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

http://twitter.com/phubans Paul Hubans

Keep in mind this is all coming from somebody who has had the vision to make games for over 25 years. I’ve entered three different games into the Independent Games Festival three separate times and failed. I’ve had so many projects of mine dropped or hi-jacked that my dream was all but destroyed. If I can have optimism and confidence, I think anyone can.

Now close your browsers, open your minds, and make a game.
Anonymous

I’m deducing that your response is triggered by Phil Fish and is being applied to everyone who so much as stands next to him. Jon Blow supposedly put up $200k of his own money for Braid, a risky move. And regardless of the who, how, and why, my quote was aimed at the aftermath of their successes, in which they truly are more financially independent.

Metaphorically speaking, these guys could be making a deal with the devil, and it would still support my point: for better or worse, they helped take things to the next level of ambition that hasn’t really been seen before. I’m not interested in hanging out with these guys; I’m interested in where they stand professionally and financially. Two more scary words for “true blue” indie devs.

And the only angsty hispter here is Fish. At worst, Blow is like an introverted nerd, and McMillan’s like an angry lumberjack. They all seem pretty different.

As for the movie, which I have not seen, I do resent what I sense to be over-simplifications being perpetuated. But it’s more a portrait of the three of them, for the sake of good, structured drama, than it is about the whole “scene,” and in the end I don’t take it personally. The filmmaker’s goal is to make an entertaining documentary for outsiders, using as few subjects as possible in its brief runtime, while trying to cover entire emotional arcs in their stories.
Chaoshero

They make formulaic games that will sell on XBLA and complain life is too hard.

They’re anything but what the robot says.
designatedpiledriver

I’ve already done that without taking government loans and then claiming I’m “financially independent.”

Indie devs (like the ones in this movie) are the worst. Hobbyist developers are far more independent than they claim to be. Pixel didn’t need to quit his job to make his game. It’s funny that people who make clones of it even do.
Daddy Phubans

Sonny Sonny sonny. Sonny son jim bob son. You shouldn’t eEVEN post on
the TIGSOurce comments sections. Every time that the you do that, It
will decreases your intelligence A LOT. Oh how iut makes you very stupid
indeed! LOOK at all the stupid people s post on the TIGSOUrce comments
sections! SMEELL all over their shitty shit smears. SOME of them are
just little shit. BUT al ot of the are BIG BIG shitty smears that leave
MASSIVE STINK – they write lots of words and think it is intelligent but
it IS NOT!!! The only way to do intelligents is to STOP POSTING ON THE
FARCKING INTERNET!!! NOTHING YOU WRITE IS INTELLIGENT!!! Especially IF
YOU THINK IT IS! EVEN SMART PEOPLE WRITE AND BECOME MORAEE STUPID!! OH
NO!! QUICK CLOSE BROWSERS AND GO TO REAL WORLD FAST YOU MANBABYS!! what to do about serious proble ming? Oh I BET YOU know (not talking to you phubans sweety pops)
how to solve problems with society and whatevver topic because you are
smart intellectualal MAN and you even grew a BEARD! Write post with
words to proove you are intelligent man on the interneet!! LOTS OF
PEOPLE WILL BENIFIT FROM YOUR OPINION S ANFD CRIT(IQUE!!!!111 YOu are
ALSO A HUMOURSSES WRITER AND WILL THINK YOUU ARE WITTY!!! OH NO!!!
Cyborg771

Minecraft is mentioned in the beginning when they’re talking about successful games from recent years.

I feel the need to reiterate though, this isn’t supposed to be a comprehensive look at all indie games, they had to keep it to regular film length so they focused on a few interesting stories rather than a disjointed world tour of indie games. The special edition blu-ray is supposed to have tons and tons of cut footage from different people they talked to and different games they profiled, so that may be more in line with what you were expecting.
Cyborg771

They showed the film in theatres a few months back, the trailer has been around for a lot longer than that. The movie just came out for purchase though.
http://twitter.com/celluloseman Evan Balster

I get the feeling the movie was more about the process of making than the games themselves, which are really only used as eye candy.
News

INDIE: MANCHILD NATION
http://twitter.com/celluloseman Evan Balster

Well said, Paul. <3
http://twitter.com/phubans Paul Hubans

Open yer oral porthole! I have a hot and frothy delivery just for you!
Anonymous

Wow, the robot on your screen must get really specific.

