Indie Game: The Movie

By: Derek Yu

On: June 12th, 2012

Indie Game: The Movie was released today as a digital download on the documentary’s website, as well as Steam and iTunes. The doc follows Team Meat (Super Meat Boy) and Polytron (Fez) as the two groups work toward releasing their XBLA titles. Jonathan Blow is also part of the film, speaking about Braid and game design.

Posted in Community, Developers, Steam

Machu

I’m still confused why they think a SNES controller is indie.
Slappy

Both the SNES controller and the word Indie itself conjure up warm feelings for a certain demographic group. It’s perfect, really.
nabegewell

I’m still confused why making games is likened to being in a concentration camp.

Maybe because they quit their jobs to do something several others do as a hobby?

Then again, those people aren’t indie enough I suppose. This movie pretty much is every reason I can think of why I don’t like the term “indie”
YMM

Did you only watch the trailer? He explains the statement it in the film.
agagsdsad

people who attention whored the most around here: the movie – TIGSource front page “rockstar” edition
Anonymous

I’m wondering, can we start call ourselves Punk game studios/developers?
Is punk an appropriate word to use, in place of Inide, to describe creators not beholden to external creative pressures, who don’t abide conventional rules?

‘Indie’ to me conjures up images of pretentious, self-important hipsters, and personally, I’ve always felt more who-gives-a-fuck and tongue-in-cheek than humbly-holier-than-thou.

It sure sounds a hell of a lot cooler at any rate.
designatedpiledriver

Circle-Jerking tag needs to be added for this.
fill pihsh

suck my dick. choke on it.
Maxim

Why don’t you guys make a movie about me?

…oh yeah, because it’d turn out worse than Freddy Got Fingered.
Keith Burgun

Here’s my negative review of the film:

http://www.dinofarmgames.com/on-indie-game-the-movie/
Anonymous

This pretty accurately describes my expectations of this movie which I have yet to see. Based on this, I may actually go steal a copy to watch, just to sit there and feel all smug and correct to myself.
News

melodramatic antireal propaganda
http://twitter.com/celluloseman Evan Balster

The tigsource comment section is puzzling. It implies that a good chunk of the people who read this site hate everything it stands for.

Anyway, IGTM is a decent film and the people in it (and those who made it) are decent folk, having been face-to-face (if briefly) with all of them. Maybe I’d have an easier time deriding all this stuff if I hadn’t. Maybe when I finish a half-decent game I’ll get internet bile too; a reward for my hard work. So that’s something to look forward to.
http://twitter.com/celluloseman Evan Balster

A pair of shoes strung over a power line by the laces is an indication in some locales that someone nearby is selling drugs. A game controller over a power line means someone nearby is selling games. Nothing indie about the controller itself.
Machu

Growing up in the 90’s doesn’t make you indie. SNES was pretty damn mainstream. Indie doesn’t mean old. Or liking old things. It means “not part of a big company”. Nintendo was, and still is, a big company.
SSSsss

I wish all ind-hee game developers acted in the way this trailer seems to show them. All the time. I could go to IGF and feel like the least queer person in the room (for once).

(And I don’t mean queer in the slang sense, you silly-billies).
Likers Gonna Like

“The tigsource comment section is puzzling. It implies that a good chunk
of the people who read this site hate everything it stands for.”

why do phil fish, jon blow and edmund mcmillen represent everything this site stands for?
News

faggot striver poor
News

jealous projecting cretin
http://www.boogatech.com/ Markham

He’s talking about marketing, not reality.
http://twitter.com/initials_games Initials Video Games

I’m a punk game dev.
Phil Fish

Suck my dick. Choke on it.
Guest

ultra douche: the movie…Nahh..but seriously though…grow…balls…
Anonymous

Ah, TIGsource comments. The 4Chan of gaming sites.

Those who hate Jon Blow, Phil Fish, and Ed McMillan need to stand up and make as much of a dent in the world. Until there are other devs who have been as successful as they have, as challenging and as controversial as they have…there are few other faces to represent the scene/demographic/industry/niche/market. Yes, I used the word successful, a word supposedly true blue indie devs are scared to death of.

