Indie Game The Movie - Out Now!

Wow this thread turned bad real fast.. I think I as well should begin to form very opinionated views about people whom I don't know. I could start with some of the recent posters in this thread (you know who you are - well maybe now I think about it, you probably don't).

The film is great, and our line of work definitely needs the mainstream exposure, I thought the people portrayed were all very interesting in their different ways, all passionate/dedicated and inspiring as hell, definitely did not get the sense of them being arrogant or egotistical at all!

I have seen a hell of a lot more arrogance/self-righteousness so far in this thread, than what I did in the movie. (realize that this is a vocal minority but still.. you guys can do better).

 

I was just voicing my opinion he could try and change his ways if he wants.

Maybe they should make a Indie game the movie 2: the adventures of notch, least he is a decent human.

 

With all the vacations he takes he better be.

 

I'm really puzzled... so much hate and vitriol that flows without a second thought, has me wondering what kind of people this community is made of.

 

A variety of people with different morals and opinions.

 

Was it team meat who said they might not like people if they met them? If so this answer isn't as arrogant as it seems at face value... team meat faced off against some community issues early on if I'm not mistaken, and things got very very heated and no doubt it was a harrowing experience. Again I haven't seen the movie yet, so I'm not sure at which point he states this, but it may be under the context I listed.

Also people who air heavily on the side of creativity often come off as megalomaniacal (word? ). Steve Jobs is an excellent example of this. I'm not defending the personality type, it personally rubs me the wrong way too.... but it is what it is. There may be a reason why Mel Gibson flies off the handle every chance he's given.

 

I think most if not all of the nastiest crap in here was spouted from people who didn't even watch the movie, however the trailer was all they needed to vilify them as scum of the earth, you call that morals or opinion? I call that blatant horseshit that was pulled out of their ass because they are likely disturbed individuals.

 

In that case I do agree. Judging the entire movie by a trailer is stupid. A trailer is not "too long, didn't watch" summary.

 

But people love judging a book by its cover!

Downloaded and going to watch it later. I think it will be great to see what's going through these guys heads and how they dealt with it.

 

I dont believe I "spouted nasty crap", I simply made an opinion of what I saw and stated facts. They made me not want to watch the move. They shouldn't have made a promo vid that is distasteful if they wanted people to buy the movie..

Why would you make a trailer that is offensive.. you cannot guilt people into buying your things...

Omg my life is so hard.. i need me a new mac book and unity pro, if i dont get it i'll never make games or work in the industry again... Yeah.. umm.. so who is gonna donate to me?

 

A lot of focus in this movie felt like it was on making money from your game. Like if they didn't make money it wouldn't have been worth it. That's the feeling I got out of it. I would have liked it to be more about doing games you want to see yourself and the goal itself is only to make that game, whatever it is and even if it doesn't sell.

Now it kind of felt like team meat was still kind of slaves to microsoft and the other guy just seemed to have a horrible life and had become pretty unstable from it.

The guy who made Braid kind of balanced it out, but not enough. He was the only one that felt like he was just doing his thing, artistically.

I wasn't very impressed with this movie.

 

http://shop.indiegamethemovie.com/

 

Thanks for link, was basing my notion off steam

 

I consider this great movie, becouse in most aspects its quite far from Hollywood. It isnt movie made to inspire but it is movie that just tells story without putting too much cream on it. This movie is amazing for beginners in indie development, or at least those who really want to dig deep into it. Great movie in my opinion.

 

Really? I think it could put some people off. A lot of whining about having to finish the game or kill themselves. Working extremely hard without having fun.

Guess that's what will happen when you only show the last part of the development cycle.

 

Those were the only teams that made it to completion. They started interviewing a lot more teams and they all dropped off and were cut. The movie took 2 years to film that "end of development cycle". I do wish they'd show where the design doc came from, or how they came up with the idea since they lived across the country from each other.

If it's your livelihood then yea it is more intense than as a hobby. The pressure for team meat was all around making the deadline to be featured on xbox live, otherwise they'd have to wait another year or find a less desirable way to distribute. MS didn't give a S*** either way.

I thought the canadian guy was a douche, but really enjoyed the other guys, I mean if they failed he'd just be a huge loser, but because he completed his project on time he turned his life around and was successful. Working from his "parent's basement" he made millions.

 

He is a douche.

 

“people telling me they’re going to pirate my game because they dont like me. gamers are the worst f***ing people.”

Yes no one likes him, the funny thing is that know one else knows or gives a S*** who he is, so the only people that actually know who he is hate him and no one else cares and seeing as he is infact a douche if they did know him they would most likely hate him....

 

haha that's hilarious. At the screening here in Seattle the producers didn't throw him under the bus but they mentioned their budget was minimal yet he chose one of the fanciest hotels available, so they had to stay there to get the footage costing way more than they were planning on.

They also said the intensity from his conflict with the old teammate was completely his own conflict, the other guy hadn't threatened a lawsuit and didn't really give a S*** when finally asked. It was all hypothetical, the guy's a nut.

They also said they shot the whole thing with Canon 5d Mark 2's and some audio equipment, which turned out impressive...

 

So finally took the plunge and bought this last night.