Like, the one on my screen doesn’t even give a shit. Maybe it’s because I’m running this site in Opera browser?
Jonathan Sanford

He invented tiddlywinks Paul. Can’t you tell from his name? Very famous.
Anonymous

What, no new-wave jazz fusion games? This whole scene is getting too narrow.
addsfdsa

comment pages don’t count buddy
Chaoshero

that’s what you get for using non free (as in speech maybe while drinking a few beers) software
Anonymous

Huh?

Anyway, I opened the site up in Chrome and Firefox, and the robot on my screen still just told me to make stuff. It didn’t really give any parameters, like “don’t put it on XBLA,” or “make sure it’s not formulaic,” or anything.

I dunno, the freedom to do whatever I want…that still sounds pretty indie.

Sorry Chaoshero, but maybe your robot sold out to a big studio. You should let Derek know.
Maxim

BLOODLANDS !!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35DVGAJgqc0
Daddy Phubans

ALL OF MY PORTHOLES all the time ARE OPEN YOU KNOW THAT baby!!!!! Accepting deelivers!!!!! AMmfffffMffff! !
Anonymous

[copied from a forum post]

anyway i watched the movie today. here’s some of my thoughts, although i
didn’t get to watch the whole thing and was sort of sleepy during most
of it

i loved the jon blow parts. i empathized a lot with some of
the things he said; for instance, when he talked about the good reviews
of his game giving it a 9/10 or 10/10 depressing him the most because
they liked the game for shallow reasons and didn’t why he personally
thought the game was good — i actually had the exact same reaction
(sans the 3-4 month depression he mentioned) to reviews of immortal
defense (which were universally positive but often very shallow). i also
liked that he flat-out admitted that the idea for braid came from a
friend who got the idea from prince of persia: most indie devs aren’t
secure enough to admit that the basic idea of their game isn’t original
and isn’t their own. overall i was pretty impressed by his segments, he
was by far the most mature guy in it

the edmund parts were also
fun. of the people featured in the movie edmund is the only one i’ve
communicated with (we used to talk on AIM a bit and i playtested a
couple of his games and gave him suggestions early on, and he answered
some of my questions about flash programming / sponsorship etc.), so i
may be a bit biased in that sense, but he felt the most ‘real’ of the
people in the movie, someone whose entire life wasn’t just making indie
games (they way it felt with the others; that just may be the editing,
but he was the only one with a wife and pets, the only one where they
showed his life outside of making indie games). of the people in the
movie i’ve also enjoyed his games the most (i think i’ve played almost
all of them). i loved all his drawings of monsters, he reminds me a bit
of my brother, who also used to draw monsters all the time

regarding
the phil fish parts, i didn’t like that they painted his ex-business
partner guy so negatively. this thread goes into detail about that: neogaf dot com/forum/showthread.php?t=478250 — it seems they only told one side of the story, though i suppose it’s
not a documentary in the completely factual sense of documenting
something so biases are to be expected. but i came away from the phil
fish segments wondering exactly what the other side of the story was,
why he threatened to murder that guy (what did that guy do to him?),
etc. — as someone mentions in that thread, it felt like what happened
in “king of kong” (another documentary about videogames which i enjoyed)
where they paint billy mitchell as some type of evil guy, just for the
sake of having a villain, when the reality was more complex. i also wish
they’d show renaud more in the movie, he seemed extremely nice, even
though his part in the movie was short he came off as the most lovable
person in the movie

overall i felt that the movie was an
enjoyable use of the short time it took to watch it, *but* i guess i was
looking for some “words of wisdom” or something that i didn’t know
about game design that i could take away and apply to my own work, and i
didn’t really get that out of it. the closest was knowing that someone
else feels the way i do towards good reviews of their game which were
positive but say basically nothing. i’d rather have a thoughtful review
that gave my game a 6/10 than an effusive review that gave it a 10/10.
the movie seemed more like a way to introduce indie games and some of
the games and personalities involved to “outsiders” rather than, like, a
serious “documentary” or attempt at understanding indie game
development. it was an expose rather than a treatise. the latter was
something i hope will be made one day.
http://profile.yahoo.com/K6N65ORLG2DBZQFVKU3EI6SVR4 JoseD

What? I didn’t watch the documentary… but that guy who got rated 10/10 and it’s sad about it… what an ass.
He thinks he is so superior that game critics are unable to understand his game fully? F*ck that! He did a bad job at audiovisual communication, that’s the only reason people didn’t understand his game. Maybe if such profound yet ignored aspects of the game were ignored, it’s because they weren’t so profound nor worth mentioning. He should be humble and be glad he did something right, instead of being sad that “people doesn’t get my complexity”.