The three of them represent a logical sampling for outsiders. Unlike other indie devs like Daisuke Amaya or Cactus, the three have carried indies to widespread recognition by being commercial hits. I know, commercial is a scary word. But for better or worse, they helped usher in the next logical step for indies: the financial independence, and recognition, for creators to make what they want.

It’s an interesting climate. Things weren’t quite like this before, and the three of them are the frontrunners of a catalyst. Along with perhaps Kickstarter. Now, if any of you have a personal vendetta against Fish, I can’t say I blame you. But regarding the movie, it would have been great for Notch to be in it; though I suspect his exclusion was practical for the filmmakers: he’s not in the U.S.
http://twitter.com/gabrielverdon Gabriel Verdon

It’s just a vocal minority. I’m pretty sure a bunch of these comments are by the same person.

But yeah, I agree.
Guest

Just to be clear…I don’t hate the individuals. I dislike the way indies are represented in the trailer. From this trailer people will think all indies are angsty hipsters, it is very 1-dimensional. While we know that at least 2 people in the trailer are not like that at all.
a guest

Yeah right! He’s the reason for not watching the movie! Blow’s part is way too short in comparison to fish’s part (which is ridiculously “styled up” [why this underwater-cam – still-glases-on – part?])
Fishyphish

Suck my dick! Choke on it!
http://twitter.com/Pawbyte PawByte

I think you guys should see the movie. I saw it at the Chicago screening and it was the best new movie I saw this year. It was such a good movie, that I’m working on the Game for this movie.
Guest

Well if that’s the case then ‘indie’ is the perfect word to describe the people in this movie.
http://twitter.com/jay_sherby Jay Sherby

Nintendo fits some people’s definition of indie. They self-publish. I’m not sayin’, I’m just sayin’.
http://twitter.com/jay_sherby Jay Sherby

I don’t know if that analogy holds. Shoes on a power line means selling drugs, not selling shoes. Doesn’t that mean that a game controller over a power line means someone nearby is selling lamp shades or something?
http://twitter.com/jay_sherby Jay Sherby

I don’t know, looking at this thread I think angsty hipsters seems pretty accurate.
Cyborg771

Wow, to think they chose to focus on Phil Fish and Team Meat instead of all your wonderfully insightful and interesting people…

Seriously though, the movie was great. Phil may be a douche (I don’t believe he’s as bad as some people seem to) but he’s interesting to watch. The documentary doesn’t make any value judgements about him as a person, they just follow his story, and you can’t say it’s not dramatic. Ed and Tommy seem like really down to earth and cool people. Tommy’s story is definitely the highlight of the whole thing for me. Jon Blow doesn’t say a whole lot in the movie but it wouldn’t feel complete without a few choice quotes.

And to all the people complaining about how hipster this movie makes indie devs look, need I remind you that the logo to this site is a joystick wearing thick black hipster glasses?
Likers Gonna Like

“they helped usher in the next logical step for indies: the financial
independence, and recognition, for creators to make what they want.”

making games on loans, grants and funding from microsoft, including an exclusive publishing deal is “financially independent?” ok.
http://twitter.com/PlayMedusa Medusa

I feel there are A LOT of missing games, developers and cases in the movie. They should have called it SMB, Braid & FEZ: The Movie. Only once are Knytt Stories and Cave Story mentioned, and it’s a journalist who asks. Nothing about Spelunky, Minecraft, Dwarf Fortress… and those are successful examples too. There are clearly different ‘indies’ among ‘indies’, and I almost agree with uvTwitch when he calls himself ‘punk’ instead.

Even though, I enjoyed the movie.
Maxim

heheh, I have to wonder how much less flack they’d have caught if Fish wasn’t in this. One thing’s for sure, he doesn’t seem popular.

