development a bit. I'm not planning to quite my job and 'live the dream' anytime soon - though it certainly has a certain allure. But a few indie games I've seen for sale have made me stop and think "I could code that in a few weeks/months of my spare time". The problem is that while I'm a confident, experienced coder I don't have much experience writing small games, and I know very little about the indie market. So to try and make this a bit easier to answer:

1. Where can I find the current good indie games (both big and small. Not web-type puzzle/word games though.
2. Where can I find where the indie developers hang out and chat about their projects (apart from sifting GD)?
3. Are indie games usually written by talented people or just kids with a bright idea and enough coding skill to get it working

As an idea of some stuff I've worked on:

Racing game (right-click and save as due to crappy host!)

RTS game

Platform game (1 week 1 button v2 entry

I'd suggest checking out Garage Games. Should give you some answers to 1 and 2, anyway ; )

You should have a look at the Indiegamer forums and Sloperama.com for a wealth of answers :)

Thanks!