Am I supposed to believe he’s profound and superior because people didn’t understand some sort of “profound aspects” no one seemed to noticed? F*ck him, he’s just marketing his game, and telling me I’m dumb in the process.
If he thinks I should buy his game because… not only it’s 10/10, reviews missed even more amazing aspects… just say so! Tell that to my face, maybe I’ll believe it! But don’t act like the misunderstood genius… it’s a damn game, an indie game even, worth a few hours of gameplay then moving on.

If I make a game, and people love it because of the little things, and doesn’t pay attention to what took me most time and effort to make?
a) I’m lucky as hell, I shouldn’t be sad about it. I wouldn’t prefer my game to be a flop.
b) I’ve learned people is shallow. Welcome to planet earth. I’d use that knowledge next game I make. I’d stick to the obvious awesomeness and what people care about.
c) I’m getting a lot of $$$ thanks to those reviews. I’d be an ungrateful ass to say I’m sad about it. I’m glad as hell if someone ever reviews 10/10 a game that I made, because I’ll gladly take all that cold hard cash. I’m not giving it to charity.

I love indie games. But I’ve been hearing plenty of bs about this documentary, so I’ll stay away from it.
Maxim

In all seriousness… I didn’t get a fraction of the attention with Bloodlands that Blow got with Braid. But all of the reviews I’ve found have shown that people DO “get” my game… and not just get it, but were willing to figure out the strange mechanics. What’s that tell ya?
http://twitter.com/HyperNexus Chris Johnson

I felt the same way when it came to seeing myself in Phil and Edmund.

I also felt that showing the vulnerabilities of these people was a core idea behind this film. Sure people may dislike what they saw of them but then again they saw them at their worst, stressed, tired and vulnerable. It’s much easier to feel empathy for them if you consider a role reversal in which you are at your worse and world is judging you.

Good luck Paul. As mentioned in the movie Jon was working for 22 years before he got to where he was. I’m not sure if he was trying to make serious games all that time but even so, I don’t think you’re alone.
Jon Philip Blowfish

Hello I am a middle class white class white college educated Starving Artist(tm). No one understands the profundity and deep emotional content of my 8bit pixel platformers. Someone please make a documentary about my suffering. *slits wrists*
http://profile.yahoo.com/TGYP3GTLK73FM5DTV2H3F4QTWE CHRIS

The controller is hanging itself, it represents the death of mainstream gaming and the rise of indie, which is largely unnoticed by the public, hence the absence of an indie-like image…..
Or maybe you’re just thinking too much about it?
t1ger

Love it, nice!
http://profile.yahoo.com/TGYP3GTLK73FM5DTV2H3F4QTWE CHRIS

Yeah, I think that description has been pretty associated with indie across the board, including movies and music, for some time. For better or worse.
Murrtient

So… What do people think about that game Katawa Shoujo? Like, dislike? Points of criticism? Share your thoughts!

:D
IDontEven

You read way too much into this. He made a game and tried to put some subtext into it. But then very few people saw past “Oh it’s Super Mario: Sands of Time.” It’s understandable that he feels a little let down. I’ve seen the film. It’s not like he sees the reviews and proclaims “NO ONE UNDERSTANDS ME AND MY HIGH-ART. NO ONE TRULY APPRECIATES IT AND I AM OBVIOUSLY THE GRAND-MASTER ARTIST!”

On a different topic. I don’t get why Indie devs, even particularly these ones, are accused of being pretentious. Perhaps the most confusing to me is accusing Team Meat of being pretentious. They never claimed the game to be super-important or of high-culture. They just wanted to make a game they would’ve liked as kids. Hell, in their commentary of the film they basically spend the whole time mocking themselves (and everyone else in the film.)

