Indie Game: The Movie (2012)

A documentary that follows the journeys of indie game developers as they create games and release those works, and themselves, to the world.

Directors:

Lisanne Pajot, James Swirsky

Stars:

Jonathan Blow, Phil Fish, Edmund McMillen

1 win & 2 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Jonathan Blow	...	Himself
Phil Fish	...	Himself
Edmund McMillen	...	Himself
Tommy Refenes	...	Himself

Storyline

A documentary that follows the journeys of indie game developers as they create games and release those works, and themselves, to the world.

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Plot Keywords:

movie in title

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Genres:

Documentary

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site

Country:

Canada

Language:

English French

Release Date:

15 September 2012 (Taiwan)

Box Office

Budget:

CAD 100,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

BlinkWorks Media

Technical Specs

Runtime:

94 min 103 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

16:9 HD

Did You Know?

Trivia

The film notes that Super Meat Boy went on to sell a million copies of the game. The developers, however, note in the audio commentary that only about 25% of these sales occurred on the Xbox Live Arcade; the remaining sales came from the PC version.

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Goofs

When Tommy is mailing Microsoft, he's using a PC, but the full-screen pictures of the email client are of Apple Mail.

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Quotes

Edmund McMillen: [in a Skype-call with Tommy before release day] I'll send out the press release, update the website, update my blog, update my Facebook, and call it a night... What are you going to do Tommy?
[pause]
Tommy Refenes: Uhh... What happened? I just fell asleep.
Edmund McMillen: Really?
Tommy Refenes: Yeah... uh... uh... What, what did you say?
Edmund McMillen: [laughing] Um, nothing.

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Crazy Credits

Video previews for a number of indie games are featured during the closing credits. Here are the titles of all the Indie games featured in order of appearance. Warp, Canabalt, Catapult for hire, Antichamber, Overgrowth, Alpha Squad, Caster, Gravity Hook HD, Arena, High flyer Death Defyer, Poidin, Xenonauts

User Reviews

A fantastic film that shows the human spirit and the drive for success

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!