Review of Indie Game: The Movie (2012) by Stevenf — 28 Feb 2013

This is a true film, an honest insight into the trials and tribulations of independent video game developers and programmers, and this is truly for anyone who is at a crossroads in their life in regards to what they are doing, and if their ambition seems to be out of their reach.

It tells the story from the success, developmental hell and getting screwed by the suits of three different indie games and four different people.

Edmund and Tommy are working on Super Meat Boy, a highly anticipated game that they have worked on to get it released on Xbox Live. Tommy seems to be hard done by, but perhaps his views on the game about making it for himself and that he doesn't care about whether the critical response is positive or negative is a little too exaggerated, he is after all selling the game, but thats ok, because this shows the emotional impact of something that many wouldn't even give a second glance to, developing games.

No joke, these guys are mental messes, Phil Fish, who created Fez, tells the camera that if he doesn't get the game completed that he will kill himself, and he has that sort of look where we really don't know if he is telling the truth or not, the amount of abuse this man received was just ridiculous, simply because he was putting the up most into his brainchild.

We also take a look at Braid, created by Jon Blow, this guy is kind of a mixed bag of emotions, he comes off as a typical developer, but he seems very confident in criticising and debating with those who talk about his game, its maybe just good fan interaction or simply unprofessional behaviour.

We see the opening of the film also at the end, when Super Meat Boy doesn't appear when it was supposed to, and Tommy is perhaps the most central character, he seems to enjoy what he is doing but at the same time is just too hard on himself and what he believes his games are perceived as.

This is true and well-edited testament not just to video game developing, but to a dream or ambition as a whole, these guys sweat to the bitter end just to see their dream succeed, but when this happens they also hit themselves with the realisation that it can still fall flat on its face. Another thank you can be given to these men, they delve quite deep into their own private lives, their struggle with marriage, family and money..all to create that one thing that will change their lives forever, and why shouldn't they, an excellent underdog documentary that anyone could relate to and learn from.