But the reason in general accusing Indie devs of being pretentious confuses me the most, is because the big publishers are the most pretentious people in the damn industry. Watch a single E3 speech and see some exec talking about how their games are “Ground-breaking” “innovative” and “all new”. Or watch them try to talk about the story in a COD-clone. They’re making claims of importance and culture that aren’t true. That is the DEFINITION of pretentious.
Maxim

E3 was an absolute farce, yes. The major companies’ ideas for what a game should be are totally insulting. But really, everyone needs to step it up a notch! More complexity, more action, more thinking, more CPU power spent on the important parts of the game! Any of that, really.

But neither the big corporations nor the “successful indies” will do that, because it means less money spent on graphics… which is the most important thing to the lowest common denominator whether you’re making a 2D puzzle platformer or a boring talkie FPS.
IDontEven

I severely question the cultural and economic importance of graphics.

If Graphics are the most important thing to successful Indies why does Minecraft, perhaps the most commercially and popularity successful Indie game ever, have terrible graphics? And if it’s what the masses want, why isn’t Crysis the most successful series of all time?
Maxim

’cause Minecraft’s easy to use and is everywhere. And I gotta imagine the Minecraft demographic is at least slightly smarter than the Crysis one, as you’d have to be in order to want to use something that requires creativity. And an increasing number of gamers I’ve talked to lately are wondering where the fun mechanics went…

I’m not saying relying on graphics is a good idea or even one that works for long, but try telling that to EA.
IDontEven

“’cause Minecraft’s easy to use and is everywhere” Minecraft being everywhere is a result of Minecraft being popular, not the reverse (Although there is a snow-ball effect). “And I gotta imagine the Minecraft demographic is at least slightly smarter than the Crysis one” considering some of the things I’ve seen from the MC community, it’s debatable… But that would be a waste of both parties’ energy, so lets not even go there.

But those minor points aside, if you originally meant that executives think graphics are everything , then that’s a fair enough statement, to some extent at least.
http://muniverse-game.tumblr.com/ namuol

http://www.indiegamethemovie.com/news/2011/7/15/hanging-controllers-looming-questions.html

Now everybody please kindly shut up about this. Thank you.
Maxim

Yeah, you’re right… I could have worded it a bit better. And I’m probably being a bit too generous to the Minecraft community.

Honestly I don’t understand Minecraft, and think its users would benefit more from using Megazeux instead. And would end up making cooler stuff. But yeah, I’m gonna refrain from saying anymore.
http://muniverse-game.tumblr.com/ namuol

It’s a shame that people overlook how awesome of a game the first Crysis actually was thanks to all the hype about its graphics.
http://muniverse-game.tumblr.com/ namuol

Hold on a minute, you’re telling me that there’s a difference between intellectualism and pretentiousness?! I’ve been barking up the wrong tree.
IDontEven

I always get this sort of creative-guilt from Minecraft. “Wait, why did I spend hours channeling my creativity into this game when I would be better putting it into my own game ideas?!”
Snow

Well I can see why there is a lot of criticism about the movie. One thing I’m really not sure of is Edmund’s comment about creating games being like a concentration camp. If it’s too hard or stressful… why do it? Game design and production is certainly frustrating at times, but for the most part, if it’s your thing, then it’s very enjoyable. I’m still working on my first stupidly simple game and I’m at the point I’m sick of doing any more coding in it. However, I still love it. Love seeing it in action. I have never been stressed about it and definitely never felt it was like working in a concentration camp. Perhaps game making is not Edmund’s thing.

I couldn’t care less about the emotions and stress of developers making indie games, unless it’s a game so moving whether in a wonderful way or dark or sad way that it prompts me to look up the bio on the creator.. which so far no game has done for me. After playing a bit of Super Meat Boy or Braid, I didn’t break down in tears and declare out loud, “I feel your pain” and started looking up the creators. To be honest Braid was depressing and boring. All I saw in that game was a simple mechanic that had a lot of nice but awkward art and storyline thrown at it. To me it looked like WAY more work than was necessary was put into that game in order for the player to be immersed into it. Almost as if, all the imagination and thinking (other than the solving puzzles part) was done for the player. It was like Braid’s creator wanted the player to see and feel the game as exactly as possible as he envisioned it. So in short.. overkill. You should always leave some of the imagination and how the story is perceived, up to the player. Look at Adventure for the Atari 2600 for example. It was fun. It had puzzles. You were a little square in possibly the most minimalistic depiction of a medieval action/adventure game.
sage

sage
KSfan

sageru all you want but you can NEVER crush my JAPANESE SPIRIT.
TheCube

Edmund Mcmillen takes his very dark and violent issues and pours them into his game design and graphics. At least, that’s my impression having not seen the movie at all…but I think that the Binding of Isaac is proof enough.
http://muniverse-game.tumblr.com/ namuol

Have you seen the movie yet? If not, give it a try. Team Meat’s story is by far the most genuine and inspiring of the three told in the film.

