Hands down, the best film I saw at SXSW this year was a documentary about independent game designers and programmers and the heartache they go through to get their art online.
And yes, I use that term art knowing full-well exactly what it implies. And after you see Indie Game, I think you’ll agree that this is art.
The film follows the development of two games: Fez and Super Meat Boy. They were both independent games developed for the XBox Live arcade by very small groups of people, in the case of Fez by one person and Meat Boy by a team of two. Both games had received early hype for their demos and both had ended up taking on a life of their own as their programmers slave away with trying to get the games out to market. Along the way, they face infighting, lawsuits, fatigue, self-doubt, technical glitches (of course!), personal and family crises, and the grinding monotony that comes from computer programming.
There is serious high drama for these developers. Phil Fish, the designer for Fez, at one point says to the camera that if he doesn’t finish his game, he will kill himself. I don’t think that was an empty threat.
This film was a winner at Sundance this year, and with good reason. I daresay there is more human emotion and real drama in Indie Game than any other film I’ve seen this year. In fact, so far for the year? This is in my Top 5. In terms of geekitude and great documentaries, this is on the same level as King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters and Best Worst Movie.
Even better is the fact that this movie, like a lot of other films I’ve been seeing recently, (but I’m specifically thinking of Iron Sky) have been funded by Kickstarter. After you watch the movie you can see the hundreds of people in the credits who gave some of their money to make this film. You know what was cool? At SXSW people not only clapped at the end of the film and as the credits began to roll, but started clapping again when the Kickstarter names came up. This is just another plug– if you’ve got something you love and are dying to work on, and just need something to help you make it happen, go get a Kickstarter campaign.
Because that’s what this movie is really all about: follow your dreams. If you’ve got something brilliant inside you, let it out. It might take a while and it might suck along the way as you work on it, but get it out there.
IndieGame is available via streaming everywhere today. Check it out on Steam, iTunes, and DirectDownload. It is WELL worth your $10. More details check out their website.
If you love watching documentary films such as “Indie Game: The Movie”, you can find several to rent on http://www.lovefilm.com/. LOVEFiLM has several lists to search through other people’s recommendations so you can find a film you would have otherwise never known about.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vobkKX6Wblk