Indie Game: The Movie

Jonathan Blow, Phil Fish, Edmund McMillen, Tommy Refenes

Indie Game: The Movie is a 2012 Canadian documentary published by James Swirsky and Lisanne Pajot. The film focuses on the development of the Independent Games Super Meat Boy by Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes and Fez by Phil Fish. He also documented the success of the developed by Jonathan Blow game Braid.

Action

The film shows through the story of three games, as incorporated personal expression and your own sensation to a large extent in the development of indie games. The film follows Braid, which was released in 2008 and reached great success, Super Meat Boy, which is being prepared for publication in 2011, and finally the difficult years to come development of Fez.

Jonathan Blow, developer of Braid, reflects his thought process during the development of the game. He wanted to incorporate his " deepest flaws and vulnerabilities " in the game His first attempts to make the game quickly turned from experiment to discovery, . thus Blow it also talks about the aftermath of the publication: was published as Braid, it received wide critical acclaim Still Blow is disillusioned because a lot of the players do not " mitzubekommen " the deeper message of the game and its real subject seems. .

The development team of Super Meat Boy, Team Meat, Edmund McMillen and Tommy consisting of Refenes would like to develop a platform game that draws on the experience with video games in the infancy of developers. McMillen talks about his life's goal to communicate by developing games with other people. He tells of the 2008 game developed by him ether, the feelings of his childhood, records, namely, loneliness, nervousness and fear of abandonment. McMillen also highlights some of the techniques he used to level design: to introduce the players the game without extensive tutorials.

After about a year of development offers Microsoft Team Meat to participate in an Xbox Live Arcade action called Game Feast; this but only under the condition that Super Meat Boy would be finalized within a month. Because of their extremely poor financial situation accepted Team Meat reluctantly. The development then proceeds in the so-called Crunch Time, which is the crucial phase over. The film documents how the high power and time required to McMillens marriage and Refenes health consumed, because this bears the brunt of development. Although Refenes complained that he sacrifice his social life for the completion of the game, but shows very grateful to him his supportive family. The team manages to finish the game in time. However, the game is nowhere to be found on the publication date on the Xbox Live Marketplace. It is Refenes, fearing poor sales figures, very angry. Finally, the game will be released but on the Marketplace, and Super Meat Boy can beat with 20,000 games sold within 24 hours of the braid previously in force as the front runner to double. McMillen is both surprised by the sales, on the other hand affected by the reaction of the fans. Refenes, however, exhausted and cynical voted, is less enthusiastic. This attitude is Refenes on, however, when he sees the first game -enjoying people on YouTube. Super Meat Boy is ultimately one million copies sold, which both developers provides financial security.

The development team of FEZ, Polytron ( Phil Fish and Renaud Bédard ), is the fourth year of game development. The initial announcement of EPZs on the Independent Games Festival 2008 Fish was given a lot of attention as a prominent indie developers. Since then, however, little of the game was to be heard. The development is difficult: the company loses its funding sources, Fish gets into family problems, and his former business partner leaves the company in order to proceed with Fish in a lawsuit. The future of the project is doubtful. Fish admits that the development draw his perfectionism in length, and that he had gradually lost perspective of how good the game really is. How Refenes Fish explains that he can not imagine doing anything else to develop as independent games; Fez has become its identity over time.

Polytron is preparing for the concept of EPZs on the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX ), although the threat of a lawsuit in this case. In the course of preparing Fish suffers anxiety attacks, because without a signature of his business partner ( who remains anonymous in the film ), it may be impossible for him to present at PAX. Nevertheless, the so-called " FEZ Kiosk" is set up at the exhibition. However, the idea gets into trouble, bring the changes to the code at the last minute the game to often crashing or locking up, prompting Fish EPZ must restart. The players seem unimpressed and still hilarious. Fish are some interviews and also the Webcomiczeichner Jerry Holkins expresses his enthusiasm for the game.

The film concludes with Jonathan Blows opening monologue. Blow explains to play indie games was different because they were flawed and vulnerable, what she was doing overall personal. During the credits run videos from other aspiring independent games.

Background

The film was financed through the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter.com. After two successful rounds of financing began to conduct interviews with prominent developers in the independent scene. After over 300 hours of footage were taken to Swirsky and Pajot decided to limit the film on the four selected developers. They wanted a personal history of each developer game development " in the past, now and future" show.

Reception

The film received mostly positive reviews. Especially in the gaming scene itself, the film was highly respected and praised. The English review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes awards 92 of a possible 100 percent of the film. Even the mirror writes that it was an " impressive film " which it succeed from the start " the game designers to come close, appearance and content ." At most, a strong " personalization" and a lack of definition, what it is exactly handle with " indie " in terms of video games are noted.

Awards

Indie Game: The Movie won the World Cinema Documentary Editing Award at the Sundance Film Festival in 2012.