Indie Game: The Movie Review

I think people have a terrible perspective on videogames, on all side people are incredibly misinformed. Those who view videogames as a waste of time or simply for children and even those who buy games and play for hours don't understand what goes into making these extraordinary feats of artistic design and boundless passion. In my eyes videogames are the pinnacle of artistry. They encompass all forms of art, there are beautiful visuals that bring the hand made worlds to life, creative and innovative music, the absolute height of architectural design, wonderfully written stories that build worlds and characters you want to interact with, emotionally stirring performances from characters we can invest in. Videogames take the best of all other art forms and crafts experiences that can't be had in any other medium. Indie Game: The Movie is a documentary that attempts to inform what exactly goes into making a videogame the sweat, blood and tears and the eventual euphoric feeling of actually having people play and enjoy the finished product.

The movie follows three games each with their own distinct story. There is Jonathan Blow and his game Braid who is the success story, the man who did what others thought was impossible, make an independent game hugely successful. Then there is the Team Meat duo, Tommy Refenes and Edmund McMillen and their game Super Meat Boy which at the time of this documentary was in the late stages of development and nearing its release date. And finally Phil Fish and his game Fez, which falls into the category of tortured artist who is never satisfied with his work. Each of these stories are radically different from one and other, and yet they all have very tentative similarities that show all their dedication, passion, and struggle to communicate through their game to a world which seems to overlook or misunderstand them. The movie does an impeccable job chronicling each of their journeys. This isn't played up for the cameras this isn't edited to make certain people look better or worse, this is as raw a look into indie game development as we are ever likely to get.

To quickly touch on some of the peripheral elements of the film, mainly the music and camera work. The music mainly comprises of chip-tunes which should be familiar with anyone who has every played a game or computer from the late 80's or early 90's. All of the music is fantastic and is never distracting and fits the movie so well it begins to stir your emotions subconsciously, I found it incredible. As for the directing its minimalistic never drawing attention to itself, but always capturing those little moment where the people being filmed let their guard down and are most vulnerable. The film itself should be heralded as one of the only true glimpses into how videogames are made, like I said at the start of this write up people seem to think games just come out, as if you just wake up boot up the Xbox and "Oh look that looks cool", click download, and play. This documentary will hopefully spread like wildfire because people should know what goes into making these games, and to further extrapolate what goes into all games, even those we disregard. Documentaries are fantastic at bringing to light cultural atrocities, government and corporate cover-ups, or simply exploring an interesting person or time in history, but few so well follow the lives of its subjects on a very personal level and so perfectly encapsulating the passion they all put into their life's work.

Indie Game: The Movie is hands down, bar none the greatest documentary I have ever seen. This is a movie I recommend to anyone whether you have an interest in videogames or not. These are people who love what they do so much and seeing this unfiltered and uncompromised is immensely rewarding. There is something very satisfying knowing how each of these stories turned out. Being an avid (would be putting it lightly) videogame player I have played and come to love each of the games featured in this movie and I know without a shadow of a doubt when I return to those games I will see them in an entirely new light with an immense appreciation for the more than work but entire lives that went into making them. The movie may be hard to track down but its unquestionably worth it.

(5 out of 5)