Was a bit worried from some of the comments here, that focusing on the people and less so the games would have made it less interesting, but actually it was a very enjoyable watch. There is nothing about game development here, but rather the trails that developers can go through getting their game published. Their worries, or more precisely neurosis, come to the fore, probably due to the direction and editing.

Phil fish comes off as somewhat unsympathetic, but I think much of that is down to him simply being very intense and easily the most stressed out, not dealing well with gamers demands for release date or the break up with his ex-business partner. It was disappointing that the movie failed to explore the issue with his ex-business partner. It was one sided and pretty much left open as to what the issues were exactly. The film credits have been changed due to this conflict.

It was also a shame they couldn't hold off the film release to capture the release of the game a month or so back. Perhaps they did film it and can offer it as an extra sometime.

Jonathan Blow was Jonathan Blow. I have a large amount of respect for his games, but find myself disagreeing more and more with his stance on games and game development. Braid was definately a break-through game and i'm looking forward to his new one, but the guy always seems to come off as being aloof and self-important (e.g read the recent Distro (e-magazine) interview).

Funnily enough the one guy I related to most and found the most enjoyable to watch was Edmund McMillen, designer of Super Meat Boy. I guess I was surprised because despite SMB obviously being a good game, its never really grabbed me. Out of all those followed he certainly seemed the most well balanced, both mentally and with his life style.

Overall it was worth a watch and does go some way to show just how stressful and demanding indie game development can be. Something that outsiders and noob developers often seem to have no concept about.

In the end I bought it from the film-makers. It was cheaper than iTunes and appears to offer more value (1080HD, 720, Team Meat commentary version and mobile - though mobile is disabled for download currently). Steam gave no indication as to whether they offered HD only or 720 and mobile versions as well, but worse I found an article on Adobe, stating that playback was within an Air app, suggesting perhaps you had to watch it on a machine with your stream account. I don't know if thats true or if the Steam downloads also jut had the video which could be watched anywhere, but I didn't want to take a risk.

 

For infos: I bought on steam, and I was worry too of the movie file type.
But It's a mp4 1080 file that can be open with VLC.

 

I've bought it directly from their web site and streamed right away. The movie give justice to what's really is being an indie, specially all the personal barriers they must overcome (economical, social, etc) but they could have been a bit farther than that (giving more in-depth details), still a good documentary though.

 

I have to say I have bought this as well and it was worth it. You guys really shouldn't judge it off of the trailer, these guy's stories are quite a bit more intricate then a few soundbites from a trailer can embody. Also, if you buy the movie you should see the commentary from Team Meat, it offers a humorous spin on some of the more controversial things about the movie and adds more information to the movie (for example, I did not know that the guy who did the art for SMB (Edmund McMillen) also did the original character art and animation for Braid),

 

I've got to laugh at the animosity being shown here aswell as on other forums. I'm not entirely sure why but part of me suspects its a bit of jelly. Not liking one person is fair enough but hating everyone just because they're in a film?

Is it because they ain't exactly happy? No S*** you're seeing them at their lowest when their heavily stressed and doing nothing but focusing on their game 24 hours a day. While Edmund definately seemed the most down to earth and least stressed by it in the film you can see how he talks about the relationship with his wife at one moment that it still took a toll.

If you ever get to that stage with any of your games remember how you bitched right now. You can't then turn around at a later date and complain if the same thing happens to you.

If you're judging the whole film based on the trailer then you can't really comment on it. Remember that the next time you decide to release a trailer and someone turns around and says this is S***e.

Blow sunk about 180k of his own money into Braid, Team Meat put themselves into debt by doing Super Meat Boy and with Tommy talking about nearly killing himself while making it he was being serious but it was relating to his diabetes more than anything.

Phil Fish on the other hand is still a wank. I could care less about the comments he made about japanese games sucking it was his reaction to everything else and just his general demeanour about everything else. He had it made while he was making Fez. He won the IGF, got a grant, got to work on it for 5 years, got a deal with microsoft, won IGF again. He's shown going to PAX staying in a 5 star hotel and I'm supposed to feel sorry for him. No in this case I can't feel anything for him.

The trailer was offensive? To who exactly? You?

They have no need to guilt people into buying their "things". Braid and Super Meat Boy have been out long enough that they've sold a million plus copies. Most people that were going to buy them already have. Fez has sold 100k?(I read that somewhere recently I think) and besides it wasn't the devs doing the editing on the film so they have no say in that.

If you really think a mac and a unity pro license are the only things that you'll come up against in developing a full commercial title then you really have no idea that also relates to them saying they'll never work in the industry again.

 

just saw the movie. it was okay. I dont think the people they followed were as bad as some of you say, but I can see what you mean. I think their lack of a balanced life leads them to be "who they are." So, in other words, if these guys ate right, slept right, and exercised daily, they wouldn't be so off kilter and weird. They may be anti social, but, at least they would be able to handle stress better and be more effective developers.

 

The earlier clips they made show stuff not in the movie and are probably more relevant to people interested in indie dev.

World of Goo dev talking about the power of touch in his game http://vimeo.com/17390761

This guy's funny and responsible for the "humble bundle" : http://vimeo.com/12132894

Game Jam interviews (I see Unity editor!) http://vimeo.com/12479518

Interview with the guys behind "Overgrowth" the ninja rabbit game: http://vimeo.com/16644326

Guy can talk for hours about his game that uses 1 button: http://vimeo.com/14125649