Indie Game: The Movie

For many people, there is never a second thought going in to how a game is developed; they will never stop to think how it materialised into the finished piece of absorbing, slice of entertainment that they hold in their hand (or download manager!). This film helps to put human faces and personalities on to the development process, and offers a truly unique look into the pressure and personal sacrifices that can often be found for a new (or experienced) indie developer.

Make no mistake, this film will be interesting to you even if you are not much of an indie games fan yourself and you would rather stick with the shiny, big-budget productions such as Halo and Call of Duty. It might however, even go so far as to change your mind and give the underdogs a shot when looking for a new game. As this film shows, these somewhat socially-hermitted developers (due to their passion for perfection) go to extreme lengths to provide a thoroughly engrossing and enjoyable experience for you, the user. You will see them eat, breathe and live for their games, with the possibility of failure truly emphasised when they are asked what they might do if their game is a failure.

The film focuses on two major story lines, the development of two eagerly awaited indie games that are being developed by only a couple of highly-focused people for each game. You will begin to learn why they chose the hard-life they now live, how it has affected their social, emotional, physical and financial lives and you will most-likely develop a respect for these guys that you wouldn't necessarily associate with a game developer. Watching the stories unfold will leave you longing to know what is going to happen next, if they can overcome the problems they face; but mostly, if they are satisfied with the life they have chosen.

While the film could have benefited with perhaps waiting a little longer to allow for all of the stories to unfold fully, this is one of the best documentaries (and the first of its kind of this subject I have seen) released in the last few years, and I would urge anyone to watch it regardless of how much the behind-the-scenes of the indie game industry interests you.

Oh and of course, you should go and buy the games featured in this film because they are just as good as the developers describe them. You can check out the websites of the associated games and their developers to check out the progress they have made since the film was released, it will likely be of some interest to you after watching this!

The filmmakers focused on four of the most eccentric, pretentious, controversial indie developers they could find -- three of whom were essentially starving themselves while working on their games. It makes for an entertaining film, but it doesn't really represent indie development. That being said: I watched the film 5 times. 9 stars.

**Includes some minor spoilers. will not spoil your experience**

I watched the documentary last night and was just simply blown away about the people, their life-philosophy and the motivation to push forward and create something new.

In one scene one of the protagonists told that "he would never want to work for EA or Epic cause he would lose his freedom of creativity in it".

This in essence is what makes Artists great - they create something new and do it so well that it transcends the normal standard of standardized "materialistic" work processes - by far.

It was interesting to see how the video game gurus in this documentary were actually even sad for people not understanding their work. In essence - they were disappointed for people doing shallow reviews after testing their games.

Deep understanding of others creative work often springs into criticism - but thats only positive since it means that the other one has understood the creation and is able to add something new into it - thus being part of the logics of progress.

9.5/10 for the best documentary/movie I have seen this year.

Very interesting look at the world of indie game development, following 4 developers with extremely different personalities but with the same passion for making awesome games.

There aren't that many documentaries about video games so to say that this is easily the best of the bunch might not mean much to many (that's a lot of M's right there), but it is. It's also one of the best documentaries I've ever seen. If the film-makers idea was to first give you a really great view of how some of these indie developers do their stuff and why, then have you on the edge of your seat as release day looms and problems arrive, then finish by leaving you a little bit misty and in a really good mood? If that was their idea then it worked for me.

It's every bit as brilliant as the games that are featured. I think people owe it to themselves to watch this.