Thing is, Fish got Microsoft moneys. I developed my game on no budget using outdated equipment and can barely scrape together enough money for a pack of smokes. And my game is still better!
BobDobbs

Alright, just finished watching. Very misleading title. It should be renamed: MANCHILDREN: The Movie
Anonymous

Because they did what the robot on this website said to do.
“Make the games you want to make!”
Anon Y Mouse

If you want sophisticated discussion (compared to this shithole) you should go to /v/
Anon Y Mouse

Now, now. /v/ actually, on occasion, has good discussions. I can guarantee you that you will never see anything resembling a good post here.
http://twitter.com/phubans Paul Hubans

Why the hell wasn’t I in this movie then?!
rectangular metal box

I haven’t seen the movie yet, but I’d like to point out that movies take a really long time to make (yes, even documentaries), so several years ago when they started working on it, the filmmakers would’ve had to take their best guess at which indie devs to follow, and from that point on they were pretty much locked in to that decision, for better or for worse.

Also, I’m sure they wanted to give themselves the best chance of ending up with an exciting story at the end, so of course they would choose the most colorful personalities they could find, even if it meant a less accurate portrayal of the indie community. Again, I haven’t seen it yet so I don’t know how well it captures the indie scene or not, but at the very least it sounds like its an interesting bit of entertainment, and that was likely the main goal of the film anyway.
http://twitter.com/phubans Paul Hubans

Well I consider myself a Polka Game Dev.
http://twitter.com/phubans Paul Hubans

Holy shit… I never noticed that until you pointed it out just now. I mean, I knew the Joystick was wearing glasses, but… Oh… My… God… We were the hipsters all along…!
http://twitter.com/phubans Paul Hubans

What is your game?
http://profile.yahoo.com/K6N65ORLG2DBZQFVKU3EI6SVR4 JoseD

Haha, you’re so right, makes no sense at all!

At most you can associate snes with oldschool indie games, but not all oldschool indie games are after the snes look, not all indie games are oldschool and not all are 2D!

That snes controller has pretty much nothing to do with indie gaming, in fact I’d say it’s the opposite of that. Pretty dumb to put it there…
http://profile.yahoo.com/K6N65ORLG2DBZQFVKU3EI6SVR4 JoseD

Actually that analogy barely makes any sense. It’s too far fetched!! If I’ve learn something about viewers, is that they don’t pay a lot of attention… and excepting them to analyse the controller thing as if it’s an abstract painting… is laziness in terms of visual communication.
A message must be clear and easy to read, people are bombarded with information all the time, we can’t nor want to process that much info on a daily basis.
You can’t expect viewers to figure out what a god damn controller hanging from a string is!
-1 for snes controller, end of story.
http://profile.yahoo.com/K6N65ORLG2DBZQFVKU3EI6SVR4 JoseD

Haven’t this trailer been around for several months now?
http://twitter.com/phubans Paul Hubans

The indie game development scene is interesting; like many other industries there is definitely a degree of “who you know” – and sure, there’s also a degree of cultivated “coolness” and elitism that could be used interchangeably to describe a lot of these people as hipsters, but at the end of the day most of us are just irrelevant nerds who have suddenly risen to some modicum of relevancy. Not exactly the most useful combination of traits, but I think it’s one we can expect to expect more of, given that our evolution is leading us into a digital era where the athlete and the socialite are becoming less relevant, and nerds are creating the world that everyone else has to inhabit.

I’m not saying that game developers are on the same level as inventors like Nikola Tesla, but there also hasn’t been a more auspicious time to be a game developer; video games are in. So as a result, you’re going to have a ton of people hopping that bandwagon, from kids who just graduated school and can’t think of anything else they’d rather do, to so-called “entrepreneurs” with big fat dollar signs in their eyes; where there’s money to be made or a vision to be expressed, people will follow.

Fortunately this is something I wanted to do since the inception of my consciousness in this worldly vessel. Yes, it’s a bit frustrating when you look at things like, “Damn, those people have the same goals as me, but they’re realizing them sooner!” and I did feel this way up until the point I watched this movie at its first screening. What I found instead was myself relating to the characters of Phil Fish and Edmund McMillen. In Phil I saw the frustrated under pressure and unfiltered version of myself that often sends people the wrong message. In Edmund I saw the more down-to-earth version of myself that has my inner-child very much intact. Both are equal realities to the unfunded game development process, and as a developer this really resonated with me, and I think if you’re serious about this you’ll see yourself in these people, too.