Indie game the movie

Indie game the movie is out. I saw it and liked it.
I must warn you that it’s not a movie on how to make a game and it’s certainly not a movie which will teach you how to be an indie developer. It’s rather a movie on emotions and the life of guys developing indie games.

They followed 3 famous indie dev: the team meat (Meat Boy), Phil Fish (Fez) and Jonathan Blow (Braid). Through these portraits, they show us the price indie developers must pay. When you choose this life, it requires social, financial and sometimes mental sacrifice.You work a lot and you don’t earn money during many years. You live like a tibetan monk and your Buddha is your game. Further, the fear of not being able to finish the game or the amazing pressure crunch-time puts on you, can break any balanced person. Fortunately, at the end of the tunnel, you can enjoy seeing people playing your game.

Of course, this film talks to me, to my life. It also made me remember how important family is. It made me realized that I didn’t take the same path as them. I’m still working on a big game, in a big company and I pretty much like it. I’m a tool programmer and I like making tools that help people work easier and faster in order to make them happier 🙂 I also need to talk to people. But I can’t express my creativity in a AAA project. That’s why I started making games on my own. And I’m making a game that I hope you will enjoy !

Back to the film:
I was a little disappointed that with 300 hours of film, they only showed the cool and successful guys, because Indie development is far from a “how you can become rich” recipe. Most indies don’t make games to become rich (Most game developers don’t make games to become rich either). We usually only want to earn enough money to be able to continue creating. Fortunately, an “extended” Blu-ray version with a few more interviews will come out in a few months. I hope that we will see this other side through other indie lives.

If you want to see how the film looks, you can watch some videos published on the net:

World of Goo dev talking about the power of touch in his game http://vimeo.com/17390761
A talk about “humble bundle”: http://vimeo.com/12132894
Game Jam interviews http://vimeo.com/12479518
Interview with the men behind “Overgrowth” the ninja rabbit game: http://vimeo.com/16644326
This guy can talk for hours about his one button game: http://vimeo.com/14125649


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