A lot has happened since last year's Game Developer Conference. For example, prior to the 2006 GDC, Introversion Software was a little known indie game developer started by handful of college friends that built a small but loyal following with its first title, Uplink. Then came the GDC's Independent Game Festival (IGF), where Introversion scored three awards, including the including the Seumas McNally Grand Prize, for its indie hit Darwinia.

That pretty much changed everything for Introversion. "So much came together for us last year," Mark Morris, co-founder of Introversion, told me today. "After GDC, we got everything we wanted and more. I don't think I'll ever have another week like that in my life where everything worked out exactly the way we wanted it to."

After winning the IGF awards, Introversion became a hot item. The company had already signed a deal with Valve Software to sell Darwinia through Steam, but sales for the game began to take off after Introversion's newfound fame. Then the company released its follow-up title, DEFCON, which is a global nuclear war strategy simulation inspired by the movie "WarGames."

Introversion is back at the GDC this year - well, at least Mark, fellow co- founder Tom Arundel and public relations director Vicky Arundel -and it's a very different world for the company. DEFCON became a critical hit and surpassed Introversion's expected demand for the title. Introversion's games are actually being covered and reviewed by the mainstream games press. And the guys themselves have literally become the poster boys of indie game development: their pictures are pasted on a massive banner for this year's IGF inside the Moscone Center in San Francisco.

The company is currently working on a Linux and Mac version of DEFCON, as well as a multiplayer version of Darwinia in 2008 called Multiwinia. Mark and Tom said they've hired new developers and built out the staff beyond the core group of co-founder and lead designer Chris Delay and fellow designer John Knottenbelt.

But now come the hard part for Introversion: how can the company grow without straying too far from its indie roots and core focus? "We have to decide whether we're going to remain in the marble tower or branch out and try some different things," said Introversion co-creator Tom Arundel. Tom and Mark said Introversion are looking at a number of options for the company's next project, including getting into console gaming.

One thing Introversion doesn't plan on doing, Mark said, is doing contract work for other major developers on big blockbuster titles. Introversion, he said, would rather focus on developing its own games. And following its success at the IGF and its banner year of 2006, Introversion can actually afford to do just that.