Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Thoughts on Indie Game: The Movie



Before you read this, go to Steam, iTunes, or the DRM free download and get this movie for $10.

Now that it's downloading, I can tell you why I enjoyed it so much and the emotions I felt from it.

In this movie, you follow three Indie developers: the developers of Super Meat Boy, Fez, and Braid and you see what they go through to make a video game. And they go through a lot. Through this film, you see the emotions that come from their experiences in life and you feel it. When your game has a crucial bug which makes it almost unplayable, in the instance of Fez, at PAX after working for years of your life after your father almost died, your has girlfriend left you, you could have the whole thing ruined from a lawsuit from your partner leaving you midway through development, you can get angry and frustrated and that's what I felt. I also learned that developers can be upset even after stellar ratings and sales because the message that they felt was there wasn't. Also I saw how developers will work tirelessly for a month to finish a game that was expected to be released even close to that date. 

Overall, you see the raw emotions in what goes into making a game independently and how rewarding it can feel to get a game to the public and see how everyone loves it as well as the pitfalls that comes from putting all your waking hours into a game. I think I will start looking more into games, and indie games in particular, to see their true meaning and what the developers intended me to feel. I also, like many others, think that this film doesn't just fit into the gamer crowd and that all people would feel the same things I did because this film isn't about necessarily the games themselves as what it takes to make them and what feelings come out from distributing them, etc.

As a side note, the film itself is beautiful. It's excellently filmed and the music fits perfectly. It was a pleasure to look at in and of itself. 

OVER 9000/10
∞/10

As you can see, I couldn't fit this all onto Twitter. I've been wanting to game reviews but I guess a movie about games is a good start (: Can't wait to see the Minecraft documentary when it comes out later this Summer. 

Is your movie done downloading yet? Go watch it!