Watched Lately: Indie Game: The Movie

• There is an entire acronym for "Late To The Party", right? LTTP? I'm thinking of changing my middle initials to that. Wouldn't that look nice on the cover of Gritty Fantasy Novel Volume One: The Swordening? Hmm, I seem to have gone off track already.


• If you haven't seen it yet, then you should probably check out Indie Game: The Movie while it is still fifty percent off. I'm not entirely sure that it was the price that kept me away from the film initially, but the sale was what pushed me over the edge.


• For those of you who are not aware, Indie Game profiles four game developers, Jonathan Blow (Braid, The Witness), Phil Fish (Fez), and Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes (Super Meat Boy). Blow and his game serve as the example by which the other developers are compared. The others, Fish, McMillen, and Refenes discuss the highs and lows of developing their games and bringing them to the public.


• Like any good documentary, Indie Game takes its footage and interviews and weaves them into a story that makes you identify with and care for its subjects. The film could have been about anything and I would care about these individuals. That it is about independant game development is almost incidental. It could be about creators in any medium as the trials they face seem to be universal.


• I think the greatest theme that comes through is the joy of creation in the face of all the chaos due to forces outside of their control. Phil Fish's story leans pretty heavily on his dispute with a former business partner. McMillen and Refenes run the all of the anxiety and elation of releasing their game. All of this is easily relatable to me, even though I don't make games for a living. I suspect many others can relate as well.