There’s a moment after Meat Boy hits XBLA and starts selling like hotcakes, Danielle (his wife) and Edmund are watching glowing video reviews of SMB together when she just starts streaming tears of overwhelming joy — Edmund looks at her and says “It’s sorta starting to feel like it was worth it,” a look of disbelief and pride in his eyes, “it’s sorta starting to feel worth it.”Hard work is hard work, and “concentration camp” was obviously a hyperbole — but keep in mind that Edmund and Tommy had spent around 2 years working on SMB, and had deadlines and pressures from Microsoft to get it done by a certain time. Combine that with the fact that these guys were running out of money, and surely you can imagine how stressful it might be.

But they worked through that shit because they obviously *loved* what they were making, and when the world came around and unequivocally embraced their hard work, the reward was priceless. Their success is the sort of triumph that many developers dream of, and there should be no shame in that.

I’m a developer too, and I’ve never made the sort of sacrifices that developers like Edmund and Tommy made for SMB, but that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate it. It’s inspiring stuff.
http://muniverse-game.tumblr.com/ namuol

How do I join your club?
http://muniverse-game.tumblr.com/ namuol

I would’ve loved to see a Dwarf Fortress plug somewhere too, but there’s just not enough time to talk about a game like DF (or interview Tarn Adams — have you listened to any of the DF talks? He’s my favorite rambling game developer but he just goes on and on, heh. <3)

Minecraft was pretty blatantly mentioned a number of times in the film, and there's actually an entire documentary about Minecraft being made right now, so I think they made the right decision not to cover Minecraft any more than they did…

I really wish people would stop worrying about what they call themselves. If anybody asks, just say "I make games." If they're interested, tell them about your games. End of story.
fuckthissiteimdone

They didn’t make any sacrifices. Edmund is just a really disturbed guy who is prone to whining a lot. Every other developer goes through the same thing if not more. I even have more sympathy for other developers especially because none of them make it or even become known while Edmund for a long time was busy making videos like one entitled “tehinternets” where he was attention whoring for things unrelated to any game.
fuckthissiteimdone

Also he seems to have made that video private. It’s him basically losing his shit over a small number of TIGSource comments he picked out that didn’t praise an earlier game he made.
http://muniverse-game.tumblr.com/ namuol

I’ve seen it. It’s brash, but it also made me laugh and didn’t seem like much more than Edmund openly lashing out. He probably made the video private because he got a lot of backlash for having the balls to *give a fuck*.
http://muniverse-game.tumblr.com/ namuol

Turning down steady work and stripping down your social life to the bone for a few years isn’t making a sacrifice? And I didn’t say other developers don’t go through the same thing. If you stuck a camera in front of most other developers nearing the release of a game, you don’t think they’d be “prone to whining?”

Would you rather pity a failed developer than congratulate a successful one? I don’t understand what your point really is, besides Edmund is “just a really disturbed guy” and apparently doesn’t deserve your sympathy.

And besides, I was talking about *empathy* — not sympathy. It should be inspiring to see others succeed.
http://profile.yahoo.com/K6N65ORLG2DBZQFVKU3EI6SVR4 JoseD

Your game didn’t get a lot of attention? sounds like you should have made a shallow game in order to reach to the big masses. Oh, and become rich in the process.
Maybe Johnathan Blow would trade places with you, he gets people to comprehend his game, and you have enough money to retire. Or maybe not a chance in hell! He rather keeps the money …GUARANTEED.
Nevertheless congrats for finishing a game that people liked to a personal level. If it’s worth anything, your game is more valuable to your small selection of players, than braid is to the general public, and that’s a great thing. That’s why we get in this biz, right?… Well that’s what I’d like to think anyway, dont kill the dream!